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[Soul_Rvr911]

Hello everyone!

As some of you may know from my eos for BB10 thread, I've also been working on an Android flavor of eos. It is my pleasure to announce that development has just about wrapped up, and the application should be available for purchase in Google Play in the near future!

Attached you'll find a few screenshots taken from a Nexus 7, which should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you're familiar with the BB10 version, this app should feel very comfortable to you. Some adjustments had to be made due to differences on the Android platform, but for the most part the layout is very similar.

Features include:

• Browse and search your media library
• Filtering available while browsing grid lists
• Control the volume of all of your zones
• Control playback of the currently active zone
• NEW for Android: modify the current playlist using drag-n-drop!
• Manage linked zones
• Theater View remote
• Change MC's display mode
• Readily accessible Playing Now view
• Sleep timer
• Device playback, including transcoding options

I've tested it on a Nexus 5, a Nexus 7, and a Samsung Galaxy S4. The minimum required Android version is Jelly Bean (4.1.X, API level 16). It will be listed for $4.99.

Have a look, and let me know what you think!

-L

Edit:
It's been a while since my first post in this thread, and the app has changed quite a bit since initial release. Additional features include:

• Chromecast support
• Material design, with three different themes: Blue and Orange, Black and Red, and Grey and Green
• Wake-on-LAN and Power Off MC from the app
• Change audio streams and subtitles of a video playing remotely
• Use the hardware volume keys to change volume
• Homescreen and Lockscreen widgets (lockscreen widgets are not supported on Lollipop)
• Stream live TV to your device (if you have a TV tuner connected and configured in MC)
• Add files to an existing playlist, or save the current Playing Now playlist as a new playlist

I've also updated the screenshots attached to the posts. Take a(nother) look!

[Soul_Rvr911]

More screenshots!

[HTPC4ME]

Can't wait to try this!

[InflatableMouse]

It looks great!

You say you didn't like the BB Music app which would suggest on BB your app could playback locally as well, but I don't see local playback as a feature, so does it currently only allow browsing and remote control or can it play on the device itself as well (like Gizmo and JRemote on iPad)? And if it supports local playback, does it support video too?

Does it allow tagging of rating?

[shrike645]

Eos on BB10 will play back your media stored from any server you have JRiver running on the local device. It will also play back media stored on your BB10 phone. Pull down settings and there is a button for switch to device media.

Yes it plays back video (from a server not stored on the device) on the device and of course acts as a remote control for video too.

Hal

[connersw]

• Device playback, including transcoding options

What are the transcoding options? Does it playback lossless audio (at least 16/44.1)?  What about for video?

[Soul_Rvr911]

Eos on BB10 will play back your media stored from any server you have JRiver running on the local device. It will also play back media stored on your BB10 phone. Pull down settings and there is a button for switch to device media.

Yes it plays back video (from a server not stored on the device) on the device and of course acts as a remote control for video too.

Hal

Hal is right on the money! And if you want to stream media from your library server to your device, go to the Zones page select the Device zone.

Does it allow tagging of rating?

Local playback doesn't allow tagging the rating. Each media format uses a different rating tag format, and the tagging library I've used doesn't make it easy to support reading/writing the rating tag across all of the supported file formats.

What are the transcoding options? Does it playback lossless audio (at least 16/44.1)?  What about for video?

The transcoding options for Audio are "Off" (i.e. - stream the file directly from the server, without doing any transcoding), and 3 MP3 options: "Low", "Medium", or "High" bandwidth.

For Video, your options are "Low", "Medium", and "High". From what I understand, Android's video codec support is fairly limited. I was thinking about adding an option for "Off" here as well, but I don't think it would work in the majority of cases. There isn't much documentation available on MC's supported Conversion options; I was working from this: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67837.0.

While we're on the topic of Video streaming, I should note that there are severe limitations to Android's support for streaming video (HTTP Live Streaming, or HLS). Do a quick Google search for "android hls" and you'll find numerous platform defects, articles, and blog entries outlining how bad it really is. Unfortunately, this means that while streaming video to your device is eos there is no duration information available, and seeking does not work.

