MobileSheetsMobileSheets®

Final Stretch

May 7, 2014

Just wanted to give everyone an update on where things lie. The majority of the code is done now, but there a couple of pieces that aren’t quite finished yet, namely:

  • Finish UI for manual cropping in song editor
  • Finish implementing/testing automatic cropping
  • Finish UI for assigning actions to pedals
  • Finish last piece of database migration code, and code to ensure file name uniqueness
  • Finish automatic scrolling features
  • A few new buttons still need to be added to the song overlay
  • Finish and test new file import/sharing features

One of my highest priorities with this update is improving the efficiency and flow of the user interfaces, which can be a time consuming process. I know everyone is eagerly awaiting the update, and I appreciate your patience.

Thanks, Mike

Progress update on MobileSheetsPro

April 3, 2014

Hello all,

Things have been pretty quiet on the website for awhile, and some of you may be wondering why. As many of you are aware, a very big update has been in the works for quite some time. This update is addressing a huge amount of user feature requests, and is going to make MobileSheets a much more polished app. Due to the complexity of how much is changing, the update has taken me much, much longer than I had anticipated. To explain why the update has been delayed, I wanted to address some common questions I’ve been getting:

Why is the update taking so long to finish?

Over the years of supporting MobileSheets, I’ve learned a lot about developing an app for the Android OS, and some of the unique challenges that come with having to support so many different devices with different version of the Android operating system. When I first started out, I had a limited number of features I wanted MobileSheets to support, and they were based mainly on my own needs. Now that the user base has grown, my focus has changed to providing users what they need. Unfortunately, the current design of MobileSheets has limitations that were preventing a lot of requested features from being added. Faced with these limitations, I decided to make a lot of big changes to the design for MobileSheetsPro. This means changing core parts of the system like the underlying rendering engine for displaying pages so I can support more display modes (two pages up at a time, vertical scrolling, etc). With any big changes of this nature come new technical problems to solve and a lot of new things to test. All of these things take a considerable amount of time.

With the new update, I didn’t want to abandon users with older tablets (running older version of the operating system). This has created some unique challenges in its own right, and has slowed down progress. I may have to phase out older devices at some point, but with the amount of new features that are coming, I didn’t want any of my users to be left out.

What is being added in the update?

While the list of changes is pretty long, I can cover some of the main new features:

  • Complete overhaul of the rendering engine to support vertical scrolling, two pages up at a time, scrolling animations with page turns, and half page turns in portrait.
  • Support for new file types including .txt files and .chordpro files.
  • New custom made audio player with support for a-b looping, and setting start/end times.
  • Support for multiple values in almost all library fields (i.e. multiple artists, albums, composers). Lots of new fields to meet user demands.
  • Simpler file management
  • Automatic cropping and positional pinch zooming (what you would normally expect)
  • Cleaner interfaces, use of real tabs, and better icons
  • Sharing features, including the ability to email songs/setlists
  • Better automatic scrolling features
  • Integrated MIDI support

As you can see, the amount of new content is pretty staggering. There are also a lot of little enhancements like the ability to select multiple songs for deletion.

When do you expect the update to be done?

I always seem to get this answer wrong, as I’m overly optimistic about how long things will take to code. My goal is to have everything finished this month. It will take a fair amount of work to make that happen, and I need to allow a couple weeks for beta testing, but I will do my best.

What is left to be finished?

In terms of what is left to code, I have to finish implementing changes to the new song editor, I have to add a few configuration dialogs for things like how song titles are displayed, what tabs are shown (so you can ignore categories you don’t use), and configuring pedal actions, and I have to finish a few things which are currently incomplete (automatic scrolling features and rendering of text/chordpro files).

How much will this update cost?

The update is now going to be released as a separate product called MobileSheetsPro. It will be released at a discounted price for the first month, and then put back at the regular price.

What about the Windows 8 version

Unfortunately, I only have a limited amount of free time outside my day job. The Windows 8 version has been delayed while I’ve been finishing the Android update. Once I release MobileSheetsPro for Android, I can start splitting my time between Android and Windows 8. The Windows 8 version WILL get released, but I can’t promise any exact dates.

I really appreciate everyone’s patience for this update, as it has been in the works for a long time. It will be worth the wait!

Mike

MobileSheets v4.1.5 Released

November 24, 2013

As more users are beginning to get the 4.4 KitKat update for their Nexus 7/10 devices, I’ve been getting reports of some issues. The largest one is with the settings menu which was causing an instant crash. I have addressed all of the reported issues, so KitKat users should be up and running again.

I’ve also got a number of reports recently about the metronome not functioning correctly. For awhile now, I’ve been unhappy with the accuracy of the metronome, so I used this opportunity to completely rewrite my metronome engine. Users should find that the metronome is very accurate across all devices now. I also added several display modes - circle (slight improvement over existing visual display), glow (color at the borders of the screen), and metronome (a metronome icon that switches the arm position).

The full list of changes can be seen below:

MobileSheets v4.1.5 - Complete redesign of the metronome engine to improve accuracy - Added multiple metronome display modes (circle, glow, metronome) - Added sharpen dialog to provide more control over the intensity of the image cleanup - Added debounce support to pedal presses for link points - Fixed text annotations on devices running KitKat - Tap twice on the recent button to clear the recent list - Improved scaling of caption text on library screen - Last selected annotation stamp sizes are now saved independently for each stamp - Copied songs now properly copy the global zoom value (and several other settings) - Fixed crashes on the settings screen for devices running KitKat (4.4) - Fixed various reported crashes

Initial Release of MobileSheets

October 29, 2011

Looking for a sheet music reader for your android tablet? You’ve come to the right place! It’s been a long time in the making, but MobileSheets is now available for all 10.1” honeycomb tablets on the market.  There is both a free version with advertisements, or a paid version without. While not all of the features are available in the initial release, everything important is included for a great experience, and many great features will be coming shortly after. If you are interested, learn more and download the app today!