I've decided to try out G+ Communities and figured a good way would be to create a community for TellDJ. All the latest updates about TellDJ will be posted there, as well as allowing you to get in touch and discuss any issues or ideas. This page is now the preferred way of discussing TellDJ (but you can still use Twitter if you prefer or the other methods described in the Backstage section of TellDJ.com) So if you're on G+, feel free to join the TellDJ Community page and get involved with TellDJ :)
It's almost 2012 here, so I figured I'd write this blog post whilst my dev machine is restarting :D
I'm hoping 2012 is going to be quite exciting regarding my projects. Obviously PhoneZune will be the first app released, but I have a few more lined up which I think are just as original and unique in their own rights. They're not necessarily related to voice control, but if you're liking the look of PhoneZune, then I think you'll like these projects.
I'm not announcing another PhoneZune feature just yet, but since it's New Years Eve (here) I thought I'd give a little tidbit.
If you haven't already seen the Voice Recognition Lab feature, you can watch the video here. More videos will follow soon.
New Video for PhoneZune! The Voice Recognition Lab
As promised, I've uploaded the video of the Voice Recognition Lab feature of PhoneZune. VRL makes it easier and more accurate to launch your song collection using your voice. It also enables the app to work with your voice by letting you decide how it should perform its recognition. The point of VRL is to give as much control to you, as the user, so that you can really tailor PhoneZune to suit you. Check out the video below.
Update - Want to test this out on your PC with a microphone? Download the beta right now!
Part of the ambition behind PhoneZune is that it is tailored to you as a person. Just like your music collection, it's designed to suit you and work with you. I believe the best way to do this is to put a lot of control in your hands, as the owner, so you can dictate how you expect the app to work.
To solve this issue, over the last few days I've been working very hard on a new tool that will come with the app. This tool will let you tell the app how you pronounce your artists and your songs (if you don't like the way the app originally guessed how you'd pronounce them). The app will then save that information and so you can call out your songs however you'd say them in everyday conversation. This should get rid of any friction between your voice and the app recognising what you said. This also means you can launch artists that have a symbol as their name! (Looking at you, Prince...)
Ultimately, I hope this tool will let people of all languages, cultures, accents, vocal idiosyncrasies and music titles enjoy the voice-control aspect of PhoneZune.
Now that I've managed to get the main part of this tool working, I'm going to be spending the next few days tidying up the code and creating a basic UI for it. If I can get this done by this weekend, I'll release a video next week showing you exactly what I'm talking about and how this tool will work.
As always, you can be informed of when this video is released by visiting this blog, following me on Twitter (@keyboardP), or subscribing/keeping an eye on my YouTube channel.
In my attempt to keep everyone in the loop with the current status of PhoneZune, I figured it'd be a good idea to post an update on how things are going and current plans.
How's it going?
Firstly, development is going well. The app is starting to take shape and I've been able to create prototypes for some of the new features. I've decided which features will be in version 1.0 and am no longer adding anything new in order to ensure the app is pushed out the door as soon as possible. Once that's done, future updates can implement other features. This means you guys and girls will have access to the main app soon and whilst you're (hopefully) enjoying it, I'll be working on other cool stuff to add to it.
I am not going to reveal all the features of the app in one go, but I may release short videos demoing them over time. The main reason for that is because I want to ensure that the feature works well and fits into the overall app. On paper, features can seem amazing, but the reality can sometimes just not feel right. There have also been a couple of issues with the YouTube API Terms of Service which meant that I had to remove some YouTube enhancements I had added this weekend.
What was that last post about...?
This weekend, I have significantly expanded on what was shown. Without an official Zune API, development for it has been time consuming and difficult. At times, it really is like performing surgery with a blind fold on whilst the patient is running around the room (I assume that's an apt simile...). I'm trying to get SmartDJ working and, although it works on my machine, the hack I use may not work on all machines so I'm looking into that. I know people have spent time carefully crafting playlists in their Zune software and want to be able to listen to them. Well....you can :D. Zune playlists have been implemented (as well as the standard controls of next track, previous track, play, pause and stop). I have also implemented my alternate plan (which I alluded to in my previous post). I'm not going into details of what this is, but it does open up many more possibilities.
What now?
Not sure what you lot are up to, but I'm heading back to developing after this post :) I've prototyped another cool feature which will make it into version 1.0. As much as I want to fully reveal what it is, I'll just say that it's one of those things that, when you see it, you realise how intuitive it is and may be surprised at how other music apps don't generally do it. How often you use it depends on who you are but I think everyone with a Windows Phone is going to appreciate it ;)
In concluding this post, development's going well (at least when I'm not wrestling with Zune) and there are a few surprises in store. That's pretty much the latest status update :)
Quick reminder that you can follow me on Twitter (@keyboardp) and if you want to discuss this project, then I also follow the #phonezune hashtag so please include that.
The more I start prototyping and implementing features, the more I realise how limited certain things are. Whilst I could cut back on certain features or just leave them out, I'm not willing to compromise on quality in order to make development easier.
Therefore, this weekend is going to very busy and I'm going to be messing around with my alternate plan. If this proves to be better suited to the app, then I will be making an announcement on Monday 12th. If nothing comes up on Monday, assume everything is continung as normal. All I'll say for now is that everything in the video, plus things I've said in comments, are not affected - they're working very well :)
Want to help with development? Please answer this poll.
Hi everyone. I'd appreciate it if you just answered this quick poll (truthfully ;)) as it will help me with optimizing PhoneZune to make it as efficient as possible. There's no point in me spending weeks on trying to get a super-fast running program if most users won't have a big enough music collection to notice the difference; that time would be better spent on features :).
You don't need to sign in to answer the poll, so don't feel left out if you only have one song in your collection - just select the first option :D. Although not necessary, it would be great if you could share this poll so that more users can answer it and so I can get a better overview of what the best way to develop the app should be.
