We updated our newest app already! Soon to be in the Evernote Trunk store!

SoundSlate 3.1.3 Submitted for Review: added “Hide Button Face Controls” switch edit subjectHi Everyone, We just submitted a minor feature update to address a concern from customers with special needs users that werent responding well to the new button face controls. A large group of customers use SoundSlate for children and adults with various degrees of autism, and adding the new button face controls in version 3 disrupted their ease of interaction with the sound board buttons. So we added a “Hide Button Face Controls” switch so the controls are not shown during playback if desired. Other customers may find this useful as well. Just use the “Settings” popover to set the switch to “On” and you will not see the volume slider or countdown area on the buttons at all. The only thing we needed to keep was the “Stop other sounds” red dot indicator which is very small but essential. Thanks again to the customers bringing this to our attention. And Happy Holidays from everyone at Spinthought! Ben Spinthought

via SoundSlate 3.1.3 Submitted for Review: added “Hide Button Face Controls” switch.

Hello SoundSlate fans!

SoundSlate 3 is another solid update that will be available when iOS 5 is available on (10/12/11). It is iOS 5 compliant and takes advantage of several iOS 5 memory features and more. We have included these new 3.0 features that were waiting in the wings after the recent 2.5 release:

• page turns no long stop sound playback (fixed for good)
• volume control slider on each button becomes visible during playback for live volume adjustment
• revamped countdown timer (from the 2.5 version) that is wider and has a background color indicating the state of the button playback (yellow = paused or green = playing. A larger font makes the countdown time easier to read
• master fade out button on the toolbar (shown as a rounded down arrow) lets you tap to fade out all sound gracefully in 3 seconds
• pause/play sound button toggles a pause state or playing state for all current sound playback
• master volume control slider on toolbar lets you adjust all current sound playback volume at once
• updated and simplified help and quick help to get you going fast (with a quick start section for everyone that wants to set up a soundboard fast)

And there are many new features in the recent 2.5 version if you haven’t upgraded to it yet from 2.1.1:

• now plays directly from iPod Library to eliminate the need to copy sounds
• new button setting popover UI makes it easier to set button sound and color/image
• new color palette selector for button face as well as photo album and camera (roll or live in the iPad 2)
• initial volume setting to set the playback volume per button
• fade in percentage setting for each button sound
• fade out percentage setting for each button sound
• stop other sounds switch for button sound exclusivity (with red dot indicator on button)
• repeat sound switch for button to loop sound track over indefinitely
• new button notes tab for individual button notes
• new edit button label function in the notes tab to change the name after import

Thank you to everyone one who has purchased SoundSlate and plans to update. We have had issues with updates in the past but SoundSlate 3 has been beta tested in the field in real world situations with excellent error free results. As always, if you do happen to see any glitches you can visit support.spinthought.com to report anything on our user forum and community-powered support site.

Best Regards,

Ben

spinthought

10/12/11

SoundSlate 2.5 is finally in the App Store and ready for immediate download. Instead of telling your a hyped up marketing how great it is (it is), I’ll let the sparkly App Store feature list speak for itself:

IMPROVED access time by no longer copying iPod Library sounds locally. 

User Interface Improvements 

- NEW! Popover interface for button settings with Sound, Image, and Notes tabs. 
- Change button label at any time in the Notes tab. 
- All button settings are done from a popover control for more faster soundboard setup. 
- NEW! Time remaining countdown on button face in hours:minutes: seconds. 

Sound Tab 
- NEW! Sound and playlist selection from button popover. 
- NEW! Dozens of new default sounds and effects! 
- Select from iPod Library, Record Now, or iTunes File Sharing sync. 
- NEW! Volume setting control. 
- NEW! Fade in/out controls so you can set fade in and fade out percentages. 
- NEW! Repeat sound switch to play the same button repeatedly. 
- NEW! Stop other sounds switch to make a button’s playback stop all other sounds (indicated on button). 

Image Tab 
- NEW! Custom color control for button face. 
- Select from iPad Camera, Photo Album, or Camera Roll. 

Notes Tab 
- NEW! Ability to change name of button label anytime. 
- NEW! Integrated note pad for each button. 

Toolbar and Layout Changes 
- Toolbar buttons icons have been improved and updated. 
- Toolbar button re-arrangement for more intuitive access. 
- Removed web browser button. 

But probably the most important change is we no longer copy the iPod Library sources to your local Documents folder. Turns out that since iOS 4.2 we could just use reference pointers to the files in the Library, and they can still play simultaneously. Our last major release couldn’t take advantage of that functionality, so we jumped all over it for iOS 4.3 + and it makes a world of difference in the user experience. 

