Maybe this is old news, but . . . 

I have been struggling for a year with the squeeze controller and web
interface.  They are unresposive (particularly for a stereo system) and
have counterintuitive interfaces.  E.g., it is very hard for a non-techy
to figure out how to successfully synch players.  It is almost to the
point that I regret entirely going with Squeeze instead of Sonos or
Apple's airport express.  I am not an audiophile and I dont need FLAC. I
just want something that works. 

But yesterday, I bought my wife an iPhone.  As an afterthought I
installed iPeng, not expecting much more than the squeeze controller
software.  The difference, however, is night and day.  I am going to do
away with my contoller and buy another iTouch just to run iPeng and so
my ~$1000 investment into a squeeze system is not for naught.

1. iPeng on installation instantly connected to my server, found all my
players, downloaded the music database, and was ready to go.  Within
seconds.  Why cant the controller/web interface do that?  Why does it
need up to 2 minutes to find all the receivers/players — even a year
after I bought it?

2. iPeng is very responsive.  You hit pause and the music immediatey
pauses.  You lower the volume and the volume immediately goes down.  Why
not with the Controller or web interface?

3. When iPeng starts up it instantly connects to the server and
players.  Why does the Controller/web interface need 5-30sec to do
that?

4. iPeng's interface makes sense.  E.g., to synch players you click on
two from a list and hit sync, then it asks you which player's playlist
you want to adopt for the set. Why does the Controller (or web
interface) not have an intuitive way to synch players?

5. Squeeze is marketed (and I bought it) as a "whole-house" audio
solution.  But the controller is designed so that you have to "connect"
to each player separately (which takes 5-30 seconds) just to change the
volume or turn it on or off.  Why?  iPeng has what seems obvious — a
screen from which you can affect volume and power for all players
instantly.

Etc. Etc.  Etc. 

This email is a bit of a rant because I had assumed till now that the
problems were caused by my network or the inherent limitations of this
kind of system.  Obviously that is not correct.  I realize that iPeng
can use the iPhone's OS to display lots of eye candy and respond to
gestures, but most of what I am talking about does not seem unique to
the iPhone platform.

In the vain hope that one more voice makes a difference, Logitech needs
to contract Pippin or find some programmers of its own to create
something like iPeng in place of the current controller and web
interface and build similar apps for Blackberrys and whatnot.  Regular
people are not going to be happy with Squeeze until they have
responsive, intuitive, beautiful controls.


-- 
rksingla
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View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72308

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