The best talk I’ve seen in recent memory.
Idea: Rdio remote control
After a recent hard drive failure I switched from iTunes to Rdio and I’ve really enjoyed the experience so far, and not just because I have friends that work there.
In addition to a few artists not on Rdio, I’m really missing the ability to control the music playing on my home stereo from my phone. Apple’s ‘Remote’ app worked brilliantly - I could pause the music as I’m leaving the house and skip bad tracks from the dinner table. As it stands, I have to pull out my laptop, share the screen of the mac mini playing the music and change it up there. #firstworldproblems
Ideally such an app would allow me to:
- discover devices nearby capable of being controlled
- play / pause / skip
- browse my collection and everything else available
- add stuff to my queue
Unfortunately, without some help from the Rdio guys it’s not even really possible for someone else to build this - the mac client isn’t yet Applescript-able and there are god-knows how many other platforms Rdio runs on and few of of them have any programatic control.
Update: it looks like the Rdio app is now Applescript-scriptable
Much later update: the AirPlay makes this all but irrelevant for me.. but I’m a nerd and can set up the Mac Mini plugged into my stereo with AirServer. Sucks that I’m draining battery on the iPad, but being able to pass it around to people at the party and have them queue up songs is worth it.
