Rose Connect Premium on Apple devices

Dopo · October 27, 2021, 9:45pm

Continuing the discussion from How can ripped CD files be permanently deleted?:

I switched from category as we are not talking about ripping anymore.

So yes, I agree that Rose Connect is quite multi functional at one side, but at the other side it lacks some basic behavior like remembering the state you are in. E.g. suppose you are listening via the app to a radio station/a Tidal song, and then you switch off the RS150 via the app, and a bit later (or even immediately after) you switch it back on via the app: the radio station/song is gone in Rose Connect, despite it is shown on the RS150 on the top line of the display, so this information is not forgotten by the RS150.

@ROSELOA Can the RS150 not send the latest track information to the Rose Connect app immediately after it powered on? Or is the one-way Bluetooth behavior perhaps the guilty one? In my opinion it is nothing but normal that Rose Connect should be showing the same information as on the RS150.

But Alessandro, you wrote about using a Mac, so could it not be a solution to download and install the iOS app of Rose Connect Premium on MacOS? I tried it with my M1 MacBook Air and it works. Just do not forget to click the setting to ‘iPhone and iPad-apps’ in the App Store:

So maybe this could save you the potential cost for a Roon license fee and/or a new/used iPad device.

In my case we threw out the TV-box of our internet provider, switched to another (virtual) internet provider for a much cheaper fiber offering (but with a better speed than before and at the same time using the same technical infrastructure) and are now using my (dated but functional) iPad Air as control panel for Disney+ and so on. So for me it makes perfect sense to add the Rose Connect app as well.

So I installed it and it gave a warning that I could not use the latest version because it needs iOS v13 and mine stopped at v12.5.5. I think v13 is exclusively for 64-bit processors, while my iPad is still using a 32-bit processor if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, I installed the most recent, compatible version (v3.04.08) and it seems to be working similar to the latest version on my iPhone, only the VU-meter list was empty in the Remote Control part, but I can live with that

Compared to the same app installed on my MacBook Air I like the usage on the iPad more because you can swipe with your finger through the libraries and that is exactly what you want to do when you are browsing for exploring another of your long forgotten albums! It’s just much better that way than using a mouse and keyboard.

@ROSELOA Another strange thing with the Rose Connect Premium app on my iPad was that the language was in French instead of in English, which is the language I configured on my RS150. The same app installed on my MacBook Air was in English. So can I change the language in the app somewhere? If so, where can I do that?

ROSELOA · October 28, 2021, 7:13am

Hello @dopo,

Can the RS150 not send the latest track information to the Rose Connect app immediately after it powered on?
→ I will check with development team, but I can’t sure it will be updated soon. Development team is currently focusing on developing an integrated playlist. However, I’m sure that I will let the development team read your comments.
Rose Connect Premium app on my iPad was that the language was in French instead of in English
→ How is the language setting on your iPad? Language for RoseConnect depends on the language of the device where you installed the app.

You’ve got a lot of reports about ROSE!
Thank you very much for your many comments.
We will make better ROSE products based on your comments.

Dopo · October 28, 2021, 10:03am

Hi @ROSELOA ,

I try to participate to make a better product for all of us, hence my feedback.

About the first remark, you could work with a public list of planned features that users can upvote to determine their priority. Here is an example of Cake, a financial app.

About the second remark, my iPad language is Flemish. I would suggest to chose the language set in the RS150 when setting up the device at the start so that unsupported iPad languages are avoided.

alessandro · October 28, 2021, 10:06am

Thank you @Dopo - this is really useful and I am much grateful for your observations and suggestions.

Very helpful indeed.

Unfortunately, my MacBook Pro is a 2017 machine running with an Intel Chip. All Macs purchased from 2020 onwards have a M1 chip that then enables access to iOS apps on the Mac but - unfortunately (and remarkably…but typical Apple…) - this is not possible for earlier production machines. I looked around for a solution but it cannot be made to work on pre-2020 Macs.

The only thing that caught my eye doing the little research I did yesterday is that - apparently - and maybe @ROSELOA can kindly look into this - app developers will need to update the app so that it can run on intel Macs. It would be fantastic if the Rose Connect Premium could be updated to work on my Intel powered 2017 Mac.

@ROSELOA would you know if this might be possible at all?

It’s a shame because the brilliant solution you suggested would have been very good for me!

So, at present, I am doing baby steps with the Beta version of the Rose Connect App for Macs which was made available I think around June this year:

This is still in development so the functionality is pretty basic. Also, as mentioned before, this is not a current priority for development, so I will have to wait for improvements!

Like you, I also discovered that Rose Connect Premium needs a newer generation iPad to be successfully installed. Later today, I shall borrow a newer iPad from a friend and will test the Rose Connect app on it and see how it works and whether I can do the simple things I am after.

I will report back on my progress!

alessandro · October 28, 2021, 8:08pm

Yeah, I agree with @Dopo and the idea here is to participate to these discussions with the intention of helping make a better product and overall offering for us that have already bought Rose and - also - for those that haven’t yet and who might have a look at this Forum before purchase (as I did for a few months before I took the plunge and bought a Rose…!)

@ROSELOA - all my observations here are the result of some testing I have done using a friend’s Apple iPad, having downloaded Rose Connect Premium.