I'm not sure how the folks at JRiver implemented video streaming in Gizmo, but it is based on HLS and works perfectly, providing both seeking and video duration. I'd wager they used their vast media knowledge to write their own HLS implementation. My only option would be to license a 3rd party library (like Adobe Primetime) for use in my app, the cost of which would likely far exceed any revenue I'll see from selling eos in the Play store.

That being said, streaming Audio to your Android device works very well. The main reason that I made the minimum supported API level so high was so that I could support gapless playback!

Cheers!

-L

[marko]

Will there be a trial period built in?

[Soul_Rvr911]

Will there be a trial period built in?

I've been looking into the support offered by Google Play for trial periods. It appears to be nonexistent, unless the app is subscription based. There seem to be a few practices mentioned frequently across the internet, however all but one are easily circumventable: calling back to my own licensing server. Since I have no interest in writing a license server - or, for that matter, having eos make requests to any server other than JRiver's access key server and your media server(s) - I don't think a trial period is likely. (Note: Google Play does offer a 15 minute refund period for any purchased apps, although I admit this really isn't much time!)

Over the past few days I've fixed a number of bugs and also implemented a few new features, including the display of the active zone and server name in the title bar, and multiple server support! eos is almost ready; I'm hoping to have the app available in Google Play in the next couple of weeks.

Cheers!

-L

[jmone]

Looking forward to trying it out.

Regarding Local Content, one feature I would like to expand on from Gizmo is it's ability to Cache the playing now content to provide continuous play when the connection drops out ---> full offline playback.  It would be good if this feature allowed you to send content to the cache (without the need to start playback) that was then used for playback.  Basically the ability to sync selected items.

Thanks
Nathan

[astromo]

Will there be a trial period built in?

Interesting to read what's involved with trials from Soul_Rvr911.

From my observation most free trials on Playstore are limited in some way and purchase gives the user access to the full feature set.

Would that work?

[Ekpen]

Will there be a trial period built in?

Greetings:

Your app is for JRiver and JRiver only. I will like to support your efforts.  but here is my suggestion. set up a Paypal acount for members to donate.  I will. then make your app free or let us sideload it, just as we do with Gizmo.
Note: Interact forum members do appreciate your efforts and time you put in to this app.  
This is my own suggestion, but you are free to charge would be users.

George.

[Soul_Rvr911]

Regarding Local Content, one feature I would like to expand on from Gizmo is it's ability to Cache the playing now content to provide continuous play when the connection drops out ---> full offline playback.  It would be good if this feature allowed you to send content to the cache (without the need to start playback) that was then used for playback.  Basically the ability to sync selected items.

eos doesn't do caching of content like Gizmo; it will stream content, but it won't be stored on your device. This might be something I can implement in the future, but it won't be present in the initial release. If this is a feature that you use frequently I wouldn't suggest purchasing eos until I have a concrete plan for implementing it, since to be honest it doesn't rank highly on my list of priorities.

From my observation most free trials on Playstore are limited in some way and purchase gives the user access to the full feature set.

Would that work?

I believe that this sort of trial runs into the same issue that time expiry free trials encounter - apparently, it's not very difficult to reverse engineer an APK and circumvent license checks. There are developers that have worked around this by having 2 separate apps in the store - a limited version that doesn't have the code for the features, and a full version that the user can "upgrade" to, but that's actually installed alongside the trial.

Your app is for JRiver and JRiver only. I will like to support your efforts.  but here is my suggestion. set up a Paypal acount for members to donate.  I will. then make your app free or let us sideload it, just as we do with Gizmo.
Note: Interact forum members do appreciate your efforts and time you put in to this app. 
This is my own suggestion, but you are free to charge would be users.

George.

Thanks for your suggestion George. You are correct - my app is for JRiver and JRiver only. However, I am in no way affiliated with JRiver, and I put a lot of effort into developing eos. For as many generous users like you who would donate if given the choice, there are also users out there who would not. The only way I can guarantee some return is to charge up front.

[Soul_Rvr911]

At the same time, I too am a consumer, and I understand everyone's concerns. The software market is new, and consumer's expectations in this market are different. It's difficult to justify paying for software you've never used when you only have a few screenshots to look at. And it's even more difficult to justify when there's already an app that's freely available.

