PearConnect 0.3.0-beta.3 — Visual studio
Pre-release
PearConnect 0.3.0-beta.3 adds a visual studio for your music and stream.
- Live now-playing: player artwork, total length, elapsed time, remaining time and pause state, refreshed from Pear Desktop every two seconds. Artwork is fetched on change and processed locally; missing images and stale timing have clear fallback states.
- Visual studio: Cover, Compact and Minimal OBS layouts, dark/light/transparent surfaces, custom accents, fonts, headings, artwork visibility, timing and optional ambient motion. Preview edits locally before saving; sample-preview data never reaches OBS.
- Private OBS browser source: optional read-only localhost server, a separate encrypted credential, link rotation and no playback/request controls. Keep PearConnect open on the OBS computer.
- Personalization: Aurora, Ink, Dusk and Grid backgrounds; three interface fonts; comfortable text sizing; Pear, Orchid and Ember icon presets. The Windows executable includes a real Pear icon instead of Electron's default.
- Optional Last.fm: your own encrypted API key enables genre tags, aggregate listener/scrobble counts, a catalogue link and similar-track suggestions in Desktop. Disabled by default. No suggestions are automatically queued; no Last.fm artwork or data is published into OBS.
- Website refresh: original sample artwork, an interactive widget-style selector, updated app preview and visual-studio documentation.
Ambient motion follows play/pause and is decorative, not an audio-reactive visualizer. The app does not capture microphone/system audio. Spotify playback is not included; Pear Desktop remains the player. Last.fm needs your own key and compliance with its API terms, including a separate agreement for commercial use.
Install: close your old PearConnect instance, extract the complete ZIP into a new folder and run PearConnect.exe. Keep the runtime files together. No separate Node.js or Git installation is required. Existing Windows user-data settings remain available. Requests start paused; recreate session codes after restarting Desktop.
This is an unsigned Windows x64 preview. Validation includes 83 Node tests, 12 smoke checks, 17 C# bridge checks, real Electron artwork/clock/style checks, real Chromium OBS-source and 320–1440px website checks, and existing session-code/dashboard regressions. Controlled player/image fixtures were used. Live Last.fm access with your key, real Pear Desktop/OBS behavior, fresh-machine onboarding and sustained streaming still need a rehearsal.
Commits: aed3a6c adds Desktop playback and the overlay studio; 5894119 refreshes the website and adds visual browser CI.