This update adds three big changes: Timezone support, Erase Before Playing (a track), and a Queue.
Timezone will initially be set automatically for you, based on the timezone of your phone or browser. You can manually change the timezone on the Night Mode page, and your Sisyphus will stay on the selected timezone even if your phone or browser timezone does not match.
Erase Before Playing is an option on each individual Track page. This setting is per-track, so if you turn it on for "Sailboat", every time that track plays, it will run an erasing movement right before it. The currently playing name will be "Sailboat", it does not say "Erase" during those movements. It also plays the erase movement at a faster speed than the regular track movements.
The Queue is a new way that the Sisyphus manages the upcoming tracks. It is a single list which can be added to and rearranged at any time. If you play a playlist, it will put all of the tracks into the Queue and begin playing. Making a change to the playlist after that will have no effect on the queued tracks.
In "Next Up" on the homepage, you can toggle the Connections button to see if any extra movements are needed between tracks as well as if they have been reversed to smoothly move between tracks. Drag the double-bar on the right side of the track line to rearrange upcoming tracks. The queue will do its best to play the tracks without connection lines, reversing tracks when needed and able.
Some smaller additions and bug fixes include:
- The initial connection to the table splits data into smaller chunks (tracks/playlists/etc) so the app is less likely to lose connection on a table with a large library
- Homing speed is now independent of the speed slider
- Improved slowdown when ball is near the edge (especially on Erase)
- Reversed track image when track is playing in reverse
- Primary/Secondary color swap button
- Color hex code accepts 6-digit values (and fills white with 00)
- Clearer error messages for homing failures
There is no obvious option to remove a track from "up next". Am I overlooking something?
In all, a useful update, although I still can't understand why someone would want to run Erase before every track. My own wish list: a way to specify the speed for each track in a playlist or queue.
There is no obvious option to remove a track from "up next". Am I overlooking something?
I couldn't see one either. I could only see the option to delete the track entirely?
It would be great if we could simply remove one from "up next" to clean up the queue.
In all, a useful update, although I still can't understand why someone would want to run Erase before every track.
The new option isn't to "run Erase before every track," it's a checkbox that can applied on a per-track basis. Which is helpful for the designs on some tracks, which look best against an erased backdrop, like words, or drawings, of faces or objects, etc. I'm very glad to see this added, as previously we'd have to manually insert an "Erase" track beforehand in order to achieve the same.
My own wish list: a way to specify the speed for each track in a playlist or queue.
That would be super cool and very much appreciated too.
@userfriendly +1. I hadn't considered the desirability of a "blank" field for text-based and other such tracks.
Removing a track from the Queue will be added in the next app release. It should not require a table update.
Speed per track is interesting, I will add it to my list of requests. How would you imagine it handle if the playlist is shuffled?
@matt2 Seems to me that the option cannot practically be provided when shuffle is invoked
A more knotty problem is how to quantify "speed". Maybe radio buttons for 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%...That made sense until I remembered that I have tinkered with Settings and have the speed set at a value of 5 when the default is (iirc) 1.75. So some allowance would have to be made for such cases. Things like that are the reason I would rather design a UI than write the code. 😀
Make sure you have the latest version of the iPhone app.
Version 1.12.04 is not exactly backward compatible with previous versions of the iPhone app. I do not know what version of the iPhone app I had, but after taking version 1.12.04 of the firmware, the track preview image did not show in the upcoming tracks list. It just showed the sisyphus logo for each. I saw none of the new 1.12.04 features.
Once I updated the iPhone app, everything started displaying properly and I saw the new features such as timezone configuration.
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