When I started writing eos for BB10, my goal was to make a remote app with a slick user interface. I installed Gizmo on my device, but found that BB10's Android runtime support was lackluster, and that Gizmo's UI felt "clunky" (no offense meant to JRiver!). Since I had plenty of experience writing BB10 apps, I decided to write my own. I added features that I found useful, and designed the app in a way that - to me, at least - felt fluid.

My goal with eos for Android was a little different. I had no experience writing Android software, so I wanted to challenge myself and build something on a new platform. I'm not trying to replicate Gizmo, nor am I trying to cover every possible use case. I'm trying to bring the same experience that people have enjoyed on BB10 to Android, as well as sharpen my development skills.

[astromo]

I believe that this sort of trial runs into the same issue that time expiry free trials encounter - apparently, it's not very difficult to reverse engineer an APK and circumvent license checks. There are developers that have worked around this by having 2 separate apps in the store - a limited version that doesn't have the code for the features, and a full version that the user can "upgrade" to, but that's actually installed alongside the trial.

Yep - that's what I was thinking of. Implementation will be specific to the software. It takes some thought to come up with the right trial package so that a user gets a good taste of what the software can do.

[marko]

Thanks for mentioning the 'no cache' thing. Sadly, that means I'm out.

99.99% of my usage is over 3G, and before JRiver introduced the cache to Gizmo, my experience was regularly quite awful. Be sure to give this a healthy bump if you ever add a cache level.

Regards,
-marko

[InflatableMouse]

Good thing you asked, I assumed that's how it was working.

Honestly that means I'm out too, as I never use Gizmo at home.

[Soul_Rvr911]

Implementation will be specific to the software. It takes some thought to come up with the right trial package so that a user gets a good taste of what the software can do.

I've given more thought to this, and I've come up with a working solution for a "trial" version of eos. I'll post a second version of the app to the store that allows unrestricted access to browse their media library, but with all of the playback modification functionality disabled. You'll still be able to click on buttons and interact with the app just like the paid version, but none of the actions you take will have any effect. For example, when you press on a track in an attempt to play it, instead of making the request to the server to start playback a toast will appear informing you that the action will only work in the paid version. The same goes for things like changing repeat mode, updating file information, setting a sleep timer, or attempting to link zones or change volumes. The appropriate dialogs will appear, but when you hit save a toast will appear instead of performing the action. This will give you a feel for how the app is laid out and what functionality exists.

The free version is almost exactly the same code, just with the action logic replaced by toast messages. The one thing that will still work is the theater view remote.

The free app will be completely separate, and it won't be possible to migrate settings from the free version to the paid version. So you can configure all of your servers in the free app, but keep in mind you'll have to run through that process again if you decide to purchase.

How does that sound?

[astromo]

I've given more thought to this, and I've come up with a working solution for a "trial" version of eos. I'll post a second version of the app to the store that allows unrestricted access to browse their media library, but with all of the playback modification functionality disabled. You'll still be able to click on buttons and interact with the app just like the paid version, but none of the actions you take will have any effect. For example, when you press on a track in an attempt to play it, instead of making the request to the server to start playback a toast will appear informing you that the action will only work in the paid version. The same goes for things like changing repeat mode, updating file information, setting a sleep timer, or attempting to link zones or change volumes. The appropriate dialogs will appear, but when you hit save a toast will appear instead of performing the action. This will give you a feel for how the app is laid out and what functionality exists.

The free version is almost exactly the same code, just with the action logic replaced by toast messages. The one thing that will still work is the theater view remote.

The free app will be completely separate, and it won't be possible to migrate settings from the free version to the paid version. So you can configure all of your servers in the free app, but keep in mind you'll have to run through that process again if you decide to purchase.

How does that sound?

That's one way of doing it. I think the main thing is that you're opening the door by a fraction, so well done. If people like what they see, you'll get your answer when the app is placed in the cart and wheeled to the check out.

[randycw]

I have been using Eos on my Blackberry for several months -- I really like being able to link zones together and quickly manage the volumes of each zone.

I have also been fiddling with Eos on a couple of Android Nexus tablets.  For me I much prefer it of Gizmo.  The interface is a bit more intuitive for my family.  The zone linking is wonderful.  The immediate volume control is excellent.

The way my setup works, I use Eos or Gizmo on tablets mounted magnetically to walls throughout my house.  These tablets act as zone controllers for the area they are mounted in.  In this setting I find Eos to be the superior solution.   

[InflatableMouse]

I have also been fiddling with Eos on a couple of Android Nexus tablets.

Ow? Is it released yet because I can't find it in the play store?

[Soul_Rvr911]

The Android version of eos hasn't been released yet. Randy has had access to beta builds as it has been developed. I want to take this opportunity to thank him - eos wouldn't be where it is today without his support!

I just updated the free version of eos in the Play Store, and I plan on publishing it to production within the next 24 hours. I won't be publishing the paid version until later in the weekend, however: I'm awaiting feedback on a few changes I've made recently from some of my other testers.

The free version will give you a good idea of how eos is designed and what it can do. There's no time limit on it; the main restriction in the free version is that you can't take any action that modifies playback, which includes altering volumes and switching/linking zones. I'll post a new reply to this topic once it is available. I hope you'll find it useful enough to purchase!

Cheers!

-L

[randycw]

The Android version of eos hasn't been released yet.

Ooops... sorry.  I had it in mind that it made it toe the PlayStore earlier in the week.

[Soul_Rvr911]

I just pushed the free version of eos to Production in Google Play. According to the vendor console, "It can take several hours before it's available throughout Google Play". Look for it in the near future!

-L

[Matt]

I wanted to check this out, but I'm having troubles finding it.  Searching for "eos bb10" doesn't match and searching for "eos" returns 100 Canon camera apps.  Please help.

[lepa]

eos - Free Trial Version. It's there now!

[HTPC4ME]

yuppers 

here's a direct link for others https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lenworthrose.eos.trial

[Ekpen]

I just pushed the free version of eos to Production in Google Play. According to the vendor console, "It can take several hours before it's available throughout Google Play". Look for it in the near future!

-L

I did a search on eos for android, found it and installed.
The free version is really totally crippled. You  can not play music or watch videos.
I was hoping it will function fully, for maybe 3 days to 5 days before limiting playing or watching capabilities. Please remove and update and let us get a feel for it. It does what Gizmo is already doing, but if it works, paying a few dollars for it to support your efforts is not a bad idea.

Apart from the fact that the program does not play, there are bugs in the theater remote part.
When in remote mode,  you press the middle circle  you get "open", "play" "show files" etc, the selections do not work.
More testing o nthe way.
In display menu.. do you mean Thearer view?  again here when selected nothing happens.
Thanks.
George

[jmone]

Looks good but will wait to test on the paid version.  Also will you be able to buy multi device licence (eg 10?)
Thanks
Nathan

[astromo]

I did a search on eos for android, found it and installed.
The free version is really totally crippled. You  can not play music or watch videos.
I was hoping it will function fully, for maybe 3 days to 5 days before limiting playing or watching capabilities. Please remove and update and let us get a feel for it. It does what Gizmo is already doing, but if it works, paying a few dollars for it to support your efforts is not a bad idea.

The release of a trial version and its limitations was discussed in some detail above. There are clear disclaimers on the Playstore page, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. Even so, there's nothing like the reality of actual user comment, so this is a positive in any case.

Soul_Rvr911, thanks for getting this out for release. I can see where some of my weekend is going already. All the best with this, along with the joys of managing user expectation.. 

[astromo]

The Wake on LAN function is a sensible feature. Nice.

Where does the user specify the MAC address? If it's there I missed it in server settings.

Does this function work in the trial so that it can be tested?

[Hendrik]

If it uses the access key, it can get the MAC from the JRiver server, just like Gizmo does for its wake on lan functionality.

[J-a-k-e]

I spent about 10 minutes playing around with the trial version & I like what I see. I appears you've built a nice looking & powerful interface, $4.99 seems a more than reasonable price.

One question which I suppose is more of a feature request: Are there any plans in the pipeline to to introduce playlist management? I'm thinking something where you can add to playlist on the fly much as you would add to playing now currently.

[Soul_Rvr911]

The Wake on LAN function is a sensible feature. Nice.