I can also announce that we are going to surprise our customers with a fast update (yeah I know, you’ll believe it when it’s on your iPad) that gives you a cool volume control on each button, updated countdown UI, pause all, and master volume control.

We also just submitted updates to BigTimer and TimeSpinners, to take advantage of some iOS 5 features, and because fast app switching was long overdue for TimeSpinners.

So stay tuned – there’s much more to come!

Ben – spinthought

[Sadly, as I was composing this I heard about Steve Job's passing (as a notification on my iPhone 4 of course). My wife and I owe so much to Apple and especially Steve for providing us with a way to build software for amazing devices ahead of their time, and thereby a gold rush of opportunity.  Apple will go forward of course, but it will be without their brilliant showman and genius of innovation and design. We will miss you Steve, and give our deepest condolences to his family and friends.]

Hi All,

I want to make this blog more than just a marketing dumping ground for release news so I’ll occasionally add my opinions and observations to keep it real. I just read this bit of news:

“Microsoft says it expects to introduce its Mango software update — also known as Windows Phone 7.5 — to current users within two weeks as the company attempts to catch up with Android and iPhone devices by adding more than 500 features to its operating system…”

Adding more than 500 features? I hope they mean mostly API calls and not user interface additions; I remember them removing 200 features from MS Word years ago because users found it bafflingly complex. It’s not about the number of features Steve B., it’s about using the smallest number of features to get a task done.

Ben

P.S. – I know the blog format is wonky and I’ll try to find the time to figure out the less than friendly WordPress CSS and fix it – thanks for your patience.

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to start using the blog to get a real dialog going (even if it’s one way for a time) regarding spinthought apps and my take on iOS development in general. So here goes my first official update…
Generally speaking, as far as our thirteen iOS app store apps go, we have to play to our strengths – the more popular the app, the more time we want and need to spend on it. So I can say up front that only iOS 5 compatibility updates are planned for these apps at this time:

iPhone: SoundSlater, StoryPages, BigTimer, RecordBoard, RecBoardLT, QuizBuzzer

iPad: StoryPagesHD, SoundSlateLT (note “LT” not the full version), TimeSpinners, StopWatches, ThumBrowser, RecBoardPad (denied by Apple because of trademark violations but still being sold in the store for some reason)

SoundSlate 2.5/3.0: ”What is taking so long!?” In a nutshell, we are a small development house and have limited resources, so until we grow to more than one excellent programmer, her time is split between all of our in-house apps and the contracts we have for custom built apps. But take heart, by the end of this week we’ll be sending out 2.5 to betas. We have had to split the feature set in order to make the deadline for iOS 5 app submission; the 2.5 update gives you the new popover UI and removes the “copy local” code so we won’t bog down syncing to iCloud (a mandate from Apple). The 3.0 update to follow brings the rest of the features I’ve spoken about in past posts in our community site.

When we do concentrate back on the other apps, there are some no-brainer things we have to do: fix StoryPagesHD’s UI and drawing abilities, update SoundSlateLT to make it a great demo for the full version, update BigTimer with new features and UI, and wave a magic wand over the others to apply customer requests and needs. Until then, we hope loyal spinthought customers can understand. We always try our best to respond to any request (apologies to the international customers in our uni-lingual support) or help. The playing field in the app store isn’t exactly level, not so much because of Apple (they supposedly only feature apps that are truly popular, not paid by sponsors), but more by paid reviewers who are slanting reviews for bucks.

There was one such case in SoundSlate’s app store page last spring, when an obvious competitor claimed the app was a one star waste of money because they couldn’t figure out how to use it. I’ll resist any negative comments about them, but want people to realize that if anyone finds a problem using our apps I take it very seriously – I’m the UI designer so if they suck it’s my fault. But “seriously!?” (as that reviewer put it), is loading a button in SoundSlate really challenging? (I envision David Spade popping them on the head with a ball peen hammer.) Regardless, we lost a lot of creed thanks to that person, because just like me, most people take a glance at the start rating first and a one star will send me away in terror.

We’ve made our UI mistakes to be sure, and still have to update them. In our first apps I didn’t follow some golden rules we have since learned, for example, never ignore Apple’s human interface guidelines!

My first and foremost goal in the months ahead is to communicate with betas and customers for some excellent feedback – we can take it, the more candid the better (unless you’re that guy I just mentioned).

Thanks beyond thanks for buying our apps, and we will keep delivering better and better solutions.

Best Regards,
Ben
spinthought

Well I finally got around to doing a decent 2 minute video that shows the basic SoundSlate features and added it to the site and to the spinthought YouTube channel. I hope to do this with all of our apps as time permits, as it still reigns as the best way for people to really understand a product, since the images in the App Store don’t really do this type of product justice.  Hope you all have a look and give me feedback.

Cheers,

Ben