CFDan.com - Pandoras Box

Just a quick note on the latest additions to Pandoras Box

Now posts to Windows Messenger to show the currently playing song
Control Pandora from the menu by right-clicking on the taskTray icon
New lyrics window to pull lyrics for the currently playing song
Support for global keyboard media keys - Pause/Play, Vote Dislike, Vote Like, Next Song
Single Click SHOW/HIDE
Does not show in taskbar
Check to see if you have the latest version
Additional access to menu items via right-click on tray icon
Ability to change Stations from the right-click menu on the tray icon. See the comments of this post for more info...

You can find out all about Pandoras Box and read about the initial version here :

Pandoras Box - System Tray Wrapper Application For Pandora

Thank you to everyone who contributed comments, suggestions and encouragement. As always donated beer money goes along way to encourage development so if you like and use Pandoras Box, please consider clicking the donate button :-)

Comments

V said:

Thanks for creating Pandoras Box. I think it's great, especially the interaction with Messenger.
In case you spend some more time refining it, I've noticed a few minor problems with it.

- The menu that appears after right-clicking the tray icon will only disappear after selecting a menu item. (Won't disappear after you click anywhere that's not in the menubox).
- Play/Pause from the tray menu works, but the menu-item won't rename back to Pause. (It still pauses, just the name is wrong)

Daniel Mackey said:

Hi V,

There is an updated version that will fix most of the outstanding issues.

Thanks for your comments! Remember, you can check for the latest version by clicking Help->Check For Updates...

Dan.

V said:

Hi Daniel,

"help->check for new verion" claims "Your version of Pandoras Box is up to date :1.2.5"
(I suggest using "up to date: 1.2.5" instead of "up to date :1.2.5" )

so there is/was a bug in "check for updates" :)
OR these issues are not fixed yet
OR it's a peculiarity of my installation.

I'll keep an eye out for further versions of Pandoras Box.

Thanks again for your work,

-V

Ascalon said:

Love Pandora's box! Being a web developer, it's great because now I can close out of firefox completely without losing my pandora connection! Idea for a future release: hot keys to let you skip to the next song or do other actions.

DubiousChrisJ said:

Dan, great app! I spoke with the Pandora people today asking about a plugin to offer my Pandora stations on my website. Any chance you have a wrapper like that in the works?

Xandi said:

a new pandora like company on the block http://blog.wired.com/music/index.blog?entry_id=1559171

Lee Gaupp said:

WOW! Just found this via digg and I truly love this little program. Any possibility that you'll make a Windows Live Writer plugin? Just an idea. I'll donate someting soon to your paypal even if you don't

V said:

Hi Daniel,

Version 1.2.6 fixed the issues I pointed out. As far as I can tell, it's perfect now :)

Many many thanks,

-V

Daniel Mackey said:

Just updated to Version 1.2.7 which adds support for global keyboard media keys.

Pause/Play, Vote Dislike, Vote Like, Next Song.

Thanks for all your Diggs - Keep them coming!

Dan.

Lisa said:

Thanks so much for Pandora's Box. I am visually impaired and use screen reading software to access my PC. I love Pandora, but the site is not very accessible with speech. Your app has made it simple for me to control Pandora. Any possibility of adding a way to choose between channels? I sent you 5.00 euros. I know its not much, but hopefully it'll help.
Thanks
Lisa

MoMa said:

Jesus! Well done Dan thats fantastic, nice work!

Kyle said:

Outstanding app! I've been wishing for a way to use my keyboard music controls for Pandora for a while now. Thanks a million.

Daniel Mackey said:

Just added a new feature and it is especially for Lisa (Her comment made my day!)

After a considerable amount of time and after numerous emails from people requesting such a feature, I have added in the ability to choose your station from the tray menu.

To enable this feature, you need to enter your Pandora Username (not your email address) into the Edit->My Station Settings window.

To find your username, click on the Account button in the Pandora Music player and hit View Your Account. The username is written out on the top right of the profile page.

Hope you like it, it was quite some hack to achieve but at least it works :-)

Dan.

terryoy said:

I think it's an great software. I can easily find the similar music which i like. But the song buffering is a problem, especially when i have a low speed connection. I have to press pause to wait for *EVERY* song's buffering time so that i will not get interrupted at the middle of the song. I hope that the song playing could be more smoothly.
Thanks for the great software.

