[Announce] iPeng 1.2.5 now on the App Store

[pippin]

After a period of silence there is now a new iPeng update on the App Store - 1.2.5

I call it the "iOS4" update since one of it's drivers was to provide full compatibility with iOS4 including multitasking support. But then this name is a bit inaccurate since
• iPeng 1.2.5 actually runs on any iPhone OS device from 3.0 on, not only on iOS4
• There's more than just iOS4 support in this update

So what is it about?

Let's group this into "what's new", "what's improved" and "what got fixed":

What's New?

• iOS4 support. iPeng now makes use of fast App Switching and Multitasking. This means if you leave iPeng and come back later it will still be in the exact same place where you left. iPeng does NOT run in the background, this would eat up too much power, but it does continue synchronizing the cache from the server until that's done.
• Landscape Mode. iPeng now supports both portrait and Landscape modes. The NowPlaying screen in Landscape mode will now provide a screen-saver like full screen view. Some spill over from some other development we're working on
• High-Res graphics. iPeng now uses full-scale graphics on NowPlaying and bigger cover art thumbnails on iPhone 4 (and iPad). Actually the "and iPad" part for the thumbs doesn't work right now but I will upload an 1.2.5.1 update shortly that will fix this.
• Accessibility. iPeng now fully supports VoiceOver (iPhone from 3GS, iPod touch from 3rd generation and iPad only) making it probably the most powerful Squeezebox remote control solution for people with visual disabilities. This sounds like "what's this good for?" for a lot of people but actually it's a biggie. First: It's not as simple as Apple claims and second: it's really, really helpful for blind people compare to iPeng's last release but especially to most other means of remote control
• Localization. iPeng is now fully localized in English, German and Danish languages and provides enhanced support for many other languages, too. More to come.

What's Improved?
• Improved Player and Music Source handling. iPeng will now find your player automatically in even more cases and also switch Music Sources if required. This is especially important if you switch Music Sources a lot and don't find your player then. Now iPeng usually will find it for you. Also: iPeng is ow able to reconnect "lost" players as long as they are still on the network, a big improvement especially for users of the SB Receiver.
• Even more enhanced Squeezebox feature and plugin support with additional search and context menu functionality. "Global Search" is now supported through "Extras" and also through additional context menus on the NowPlaying Context Menu.
• Enhanced Server configuration support. iPeng now allows you to change your MySqueezebox.com account and has improved support for Wake-On-LAN (WOL). WOL can now be activated manually, you can define more than one WOL address and iPeng autodetects your server's MAC for convenience.

What Got Fixed?
• Several issues with iOS4 and Squeezebox Server on the Squeezebox Touch are fixed in this release:
• Alarms do work now in iOS4
• Drag&Drop now works in iOS4. This one was the technical biggie. Apple made a change in iOS4 that effectively means you can no longer update a view in the background when using D&D. Which is kind of a problem if the data you show is permanently being updated from an external server and can stop to make any sense if it's not.

So wait a moment, what happened to iPad and Playback?

Now, playback has eaten up a lot of time and resources here and still doesn't work correctly, I'm sorry for that.
Actually since it DOES take so much effort I decided a while back to focus on iPad first. So the next thing you are going to see is not an iPeng with Playback but iPeng for iPad.

Does this mean Playback is dead?

Not it's not, but it's delayed. We are pursuing some alternative options to integrate it that might speed things up but as it stands right now, iPeng for iPad will come first.

But for now: Have fun with iPeng 1.2.5!

More images and the online manual are to be found here:

http://penguinlovesmusic.de

[pippin]

Ah, there's one feature I forgot to mention:

A lot of people asked for a way to keep iPeng running to be immediately available when picked up while shutting off the screen to save power.

Now the issue is that iPhone doesn't let any App control the screen or the screen saver. I can disable the screen saver but then the screen will stay on forever.

The one workaround I found (iPhone only) is now implemented whenever you enable "Prevent Standby" in iPeng: It will use the proximity sensor to turn the screen off. This way, if you put the iPhone on the table with the screen facing downwards you get exactly this behavior.

[jstraw]

Bigger text?

I was really hoping the next revision would do something to provide larger text, especially for long titles where text gets TINY.

It was the one improvement that I was really counting on. I can't seem to find any change in this regard.

I do now see that the text is a little bigger in landscape mode. On my iPod Touch this is a very buggy mode. The overlays and controls mostly don't appear without lots of frantic tapping

[mortslim]

Good update !

[erland]

• High-Res graphics. iPeng now uses full-scale graphics on NowPlaying and bigger cover art thumbnails on iPhone 4 (and iPad). Actually the "and iPad" part for the thumbs doesn't work right now but I will upload an 1.2.5.1 update shortly that will fix this.

Probably great for iPhone 4 users and also for iPad users when Apple decides to release iOS4 for iPad. However, for current iPad users I have to say that the low resolution text still is too distracting to me in 2x mode. However, this isn't really your fault, I realize that it will soon be solved with the new iPad app or a iOS4 release by Apple, which ever comes first.

