AH.fm iPhone App

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by Dan

I need to get a hold of the phone first to work on it
Anyone wanna sponsor one ?

ill send u my old one once i get the 3g one

[Exhale]

Hi everyone!

So, for now most of the planned functions are up and running (at least for me ). But to be released it should be done good if not perfect

Does anyone want to contribute to the application to make it really awesome? For now there's high demand in a person who's good in grapgics. If someone wants to beta-test the app it would be appreciated too.

A couple of words about graphics. Now the application looks a kind of ugly...

**SEE missing images in the next post**

You can see what's missing
- 2 icons in toolbar on the bottom (30x30 png, black image on transparent background) - anything that you associate with 'player' and 'online'.
- play and stop button images (of course their view is some kind of standard but still there's a place to be creative). They are PNG 25x25 or something like that, it's flexible.
- a great AH.fm logo - 320x460 png. Keep in mind that some text will be over it at the top.
- an application icon - I don't remember the exact size, 50x50 or 49x49 png. If someone can do me a favor and draw AH.fm logo for the following theme (white image on a transparent background) - it would be great!

- any other images that you can suggest are highly appreciated. Personally I think that there can be additional images marking current, next and last shows in the playlist (16x16 png, will be at the beginning of the line).
- etc etc...

As for the testing, if someone wants to participate in it - I can provide a binary that can be run on a jailbroken iPhone. 2G or 3G does not really matter, I use 2G one.
Personally I test it over WiFi, it works perfectly. But GPRS/EDGE is fairly expensive, so if anyone can test it over mobile network (including 3G), it would be great.
For now I don't have an Installer/Cydia repository, and as far as I plan to place the app to AppStore, I don't actually plan to create ones. But if there will be high demand in repository, I'll think of it

Cheers

[Exhale]

Uploaded attached pictures directly as people say they don't see anything sorry for that ;)

[tranceman_g]

Oooohhh !
That's a very cool idea !

May I suggest 2-3 ideas :
* volume slider need a title, so as we know ;)
* choose a favorite bitrate so that, by default, you don't have to choose this each time you launch the app. If you fail trying all servers at your fav bitrate, then it will try the others bitrates !
* number of listeners might me put at the bottom of the screen, with a smaller font, to save some screen estate !

Further ideas, not music related :
* read/write PM with the app. Requires a login.
* ability when clicking on one of the 5 visible sets to read the first post, which often has the playlist
* implement a nice calendar view so we can, from the iphone/ipod touch, see the sets of the day/week/month !


This being said :
- the Wifi ON/OFF switch is a golden idea !!!!!
- the app itself is a very good idea
- huge thanks for those who helped and developped it !

This will be the very first app I will install when I get my iphone 3G (still have a contract running with another carrier)

++
T_g

[Exhale]

Thanks for your ideas, I'll try to answer

* the whole first page needs design ;) I plan to place the complete current show title, AH.fm logo, drawed play/stop buttons, volume slider title (or most probably 2 icons on its sides showing sound presence and absence). And all this stuff needs to be laid out somehow... This is where I definitely need help
* choosing bitrate is a good idea, I don't know if it makes sense to allow specific country selection. however, current implementation is easier and for the first version it might be acceptable ;)
* for the current version I plan to implement the ability to open forum thread for current show, when you click on the disclosure button at the right side of the playlist. I like the rest of the features you suggest, mostly one with calendar I can do that in later versions, if there will be server support.

[djabstraction]

Originally Posted by Exhale

'heavyweight' is very relative... 10mb is nothing for a modern desktop, but it should be taken into account for mobile application. Memory management is different too, and dont forget that someone might want to download your application from AppStore over EDGE or GPRS - will 10mb still be good enough comparing to 100kb of Nullriver application that I mentioned earlier?
iPhone runs OS X, but it's not Mac OS X. Is FMOD ported for iPhone?
And' of course, I don't think that support for any platform will be useful for this app... Are we still talking about iPhone application?

I would say that 10mb is nothing for a 4gb / 8gb phone either to be honest and the library was designed with being lightweight in mind, considering its capabilities. It's not going to load 10mb into ram that's for sure. Personally I wouldn't say size is an issue on the phone you are developing for, especially if you want to develop a full blown application in a relatively small timescale.

In regard to it running on the iPhone, I have no idea as I haven't tried, I was just presuming it would as the big wigs at Apple have shouted their mouths off saying Windows Mobile is crap because it is a restricted version of the OS, as opposed to theirs which isn't, so one would presume a OSX library would work on a desktop and mobile device, but I guess that was just full blown marketing junk then if it doesn't.

