Controller software for wifi enabled iPhone / iPod

[dss]

Sorry but I respectfully disagree in this instance. Even Apple, which was the high-water mark of "no information until the product is already in the store for sale." has changed their ways with the iPhone. I believe it was their first major hardware launch in recent memory to get pre-announced (twice actually) well before the sale. Steve is fond of telling people that things are fully cooked and for sale "right now" during his keynotes but they took a different path and it's paid off quite well, even with the detractors who had ample time to criticize various elements of the roadmap.

All I'm saying it that one small nugget of information such as a comment concerning iPhone support would go a long way towards demonstrating Sonos is in tune with their user community. If they came here and said "We looked at the business model and it's not something we plan to support at the moment" I would be disappointed but life goes on. We've got posts in this thread from people talking about selling their gear, buying other systems, etc... due to simple lack of information. Slingbox demoed a "pre-alpha" version of their iPhone client and while it's far from ready, it pacified their user base that it was actively being worked on. Even DirecTV which was notorious for many years for not releasing any kind of product information until it was fully live has changed their ways and now even invites their online community into an active beta process every week to try out new software.

Sonos is one of the increasingly rare companies that applies (IMO) a dated marketing strategy that holds their potential evangelical user base at bay instead of engaging them and helping stoke sales.

[Majik]

Originally Posted by dss

All I'm saying it that one small nugget of information such as a comment concerning iPhone support would go a long way towards demonstrating Sonos is in tune with their user community.

And all I'm saying is that one small exception is the thin-edge of the wedge.

A policy you have exceptions for probably isn't a very good policy.

I could point at any one of the suggestions for improvements on this forum, and say "a small nugget of information on their planned support for this will go a long way to demonstrating Sonos is in tune with their user community." and it would be no less valid a statement than the one you made.

So... why does this particular feature request deserve an exception made? Perhaps there are feature requests more deserving of this.

Which feature should Sonos announce their plans for. Or perhaps they should announce their plans for a few. How many should that be, and which features?

And how do you deal with the very many people who will want to know about their pet feature? How do you deal with the complaints that follow?

We've got posts in this thread from people talking about selling their gear, buying other systems, etc... due to simple lack of information.

More fool them.

Most of these are, quite simply, idle threats from people trying to bribe Sonos into revealing information. I don't believe any company should give into bribery.

And the ones that are serious are probably looking for some disposable technology anyway. They're never going to be happy with Sonos because it's not designed to be disposable. It's designed to work well, and last a long time.

Cheers,

Keith

[RO53BEN]

Sonos did actually pre-announce the controller cradle...about a year before it's release

[sbc]

It's not nearly as yummy as a dedicated iPhone app would be, but a spare computer running the Sonos Desktop Controller and a VNC server, and the iPhone app "Mocha VNC Lite" make a reasonable facsimile of a iPhone-controlled Sonos system, with a UI you probably already know (if you use the Desktop Controller much). Just sayin'.

-steve

[alexi]

Hi Sonos users,
an iPhone based remote for Sonos seems close. Please visit www.cliqklabs.com. I am not affiliated with this in any way, but considering to get a Sonos system. Currently I am using iTunes with iPhone remote, but this has some limitations. With the Sonos iPhone remote I would probably buy a ZP80 immediately.
Kind regards
Werner

[ogdoad8]

A few points:

1. I love the Sonos system and philosophy. I have 4 ZPs, two controllers, and one set of Sonos speakers. I've had this system for a few years, and I'm mostly happy.

2. The Sonos Controller (CR100), currently priced at $399, was impressive 20 years ago or whenever it came out, but now it is just dated and hasn't gotten the software/UI love the hardware needs to keep up. My friends are no longer impressed by it, and I'm tired of using it, tired of scrolling through a big list of text, etc.

3. Andy did a great job with sonosweb (www.purple.org), which runs (Perl) on a computer and provides a web-based interface for PCs or handhelds to manage Sonos. However the UI is a bit clunky (being web based), not very pretty (I've tried all the skins, just my opinion), and slow (being web based).

4. Cliqk Labs is taking Andy's sonosweb and building an experimental iPhone app around it. This is a decent start, but it will still be somewhat limited by its cumbersome and no longer necessary web architecture.

5. I would pay good money for a slick NATIVE iPhone app to control Sonos over WiFi. What is "good money"? I don't know. I would definitely pay $50 if it was good. Offer a free trial version that only works on a single zone so people can test it out.

I don't think I'm alone on this last point. All the work that has gotten us to where we are (Sonos, Andy, Cliqk, etc.) is great. But here we are. It's 2008. The iPhone app store is open, the SDK is out, the devices work on WiFi, and the hardware is perfect for a slick native app. There is a market for it! Who is going to step up to the challenge and make this happen?!?

[TOTORO]

Hi :-)

great work, the skin is beautiful and it just works fine :-)

I have suggestions :

when we browse music :

- could it be possible to back to the current folder and not at the beginnning of the folder list ?

- could you add more information like the time of the track ?

- could we anytime choose the folder we want to listen : for example, I don't want to go to Nada Surf and then go to Proximity Effects and again choose all the songs of this album, I'd like to choose proximty effects and click on play arrow button and even if I want click on play arrow button next to Nada Surf folder. I'm not sure if I'm really clear . . .

Maybe, you could implement an iphone filter just like on the music iphone or next to the folders, alphabetic filter ?

Last but not least, according to me this the best apps for iphone nowadays :

Weezo, a beautiful app that could stream music, videos ( not really great on iphone but they're working on it ) and so on from your PC to any web client . . .

Simplify Media : a special app for iphone that could share a kind of playlist from your itunes library or your music folder. This app works like a Peer to Peer : all of your friends share securely their music with each other, no downoad just listen to your music's friend and discover new artist and obviously listen your music anywhere with an iphone or ipod touch . . .

Maybe Last FM app also and to talk about concurrence, Ipeng skin that works with the sqeezebox music server . . .

Again thanks for your tremendous work and go on and oustand the limits of the sonos software :-)

Totoro

[klish]

Love my Sonos and completely agree that an iPhone based app for controlling the system is something Sonos could easily sell. I would buy it.