For several weekends over the last month I have been working on an iTunes remote for the Chumby platform. Today, it went from private beta to public release.

If you have iTunes, and a Chumby and desire to control iTunes from it, you should check out the widget.

It does require a small piece of software to run on the machine which has iTunes installed. I provide a free chumbiTunes server software for Windows, however a Mac version will need to be purchased for now.





Created 4 weeks, 3 days ago

* Update 5/29/09 : I have made both Advanced and Basic *free* profiles have simple iTunes remote control functionality *

The first version of the Chumby iTunes Interface widget is complete. Whew.
Read-only view for both Basic and Advanced servers is complete.

Because iTunes doesn't publish now-playing data in a format that Flash can comprehend, running this widget on your Chumby will require you to have an iTunes status server running on the same machine where you have iTunes installed. This server software does all the fancy Apple iTunes translation for the super sweet Chumby to read.

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If you just want Basic view-only iTunes information, I recommend downloading and installing my no-liability, free version Windows iTunes status server software below.

It requires the .NET 2.0 CLR runtime on a Windows machine and it will be installed as a ClickOnce software (which works like Java Web Start). This will help you trust that the software is simple. This will help me by keeping your software up to date as the widget becomes more full featured.


A quick guide on how to setup the free ChumbyItunesServer software above. Once you install the software, you should add it to the Windows Firewall when you are prompted to when you first run it. Also, you might want to Right-Click on the icon in the Windows Tray and choose Settings->Auto-Start and check it. This will make sure the server is always running.

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If you want to upgrade to use the Advanced Server settings, you will eventually need to purchase Alloysoft Signal Server which runs on both Mac and Windows. You won't need it right now unless your iTunes is on a Mac. Otherwise you can wait until I add support for iTunes Playback control and speaker selection.

If you do decide to use the Advanced Server, you will need to add a Crossdomain.xml file to the /web folder located in the application directory. Google 'crossdomain.xml' and you can probably take it from there.

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Today, both servers support the same features (Info Only), however in the future I will be adding iTunes Server Control for the Advanced Profile to support playback controls, volume control as well as speaker selection for AirTunes.


Enjoy!



Created 8 weeks, 5 days ago

I am not sure how long this widget was unusable for some of yall, but I made some improvements to the configuration portion of the Nextbus.com widget for the Chumby platform.

If you aren't already using this widget to show you when your favorite bus is about to make a stop, you should.

http://www.chumby.com/guide/widget/NextBus%20Widget


Created 10 weeks, 4 days ago

I know it has been a month or so since my last flash widget for the chumby, but this last one is a little more complicated. Here is a teaser pic.


technorati: chumby, widget, flash

Created 66 weeks, 2 days ago

I really don't like how the Chumby widgets will advance in queue even if you are using them. Half the time I am in the middle of something interesting when the widget timer expires and blows away whatever I was doing with the previous widget. These Chumbys are supposed to be dynamic devices, not static.

I propose a change in device functionality of the top rocker switch that would allow users to stop the auto-progression without leaving the widget.

Something like this:


I imagine that a quick click of the top rocker switch would pull up a overlay dashboard. Where as a long hold of the rocker switch would return the user to the normal Chumby dashboard as a click of the rocker switch does today.

On the top half of the overlay: a volume control (mute, max, levels), Pin button, Back to Control Panel button.

On the bottom half of the overlay, a widget queue carousel that would let you see what the next widgets are, what number they are in the queue, and a look at how long they are set to run.

Also, it could time out if I leave it up after say, 2 minutes and put the Chumby back into whatever automatic mode it wants to run in for that time of day.

technorati: Chumby, carousel, widget, dashboard, ui

Created 71 weeks, 2 days ago

I know it doesn't look like much, but it has the potential to be bigger than it seems.

I present the Nothingr widget. It does nothing, or does it?





technorati: nothingr, chumby, widget

Created 71 weeks, 3 days ago

Updated the Dailio.com Chumby image gallery widget to 1.16d.




Update v 1.16d :

* Added touch interactions

Touch the screen to access the following:

* Increment button
* Delete photo (from Chumby device only)
* Pause slideshow

The new version also:

* Will remember the last photo displayed and continue from that position in the next cycle
* Should load slightly faster than the previous version


technorati: dailio, chumby, image, gallery

Created 72 weeks, 6 days ago

Another new widget for the Chumby. This time in collaboration with another developer named Anthony Webb of dailio.com. He did all the back-end and web services work and I just built the display and config flash widgets. I love working with other good developers.

The idea behind this is to have a image gallery viewer that you can email photos to. It works a lot like the flickr functionality of the same type, but without the hassle of flickr.






technorati: chumby, hardware, widget, image, gallery

Created 80 weeks, 3 days ago

technorati: screensaver, widget, Chumby

Created 83 weeks, 5 days ago

technorati: timer, widget, Chumby

Created 83 weeks, 6 days ago

If you use NextBus.com you will be happy to know I wrote a NextBus.com connector widget for the Chumby. I marked it as public on Saturday the 17th, but it turns out there is about a one month wait for widgets to go public, so don't expect to see it soon.

The widget is running below. Also, I think it has one of the coolest config screens for a widget created yet (thank you very much).



Thanks to NextBus for creating best public transportation tracking system. I rely on this information daily!

Enjoy folks.

technorati: NextBus, widget, Chumby

Created 84 weeks, 4 days ago