Smart Phone App

Ok so although I know nothing abut designing a phone app I thought it would be cool if eventually Wikiloops had their own. People are already creating music apps, even ones that you can make beats, upload samples, play synths, multitrack recording, equalizers, samplers, sequencers, etc. Users could download the free version that allows them to view and listen to other users songs but wouldn't be able to download them unless they purchased the full version. Believe me people will pay to play. Also it would be cool to have a thread that included the shout outs and current events. The key is to allow one to create backing tracks while on the go. It would also attract a ton of more users from all over the globe. Feel free to offer more suggestions.

---

Peter is dead on right....I second that vote. Wikiloops should have either a native Iphone (iOS) or Android app at some point. I realize it may be a while, since it can be costly and time consuming to create a mobile app. However, the wikiloops user community would grow exponentially if the apps were there. I would use it immediately. There are a lot of people that use I-RIG or similar to jam through their Iphones as is. The ability to play wikiloops on an iphone alone would be really useful, and later add the ability to easily download and uplaod throught native app. It could be done one step at a time, with limited functionality at first. A probelm I have now is that I want to access wikiloops on my Iphone as it is, and I can't play backing tracks using the embedded player. Must be flash based? I have to click "download" to open a quicktime player to play the loops.
In the future, HTML5 will alleviate a lot of issues, and negate the need for "native" applicaitons, but how long before this site is recoded for HTML5? I would not expect that. Hopefully Wikiloops will get enough funding to at least create an Iphone application. I would love to beta test that.

---

Hey :) You may tink I'm joking, but I was just getting a first glance at html5s features within the last couple of days :) I'm currently still struggling to achieve a W3C conform XHTML 1.0 transitional setup here, and I figure upgrading to html5 is a job worth doing. It will be some time untill html5 will be there, and its no fun to do it without even having a proper browser to check the results... or is there some tool?

To be honest, I dont own a smartphone myself, and I've never seen wiki from any Apple device, so I was surprised you cant use the flash player at all. Maybe I can do a alternative version with an embeded quicktime player - would that help?? that could be done really quick, so that would be my first idea.

As on developing an app (I told you I have no experience with this), what should that be? I can imagine a display of wikiloops in a layout fit to small phone displays, but thats not an app, right? The only thing I can imagine being really cool, if you had a programm that uses the wikiloops database and soundfiles, and lets you record, mix and share your remix from within one device. Now that would be a cool app. The moment I start thinking of the need for buildt-in Soundeffects, a smart levelling mixer and such, I realize that would be quite a big thing to code...
but maybe I have totally missed the point of what it is you feel an app could do... please share some wisdom with me, the smartphone caveman :)

---

i just tried this to take a look:
http://transmog.net/iphone-simulator/

flashplayer works there!

---

Hi Dick. I hope all is well with you.

You went through a few changes to support iOS devices. First it was a QuickTime player button. That worked pretty well with the only issue being how the button was presented on the Ui. It did not scale well, but functionally it was fine. I see now that you have a new play button that shows up on my iPhone and iPad. The button appears very small and you have to click it just right and wait. There is a delay in playback and there is no progress bar. This is sadly missed.

Any chance you can get the track playback progress bar back and make the button larger? Any ideas why there is a delay after clicking the button?

Maybe I'm the only one using iPad and iPhone to play back tracks?

Just wanted to throw you some feedback.

Ps. Some really good tracks hitting wikiloops recently! It's getting better and better!

Mike

---

hey mike,

thanks for reporting in, I'll have a look right away if I can get that reinstalled...

---

changed it again... hows this ?
looks fine with quicktime installed in firefox, BUT as we know... :)

---

just to keep you updated: I have started looking into the app-thing some more. My impression: This is going to get really expensive friends :) Estimates for an iphone-App are around 5k USD. I'd have to start a fundraising project first (thinking about taking this to kickstarter.com...) for this to take off.
I am still undecided whats next, still got a lot to do on the site as is, so its up to your cooperation & feedback what will happen here.

---

I really don't see any benefit in having a wikiloops app other than creating a presence in the app stores. The amount of time which would be required for designing, writing, testing, publishing and maintaining the applications is an obstacle in itself.