Anyway, ignoring that I see you have got something started anyway, good luck! I'm sure it will be awesome.

[Exhale]

Originally Posted by djabstraction

Apple have shouted their mouths off saying Windows Mobile is crap because it is a restricted version of the OS, as opposed to theirs which isn't, so one would presume a OSX library would work on a desktop and mobile device, but I guess that was just full blown marketing junk then if it doesn't.

I won't argue on that because I don't know the ecact context of the Apple's statement... However, you defenitely can't run applications from Mac OS X on iPhone at least because it has different processor architecture, so library developers would have to rebuild their code. Some API is missing too, but it's mostly about UI, and might not apply to audio library. Might apply, however, there are some audio routing tricks that you shouldn't worry about on the desktop.

Thanks for your good wishes

[Robbie]

are u still looking for ppl to test this out on there phones? i have both a jailbroken 2g and 3g and would love to give it a go

[Dan]

please help us with the development of this app. whoever is good with photoshop we need 5 images done

this is what it looks like now

http://www.ah.fm/iphone/iphone.jpg

we need 3 bottom images
Player Online Settings (30x30 pixels transparent PNG)

2 images for stop and play (25x25 pixels transparent PNG)

also background needs AH logo:
http://www.ah.fm/files/logos/main-logo.png

anyhelp would be much appreciated, if you can do a few templates also appreciated. This will be the AH.FM App

thank you all who are taking part in this.

[Exhale]

Originally Posted by Robbie

are u still looking for ppl to test this out on there phones? i have both a jailbroken 2g and 3g and would love to give it a go

Yes, of course, it would be great.
Sadly, for now I don't have a repository to host installation package, so you can either install it manually or wait till I get a repo
Have you ever installed applications manually, like copying it to the phone and assigning rights? If yes, I can give you an application package with instructions what to do with it whenever you want, today for example

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by Exhale

Yes, of course, it would be great.
Sadly, for now I don't have a repository to host installation package, so you can either install it manually or wait till I get a repo
Have you ever installed applications manually, like copying it to the phone and assigning rights? If yes, I can give you an application package with instructions what to do with it whenever you want, today for example

ya i think i remember doing that with some of my NES games for the NES emulator but cant quite remember. So ya, instructions would be good lol

[Exhale]

Okey, give it a try
**
A brief description
- Playback fully works, at least for me and a couple of my friends, hope it will for you too.
- All the variety of stream qualities (192k and 96k mp3 and 48k AAC) are supported.
- At the Online page you can see a number of users online and a playlist with 2 next items, current in the middle and 2 last (at the bottom, like here on the forum)
- If the forum thread is available for current show (it's not always true), a disclosure mark is shown. Tapping on it will open the thread.
- For now you have to manually select station (like Austria 192k), but I plan to implement dynamic selection of the server upon quality setting only, as tranceman_g and Dan suggest.
- 'WiFi stream only' switch allows you to restrict audio playback only for WiFi connection (ON) or for both WiFi and mobile network (OFF). If it's on, application won't allow you to connect if you don't have wifi, and will immediately stop playback if it discovers that wifi became unavailable.
- WiFi stream only switch does not affect playlist and forum, audio playback only is affected.
- For now it lacks most of the artwork, and is not very verbose. I'm working on it right now

Looking forward to hear your suggestions

UPD: one more thing. iPhone switches WiFi off after 30 minutes of sleep (or earlier if WiFi is not used). It's a feature, and it's done for battery saving. To avoid turning off wifi if you want audio to play for more than 30 minutes, there are 2 solutions: connect the phone to power supply or periodically do something with it (pressing home without unlocking the screen is sufficient)

[tranceman_g]

Works greatly !
Thanks !!!

PS : yeah, i got an ipod 3G !

[Dan]

Originally Posted by tranceman_g

Works greatly !
Thanks !!!

PS : yeah, i got an ipod 3G !

oh wow thank you for feedback, were currently working on the looks and other things should only get better.

[tranceman_g]

Is there any news in the dev?
Suggestions :

Icon:
AH.fm deserves a better icon for the iPhone/iPod Touch "desk"

Main page:
* logo on top of the page
* Currently playing : display the actual info a line below cos the line is sooo short !
* Have the currently playing info scrolling
* Volume slider above or below, but not on the same line as the play controls
* Next /prev button to change the stream address

Online page:
So far, so good

Settings page:
So far, so good.


We "need" a calendar page view

Can you use similar code as in Insomnia to get the player unstoppable (ie : no return to iphone sleep state) ? (That would mean : no offical app ever, only jailbroken iPhones)

Willing to test it as much as needed ;)

++
T_g