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The iPhone community has rightly been abuzz about Apple’s forthcoming SDK, which is now thought be delayed by at least a few weeks into March. In the meantime, enterprising software authors have been hard at work developing a raft of interesting and albeit sometimes curious applications delivered via Installer.app or other means onto jailbroken iPhones.

Some of these developers charge for their efforts, which is understandable yet bold as anyone buying cannot be assured they would work after the next software update (1.1.4 released today seems to leave jailbreaking intact).  I’ve steered clear of these apps, not because I’m opposed to buying software, but I’m leery of buying something that even the vendor couldn’t assure would work in the future.

A notable exception to this is Alloysoft’s Signal.  Signal loads a lightweight webserver on the Mac or Windows machine hosting your iTunes library, and displays a few carefully thought-out screens that, to the unaware, are a dead-ringer for the native iPod interface on the iPhone.  Pointing my phone’s browser to this server gives me full remote access to control the playback of my iTunes library, including search, managing and creating playlists, rating songs, viewing cover art and managing volume control.

Since I’m always running around the house with the music on, especially when I’m not at my computer, I found this to be a great way to quickly skip that Garth Brooks tune that founds it way into my party shuffle, or turn up or down the volume should the phone ring or a guest arrive (I opened this up to guests at my Christmas party and the soundtrack ended up being "chaotic" at best).

Signal’s latest update allows me to remotely choose which remote speaker to use, and improves the navigation of the playback interface to more easily find and playback specific tracks. 

Because Signal is web-based, it will run on any stock iPhone or iPodTouch, or frankly any web browser attached to your network.  If you’re using DHCP on your router, you’ll probably find that your iTunes machine’s IP address is ever changing so may wish to consider fixing that NAT address to make it easier to use.

By not running afoul of Cupertino’s software plans, it earned my purchase and I’ve been a big fan. 

Signal can be purchased from Alloysoft (www.alloysoft.com) for $24.95.