Where does the user specify the MAC address? If it's there I missed it in server settings.

Does this function work in the trial so that it can be tested?

As Hendrik mentioned, if you connect to your server via access key the MAC addresses come from the JRiver server. If you didn't use the access key, there's a text field alongside server address and port where you can specify MAC addresses.

Wake on LAN is available in the test version. Unfortunately I don't have any devices that support Wake on LAN, so I wasn't able to verify that it's functional. If your server supports it, please try it out and let me know if it works! I'm not sure if you noticed, but on the Settings page there's a Power action item - clicking that will show a dialog with options to Power Off or Wake-on-LAN the currently selected server.

[Soul_Rvr911]

Looks good but will wait to test on the paid version.  Also will you be able to buy multi device licence (eg 10?)
Thanks
Nathan

I think that if all of your devices use the same Google Play account you only need to buy it once. At least, that's how the BlackBerry store works. I'm still getting used to Google Play!

[Soul_Rvr911]

I did a search on eos for android, found it and installed.
The free version is really totally crippled. You  can not play music or watch videos.
I was hoping it will function fully, for maybe 3 days to 5 days before limiting playing or watching capabilities. Please remove and update and let us get a feel for it. It does what Gizmo is already doing, but if it works, paying a few dollars for it to support your efforts is not a bad idea.

Apart from the fact that the program does not play, there are bugs in the theater remote part.
When in remote mode,  you press the middle circle  you get "open", "play" "show files" etc, the selections do not work.
More testing o nthe way.
In display menu.. do you mean Thearer view?  again here when selected nothing happens.
Thanks.
George

Sorry George, the functionality in the trial version will remain limited. I discussed this earlier in the thread, and it seemed the best solution to offering a trial where the limitation could not easily be circumvented.

When you touch the middle circle in the Theater Remote, is your server in Theater View mode? If not, you'll need to select it by using the Display Mode menu item, which is available both on that page and on the Playing Now page. From there things should work as you'd expect. If you encounter any more issues please let me know!

[InflatableMouse]

I think that if all of your devices use the same Google Play account you only need to buy it once. At least, that's how the BlackBerry store works. I'm still getting used to Google Play!

The same on Android, but I do believe there's a limit to the number of devices you can activate under one account.

[jmone]

I think that if all of your devices use the same Google Play account you only need to buy it once. At least, that's how the BlackBerry store works. I'm still getting used to Google Play!

That is the default method (and the one I like of course!)  I do have an app that requires MAC registration as well.

[Ekpen]

The free version will give you a good idea of how eos is designed and what it can do. There's no time limit on it; the main restriction in the free version is that you can't take any action that modifies playback, which includes altering volumes and switching/linking zones. I'll post a new reply to this topic once it is available. I hope you'll find it useful enough to purchase!

Greetings:
 I do sincerely want to support your effort. What you wrote above regarding its limitation is really vague. I now know it will not play anything. My concept of free version is let it play fully but limit its use to certain number of days.
Testing a program involves going through all its phases, including menus and drop downs. This menu do not work.
Open, Play More, Selection etc do not work. What if there are issues,within, actions do not work? how would you know.
Moreover, i will like to listen to music to test how the audio sound. I will like to play a movie or two to see how smooth things are.
Remember, Interact forum members are closely tied together. Some of us are retired and semi-retired. My suggestion is re-write it to make it functional for a few days, and get real time critiques. Your $ will come your way.

We Interact forum members are adults and supportive of you. I am if the program is functional, it does not really mean it is going to be a perfect program for you to get support. I just for one wants alternative to Gizmo for me to play with. Spending a few $ on this is not really a problem.

Again, I want to support you, but I will love to put the eos through its paces.

P/s: Would you buy MC if Matt creates a drop menu, without allowing you to watch movies or listen to music?
Thanks.

George

[Soul_Rvr911]

Greetings:
 I do sincerely want to support your effort. What you wrote above regarding its limitation is really vague. I now know it will not play anything. My concept of free version is let it play fully but limit its use to certain number of days.
Testing a program involves going through all its phases, including menus and drop downs. This menu do not work.
Open, Play More, Selection etc do not work. What if there are issues,within, actions do not work? how would you know.
Moreover, i will like to listen to music to test how the audio sound. I will like to play a movie or two to see how smooth things are.
Remember, Interact forum members are closely tied together. Some of us are retired and semi-retired. My suggestion is re-write it to make it functional for a few days, and get real time critiques. Your $ will come your way.

