I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season! Things have been quite busy here at OnSong as you can imagine.  November was a rough month as I moved to support iOS 4.2 including features like multitasking and printing.  Because of some mistakes I made, and some delays on Apple's launch of iOS 4.2, I had to remove the app from the app store for a time.  But after a few days, we were back up and running with OnSong 1.6.  Thank you to everyone for your patience as I got things worked out.

OnSong 1.6 had to launch without sufficient testing so I'm working hard at wrapping up version 1.7 as soon as possible.  It has just gone to my beta team who are dedicated, hard working musicians from all walks of life.  I'm confident they will put this version through it's paces.  I believe together we will create something amazing to continue to help musicians everywhere go paperless and get organized!

I can tell you that OnSong if going to be under active development for a while!  So far I have 200+ feature requests just waiting to make their way into the next version.  I'm trying to make some more time for OnSong in my busy schedule so that I can continue to break new ground in this arena.  I'm happy to report the following features coming in version 1.7!

• Universal app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• More robust Dropbox and MobileMe support
• Support for the AirTurn BT-105 pedal
• Updates to fix scrolling and multitasking issues
• Better chord and lyrics rendering
• Custom flow control of songs (V1 C V2 C C, etc)
• Built-in database management tools
• Improved importing of songs

Today I finally received my BT-105 AirTurn module and pedals. Within a few minutes I have support built into OnSong 1.7!  This is a great step forward for OnSong since you can now remove the USB cable and use the dock connector for external video out!  It's a great product!

OnSong 1.7 is still under continued development but I'm hoping to make a release soon.  So what's coming in this update? Check out some of the features:

• OnSong is now a universal app that can be used with iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
• AirTurn BT-105 support
• Added database tools like deduplication
• The ability to rename books
• Better import performance
• Ability to mirror the navigation
• Fixed the "Maj7" insert chord bug
• Added the ability to create bars with chords inline
• Added an improved ability to convert text files to OnSong

This past Friday, OnSong 1.6 was approved for sale and immediately, people started upgrading.  However, I must admit that I messed up a bit.  Version 1.6 is only compatible for iOS 4.2, and yet it wasn't "tagged" as such.  This means that people with older versions of the operating system (which is everyone because it hasn't come out yet) began to have their versions of OnSong stop working.  With the app store process, there's no easy way to go back once a version is approved.  So I had to resort to the rare instance of suspending sale of OnSong 1.6 until iOS 4.2 comes out.

Since that time I began adding some much needed features to OnSong.  Some of these should appear in the final releasable version of OnSong 1.6.  Two of these main features include the ability to organize your song collection into "books".  For instance, you can have a book for church, and one for your band.  Another feature is the ability to choose what files are imported from iTunes File Sharing.  You will also get the other features and improvements made for iOS 4.2 including wireless printing!

So please hang in there!  If you are interested in knowing when OnSong 1.6 is ready for sale, make sure you sign up for the newsletter and I'll let you know very soon!

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the NWLC East and stopping by the OnSong booth!  This last month has been a busy time at OnSong.  We just released version 1.5 for both iPad and iPhone, and had our first marketing push by sponsoring this conference.  It was a great time and so much fun to meet so many worship leaders in one place! Everyone was amazed at what OnSong can do.  We also gave away 100 copies of OnSong 1.5 for both iPad and iPhone!

What's next for OnSong?  Well, we are planning another release right now which will target November and version 4.2 of iOS.  Our primary focus of the next release will be formatting and printing. We want to make the most out of the space we have on the screen, and translate that to wireless printing.  I'm sure there will be other small improvements beyond this focus, but we want to be true to the most requested features.

OnSong is also opening dialog with many publishers of quality worship music. We hope to soon be able to offer chord charts to church musicians in a way that's never been done before.  There's nothing final yet, but just know that we are all very excited about this space.

Thanks for being patient as we update our blog.  I have a personal flaw that restricts communicate when I get busy.  So thanks for sticking with OnSong as we work to make it better and better!

I'm happy to report that version 1.4 has "left the building" and is now in the hands of the beta testing team. It shouldn't be long before we have this new version available for download.

So what's new in this version?

 • Support for video out for lyrics projection and stage monitors
 • Additional supported languages (German, Italian and Spanish)
 • Support for chord diagrams for guitar, bass, ukelele, mandolin, banjo and piano
 • Open supported files from email, or URLs with the onsong:// scheme
 • Better support for text import with chord recognition
 • Support for OpenSong and SongShow Plus formats
 • Time signatures with corresponding metronome ticks
 • Change the format of attached files when sharing via email
 • Better options for printing PDFs

And now, I await the much appreciated feedback of our dedicated beta testers!

I haven't been doing too much development on OnSong in the past few days.  In fact, I might just have to take about a week off.  Why you ask?  I'm a new daddy!

Eli Lucas Kichline came into our world at 8:08 AM on Saturday, July 24th.  He weighed 7 pounds 2.3 ounces (3243 grams) and was 19.5 inches long (49.53 cm). Mommy and baby (and daddy) are doing great.  He had begun losing too much weight by the time we left the hospital, so we are working hard at getting that weight back up!

Keep us in your prayers.  We are sort of new at this, but we are doing well.  My wonderful sister came to stay with us for a few days and she is helping tons!

I've gotten a lot of feedback from people lately requesting support for more than just six-string guitar tablature. It seems people play quite an assortment of instruments who use OnSong. Who knew?  I know you are all talented, but wow!

I'm pleased to report that the next version of OnSong will support a wide array of chord diagrams to help you play your music! These include:

 • Banjo
 • Bass (4-string)
 • Bass (5-string)
 • Guitar
 • Mandolin
 • Piano
 • Ukulele
 • Hammered Dulcimer*

* OK, just kidding, but anyone interested?  If so check out iDulcimer on the app store and let me know if you'd like to see this!

I have had a few people request drum notation.  Even though I'm a drummer, I haven't seen this used in common practice and would love for someone to guide me as to how this should look and be accomplished.  So drummers out there... let me know!

Here are some screen shots for your viewing pleasure: