arris;625257 Wrote: 
> Looks nice on my Vibrant. It seems to have some issues though, on
> Pandora it doesn't display any artwork and misses song changes. I have
> to press pause and then play again for it to pick up the new song
> information. It also frequently misses song changes when I play back
> local music files from a playlist and I change songs using a different
> remote or the web interface. 
> It would be nice if it was possible to switch the time display to
> remaining time (by tapping it maybe?). Also, is there a way to pick the
> player that is controlled by the widget?

First of all, sorry for the long post. Here goes:

I expected issues with internet radio services (flatterman already
encountered something like that which I'm already investigating).
Unfortunetly I live in an area where those services don't operate - so
it is a bit difficult to test & resolve. I'm working on getting a
ViperVPN or similar service to help me check those. I cannot commit on
a target date to fix that, but I'm working on it. 

Regarding operation from another remote or web interface - that was a
design consideration. At first I developed 2 alternative polling
mechanisms:
1. Get player status every 2-3 seconds.
2. Connect with comet, where the server constantly notifies the widget
about status changes of players.

I removed both of these because Squidget is a widget and not an
application. Android can put applications on pause state, and an
application developer can stop those notification techniques when the
application is paused. An android widget (at least up to 2.2 or 2.3)
only gets notifications from the android system when it's placed
to/removed from a home screen. Therefore it always operates. If I did
polling of server status, it would be constant polling which means
massive battery drainer, even if you don't see/use the widget.

What I can do in this context is add a small refresh button, which can
also assist in case people go far from their access point and then come
back into range and want and instant refresh.

Regarding the time progress, again android widgets are very limited
compared to applications in terms of the UI elements you can use. there
are around 3 layouts you can use and about 8 control objects you can
use. I use android chronometer which is a set and forget timer, and is
the only way to progress time on a widget without updating every second
(to save CPU). Making a timer that counts back means plenty of CPU
usage. If you are using Android, I suggest visiting Settings->about
phone->battery->battery use on a daily basis. You will see what drains
your battery there. You will never see Squidget there. That was a main
design goal.

Regarding switching players, there is a small icon that looks like a
SqueezeBox 3 player. Try it out!

Regards,
Avi


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ganjastone
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