In the meantime, I use the excellent SqueezePad app on the iPad and keep use iPeng on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

• Even more enhanced Squeezebox feature and plugin support with additional search and context menu functionality. "Global Search" is now supported through "Extras" and also through additional context menus on the NowPlaying Context Menu.

I love it and it's even better now that Triode has added global search support in the Spotify plugin.

By the way, opening the context menu from a year gives me a "Bad dispatch" error

So the next thing you are going to see is not an iPeng with Playback but iPeng for iPad.

Very exciting, correct prioritization IMHO.

[dborod]

Playback... after a fashion.

So wait a moment, what happened to iPad and Playback?

Now, playback has eaten up a lot of time and resources here and still doesn't work correctly, I'm sorry for that.
Actually since it DOES take so much effort I decided a while back to focus on iPad first. So the next thing you are going to see is not an iPeng with Playback but iPeng for iPad.

You can achieve mp3 playback on an iOS4 device that supports multi-tasking by going to Safari, entering the URL of your stream (http://mysqueezeboxserver:9000/stream.mp3) and then going back to iPeng to manage the music.

It's not perfect, but it works when you want to stream some music to your phone.

[pippin]

On my iPod Touch this is a very buggy mode. The overlays and controls mostly don't appear without lots of frantic tapping

? The overlay is ON by default and tapping the cover should toggle it. This works without ANY exceptions and immediately for me.
What kind of device (generation) and OS is this?

[Rick B.]

Now, playback has eaten up a lot of time and resources here and still doesn't work correctly, I'm sorry for that.
Actually since it DOES take so much effort I decided a while back to focus on iPad first. So the next thing you are going to see is not an iPeng with Playback but iPeng for iPad.

I'm disappointed, but I understand. I specifically bought an iPod Touch last December because iPeng playback was "just around the corner". I also want iPeng for iPad, but I think this time I'll wait until iPeng for iPad is released before I buy the iPad.

[m1abrams]

Some of the graphics have missed the Hi-Res treatment it seems.

The slider bars are the most notably ones, however it appears some of the transport controls might not have been updated either such as the jaggies on the play button.

One thing I noticed in my short usage of it last night is that if I was using it with my Touch player selected and I stop using the app for awhile (i.e. switch to a different app), When I switch back to iPeng it does a weird thing with cycling through all of my devices and NEVER comes back to the device I was last using. This is a pretty annoying. Note running on an iphone 4 with iOS 4.0.1

Note as I write this one thing I did not do after installing the update is reboot my iphone, which I have noticed is sometimes a needed thing after installing new apps. So I will try to reproduce it again tonight.

[pippin]

Some of the graphics have missed the Hi-Res treatment it seems.

A lot. Do you have any idea how much work that graphics stuff is? I can write whole Apps in the time it takes to scale this stuff.

The slider bars are the most notably ones, however it appears some of the transport controls might not have been updated either such as the jaggies on the play button.

The only stuff that DID get updated is:
- Cover Art
- MultiPlayer screen (background, player icons)
- Penguin

One thing I noticed in my short usage of it last night is that if I was using it with my Touch player selected and I stop using the app for awhile (i.e. switch to a different app), When I switch back to iPeng it does a weird thing with cycling through all of my devices and NEVER comes back to the device I was last using. This is a pretty annoying. Note running on an iphone 4 with iOS 4.0.1

Jep. Known issue already mentioned in the service thread. Will get a quick fix.
The problem is a mechanism introduced for lost players that automatically drops a player if it hasn't been seen for more than two minutes.

[m1abrams]

I know graphics work is a PITA!

However the sliders are the most noticeable low-res ones in the app so my eye went straight to them when I saw it.

[pippin]

I know graphics work is a PITA!

However the sliders are the most noticeable low-res ones in the app so my eye went straight to them when I saw it.

Yep. That's because it's already scaled-up in the normal version.

[plympton]

Pippin,

Interesting update - got it last night, but was tired and the new stuff kinda overwhelmed! I noticed a few quirks (like a context menu appearing when I hit the back-arrow button to get to the config screen, but I can't reproduce it). Like I said, I was tired. :-)

Bug: When launched for the first time (no backgrounding), a player using the IRBlaster plugin for volume control, the Up and Down arrows don't appear until you interact with the player's group (or single player - just checked). Once it's loaded, the arrows appear to stay there.

Good work, too, btw!

-Dan

[Jeff Flowerday]

Is higher res art automatic on iPhone 4 or do I have to turn it on?

[pippin]

Is higher res art automatic on iPhone 4 or do I have to turn it on?

It's automatic. Not everything is scaled (see above).
On Cover Art you will now notice how low-res your artwork is. After all, even the high-res artwork from iTunes (600x600) will not even needs to be scaled up on the portrait NowPlaying screen not to mention the landscape one if you use big artwork, how much artwork do you have in 960x960?