OnSong and iOS 9 Update

iOS 9 Update

It's been almost a week since iOS 9 was launched and we wanted to address your questions about the iOS 9 update and the status of our upcoming OnSong 1.999 release. We are still advising to hold off on updating to iOS 9 on production devices until we fully address all known iOS 9 issues. However, if you are willing to load iOS 9 and give us input on OnSong running on those devices, it will help us to be certain that we've addressed all known issues.

We have discovered and fixed two bugs that are caused by iOS 9:

• The date picker control in the set editor does not appear in iOS 9. This is caused by a change late in the iOS development cycle that was not found until the final version. While we believe this is a bug in iOS 9, we have been able to workaround the issue in the upcoming OnSong 1.999 release.
• Text in menus used for sorting and editing items shows as white text on a light grey background. This has been fixed in the upcoming OnSong 1.999.

We are getting the following reports that we are researching further, but have not been able to independently replicate:

• Reports of users having issues with OnSong freezing or crashing. Some users report this is caused by WiFi being disabled. Resetting network settings or reinstalling OnSong seems to correct this issue.
• Reports of wireless sharing not functioning with other devices. Apple has completely swapped out the Multicast DNS (Bonjour) service from a faulty product used in iOS 8. OnSong relies on Apple frameworks and multicast DNS for peer discovery. If you are using OnCue we recommend using the same versions of iOS and OnSong and strongly recommend using OnSong Connect instead which is built from the ground up to be cross-platform and not reliant on Apple's frameworks which are limiting in nature.

While many users have reported good results with iOS 9, others are reporting general performance issues as well as battery drain. This tends to happen with new iOS releases and is normally corrected by resetting network settings or through an update from Apple. Again, we believe it's important to not update if you are actively using your devices for live, production use.

Why Should I Upgrade?

iOS 9 has a number of great new features so it's no wonder that it's the fastest installed iOS update ever. Aside from the typical update woes, this looks to be a solid product. Issues that we have mentioned above should be worked out in a about a month.

iOS 9 has also fixed a number of outstanding bugs in iOS 8 that may effect some users. Upgrade if you have one of the following issues:

• If you are experiencing hard system crashes when using stage monitor mode over a Lightning port video adapter.
• If you are having problems with WiFi performance or Bluetooth disconnection.
• If you use Microsoft Word documents and are experiencing incorrect formatting.

OnSong 1.999

OnSong 1.999 is a huge release and will be our last update for a period of time as we turn our attention towards OnSong 2.0 completion. That's why we are taking our time with the release of this build. Once we are certain it is "gold", we will release. Our goal is to make something that will last for a few months as we continue to reinvent how music is organized.

To celebrate OnSong 1.999 on iOS 9, we are releasing nine new features we think you'll like.

• Spotify Integration lets you link streamed audio tracks to songs in your library.
• Automatic Backup now lets you configure where to backup your library and how often if gets backed up.
• Organizer Menu lets you mark the current song icons, place in sets and quickly add to books.
• Improved Sliders are not made available in many menus to make selecting styles and keys faster.
• Bluetooth MIDI is now supported for devices like the Quicco mi.1.
• Quick Pick lets you quickly find songs from your library with a single tap of the menubar.
• Playback Heads-Up Display lets you toggle playback, scrub to different track position, adjust volume and pan and audio routing – all from the menubar.
• Timer Heads-Up Display lets you keep track of the elapsed time, or a countdown for both songs and sets.
• Separate Styles for Books lets you keep a different key, capo, styles, notes and more for a song in each book.

For full details on this upcoming release, please view the release notes.

OnSong 2.0

We get a lot of questions about OnSong 2.0 and why it's taking so long to launch. The truth is that since we've announced OnSong 2.0, many of the features that we had on our list have been added into OnSong. Just this year we have added 100 features from our OnSong 2.0 list into OnSong 1.9x. On average OnSong is updated once a month and unlike other apps, we cram more functionality, features and fixes into 1/100 of a point than many do in a major version release. Be sure to review our list of releases notes to see what we've added.

Much of OnSong 2.0 has already been completed and now must be integrated into the OnSong 1.9x codebase. You've seen some of this added in the Color Picker component as well as Improved Sliders coming in OnSong 1.999.

Our Focus

Our primary focus has always been to serve our customers and keep OnSong working its best with as many versions of iOS and devices as possible. This has often times put our production schedule for OnSong 2.0 on pause. Our goal is to make OnSong 1.999 the best release yet so we can focus our attention on OnSong 2.0.

Thank You

Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve any upgrading issues and for your continued use of OnSong. Stay tuned for updates as we move forward with our vision for transforming music.