1. OVERALL

App is much better on the iPad than on the iPhone (or - of course - on the Mac using the Beta version of the laptop app, which - as written above - is still in development). Menus are much more clear and easily accessible. So, overall, this is where I have experienced the better functionality. Nevertheless, I have spotted a number of issues and incongruities which I would like to share mainly with @ROSELOA but also with other people reading this.

2. PODCASTS

Was able to successfully search and find my fav podcasts (including Gladwell’s Revisionist History…!) but the default page features a selection of Korean podcasts and - when selecting ‘category’ - another list of Korean genres (I am guessing here) appears Wonder if this could be changed to a default relevant to the country of access.

3. ROSETUBE

Small typo on opening page - menu title should read ‘RECOMMEND’ and not - as displayed currently - ‘RECOMMAND’

When creating a YouTube playlist (I very much like this function), the only option available to add a video to a playlist is by accessing the 3 dots menu on the right of the video thumbnail - BUT - there is no ‘add video to playlist’ option if the video is played - in full - by the app as shown on an example below:

Most importantly, when a YouTube video is added to a playlist, the video ends up positioned at the beginning of the playlist as opposed to the logical back/end of it… Perhaps this is something that could be possibly looked into and fixed?

4. MUSIC

a) META INFORMATION EDITING

I had troubles on the app wanting to edit the Meta Information - things like an artist name change could not be done as the app doesn’t allow editing the text on the boxes shown in black here

I believe that this is not (yet) possible as no re-writing can be done on saved data.

b) METADATA

There are frequent ‘gremlins’ in terms of the Metadata info - these are mainly weird fonts/letters/symbols appearing in the record and song titles which end up showing in the saved data showing on the main unit’s screen

and on the app too - in this case these words in Greek alphabet only showed on the app, not on the main unit’s screen

Overall, strange characters/fonts/symbols keep appearing in many places - and also on random songs from many albums that have been ripped.

I have discovered that when it comes to wrongly placed info - for example the wrong name of an artist or a wrong title of an album - these can be successfully edited BEFORE ripping using the options on the unit’s panel and some of the frequent mistakes of the metadata can be corrected at that time.

I couldn’t find a way to correct info/typos AFTER the rips and that makes sense as - at the moment - data cannot be edited/deleted on the internal SSD yet.

Having said that, there have been times when a CD has been ripped - checked for any errors in the Metadata before ripping - but - inevitably - in the end - corrupted text/characters show up in the saved data anyway.

c) PLAYLISTS

Could in the future playlists could be edited so that songs can be dragged and dropped around in a different order in the same playlist or across different ones? Songs added, deleted, inserted in a particular position with ease?

That’s all.

Perhaps a number of things are down to me being clumsy but thought useful highlighting the issues I have encountered and - as mentioned before - for now I shall continue to operate the unit from its main panel and build playlists that way.

Dopo · October 28, 2021, 4:59pm

Wow, @alessandro , it’s like we are in competition for bringing up the most remarks

About the strange characters, it surely has something to do with the character encoding standard that Rose applies when interpreting the meta data (probably Korean based I suppose). If this is new to you, here you find examples of character encoding standards used in websites.

@ROSELOA I was wondering if using the DDEX MEAD standard could be a solution, or is this rather oriented to music producers?

alessandro · October 28, 2021, 5:44pm

Oh well @Dopo …rest assured that there is no competition from me!

But I trust our comments will hopefully turn up being useful to the developers.

I am discovering new things, like character encoding so lots for me to learn!

I had a bit of fun testing Rose Connect Premium on my friend’s iPad this afternoon but I had to return it to him already - it was enough though for me to get a sense of what it can do and where some of the problem areas are at the moment (of course, for a user with my kind of needs).

src666 · November 3, 2021, 9:00pm

Hi, does the app allow you to view your Tidal or iTunes playlists?

Cheers

Dopo · November 3, 2021, 9:34pm

Hi @src666 ,

Tidal yes, look for images here in this post: Rose Connect hiccups - #2 by Dopo
I don’t use iTunes.

Regards,
Dominiek

Dopo · November 4, 2021, 2:59pm

Hi @alessandro ,

concerning point 2. Podcasts, I remarked already that it is not logic that each Rose Connect app instance has its own country settings (meaning that they do not syncronize with each other, nor with the RS150).

In the Rose Connect app, when you go to Setting, and select Country Channel Options you will see you can set a country for both Rose Tube Channel and Rose Pod Channel separately, also separately from your settings on the RS150.

Personally this is not OK, as this feature should be linked to your use profile, which is clearly not the case. By default both are set on Korean, hence your Podcast defaults were in Korean.

Regards,
Dominiek

alessandro · November 4, 2021, 4:40pm

Thank you Dominiek, aka @Dopo - I shall make a note of this when I will - eventually - choose to begin using the app fully and properly.

Given all the current gremlins, I am staying away from it and just getting more familiar with the Rose using the unit’s main display/front panel.

I am slowly but steadly ripping my large CD collection to the SSD, still experiencing a few issues with metadata (artists/album/song names with weird characters/fonts appearing all over the different music folders and with no prior warning at pre-ripping stage…) as well as seeing a few CDs been mysteriously split in two after the rip, so I end up with the same album appearing twice - some songs on one and some other songs on the second one…

Until Rose will enable us to correct text/characters on the saved data as well as being able to delete some of these corrupted files so that they can be hopefully replaced/uploaded without errors, I suspect there isn’t much else that can be done about this now.

Cheers, alessandro.