Controller or alternative (iPod touch/iPhone)?

[pippin]

The Controller is superior to iPeng and Squidgy IMHO.

Usability, speed and customisation need for classical collections are superior at the moment. Not to say that the apps can't/won't improve.

Can you elaborate?
Especially on "usability" and "speed"?

[m1abrams]

Can you elaborate?
Especially on "usability" and "speed"?

First NOTE: I do not have a controller so can not compare usability or speed.

However I have iPeng and can not see how the controller could be any faster, even if it was not sure that would really matter because iPeng on my touch is pretty damn fast.

[slimkid]

Ah, sorry, misunderstood that.

I might have misunderstood that the OP was referring to the general use of iTouch, rather than to the use of native applications on it. In which case sorry for the confusion.

k

[ch1525]

Usability, speed and customisation need for classical collections are superior at the moment. Not to say that the apps can't/won't improve.

I think he might be thinking along the same lines as I am in what I posted on the other thread about Classical collections. These are always the most difficult types of things to handle.

[amcluesent]

>These are always the most difficult types of things to handle.<

Yep, on the Controller I have CustomBrowse menus for -

Artists, filtered to by genres to exclude my 'classical' genres
Albums, filtered as above
Composers, then albums listed by album name
Genres, then albums listed by album name

[pippin]

>These are always the most difficult types of things to handle.<

Yep, on the Controller I have CustomBrowse menus for -

Artists, filtered to by genres to exclude my 'classical' genres
Albums, filtered as above
Composers, then albums listed by album name
Genres, then albums listed by album name

OK, you use custom browse.
That will be supported by one of the next releases of iPeng (not THE next one, that's mainly about bugfixes).

[amcluesent]

>OK, you use custom browse.<

Yep. But as to the speed part, the Controller is in my experience far more consistent in speed and smoothness of presenting menus etc. Both Squidgy and iPeng seem to 'halt' processing of touches of the UI for intervals as if blocked awaiting server interaction.

[pippin]

>OK, you use custom browse.<

Yep. But as to the speed part, the Controller is in my experience far more consistent in speed and smoothness of presenting menus etc. Both Squidgy and iPeng seem to 'halt' processing of touches of the UI for intervals as if blocked awaiting server interaction.

Yep. Especially during the three minutes it takes you to scroll through a long list to get to the album you are looking for - on the controller...

And the two minutesyou need to crawl through menus to get from one player to the other...

[jazztime]

Thanks again for alle the comments. Yesterday I bought an iPod touch 8GB and the iPeng native application. And I must say - this is exactly what I have been looking for:
- the responsiveness is superb, very fast and it seems also very stable (not yet loosing network connection or crashing)
- access to large music collection have never been more easy. As I have never tried the controller, I don't know what I'm missing, but for me beeing able to use alpha keys is essintial for browsing and searching. And the large screen is very very nice!

iPeng is not perfect yet (but close to!). I will post my comments/requests in the other thread.

[morsejeff]

Question...I understand that you can use the iTouch/iPhone as a controller for Squeezecenter, but can you use it as player. In other words, can I use iPeng or Squidgy to stream music and listen through the headphone jack of the iTouch/iPhone? The reason I'm asking is I understand as of Squeezecenter 7.3 the Duet controller will have the functionality. I've been on the fence regarding which way to go (SBC or iTouch) and I'm trying to make a decision before 12/8 when the rebate with Amazon for the SB Duet expires.