iControl iTunes Player for iPhone?

[MacRumors]

TUAW claims that they've heard that Apple is working on a new iPhone application called "iControl" which will allow the iPhone to control and stream media from local iTunes libraries:

TUAW is told that a media navigator will allow you to view videos, play podcasts, listen to music and even support shuffle playback.

Evidence of the player can reportedly be found in the latest iPhone Beta Firmware in the form of localization strings.

Apple already has existing products, such as the Apple TV and Airport Express, which allows iTunes to stream to external devices, so providing similar functionality to the iPhone seems a natural step. In fact, Apple previously applied for a patent on many of the concepts surrounding remotely controlling iTunes from a portable device.

A portable multimedia player (such as the iPod. manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.) is used to wirelessly access and control a media server (such as a personal computer running iTunes software) that is streaming digital media by way of a wireless interface to a media unit (such as a stereo/speakers in the case of streaming digital audio).

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[bigandy]

That would be rather sweet

[Hooka]

That would be a very nice app for the iphone. If I could connect my iphone to my airport express, I could be a mobile dj in my house.

[HiRez]

That's fine, but it sounds like you still need a computer to be on. They should enable the iPhone to steam via AirTunes directly from the iPhone's music library.

[MacFly123]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I have been waiting for this. Now if only it could stream your home library from anywhere over WIFI not just libraries in close proximity.

I think iPhone OS 2.0 is going to have LOTS of new features like going from Tiger to Leopard except obviously not so drastic as an entire computer OS, but the same idea.

Can't wait to get my iPhone 2.0, I am dying here

The beginning was AMAZING, but now with everything new on the iPhone 2.0, the iPhone is seriously starting its climb to conquering the world. If I were the rest of the com industry I would be even more scared of this than when it first came out. Lol it is so sad to see the crap that other companies make thinking that they will copy the iPhone lol. They haven't even come close and now their attempts are going to look even more pathetic.

One mobile computing device is the future and Apple is infinitely prepared more than the rest of the industry and it's showing. It is going to be like computers as it is the new computing platform, you will have crap imitation wannabe phones (PCs) and iPhones (Macs)! This is really like Steve and Bill starting over again with an entirely new revolution. The first revolution was to get computers into your house, now the second revolution is to get them in your pocket, and this time Apple is going to win. People on here that whine about iPhone overload obviously do NOT understand that and how important the iPhone is to Apple and Macs. They are connected, the iPhone is NOT JUST A PHONE!

There may have been a few missing features at launch, but no 1st Gen product is perfect, and look what it has done to the industry in such a short time. And that was all only the beginning. Now it is time to really hit them where it hurts! GO APPLE!!!

[fastbite]

A native control application would be sweet! I would love to stream my flicks directly to the iPhone at home and watch them in the bed or whatever. Or walk around the house streaming my music.

[slapppy]

That would be awesome if it were true. I also want my iPhone & Touch to control my ATV.

[jamierson2k]

remote desktop for iphone?

iControl would be amazingg

[raggedjimmi]

I like the sound of this.

I'm also hoping some hackers come along and get it running over a data connection too, 3G+streaming music? Awesome. Just give me a 4gb iPhone!

[mackiwi]

Originally Posted by MacFly123

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I have been waiting for this. Now if only it could stream your home library from anywhere over WIFI not just libraries in close proximity.

I think iPhone OS 2.0 is going to have LOTS of new features like going from Tiger to Leopard except obviously not so drastic as an entire computer OS, but the same idea.

Can't wait to get my iPhone 2.0, I am dying here

The beginning was AMAZING, but now with everything new on the iPhone 2.0, the iPhone is seriously starting its climb to conquering the world. If I were the rest of the com industry I would be even more scared of this than when it first came out. Lol it is so sad to see the crap that other companies make thinking that they will copy the iPhone lol. They haven't even come close and now their attempts are going to look even more pathetic.

One mobile computing device is the future and Apple is infinitely prepared more than the rest of the industry and it's showing. It is going to be like computers as it is the new computing platform, you will have crap imitation wannabe phones (PCs) and iPhones (Macs)! This is really like Steve and Bill starting over again with an entirely new revolution. The first revolution was to get computers into your house, now the second revolution is to get them in your pocket, and this time Apple is going to win. People on here that whine about iPhone overload obviously do NOT understand that and how important the iPhone is to Apple and Macs. They are connected, the iPhone is NOT JUST A PHONE!