We Interact forum members are adults and supportive of you. I am if the program is functional, it does not really mean it is going to be a perfect program for you to get support. I just for one wants alternative to Gizmo for me to play with. Spending a few $ on this is not really a problem.

Again, I want to support you, but I will love to put the eos through its paces.

P/s: Would you buy MC if Matt creates a drop menu, without allowing you to watch movies or listen to music?
Thanks.

George

George,

My apologies if you found my description of the limitations of the free version vague. I'm not sure how I could have been more clear. I did state in both posts related to the free version that all operations regarding playback were disabled.

I do understand where you're coming from when you say you want to be able to test the full capabilities of the app, but that wasn't the reason I released the free app. My intention with the free version is to showcase the layout and available functionality of eos. By now, most of my potential customers are accustomed to a free competitor, offered by the same people who wrote the server that is required for my app to function. I am totally aware that my application is laid out differently than Gizmo, but that difference comes at a cost; in addition to the cost of purchasing the app, a different layout poses another barrier to entry for a potential customer. Why pay for another app that you'll have to acclimate to when the free app offers all of the functionality that you need?

I don't believe that the comparison you're trying to draw between MC and eos is fair. MC is a much larger product, with a price tag that matches its awesome feature set. It's also worked on by a team of people, not just a single developer. Plus they have their own servers that they operate to handle things like registration, to protect themselves from piracy. I do not have any of this, and Google's platform does not provide a simple mechanism for me to implement protections for my app. So the responsibility to implement this falls back to me, and that's an entirely different product that I am not interested in developing.

As much as I appreciate your comments, I can't change the free app in the way you suggest. I hope that this helps you to understand why.

-L

[Soul_Rvr911]

I spent about 10 minutes playing around with the trial version & I like what I see. I appears you've built a nice looking & powerful interface, $4.99 seems a more than reasonable price.

One question which I suppose is more of a feature request: Are there any plans in the pipeline to to introduce playlist management? I'm thinking something where you can add to playlist on the fly much as you would add to playing now currently.

Thanks for your comments J-a-k-e!

I don't have any plans to add modification of other playlists right now, but it should be possible in the future. I haven't worked with the playlist APIs yet, so it might take some time to figure out. I'll add it to the backlog, but I can't make any commitments on time!

[Soul_Rvr911]

I just posted the full, paid version of eos for Android to production in the Play Store! As with the free version it might take a few hours for the changes to propagate through Google's systems. Once it's available you'll be able to find it here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lenworthrose.eos

Cheers!

-L

[InflatableMouse]

Ha! I think I am the first You now have 1+ downloads.

Figured I'd support your effort. Some days I spend more on lunch so what the heck. It's a very nice app! Thanks.

[J-a-k-e]

Then possibly I am the second. I believe there is a bug where the app will crash if you try to switch to playing now if you don't have anything loaded. Although I haven't managed to reproduce this as I can't see how to clear playing now once items are loaded.

[jmone]

...and I thought I was second!  I've submitted a few crash reports:
- I'm also seeing the playing now crash
- crash when trying to play a web stream from the library - eg http://shoutmedia.abc.net.au:10424/ (note: these play fine in Gizmo)

Other things:
- Video: (these could be a MC bug and I've summit this to the JR Folk), Videos do not finishing playing (stall on the last frame) and seeking does not work.  Also you don't have the correct duration shown.
- View is Empty:  I have added a view at the top level called (Radio and TV Stations - see pic) and while I can enter this view it appears empty in eos, yet similar entries under playlist is fine.
- Navigation:  This could be just me getting used to eos vs Gizmo, but I find:
  + Andriod Back button exists eos and does not take you "back"
  + When drilling down I prefer to see each category and select it (aka Gizmo), where in eos it selects and displays the contents of the first of each sub category.  You have to go the the Draw each time to change your selection.

