Thread: openMobile 0.6.0.16 Released (3/8/10)

It's interesting that it isnt pulling the data. Have you tried using both data providers (Yahoo & Google)? I have both installed, but Yahoo is generally the one that is used when getting the information on mine. Also... since its Win7 you may need to run OM as an administrator, but Im not sure... it should let you retrieve the information as long as there isn't a firewall blocking. What is the location that you are entering in the settings?

I was having problem with the internet detection here in Norway, I had a 20MBit line but still had timeout problems. I think the timeout was increased to 5 sec for the release but I'll have to verify that.

Anyway this should be fixed in the next version.

Edit: Timeout for internet detection is 500ms in the release.

Originally Posted by Borte

Edit: Timeout for internet detection is 500ms in the release.

which means its fixed in the next release. There was a slight misunderstanding in how Google did their server redirection which leads to users in certain countries not having their internet detected.

alright, i am giving OM a shot-- the good, the bad, and the ugly:

also, keep in mind that i am comparing this to my current setup-- ride runner, with dfx4 skin..

the default skin-- i love how simple, and high contrast it is-- and, i imagine that it will be very nice for my standard-lilli-equiped convertible(yea i know, i need to get a transflective...)

the bad part about the skin-- i really miss being able to minimize the FE while it is running, and the screen itself is a little too bland-my thinking here is primarily for showing the system to others, no one likes to see a bunch of buttons with words -- there isn't much there to impress-- in rr, i am able to add my own background-- i would apprecieate the same thing in om, but the background image is a small problem-- if there is a easy way for me to incorporate this in the current version, then it is just a problem on my end...

onto music-- i am having trouble playing more than one audio file-- what am i doing wrong? i click on artist, which opens the album tab, then i click on album, and it goes to teh song list, and then, once i click on a song, it will start playing.. how can i gat it to just play when clicking the artis, or to play playlists(this might be a good faq question answer )
editpartially figured it out-- press and hold on artist to play-- though, not all files are playing-- are there certain formats that don't work?(i am using my itunes music directory, so some of if might be protected..), also--playlists--can i create them, use them, and how do i creat/use them?

skinning: overall, i am not to familiar with skinning, but can hack my way though photoshop, and creating icons, and would be willing to help if needed on making soem new skins-- just need direction from everyone what is needed, and what is not.

i really just need music playback(my car puter is used for audio processing-- which is done in a different program), but, if i am going to go through the work of creating the screens, want to make something that is actually usefull to others that need more than just music...

[rant] this is my biggest caveat with most FE's and their skins-- everyone designs their own skin for themselves, and it does nothing more than what they want/need--leading to a bunch of fe skins that don't help much of anyone, but the designer... [/rant]

overall, nice and quick, and easy to use. good work so far!

welcome to the dark side

Alright....minimizing is very easy to do. If you open the properties for the openMobile shortcut you'll see it has "-maximize" added to the end, remove that and it starts in windowed mode. You could also just press the escape key when running to drop from full screen to windowed mode and then easily minimize. For users with touchscreen access only we could add a button in the exit menu for minimize if thats more convenient?

Background image was just one of those things that got left out. The framework supports it, we just never got around to adding a Set Background button to the default skin. I'll throw it in as a feature request and should be able to include it in 0.7.
Buttons that display icons instead of text was also a recently added item that should be making its appearance in the next build although it's still up in the air if that will be part of the default skin or one of the 2-3 others now in development.

music:
Yea itunes protected files are currently not indexed although were working on adding that support. Everything else should play, with the exception of a few lossless formats we just added, ogg speex and realmedia files (all added in 0.7) we play just about everything. Playlists are supported by the framework (both internally and externally) we just haven't added it to the default skin yet. Theres another design in the works which should make it easier to play/queue music, deal with playlists and deal with sending audio/video to different zones which is why the default music skin hasn't changed much.

skinning:
Right now were developing 3 radio plugins and doing the last few tweaks on navigation integration and the new mobile web browser, so skinning has kind of taken a back seat. We could certainly use some graphics for the new music screen though if your interested in helping and could design something that kind of fits in with the rest of the default theme.

Originally Posted by justchat_1

welcome to the dark side

Alright....minimizing is very easy to do. If you open the properties for the openMobile shortcut you'll see it has "-maximize" added to the end, remove that and it starts in windowed mode. You could also just press the escape key when running to drop from full screen to windowed mode and then easily minimize. For users with touchscreen access only we could add a button in the exit menu for minimize if thats more convenient?

a minimize button would be great somewhere(i am really not picky, as long as it is touch screen accessable--i have a keyboard in my car, but try not to use it.)--my rr/dfx4 handles this by having a 'hidden button' over the cpu usage to minimize the screen, which brings up another idea-- cpu usage display-- i tend to do things to computers that sometimes affect their stability(ie. my audio processing can take a heavy toll, and most of the time, i never realise it until the fe is running, and then i blame the fe), and imo, a cpu usage display on the main screen is one of the many tools that could help with this..