There may have been a few missing features at launch, but no 1st Gen product is perfect, and look what it has done to the industry in such a short time. And that was all only the beginning. Now it is time to really hit them where it hurts! GO APPLE!!!

I agree - The iphone/ipod touch like devices are the future of computing. having said that, I wonder if apple will open up the iphone or at least its apps to other device manufactures?

That may sound crazy, but didn't apple lose the computer OS wars to windows by not licensing the apple OS back when it still had a chance?

Eventually other manufactures are going to come up with a shared nearly adequate alternative to the itouch/iphone interface, and through cut throat competition with each other they will eventually produce devices at half of apples equivalent retail price and apple will start to lose its potential market share and once again become a niche player rather than the markets dominant force.

I'm just speculating of course - is this going to play out the same way as the OS war? (except with googles "android" replacing microsofts windows) or is this more like the ipod story? (with apple being the dominant).

Should apple license the iphone/itouch to other device makers? (thereby taking a cut on every phone sold)

Or should they "stay the course" and shout "bring them on!"?

it could be the difference between apple selling 1 billion "itouch interfaces" a year (including a couple hundred million devices of their own) or selling less than 50 million devices a year (not terrible, but still only 5% market share, and remember no one will be buying standalone ipods in 5 years time)

1 billion "touch interfaces" licensed at $10-$20 a piece = 10 to 20 billion cash a year in almost pure profit!

Even if they don't license the iphone OS, Does anyone think it will be long before we see linux/android/windows mobile emulators to enable people to run the iphone apps on non-iphones??? (maybe this is why apple is insisting on apps only being sold threw itunes - to make it as hard as possible to get the apps on other phones!)

my 2c.

[narco]

Damn, does this mean that I have to buy an iPhone now? I think it does.

Fishes,
narco.

[DMann]

Brilliant, simply brilliant.

[Cousin Dirk]

This sounds pretty cool.

I was actually thinking about something similar the other day: would it not be possible, considering the iPhone/iTouch has WiFi, for these devices to stream their music to an AirPort Express brick?

[Sideshow Bob]

I am betting that the iControl name is "beta name" as a simple Google search found at least 3 applications using that name.

There are already a few apps that do pretty much the same thing and do it rather well.

RemoteBuddy
Telekinesis
Orb

let's hope Apple offers something unique.

[zedsdead]

Awesome news...but lets hope that it also will allow you to stream TO an Apple TV. That has been a requested feature since day one, as has the ability to let it act as a remote. Hopefully all this is connected.

[tba03]

so this is why they stopped shipping remotes with new macs?

[surferfromuk]

Originally Posted by mackiwi

I agree - The iphone/ipod touch like devices are the future of computing. having said that, I wonder if apple will open up the iphone or at least its apps to other device manufactures?

That may sound crazy, but didn't apple lose the computer OS wars to windows by not licensing the apple OS back when it still had a chance?

Eventually other manufactures are going to come up with a shared nearly adequate alternative to the itouch/iphone interface, and through cut throat competition with each other they will eventually produce devices at half of apples equivalent retail price and apple will start to lose its potential market share and once again become a niche player rather than the markets dominant force.

I'm just speculating of course - is this going to play out the same way as the OS war? (except with googles "android" replacing microsofts windows) or is this more like the ipod story? (with apple being the dominant).

Should apple license the iphone/itouch to other device makers? (thereby taking a cut on every phone sold)

Or should they "stay the course" and shout "bring them on!"?

it could be the difference between apple selling 1 billion "itouch interfaces" a year (including a couple hundred million devices of their own) or selling less than 50 million devices a year (not terrible, but still only 5% market share, and remember no one will be buying standalone ipods in 5 years time)

1 billion "touch interfaces" licensed at $10-$20 a piece = 10 to 20 billion cash a year in almost pure profit!

Even if they don't license the iphone OS, Does anyone think it will be long before we see linux/android/windows mobile emulators to enable people to run the iphone apps on non-iphones??? (maybe this is why apple is insisting on apps only being sold threw itunes - to make it as hard as possible to get the apps on other phones!)

my 2c.

