Version 0.2.8.2 addresses these issues and is recommended for all iOS5 and Remote 2.2 users.

And one more observation:
If you still get crashes on foobar startup, make sure you don’t have “downloaded from internet” policy on dlls of the plugin. Seems that .NET Framework 4.0 is more strict about loading assemblies from untrusted sources.

The recommended solution is to remove manually copied files from \foobar2000\components folder and use built-in plugin installer: click Install on Components page in foobar preferences, and specify downloaded zip archive (you don’t need to unpack it).

First of all, you need to get .NET Framework 4 and VC++ 2010 runtime installed (if you don’t have one yet). .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is no longer supported by TouchRemote – this is mostly because of new foobar SDK targets VS2010, and it supports only .NET 4 for C++.

This update delivers a few changes:
1. Service name is autogenerated now, so you shouldn’t have issues with multiple instances of foobar in the same network.
2. Display name is now shown correctly in the iPad version of Remote.
3. Fixed issue with preferences page hangs with latest builds of foobar.
4. Added an option to stop playback instead of pausing it. People with WASAPI would be happy now.
5. Fixed issue with WMA built-in artwork.
6. Some UI changes.

That’s it.

I have also updated to the latest foobar version, so made a fix for the plugin and named it 0.2.9. You could get it at the download page, as usual.
It is built with the new SDK and works only on foobar 1.0 (or later). Those of you who is still on 0.9.x branch should use previous versions of the plugin.

This is still experimental, so comments and bugreports are welcome!

Download: ArtDoctor2con.

Still have no time to make GUI, sorry.

And today I’ve managed to create a fully cross-platform .NET library to deal with Apple devices. It even works without re-compiling for target platform. The trick is to use MobileDevice (dll on Windows and framework on Mac OS X) instead and apply some dll redirections for Mono.

However, it’s not just to change referenced library name. Unlike iTunesMobileDevice, MobileDevice framework doesn’t use native threads on both platforms. Also it is more strict about strings, so hand-made CFStrings most likely won’t do.

P.S. I really have no idea why both of these libraries are included in Windows distribution of Apple Mobile Device Support, ’cause they don’t even reference each other.

Go to product page to read more.

Quick download: foo_w7shell 0.2.6.2.

Loading pictures from tags and resizing them every time is really slow, so devices are using cache with images of several different sizes to speed-up loading. And sometimes this cache is getting corrupted. As a result you can see “black squares” or partially drawn images, or even images from other album/movie.

In such cases iTunes won’t help you a bit – it reads images directly from tags and doesn’t even know about cache corruption. Also for new devices there’s no “Show artwork on device” option anymore. And even if your device is either jailbroken or you have TouchCopy (or other file manager), deleting artwork cache won’t force it to get rebuilt.

As a workaround, you may automate iTunes via COM and rewrite artwork for each track, but it takes a lot of time and you’re not guaranteed it won’t get corruped on next sync.

ArtDoctor utility was written exactly for healing corrupted cache. It will scan all your albums, get uncorrupted artwork from tags and write it into cache. You may use existing cache (to keep images that can’t be extracted from tags, e.g. video thumbnails) or recreate it from scratch.

ArtDoctor deals directly with binary cache, without rewriting tags, modifying iTunes database and performing other stupid things. Thereby it is very fast (takes several minutes on average content) and doesn’t affect synchronization.

Download ArtDoctor 1.0.2.

It requires .NET Framework 3.0 (or newer), iTunes and Windows XP/Vista/7 to run.

Note: ArtDoctor 1.0.2 doesn’t support iPhone OS 3.0. Please refer to ArtDoctor 2.0 preview.

Windows 7 shell integration addon (foo_w7shell) is a plugin to utilize brand new interface features like custom preview thumbnails, flyout toolbars and others.

You’d just unpack the plugin to your components directory. It works “out of the box” and adds nice and user-friendly interface features to your favorite player.

If you want, you can disable progress indicator, hide “stop” button from toolbar or perform some other tweaks via settings page. But you wouldn’t find any system settings – it’s as simple as your iPod.

Features:

• Album art in thumbnail
• Play/pause/stop/next track/previous track buttons in thumbnail
• Progress indicator
• Customizable jump lists
• Overlay icon to display play/pause state

Download foo_w7shell 0.2.9.1.

Version history

0.2.9.1:

• Preferences page upgraded to be compatible with new SDK. Settings are now applied only on ‘Apply’ button click, no more ‘legacy page’ messages.

0.2.9.0:

• Using new Foobar 1.0 SDK. Not compatible with older versions!
• Album artwork configuration support
• Hiding thumbnail progress indicator (and setting taskbar progress to indeterminate state) when playing stream of unknown length

0.2.8.1:

• Taskbar progress indicator
• Some changes on Settings page

0.2.8.0:

• Options to enable Filp3D and/or Aero Peek back (a bit buggy thing, but people wanted it)
• Some minor changes

0.2.7.1:

• New setting: draw border around album art
  This may be useful when foobar is using transparent (layered) window and border is not drawn by system. There’s no bug with incorrect border size in alt-tab switcher in this mode, so turning transparency on is recommended for now.
• Workaround for invalid pause button behavior in 7068
  
  In this build button messages are sent twice for some reason. This is definitely a system bug, Windows Media Player is also working wrong.

0.2.7.0:

• New feature: shows your playlists in jump list!
• Added kinda of icons for play/preferences jump list entries
• Some bugfixes

0.2.6.2:

• Fixed crash on foobar update/reinstallation
• Fixed thumbnail vertical flipping on builds after 7057
• Improved stability when using with Columns UI
• Other minor fixes

0.2.6.1:

• Fixed compatibility issues when running on Vista/XP (previously crashed)
• Added option to workaround built-in thumbnail toolbar in Columns UI 0.3.6.7

0.2.5.1:

• New nice button icons
• Thumbnails are loaded asynchronously
• Play progress indicator
• Settings page
• Some refactoring

0.2.3.1:

• Initial public release