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[sgomes]

Hello!

First of all, I have to say I've been a lurker and MC user for a few years now, and recently upgraded to MC 15. Thanks for all the hard work, it just keeps getting better

I was quite excited to read about WebPlay and immediately went on to try Gizmo on my Android phone (a Nexus One). It mostly works, but there are a few pain points:

- Navigation is done in the browser. This causes new tabs to be opened in the browser, and forces the user to close them later, which is a bit of a pain. Of course it would be better to have a native interface, but in general I think it's fine to just expose the web interface through the app -- would it be possible to just embed the browser view in the app, though, instead of opening the browser app?

- It doesn't seem to work with MC's optional authentication very well, in that it lets the browser handle it. This way, you must input the user name and password every time, which quickly becomes frustrating. It would be great if the app could handle the authentication itself, by providing the option to save the user name and password.

- It should integrate a bit better with the Android look and feel, namely by providing an interface for the search button (redirecting to a search page, for example) and decorating the settings buttons.

Also, as a side note, I understand that JRiver doesn't have a lot of tradition in open source, but this may be something to consider in this application. Seeing as it seems to have no proprietary code inside (in that it seems to be a somewhat simple wrapper around the web services provided by MC) and it's being offered for free anyway, have you considered making the code for Gizmo open-source? I for one would be happy to contribute some patches to make the whole experience smoother.

Cheers,
Sérgio

[JimH]

I was quite excited to read about WebPlay and immediately went on to try Gizmo on my Android phone (a Nexus One). It mostly works, but there are a few pain points:

- Navigation is done in the browser. This causes new tabs to be opened in the browser, and forces the user to close them later, which is a bit of a pain. Of course it would be better to have a native interface, but in general I think it's fine to just expose the web interface through the app -- would it be possible to just embed the browser view in the app, though, instead of opening the browser app?

Thanks for the kind words.  You might try a different browser.  You should not be seeing multiple tabs.  I have the Nexus One and it works as it should with the default browser.  

The web pages can be modified if you want to change the appearance.  Look here:
C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 15\Data\WebPlay\Default

If you wish to build another app, it is possible to use our Web Service interface.  You can find information here:
http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/DevZone

[reedk]

Unbelievable great idea by the way.  I use it not only on my phone but use it to share play lists with my friends on their home pcs. 

You might want to improve your buffering on the phone.  Most of the audio streaming applications do a not very good job of buffering but pandora does a great job.  I can lose signal for a fair amount of time with no drops.

Reed