View Full Version : Some questions about the interface of iPhone music player
vitalyb
01-30-2009, 08:12 AM
Hi everyone,
I have several issues with the iPhone music player and I haven't found a way for me to customize it, hopefully you can help.
1) The fonts in the playing screen are TINY. I am having very hard time to see anything when I use the iPhone in a car to see the name of the Artist/Song/Album. Is there a way to increase the font?
2) When the phone is locked, pressing the home button shows the name of the current song but only the name - Without artist/album information. Is it possible to show it?
3) I'd really wish there was a screen to show me both the ratings AND the progress-bar. Right now, however, they are on different screen (list & play screens accordingly). Anything I can do about it?
4) Volume bar is ALWAYS visibile on both screens even though I don't really need it (and it is confusing to see as you tend to think it is the song progress). Any chance I can actually replace the volume bar with progress bar?
Thanks,
Vitaly
vitalyb
01-30-2009, 02:29 PM
Oh :(.
Well, what if I made an application that changes the art of a song to a custom art that contains the song rating+title/artist in big font? Anyone think it'd be useful?
Jimmy97
01-30-2009, 02:52 PM
Well, it would help in the lock screen mode, but that's a hell of a long way to go for getting bigger fonts. But the fonts are pretty large, considering. The only small ones are the artist/album info in the songs panel, but the song titles themselves are very clear. Maybe you need glasses? Not that I'm an expert on the matter.
Apple made font size adjustable on the nano, but don't get your hopes up. I'm guessing that's probably only because the screen was so small.
erkkimies
01-30-2009, 03:06 PM
First id like to know why all this matters to you ? i assume you somewhat know what you listen to :P and you could always try find something suitable for this from interwebz
deftdrummer1
01-30-2009, 07:05 PM
Every one of your complaints for the ipod player are consistent with mine. That especially goes for the artist / album information when double clicking the home screen on lock. There is so much screen screen space here I can't fathom why Apple neglected this. It's on the same level as the absence of landscape mode for text messages - senseless.
vitalyb
01-31-2009, 01:35 PM
First id like to know why all this matters to you ? i assume you somewhat know what you listen to :P and you could always try find something suitable for this from interwebz
Well, in a car, if I want to know what song is playing it is a ##### to squint - iPhone is quite far away. Also, it sounds comfortable to know all that info from one screen without the need to switch.
Couldn't find anything for it on the web, but shouldn't be too complex to make myself.
deftdrummer1
01-31-2009, 02:49 PM
Vitalyb I don't think you're going to be able to write anything like this for the iPhone/ itouch. Even if you did, apple's sdk prohibits access to your media files.
Vitalyb I don't think you're going to be able to write anything like this for the iPhone/ itouch. Even if you did, apple's sdk prohibits access to your media files.I'm guessing his app would be desktop oriented so it would be changing/updating files on the computer before syncing over. Otherwise, perhaps something could be written for a jailbroken iPhone.
vitalyb
02-02-2009, 02:44 PM
You are right :) that's exactly what I did. Just some iTunes scripting. It works great and I'm considering to release it for others to use if there's interest.
vitalyb
02-04-2009, 06:46 PM
Well, I went ahead myself and short some COM based application to work with iTunes that updates the art of each song AND also puts the title/album/artist + Rating on the cover. Now I can see all that info anytime, especially from locked state.
Screenshots:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_a13sA6XxS6o/SYoaLLUKHjI/AAAAAAAAD2I/3UzWSNSz6gk/image.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_a13sA6XxS6o/SYoaMddSliI/AAAAAAAAD2Q/vi3CTFNqPAQ/image1.jpg
If anyone is interested, I will consider making a real app out of it. If not, I am happy with it myself :)
mtnagel
02-04-2009, 11:05 PM
Sounds cool, but pics no worky
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The requested URL /_a13sA6XxS6o/SYoaLLUKHjI/AAAAAAAAD2I/3UzWSNSz6gk/image.jpg was not found on this server.
vitalyb
02-05-2009, 03:14 AM
Weird. Try these links then:
http://flickr.com/photos/vitalyb/3255296552/
http://flickr.com/photos/vitalyb/3254465687/
honeybee1236
02-05-2009, 09:07 AM
That'll work well for people with poor eye sight. I wear glasses and have to strain to see that info on the screen. You should make it available for others. I think it will help a lot of people.
mtnagel
02-05-2009, 09:14 AM
Weird. Try these links then:
http://flickr.com/photos/vitalyb/3255296552/
http://flickr.com/photos/vitalyb/3254465687/Looks good. Can you explain exactly what its doing? I know you said it updates the cover art, but I have some questions:
- Is the change permanent? Can I go back at any time?
- Anyway to make it only for the iPhone? I have a nano and don't need it for that.
- Is it dynamic? Meaning, if I change the rating, does it change the cover art? On the fly? After a sync? Ever?
- How long would it take to do 15k songs?
I think that's it for now :)
If anyone is interested, I will consider making a real app out of it. If not, I am happy with it myself :)Nice work. I'd be interested in trying it out, as I'm sure there's others that would be.
vitalyb
02-07-2009, 08:02 PM
Looks good. Can you explain exactly what its doing? I know you said it updates the cover art, but I have some questions:
- Is the change permanent? Can I go back at any time?
- Anyway to make it only for the iPhone? I have a nano and don't need it for that.
- Is it dynamic? Meaning, if I change the rating, does it change the cover art? On the fly? After a sync? Ever?
- How long would it take to do 15k songs?
I think that's it for now :)
1) Yes, the change is permanent. The application actually changes the artwork of every song.
2) Not really =\
3) It is updated every time you run the FixArtwork.exe application :), in my case I run it on schedule at night or if I add some new album. Basically what it does is checking if the rating changed since the last time the artwork was generated (history is kept in the comment section of the id3), if there was a change, the artwork is updated and will be thus synced next time.
4) First time - Quite a while. I'd suggest leaving it overnight. Later, I'd say 1-5 minutes.
Regarding an actual release, I need to think it through - It is very command-linish right now and well suited only for my needs. I'd like to release something a bit more user-friendly. The way it is now, I'd be only comfortable with releasing the code and use-at-your-own-risk policy.
I do want make it into something bigger though :)