Category Archives: converty-webos

iTunes Remote – Genius!

Apple changed the API in the lastest version of iTunes. That broke the ability of iTunes Remote to browse by artist, album or genre.

1.1 fixes that – and also adds new features.

You can now use the Genius button for any playing track to start a new Genius playlist.
You can also browse playlist folders (the Genius automatic mixes are the most obvious of these).

The latest update is now available through the App Catalog.

News Feed – New free app

Hi Folks,

Palm just published News Feed – my latest app.

Actually, it is only partly my app. Palm wrote most of the code and I just tweaked it for release.

Nonetheless – it is a powerful and fully featured RSS news reader. It lets you download feeds and read them offline. It comes bundled with a selection of feeds, but you can easily add your own.

One user asked me in the Hobbyist forum whether I intend to charge for News Feed in future.

My plan at the moment is to keep it free and just incorporate any major changes that Palm include in the open source.

If there is lots of demand for more features, then I might decide to do more work on the app and start charging.

It’s the first time I have had to pay to publish a free app (palm charges $50 per app) – but I’m hoping that it will act as an advertisement for my other apps.

So please download News Feed, and please read the Hobbyist news feed, and try my other apps!

You can get News Feed here.

Remote for iTunes

I can never quite figure out the best way to name this app. Sometimes I call it Remote, Sometimes iTunes Remote.

Anyway – it’s a remote control for iTunes.

It works with the iTunes helper app that we wrote for PC and Mac software and it gives you full control of iTunes.

You can browse and search playlists, search by album, artist or genre. You can see album art and change the volume, track, etc.

Give it a try here, or you can try the free light version here.

Why the news?

Thanks for reading this far.

I was looking for a way to communicate with users of my apps – and this seemed to be a good approach. My hope is that it is simple enough to be unintrusive, but also obvious enough for you to read if you are interested.

I’m used to working in a community where there is a lot more direct communication between users and developers – but that is tough to manage through the app store. Hence the ‘in app news’

My intent is to use this channel to let people know about updates, new features and other apps that I’m working on. I’ll be adding tips and requests for beta testers too.

If you have any comments or suggestions, then please come and join the discussion at my PreCentral forum or let me know at rob@hobbyistsoftware.com

Thanks for using my apps!