wants, needs, suggestions, comments and more

NeonBoomBox · 01-30-2008, 04:57 PM

Here is where you can voice your opinion about Neon Boombox.

Let us know what you think, what you would like to see, what you dont like, what you do like, any questions you may have, and anything esle that comes to mind.

pepsibobby · 01-30-2008, 07:02 PM

I tried to run it on my laptop and I click the icon and nothing happens. Running tiger.

Just tried it with leopard and it works. Is it supposed to do anything? mine just sits there, and none of the buttons work.

TTeuer · 01-30-2008, 07:52 PM

It'd be nice is the interface was a bit more "Mac like" otherwise it's a solid start!

Bugbyte · 01-30-2008, 08:13 PM

I use a Griffin Powermate to control the screen. Are there/will there be key bindings to allow keys to rotate the inteface?

Also, any thoughts on allowing both playlists and songs to be selected?

It looks very cool, but I wonder how well the rotating wheel works for touch screens.

Also, I downloaded and ran the latest update. Everything works except the music player doesn't actually play music.

NeonBoomBox · 01-30-2008, 09:54 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by pepsibobby

I tried to run it on my laptop and I click the icon and nothing happens. Running tiger.

Yea... so i feel a bit like an a** for not posting the requirements. Neon boombox is leopard only 10.5.+

TTeuer, im not sure what you mean my more "mac like"

Bugbyte: Neon Boombox was designed from the start to run on a touch screen setup, tho the more i read it seems it is pretty divided how people control their front end. For now we want to get the music player fully functional and graphically complete but we will take serious consideration into how to implement controlling the app with an input device.

Playlists are an upcoming feature for sure!

and as far as not playing music... we'll have to look into that. just before i typed this i downloaded the latest version on a laptop that had not run it yet and (for pepsibobby) it seemed frozen but with a restart it worked flawlessly even played music...

thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions!

one question for you all: is anyone having trouble rearranging the icons and/or changing the icon color?

TTeuer · 01-30-2008, 11:08 PM

Changing icon color was really slow, but it eventually changed. Music did not play for me either the first time. I just relaunched it and it played this time though.

It'd be nice to browse music by song title as well and shuffle through all songs.

The rotatable interface doesn't make very much sense to me. Seems counter-intuitive.

By more "mac-like"... I'm not exactly sure what I mean. The UI just looks a little off to me.

Now, I don't mean for this to me anything but constructive criticism. It's looking great and the MacCar area needs a good Front End. Keep up the work!

NeonBoomBox · 01-30-2008, 11:46 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by TTeuer

Changing icon color was really slow, but it eventually changed. Music did not play for me either the first time. I just relaunched it and it played this time though.

It'd be nice to browse music by song title as well and shuffle through all songs.

The rotatable interface doesn't make very much sense to me. Seems counter-intuitive.

By more "mac-like"... I'm not exactly sure what I mean. The UI just looks a little off to me.

Now, I don't mean for this to me anything but constructive criticism. It's looking great and the MacCar area needs a good Front End. Keep up the work!

TTeuer, we LOVE constructive criticism! its how stuff gets made better! so thank you a bunch! Now for some answers:

we plan on having and "all" in both the artist and album lists (much like itunes or the ipod) so you can get to a complete song list.

both shuffle and repeat are on their way. they will come with a much more graphically updated music player.

And as far as the UI, we wanted something that looked more like a piece of hardware (albeit a bit futuristic) and much less like a pice of computer software. the goal was to try and blend the UI into the car rather than have it stand out. (it was primarily designed to go into a 98 vw golf and a 05 saturn ion. both of which have "Cool Neon" lights that pulse to the music)

and for a bit of background on why we have the dial:
we feel that there are going to be only a few modules that most people want to use ALL the time i.e. music, nav, phone, radio... whatever fits best for your life style. But we also think there are plenty of things that don't/shouldn't be accessed all the time i.e. games, movies, photos, basically anything that requires a lot of visual attention. So all in all once you arrange the icons to fit you needs you should rarely need to use the dial as there are 6 things being displayed at once.

also, as for the color change being slow... what hardware are you running this on?

thanks again for all your feedback! its greatly appreciated!

TTeuer · 01-31-2008, 12:01 AM

Quote:

also, as for the color change being slow... what hardware are you running this on?

Right now it's running on a 1.5GHz Powerbook G4. I'm just testing out front ends/apps until I get a Mac Mini (it will be an Intel Core Solo or Core Duo).

Quote:

and for a bit of background on why we have the dial:

Makes sense, thanks for the clarification

Quote:

And as far as the UI, we wanted something that looked more like a piece of hardware (albeit a bit futuristic) and much less like a pice of computer software. the goal was to try and blend the UI into the car rather than have it stand out. (it was primarily designed to go into a 98 vw golf and a 05 saturn ion. both of which have "Cool Neon" lights that pulse to the music)

I do like the customizable color feature. Should make it blend in with a wider range of cars interiors (my Audi uses primarily red backlighting/ambient lighting).

I also had the same issue with the buttons becoming inactive twice. I had to manually quit Neon and relaunch it for them to work again

NeonBoomBox · 01-31-2008, 10:13 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by TTeuer

I also had the same issue with the buttons becoming inactive twice. I had to manually quit Neon and relaunch it for them to work again

we have found that if you command+tab out of the program or click outside the app while its loading it will become unresponsive. If you command+tab back into the program it should become functional again. A fix is in the works

schoeniv · 01-31-2008, 01:59 PM

The music works fine, but i was wondering if there was any album artwork integration?
and if there was a volume control feature or movie feature?

NeonBoomBox · 01-31-2008, 02:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by schoeniv

The music works fine, but i was wondering if there was any album artwork integration?
and if there was a volume control feature or movie feature?

First, thanks for downloading!

Second: there will be a completely different screen for the "now playing" that will display artist, album, and track name info along with a volume control and and a track length scrub as well as the current artwork. (there will be a list of "features to come" soon)

as for a movie feature. that will be a completely different module all together

thanks a bunch for your input!

schoeniv · 01-31-2008, 02:23 PM

let me know when you get a beta version along. i wouldnt mind helping you out testing it. i know alot about OS X software and hardware.

NeonBoomBox · 01-31-2008, 03:06 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by schoeniv

let me know when you get a beta version along. i wouldnt mind helping you out testing it. i know alot about OS X software and hardware.

good to know! we'll keep you updated.

w6csmith · 02-11-2008, 04:00 PM

I'd really like the ability to add my own logo/picture behind where the clock is (in the semi-circle).

I have a BMW so think half of the BMW badge would look really good.

Really like the app so far though, can't wait for GPS navigation and Bluetooth phone support. Keep up the good work!

NeonDev · 02-11-2008, 04:18 PM

well sir let me tell you how you can do that :-)

I know its not the easiest way but if you right click on the app and select show package contents you can navigate to the resources folder and replace Clock.png with another png graphic of the same size (make sure you preserve transparency). beware that if it is colored changing the color in the app preferences could make it look funny

I will certainly look into implementing that as a preference in the future.

We appreciate your help in making Neon Boombox as functional/customizable as possible. Please if you have any other suggestions make them known