Garve said:

Hi Dan - got hooked on Pandora and then found your app a couple of days later. Works beautifully but for one tiny glitch - for some reason the text in the title bar (ie Pandoras Box - {artist and title} flashes on and off all the time - app 10 times a second.

I'm using XP with twin screens.

cheers

Garve

PS Shouldn't it be Pandora's Box?

Dan said:

Garve,

Thanks for reporting that. This is the first time this has been encountered but I will look into it tonight. Unfortunately I cant recreate it on any machine so it may be the duel-monitor setup. Expect an update possibly tonight or tomorrow.

Yeah, it should be Pandoras's Box but I messed up at the start and stuck with it :-) I like to do things differently LOL

Dan.

Matt said:

Love the application, great work. I was wondering, though, do you have any plans to add back in a preference for displaying the app in the taskbar? I prefered the way it displayed in the taskbar last version. It would be great to have a choice.

The reason is that I'm using a dual monitor and have pandora on the second monitor. But when it's minimized, it 'forgets' where I put it on the second desktop. It was easier for me to just get to it by using the taskbar and leave it up.

Marc said:

Hi Dan!

This little application is so cool... Neat work mate! Really love to control Pandora without having a browser window open.

Although I prefer Pandora over Last.fm, it would be a nice addition to have the played songs being submitted to my Last.fm profile. But, as I've read somewhere else, you're working on it ;-)

Keep up the good work!
Marc

Ross said:

Very cool little app this. Good work :)

Asaf said:

My dream came true.

Ambar said:

Excellent app. One suggestion - how about having it show the name of the currently playing song when the mouse pointer hovers over the sys tray icon?

Snezana said:

Thanc you for Pandora it is fantastic.

Brickgorilla said:

Hey this is the Gorilla, I must say keep up the good job man if I had money or a work I would pay you man believe me I would...I will spread the word and keep pandora box alive.

OffBeatMammal said:

Any reason that when listening through the app I get drop-outs, but when listening through the web interface I get none?

I hope anyone using this is a subscriber... as they pay for their licence to stream music through the adverts stripping them out is a bit naughty

?lvaro said:

This stuff is really great does everything I ever wanted! Great Database! I vote almost every music! I hope It will help to make different artists and songs associations more and more accurate each time I vote! =)

Verlaine said:

This is a really cool tool. Only problem is now that pandora have blocked any ips outside the US i am unable to use the tool as it doesn't offer the use of proxies. i'm currently using this link to access pandora

go to this site http://tools.rosinstrument.com/cgi-proxy.htm and then enter

type www.pandora.com in the first box
select www.torncity.com in the second box
and select US in " select only proxies from COUNTRY"

Dan said:

Hi Verlaine, Thank you for your comment! I am trying to get the proxy to work using your suggestion (See my latest post) and the flash loads but when it comes to playing the actual tune, it sayes "We are having technical difficulties". I am guessing this is to do with the actual flash object not being proxied. Did it actually play for you? I followed your exact instructions.

Daav said:

I really love using Pandora's Box on my office PC. I'd love to use it at home too, but I've got a Mac. Any thoughts on producing a Mac version?

stephen said:

Nice work. Pandora is great, you make it better!

Mando said:

Hey,

You are awesome bro, I will not forget your contribution to the "Pandora" phenomenon. I will let you know things that I notice for improvement. Again, Thank You... Keep them coming Brother...

shani said:

hey,
i think this is a really great idea. like people can't listen to music without pandora anymore(i know i don't) , they can't without pandora box. it s? enrich the experience. i have one problem the media keys don't work on it and i don't know why. what can be the reason?
thanks

david said:

My messenger only shows "-" as song displayed. Don't know what I could have done wrong. Besides that its great.

Lagette said:

This is pretty awesome, but is there a way to resize the window? I have to scroll to look at all the options and its kind of annoying. Other than that its great

Greenlight Payments said:

OMG you are awesome just what I and 50 billion listeners where looking for.!!!! If you were a girl you no but lets just keep it at a man handshake. PEACE

Pandoras Box - Updates

2006-09-18 23:15:00.0

Pandoras Box - Updates

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