Originally Posted by justchat_1

Background image was just one of those things that got left out. The framework supports it, we just never got around to adding a Set Background button to the default skin. I'll throw it in as a feature request and should be able to include it in 0.7.
Buttons that display icons instead of text was also a recently added item that should be making its appearance in the next build although it's still up in the air if that will be part of the default skin or one of the 2-3 others now in development.

i think that this should be one of the features that should be buried in the settings menu-- enough that it is easy to find, but hard enough that people that are just looking at the screen can't mess with it. another idea--button color-- is there a way to add a slider to change the color? i can see that being a advantage to some to allow the screen to match the rest of their car (i am fine with the high contrast black/white)..

Originally Posted by justchat_1

music:
Yea itunes protected files are currently not indexed although were working on adding that support. Everything else should play, with the exception of a few lossless formats we just added, ogg speex and realmedia files (all added in 0.7) we play just about everything. Playlists are supported by the framework (both internally and externally) we just haven't added it to the default skin yet. Theres another design in the works which should make it easier to play/queue music, deal with playlists and deal with sending audio/video to different zones which is why the default music skin hasn't changed much.

ok, i will dig through my music files, and try to get a more predictable assortment of file types to demo everything on. otherwise good news, can't wait for 0.7

Originally Posted by justchat_1

skinning:
Right now were developing 3 radio plugins and doing the last few tweaks on navigation integration and the new mobile web browser, so skinning has kind of taken a back seat. We could certainly use some graphics for the new music screen though if your interested in helping and could design something that kind of fits in with the rest of the default theme.

i've downloaded the skinning creater, and will see what i can do with it.

and just fyi, in case the icon is working fine for you-- there is no icon being displayed for OM, or the skinning creator. i have installed on 2 different xp machines, but after messing with it, it looks like the .exe doesn't have any icon files in it..

edit: so it is starting to look like the OM is way above my skinning expertise at the moment.

the programs that i have skinned for in the past are a lot 'dumber': they use images for everything, and a 'skin.txt' to tell the fe/os where and how to throw/size the images. so skinning is as easy as creating the screen, and then modifying the txt file to tell the os where to throw it...

being that about half the stuff is rendered, a little experience in coding in nessesary, and i have no knowledge of coding at all(in fact, i have never coded in my life)...

i am going to try to learn some of it, but it could take a while.

Sorry about the skinning Soundman. The skin editor has taken a bit of a back seat, as completing navigation integration, speech control, touch browser, and bluetoooth have made their way to the forefronts of the upcoming developments. BUT! Redesign of the skinning process is one of the things being discussed among the development group. The new process will focus on maximizing simplicity, and simplifying the basic coding parameters users would most likely use, while still allowing access to more advanced skinning techniques that advanced skins would require.

On another note, any concept artwork that you can come up with, can certainly be used and implemented if it fits with the basic skin that is being employed at the moment.

Also, there is no icon for OM at the moment. If u feel like posting one, it could certainly be used.

I have downloaded version 0.6 today and I like what I see. I haven't had much time to play around with it but one thing I couldn't find easily was how to get OM to just play all of my music. I found out that you can just hold an artist name down to play that artist by searching through these threads, but I'm sure it is probably something that the default skin doesn't have built in. Shuffle would be nice as well.

Is there a list of the current gestures that are available? I figured out next and previous track which are awesome. What else am I missing?

I am going to try it in the car tomorrow to test it out some more. I am really looking forward to 0.7. Hopefully I can eventually help get iGuidance in OM, but for now it seems like the most promising way is embedding it since they don't have an api. I'm not sure how to get OM to do that so I will leave that alone for now.

Originally Posted by wtflmtfa

I have downloaded version 0.6 today and I like what I see. I haven't had much time to play around with it but one thing I couldn't find easily was how to get OM to just play all of my music. I found out that you can just hold an artist name down to play that artist by searching through these threads, but I'm sure it is probably something that the default skin doesn't have built in.

That would be correct...this wasn't really requested by too many users (your actually the first) so it was never included.

Originally Posted by wtflmtfa

Shuffle would be nice as well.

Has been available since 0.6 but we never put a button for it in the default skin.

Originally Posted by wtflmtfa

Is there a list of the current gestures that are available? I figured out next and previous track which are awesome. What else am I missing?

The demo video for 0.6 should have showed them off. Basically theres left/right for next/previous, up/down for play/pause, M for the music screen, h for the home screen and N for navigation. When using the on screen keyboard you can also gesture each letter instead of tapping each letter on the on screen keyboard.

Originally Posted by wtflmtfa

I am going to try it in the car tomorrow to test it out some more. I am really looking forward to 0.7. Hopefully I can eventually help get iGuidance in OM, but for now it seems like the most promising way is embedding it since they don't have an api. I'm not sure how to get OM to do that so I will leave that alone for now.

We could publish an embed plugin in about 15minutes but for now we are holding off until we can deliver a satisfactory end-user experience.