You are mistaken in thinking market share is the only measure of success - product excellence, happy customers are surely better gauges ?

However, let's look at the cold hard facts ;

Apple's turnover this year will hit over $30billion by selling 40m ipods, 10m iphones and 10 million macs.

Microsoft are on track for $60 billion selling 92% of the worlds operating systems and office software. That's half of Microsoft's T/O!.

If Apple sell 40m ipods, 40m iphones and just 20m macs they will eclipse Microsoft's turnover and socially relegate them to 'has-been'.

So, they don't need to license the technology - their current momentum and roadmap will accomplish this already. Licensing will only dilute their own excellence by letting confusion muddy who and what Apple create.

This is why Microsoft are crapping themselves - you see Microsoft has NEVER experienced true competition - NEVER EVER!

Apple, (duh - John 'I gave it all to Microsoft' Sculley) 'kicked' Steve Jobs out of the door before this thing ever got started. The Apple of the nineties was NOT competition.

In summary :

This is the decade when we have truly seen what Apple and Steve Jobs can accomplish and the results are nothing short of staggering.

What's more - it's only just begun....

[MacinJosh]

Oh wow! This feature alone is going to make me buy one!

Joshua.

[razorianfly]

If true, this is going to be HUGE for the touch product line.

You think Apple sold millions of unit of the iPhone in June 07? --- You just wait wait until June 08. I believe there'll be an explosion of iPhone and iPod touch sales.

A streaming app which runs natively on a touchscreen device, with the ability to wirelessly stream music/video and other content through a wireless interface? - Sign me, and the rest of the earth, up, immediately.

I do agree it would be nice if it worked through Wifi though, allowing connection globally to one or several libraries.

R-Fly

[BongoBanger]

So, unless you can access public libraries of data, what's actually the point of this given that you can do this with other devices that have better sound quality and visual area already?

[tjcampbell]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Originally Posted by HiRez

That's fine, but it sounds like you still need a computer to be on. They should enable the iPhone to steam via AirTunes directly from the iPhone's music library.

yes!

[big_malk]

Originally Posted by BongoBanger

So, unless you can access public libraries of data, what's actually the point of this given that you can do this with other devices that have better sound quality and visual area already?

Because if your iPhone can do it, a device you'll probably have with you anyway, you don't need to carry another device.

What was the point in my buying the iPhone when I already had a phone and an iPod?

[luminol74]

That would be amazing! I can't believe i hadn't thought of it myself...

Its come at a good time cos i think my airport with airtunes is broken so this could theoretical replace the airtunes component. So this app can be used to stream music to the iPhone/touch but could it also used to turn the iPhone/touch into an itunes remote controlling a desktop machine... (with ability to see library obviously otherwise it would just be the same as the little white remote) ?

The latter would be cool too, i could be lazier than usual and grab the iPhone/touch from the couch and view the desktop iTunes library and change whatever track the desktop is playing. Plus the "remote range" could be potentially awesome if its done using wifi... You could be in another room and change the track. Nice

[i.maverick]

Originally Posted by surferfromuk

You are mistaken in thinking market share is the only measure of success - product excellence, happy customers are surely better gauges ?

However, let's look at the cold hard facts ;

Apple's turnover this year will hit over $30billion by selling 40m ipods, 10m iphones and 10 million macs.

Microsoft are on track for $60 billion selling 92% of the worlds operating systems and office software. That's half of Microsoft's T/O!.

If Apple sell 40m ipods, 40m iphones and just 20m macs they will eclipse Microsoft's turnover and socially relegate them to 'has-been'.

So, they don't need to license the technology - their current momentum and roadmap will accomplish this already. Licensing will only dilute their own excellence by letting confusion muddy who and what Apple create.

This is why Microsoft are crapping themselves - you see Microsoft has NEVER experienced true competition - NEVER EVER!

Apple, (duh - John 'I gave it all to Microsoft' Sculley) 'kicked' Steve Jobs out of the door before this thing ever got started. The Apple of the nineties was NOT competition.

In summary :

This is the decade when we have truly seen what Apple and Steve Jobs can accomplish and the results are nothing short of staggering.

What's more - it's only just begun....

xcatly what i wanted to say...
good that i read your post.
lol.

[Jowl]

Isn't this what RemoteBuddy does already?

Or Have I got the wrong end of the stick?!