It may be a confusion on my part but when speaking in the intercom thread about being able to push one steam to multiple tablets at once,

I am a bit late on the update here, and I think I noticed you have posted on the thread regarding it anyway, but just in case:

The app is called Eos, and there is a thread started in the 3rd party forum.  I have really grown to appreciate the user interface and the features it has, like the zone linking.

.... though I don't see each eos instance as a zone.

Looks good so far!
Thanks
Nathan

[AoXoMoXoA]

Trying the Free Version:

Cannot switch Zones, eos appears unresponsive to zone change attempts.

Cannot open Playing Now as this causes eos to crash.

[randycw]

- crash when trying to play a web stream from the library - eg http://shoutmedia.abc.net.au:10424/ (note: these play fine in Gizmo)
- Video: (these could be a MC bug and I've summit this to the JR Folk), Videos do not finishing playing (stall on the last frame) and seeking does not work.  Also you don't have the correct duration shown.
- View is Empty:  I have added a view at the top level called (Radio and TV Stations - see pic) and while I can enter this view it appears empty in eos, yet similar entries under playlist is fine.
- Navigation:  This could be just me getting used to eos vs Gizmo, but I find:
  + Andriod Back button exists eos and does not take you "back"
  + When drilling down I prefer to see each category and select it (aka Gizmo), where in eos it selects and displays the contents of the first of each sub category.  You have to go the the Draw each time to change your selection.

It may be a confusion on my part but when speaking in the intercom thread about being able to push one steam to multiple tablets at once,

.... though I don't see each eos instance as a zone.

Looks good so far!
Thanks
Nathan

The web stream playing has been working quite well for me.  I have 6 "stations" that I stream and have not had Eos crash, although MC does hang on me occasionally with these -- generally give it 3-5 minutes and it comes back, otherwise a restart is in order.  BTW, MC does this whether using the PC, Gizmo, or Eos -- and is actually worse for me with Gizmo.

Video works fine for me as well -- no crashes.  Although the seek type functionality, Gizmo is better.  JRiver seems to be using their own video playback engine within Gizmo, and Eos is using the Android engine and the Android one has acknowledged know issues.

Navigation -- some of this may actually be my fault.  I use Eos on my Blackberry (where Soul_Rvr911) originally developed it.  The way the Blackberry navigates around is more intuitive to me and my family.  We found the Android - Gizmo navigation to be problematic -- like the exiting out of an app when you merely meant to go back.  Thus I pushed hard int he Alpha/Beta testing to have Eos for Android behave more like Eos for BlackBerry.  I thought Soul_Rvr911 had created a nice balance between the two, but perhaps not and it will only be pleasing to me.  Sure hope not for his sake.

Zone linking -- that I have brought up in the Intercom thread.  I hope I have not mislead you on this one.  It might be a difference in how our homes/MC are setup.  It might be we simply mean different things when talking of zones.
I have multiple zones setup in MC.  I then have tablets that control those zones.  MC has Master bedroom, daughter's room, son's room, Living room, kitchen, garage, patio, theater, basement, and backyard.  I have tablets magnetized tot he walls in the Master, Daughter, Son, Living room, Kitchen, and basement.
If I start Eos from the tablet in the Master bedroom, I can initially pick a zone I'd like to control (which in this example would usually be the Master bedroom).  Or I can pick another zone to control and begin playback.  Gizmo can do those two things as well.  What Eos does that I REALLY like and find useful, and what I was trying to point out in the other thread, is zone linking.  I like linking the living room and kitchen zones and playing a playlist there.  Or in the mornings, I like linking the kid's zones and starting a web stream of morning science lecture -- it interrupts whatever it was they where listening to and starts what I want them to listen to.

[randycw]

Here are a few features I appreciate in Eos:

Zone linking -- described a bit in my previous post.

Volume Control -- or the volume "pop out" on the Playing Now screen.  On Gizmo there is no fast way to adjust the volume -- just use the tablets volume rocker and adjust up or down at roughly 10%/second.  That works in most instances, but Eos lets me go from 95% down to 5% instantly -- great for taking a phone call.  Or how about controlling the volume in another zone when multiple zones are running?  In Gizmo this is quite tedious, in Eos just go to the Zones screen and move the slider of the zone you want changed -- Done.

