Pocket Touch: Testers Wanted
by Eric March on March 7, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Prior to getting the Gear4 BluEye, one of my greatest lamentations about the Touch was the lack of tactile controls such as I had on previous iPod generations. I loved the ability to control the iPod while it was still in my pocket by simply feeling for the clickwheel and clicking the buttons. The Touch, having a lack of buttons, was impossible to do this with. Many discussions about this occurred on various forums, and myself and others suggested that it would be nice if the iPod/Music app could be modified to allow gestures to control the music — swipe left and right to switch tracks, up and down to control music, tap to pause and play.
Now, iPod Touch Fans member SkylarEC is doing just that with a new application called Pocket Touch:
Alpha release of PocketTouch. Another app by request. And this one was fun to make because not all the information is easily available. In fact, it took a few hours of digging before I even knew if I was on the right track. Regardless I know you don’t care, so here is the app:
PocketTouch. A lot of you have been wishing that you had a convenient way to control your iPods while it was in your pocket, or wherever you keep it. Well, I got enough requests, so I made just something to do that.
- When you run the Application, the screen will be black. That is to help preserve screen life and avoid images burning into the screen.
- As long as MusicPlayer (or iPod) is playing a song, a simple tap on the screen will pause the song.
- Tap the screen again to unpause.
- Slide your finger to the right to skip to the next song.
- Slide your finger to the left to play the previous song.
As of right now, up and down weren’t programmed to have a purpose, so I let them do the play/pause feature as well as just tapping. If you run the program in SSH and watch the output, you will see that the app knows how to read up and down.
In the future, I can add in diagonals, etc. I also plan on adding in a settings controller for this. I want there to bet two options for you. The first of which is basically what I what I am putting out today, while the second option will show an image from your library for a selected timeframe before transitioning to another picture. That way you can just set this in its dock and let it be.
To install
- Download this package http://www.touchrepo.com/Multimedia/PocketTouch.app.zip
- Put it onto your iPod (or iPhone, but that isn’t the targeted audience here) using your favorite means of accessing your device.
- Using SSH, Terminal, Mobile Finder, Squid, or any other method you want, change the perissions on the Applications to 755.
- Respring.
- Enjoy.
Let me know what you guys think. And also, if any Icon artists want to design up an icon, I’d really appreciate it. I am currently using the standard apple placeholder that comes with the iPhone.
While it is not yet fully implemented, he has gotten a good head start on an alpha version of the project. If you are interested in checking it out, head on over, grab the app, and tell him how you make out with it. (No, I don’t mean that kind of making out. You’re weird.)
(Source: iPod Touch Fans)
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Posted in Application Related, In The Works
March 9th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
[...] the differences in Pocket Touch version 0.3a, I thought I’d first mention that since the last time we at Touch Podium wrote about Pocket Touch, version 0.2b had been released, which provided users [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 8:41 am
this app rocks and works perfectly now. Maybe sometimes I need seeking throughout the song also. Thanks guys.
November 28th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Hi, I just upgraded my iPod touch to firmware 2.2 and i used quickpawn to jailbreak it and installed pocket touch however it is not working. i started it without having any song playing and it gave my the msg telling me to start a song in iPod’s music app. so i did so and i tried starting it again but it launches a black screen and terminates. Is it the 2.2 firmware?
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
This is a great App.
In fact, it no longer works on firmware 2.2. Damn Apple!
December 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Same prob here on 2.2… black screen and nothing else.. shame really :-(
December 14th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
The fix for my black screen problem was:
-going into settings
-changing some parameters (like background color) then going back to home screen
-starting up a song
-starting pockettouch
-you might have to repeat this procedure
I read this in some comment on youtube and it worked for me after the first try so good luck!
December 20th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Thanks Marco. Pockettouch didn’t worked, Changed the appearance, background, now works perfectly. Been looking for help long time!
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Hi i really want this app i download pocket touch and the pocket touch frameworks from cydia i start it and it tells me to start a song so i do then its just all black.I also cant find the settings for it?help please
December 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hi John,
the settings are actually in the general iphone settings, where you would change your brightness for example, but right on the first screen when you enter, all the way to the bottom… just change any of the pockettouch settings and it should work…
have fun, marco
January 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Hi, it doesn’t work for me, Pocket Touch is beein closed down immidiately.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
What can I do?
January 13th, 2009 at 8:28 am
I have an iPod touch 2.2, I tried to change settings but still nothing but a black screen bumping back to menu after 5 seconds.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:48 am
I just found out, if you turn out the shaker completely it works on 2.2, hope this will be fixed soon!
January 14th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Nice find! Thanks for sharing.
Enjoy the app!
January 20th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Had the same problem as others with 2.2. Marco’s procedure worked for me. Thank you. Can’t do without it in the car!
January 31st, 2009 at 3:40 pm
is there a source (installer or cydia) to download pocket touch?
February 20th, 2009 at 10:44 am
another feature I’d like is to make the info (name and time counter of song) to move when turned in landscape mode, I soley use this app in landscape and am glad there is a switch for the x-y axis but would like the info to read correctly when sideways instead of its current position