Before you Purchase, Go through these steps:

Im writing this to set some clear expectations for anyone interested in purchasing this app. Not all of this is new information, but I would like to specify a few things that would have been helpful to know before making my purchase.

1. This app requires you to run a program called "Subsonic" on your computer. Before purchasing the app, I would recommend downloading Subsonic and making sure you have it configured and running on your computer fully.

2. Configuring and running Subsonic (the computer application) is not very basic. Its not just a matter of installing an application on your computer and setting some preferences (like Simplify Media was). Setup involves: Knowing your computers IP address (and ideally setting up a static IP address for it as well as making that IP address publicly accessible), enabling port forwarding on your router, possibly enabling port access through your firewall, and potentially some other steps as well. If you have no idea what those things are or have never done them, this can turn into quite a process for you. There are many web resources that Subsonic provides links to for setup help, but these are anything but step by step, comprehensive guides for the configuration process, mostly due to the fact that the process can be very different depending upon your router, computer, operating system, ISP, anti-virus software, and firewall settings (yes, a lot of variables come into play). I would highly recommend going through this setup process with the computer application before purchasing this app (which wont run unless the computer application is up and running properly).

3. I think it is clearly stated on this page, but I feel obligated to repeat that using Subsonic, after 30 days, requires a donation to get a full license (meaning you have to spend money in addition to this app for the app to work after 30 days).

4. Subsonic is developed and maintained by one person. There is no traditional phone support for setup problems. At best, you can post to a forum of a helpful community, but obviously, with so many variables for setup problems, this is not the optimal way to get tech support.

Finally:
With all that being said, the actual iPhone app - which, I realize, is a separate entity to everything listed above, but also depends on everything listed above working for it to work - does what it is supposed to do. I find that my library loads slower than it did with Simplify Media, and it also takes quite a bit longer to buffer than Simplify did. It seems other users have had the opposite experience, and it is loading faster for them, so that might just be a matter of your location. Overall, however, it does exactly what it is supposed to do: stream music over Wifi or 3G to my iPhone.

So, my rating is 4 stars for the app itself, because Im pretty happy with the app, although it could use a few improvements. The setup for the app to work is definitely the weak link here. This is why I would highly recommend going through that process and make sure you have it working before you spend any money.

comeandgoband about Z-Subsonic