SleepTimer  -- if Gizmo has this I am not aware of it.  This little feature is great for sending the kid's off to sleep.  They can listen to an audio book for awhile and the Eos stops playback at a set time.  Love it!  Now it just needs to implement a Awake Timer, where Eos will start playback at a set hour -- a zone controlled alarm clock if you will.

Split Screen view  -- On my tablet Eos will split the Playing Now screen; the upper portion is the album art, track rating, and volume for the current track, and the lower portion is the playlist.  FANTASTIC!

[Soul_Rvr911]

Thanks for your support guys! I hope the full version of eos lives up to your expectations.

I've taken a look at the crashes that have been reported so far, and I think I've fixed all 3. I just submitted v1.0.1 of both the free and paid apps, which should be available in the next few hours.

I believe there is a bug where the app will crash if you try to switch to playing now if you don't have anything loaded. Although I haven't managed to reproduce this as I can't see how to clear playing now once items are loaded.

This crash was caused by the menu being requested before the main content view was available. I had code to update some of the status labels when the menu is created, but the labels weren't available so the app crashed.

You're right, at present there's no easy way to clear the entire playlist from eos. You can press "Edit Playlist..." and swipe the items away one by one, but there's no clear function. I've never found use for clear myself, since you can replace the entire playlist at any time by selecting something else and hitting Play.

- crash when trying to play a web stream from the library - eg http://shoutmedia.abc.net.au:10424/ (note: these play fine in Gizmo)

Other things:
- Video: (these could be a MC bug and I've summit this to the JR Folk), Videos do not finishing playing (stall on the last frame) and seeking does not work.  Also you don't have the correct duration shown.
- View is Empty:  I have added a view at the top level called (Radio and TV Stations - see pic) and while I can enter this view it appears empty in eos, yet similar entries under playlist is fine.
- Navigation:  This could be just me getting used to eos vs Gizmo, but I find:
  + Andriod Back button exists eos and does not take you "back"
  + When drilling down I prefer to see each category and select it (aka Gizmo), where in eos it selects and displays the contents of the first of each sub category.  You have to go the the Draw each time to change your selection.

It may be a confusion on my part but when speaking in the intercom thread about being able to push one steam to multiple tablets at once,

.... though I don't see each eos instance as a zone.

Looks good so far!
Thanks
Nathan

Nathan, the crash you mention has also been fixed. When playing streams, the duration must not be available but eos tries parsing it into a number anyway, causing a crash.

The video playback issues you mentioned: are you trying to stream the video to your device? Earlier in the thread I mentioned some limitations around device playback of video, so if that's the case it would explain the duration and seek issues you're seeing.

In general, the back button should do as you'd expect until you get to the "homescreen" of eos, which is the screen where you can access the navigation drawer. Hitting back at that point will exit the app. There is, however, a known issue affecting Android 4.4.2: as an example, if you're on the Playing Now page and open Zones, then open Playing Now from the Zones page, hitting back is supposed to take you back to Zones. Instead, though, it unexpectedly exits the app. When you launch the app again, you're brought back to Zones. This is an Android platform bug that only impacted 4.4.2 and has been fixed in 4.4.3.

The category drop down is a design decision I made for eos. I found it more appealing to show a list of content instead of a category list, even though it does end up adding one extra "click" over Gizmo when you want to change categories - it takes one click to open the dropdown, and a second to pick a new category. As you mentioned, it'll be an adjustment when going from Gizmo to eos.

I believe there has been a misunderstanding about zone linking. eos instances are not MC Zones, so you can't link them as such. What you can do is manage Zone links (i.e. - link and unlink MC Zones) from eos' Zones page.

Ninja edit: I just noticed Randy has already covered most of these points - many thanks!

Cheers!

-L

[Soul_Rvr911]

Trying the Free Version:

Cannot switch Zones, eos appears unresponsive to zone change attempts.

Cannot open Playing Now as this causes eos to crash.

Zone switching is unavailable in the free version.

I just submitted a fix for the Playing Now crash in both the free and paid versions. Version 1.0.1 should be available in a few hours!

Cheers!

-L