Devices > Androids and other portables
iPhone 3G support?
Qythyx:
gummbah,
I kind of like the idea of a MC app for the iPhone, but I somewhat question its benefit, at least for me. Part of what I mean is that right now I really, really, really want to stop having to use iTunes to sync and to be able to do it natively with MC. Once that's done I think I'll be pretty much satisfied with the iPhone experience. But, I'll also then be more able to consider what other interesting features could be added with a custom app. My point is it is hard to think about the advanced features until the basics are in place.
Having said that, here're a few thoughts:
First, streaming contents from MC is not a big thing for me because of the following. If it is via 3G then it'll kill the battery too quickly. If it is via wifi then I'm near my PC anyway and could just sync over the contents.
For me the killer MC app would be if the iPhone API provides the ability to install media to the iPod database, then an app to sync as a pull from the iPhone instead of a push from MC would be great.
I suppose some people would like to use their iPhone as a remote to MC, but that's not a big thing for me.
gummbah:
--- Quote from: Qythyx on August 20, 2008, 03:40:42 am ---I kind of like the idea of a MC app for the iPhone, but I somewhat question its benefit, at least for me. Part of what I mean is that right now I really, really, really want to stop having to use iTunes to sync and to be able to do it natively with MC.
--- End quote ---
I couldn't agree more. I guess I got carried away a bit.
--- Quote from: Qythyx on August 20, 2008, 03:40:42 am ---First, streaming contents from MC is not a big thing for me because of the following. If it is via 3G then it'll kill the battery too quickly. If it is via wifi then I'm near my PC anyway and could just sync over the contents.
--- End quote ---
The main thing why I like streaming is that it gives you unlimited storage. You are no longer limited to 16 GB and that is a great benefit for people with large libraries (which many MC users have I am sure). Not sure about the battery life, but simplify media also streams over 2G (although quality in terms of bitrate is lower of course). Streaming over wifi can be extremely useful, e.g. when abroad in hotels or visiting friends with wifi networks at home. There are potentially many situations in which I can imagine streaming over wifi.
Qythyx:
Ok, you've convinced me :) there're good reasons to have streaming. I also believe it can be done without any iPhone development. Here's how...
A few years ago, before I could VPN to my home machine to connect directly to my library, I used MC's Library Server. At the time I had a iPaq PDA that had wifi. I wanted the ability to access my library through it (wifi), but of course there was no MC client. So, what I did was to figure out the URL that MC used when accessed via the Library Server.
I don't remember the schema off hand, but I do remember that the way I figured it out was that after playing tracks via Library Server, Internet Explorer would show the URL's in the drop-down box of recent accessed sites.
Anyway, what I then did was to create a quick script that would recursively scan my whole library path and create a HTML page with the URLs to each track. I could then access that page and access any track I wanted.
Of course the problem with this was that it didn't have playlists or anything fancy, just access to individual tracks.
But, it should be a good starting point for someone.
Oh yeah, one other thing I discovered about MC's Library Server. The first thing to do is hit the Library Server site's GetLibrary page (I think that's the name, it's been a while). This will feed you a zipped file (XML, I think) of the whole library with path's to everything in it. From there it should be easy to create an app to access any of the URLs.
I've asked a friend to return my old G4 iMac in a few days so I can install the iPhone SDK. Once that happens I'll start playing with this, but no promises.
zxsix:
--- Quote from: glynor on August 04, 2008, 02:15:51 pm ---
a. I cannot set a size limit for this "handheld" from inside MC, so it always shows my total hard drive space available as the limit. I'd really like to be able to set this to 14-15GB so that I don't go over the limit on my iPhone. Currently I have to keep track of the size pretty much manually, which is bogus. I considered actually buying a 16GB USB Drive and using it for my "generic", but that seems like a lot of effort and expense to work around something that could be easily added to the MC generic handheld function.
--- End quote ---
Look into folder size quotas if your O/S supports it. Use a hard quota, not a soft quota.
Nevermind if your O/S can't do it.
Barring that, you could also create a truecrypt volume which could be set at 16GB when you create it. Once mounted, the O/S, and MC, would see it as a 16GB drive, thus allowing you to use the ~fill in your smartlists.
Thanks for this writeup. I don't sync video to my touch, so I'm going to try this method for a while.
If I get tired of messing with itunes, I'll just have to downgrade back to the 1.1.4 firmware.
But I really want to try the new push mail and some of the other enhancements.
zxsix:
Glynor, got it working and my sub-library updated in itunes. However, the ratings field in itunes is blank, which would make it unusable for me since 4 of the smartlists I normally would sync to the ipod are based on the current rating.
Is yours transferring the ratings properly?
I'm converting from flac to standard mp3 during the MC sync to hard drive folder.
If I look at properties of one of the resulting mp3 files via windows explorer, it shows the rating field is 4 stars properly.
This would indicate to me that MC did it's job correctly.
Now I run the itunes library updater. As the songs get added to itunes, the rating field is left blank ?
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