New iPhone App makes car kits moot?

I know this isn't Prius related, which is why I posted it in FHOP, but I thought you guys may be interested. I know several of you use iPhone's and iPod touches in your car, so this may be of interest to you.

I've written an app which finally makes them safe to use in your car without needing to plunk down the heavy cash for a car stereo integration kit! This app gives you easy visibility to what's playing, so there's no need to show it on the factory radio screen. It also lets you use "eyes-free" flicks to navigate your songs, which is every bit as safe as using the factory radio controls. Viola, no car kit needed!

My App Store listing is below. Please, check it out and let me know what you think. More info is available on my website.

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FlickTunes lets you keep your eyes on the road & control your music by touch! It provides you with a bold, clean, yet uncluttered, interface combined with intuitive touch and gesture-based controls. FlickTunes is simply the safest and most effective way to control your music on the go. You won't ever need to take your eyes off the road again.

Perfect for use in the car, on the treadmill, at the gym or while jogging. Use it anywhere you can't afford to spend time futzing with your music player!

Please visit FlickTunes in the iTunes App Store for a full list of features.

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P.S. If you want my DICE iPod kit, please PM me -- I don't need it anymore.

 

I'm sorry that wasn't clear. I've edited my post to try and make it more clear what it's "for". They key phrase in my "press release" is:

The native music player on the iPhone and iPod touch uses super tiny fonts, and has "virtual" buttons that you can't hit by touch, making it very difficult to use in the car. My app allows you to just reach over and "flick" to the next song, without needing to look. And when you do look to see what's playing, the song info is nice and big so you can just glance at it quickly. Hopefully someone who has used the iPod app on an iPhone or iPod touch, would recognize that it *doesn't* operate that way and would see what an improvement this is for "eyes-free" use. I wrote it because I found a need for it and it's proven vastly superior for in-car use to me and my friends! Hopefully other people will like it too.

Is my post more clear now? I'm open for suggestions on re-writes! :redface:

As for the llama, that's a fictional album cover since I didn't want to use anyone's copyrighted material in my screenshots. The particulars of the fictional song are a bit of an inside joke. lol

P.S. Just curious, do you have an iPhone or touch?

 

So I probably shouldn't mention that I got my shipping info days ago and am confirmed for delivery tomorrow?

 

No, but I went the cheapest possible -- $0.99...

 

The app works with any audio output the phone supports, just like the built-in iPod app does. The means headphone jack, dock connector line-out, built-in speaker and (where supported) the A2DP bluetooth streaming.

FYI, it's unrelated to my app, but the existing iPhones (2G and 3G) will also support A2DP once you install OS 3.0 software. My brother reports his 3G is now working with his aftermarket deck. I'm still stuck with my '06 Prius. LOL

 

It's here, it's here! OK, it's been here for about an hour now, I'm syncing and restoring.

 

Thanks for your excellent feedback, Doug, I appreciate it. I may not monitor this thread forever, so if you have any more in the future, feel free to email them to [email protected] ... Oh, hey, any chance I could convince you to leave a review in iTunes? It's a new app, so the more reviews the better!

Yeah, it probably will eat up the battery a fair amount. Of course, you can turn it off, but then it locks and you can't control it so what's the point. LOL. A car charger is cheap though ($10 or less if you get one of those car-to-usb things and use the normal dock cable).

Good idea. I don't ever listen to audiobooks, so this never occurred to me. I will look into this for the next feature update.

Unfortunately, I don't believe this is technically possible. As far as I know, Apple has not seen fit to bless us developers with screen brightness controls. But I will investigate and try to make it happen.

Yep. Sorry about that! :redface: I had it working nice in all the 3.0 betas and then for some reason it started doing that in the final release. It also does some really weird "multi-flips" on the iPhone 3GS. I've got these and a few other minor issues fixed in v1.0.1 which was uploaded to Apple last night. As soon as they approve it and post it, you'll be good to go. If you find any other "quirks", send 'em my way.

Thanks again!

 

This is getting sad. I uploaded my bug fix update a week ago and it still hasn't been published by Apple. I hope the crashes aren't causing you too much trouble. Please hang in there!

 

Yikes. Now it's been two weeks and they still haven't posted my update. I can't wait until I post up 1.1, sheesh. FYI, the following new features are coming soon (maybe?) in 1.1:

• New option to use taps to play/pause instead of swipes.
• Skip forward and backward 30 seconds with a two finger flick (intended for podcast and audiobook listeners).
• Two finger vertical swipes to control volume (when not using the dock connector line out).

 

Apple's still dragging their feet with my update. But I do have some new fictional album are for ya, Tony. How's this?

 

Good news, everyone!

I would like to inform you that Apple has just posted FlickTunes v1.1 (after nearly two months of waiting) which brings a number of new features to the table, making it even more useful:

* TWO FINGER FLICK LEFT: Skip forward 30 seconds.
* TWO FINGER FLICK RIGHT: Skip back 30 seconds.
* TWO FINGER SWIPE UP: Increase volume.
* TWO FINGER SWIPE DOWN: Decrease volume.
* TAP CONTROL SETTING: Allow taps for play/pause.
* SWIPE CONTROL SETTING: Allow swipes for play/pause.
* TWO-FINGER SETTING: Allow two finger controls.

Additionally, v1.2 is complete and now in the review queue, promising these additional features users have been asking for:

* ALLOW LANDSCAPE SETTING: Allow or prevent landscape mode.
* MORE AUTO-LOCK SETTINGS: Allow or prevent auto-lock while playing or paused separately.
* NEW WORKING SCREEN: Now shows a "working" screen while building the initial random shuffle playlist.