Wikiloops is a website, my phone has a web browser ;)

Chris

---

I get your point chris, but others have been pushing the issue quite hard.
I have seen a little of what could be possible with an app that would exceed the website features - basicly, the app would be cool if you could do the mixing on your phone, and it would be too conservative to think people wont record on the go. That might sound weird and not likely, but think ten years ahead from now, and I'm sure there will be devices with proper recording features buildt in. Like a crossbraid of a handheld stereo recorder, a phone and a webmachiene... why not?
Coding such an app would take lots of manpower and brainpower, so I am not going to try doing that myself. I might look into android apps ne day, but the iphone thing... naw, thats a costly biz.
Of course, theres ways to make a buck - look at jammit.com for example, 2.99 a track, now thats a "fair" price, right?

I guess I'll go ahead developing a small screen version of the wiki interface and leave it at that... not that this wouldnt be a four - weeks on the code project again ;)

I just wanted to keep this thread alive, I'm not overlooking the app market at all, so I figured there might be some people around that could help finding the right solutions ;)

guess the day will come where I'll have to buy myself a smartphone, lol

---

ok, to those who asked for a phone version...

I need some feedback o this here:
[url]http://www.mobile.wikiloops.com/jam.php[/url] - its a wiki setup designed for 320px wide displays...

yes, I know its an ugly duck s far, still I'd like to know if this looks promisin to you so far :)

thank you!

---

OK, so I invited some people to check this out - let me offer some questions I would like to get feedback on:

1. please tell me your mobile devices screen resolutions. I get a feeling theres both 320 by Xpx and greater displays than that out there, so please mention that before reporting any bugs - please mention again, too wether you are checking from an apple device or an android phone, so I can tell where the diffrences are.

2. I'd like to know if theres any bugs - meaning functions that dont work properly. I've spotted the radio doesnt work yet and leaving comments wont work right now. What else?

3. Please let me know if the links within the interface are too close together. I just noticed yesterday many links might be too close to each other to be hit by touchscreen, so please give me some feedback on this question, too.

4. Just try using it a little, does it feel like wikiloops to you? What missing? Whats cool? Whats too much?

5. Be honest: would a black-on-white interface look better?

6. send me screenshots, either to info att wikiloops. com or as a forums attachment.

thank you. this is still a long way to go, but with a little help I'll make it...

---

android
htc desire ~2 years old
480x800
lol

---

ChrisB attached the following image:

---

Edited by ChrisB on 3 maggio 2012 12:23

as opposed to:

---

ChrisB attached the following image:

---

Edited by ChrisB on 3 maggio 2012 12:24

hehe, I knew you'd be the hardest one to convince :)... thanks for posting this...
there seems to be some kind of zoom buildt into your phone, the second screenshot show definetly more than 480px - or did you tilt the phone to the side to take the second shot?
As far as the programming of the main page is concerned, the blue area displaying the musicians is about 500px wide as far as I coded, so there must be some zoom mechanism workin there...
I will continue, trying to resetup with dynamic width, so the site will fill any browser (hopefully)

stop loling at this, would ya? its a f*****ing lot of work.... and I still feel it might be worth it :P

---

just kidding bro :)
native resolution looks like this:

---

ChrisB attached the following image:

---

Edited by ChrisB on 3 maggio 2012 12:25

er... I dunno how to put that in words in english...
if you tilt your phone, so you hold it like a sheet of paper, small sides up&down, how does it look then? I'm not surprised about the big blue spot on the right in your pic, if you hold the phone the other way, there should be muss less unused space around the interface... 160px, to be precise. There might be more below, but I figured scolling down much less annoying than left and right...
or is it totally uncool to hold yer phone that way?! looool

---

hi dick,i cant grasp the reason for wanting a mobile phone app.most mobiles these days have a zoom facility.i use my mobile to search and listen to wiki on a regular basis,without any problems at all.i have an apple iphone,these phones have google built into them.my wife uses an android phone.we have no problem using wiki on this too.maybe its me,but i just dont get the reason,cost and hard work developing an app.could somebody please enlighten me
cheers dave

---

man, I'm *way* too drunk for this:

image reduced in size by 50% from native res.

I have to pass out now.

---

ChrisB attached the following image:

---

Edited by ChrisB on 3 maggio 2012 12:26

too bad, I think I just fixed that one, lol :)

sleep tight :)

---