A frequent request this year is being able to watch lessons anywhere, anytime, with or without an internet connection. We heard you and have been working hard to make this happen.
Today we're pleased to introduce the Beta Test of the Sonic Junction iPad and iPhone App. Now, any lesson on your practice list can be sync'd and stored automatically to your iPad and/or iPhone.
We're looking for a small group of members to Beta test this new App.
The purpose of the Beta Test is to:
1. get feedback on the design and functionality of the App
2. find and resolve issues
To be part of the Beta you must:
1. be a member of Sonic Junction
2. have an iPad or iPhone running iOS 7
3. have time over the next 4 weeks to thoroughly test the App
4. provide weekly email feedback and complete an end of Beta questionnaire
If you're interested in being part of the Beta, please email me directly at: mike@sonicjunction.com
If you have questions or suggestions about the App, please feel free to post them here.
Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback,
Mike
Awesome idea, i like it a lot. Except for I n I have no Iphone, nor Ipad... any chance you will launch this app for all smartphones/ tablets? :-) It would be great!! Greetings. Bless!
Hi Char --- glad you like the idea. Yes, we plan to make make an Android App as well. We know a lot of people have Android devices and they are growing in number (especially Europe).
We will likely not make Apps for the other mobile operating systems as the number of people that have them are relatively low --- and tend to be shrinking. The one exception may be the Kindle --- we will have to see.
All the best and thanks for being a part of Sonic Junction.
Cool i'm glad to hear that! Any idea of when u will launch the Android app? I would deffinetely be glad to test it out ;). Keep on bringing the good vibes.
Greetings. Bless.
Hi Char --- the Android App will likely be towards the end of the year. We want to focus on the iPhone and iPad until we have a great experience and then copy it to Android. Would be great to have you a part of the Adroid Beta.
Wish you all the best.
Mike,
I am very excited to hear about the idea of an app for Sonic Junction lessons. I would definitely make use of it. I will be traveling thoughout the next few months or I would commit to the beta test. If you absolutely need me, I would do what i could.
Good luck,
Harvey
Thanks Harvey. The Beta is going really well. We have plenty of testers --- so no worries. That said, if you want to take the lessons with you while you travel --- it's exactly the kind of use case we're trying to support.
Thanks for being a part of Sonic Junction.
Mike,
I would be very happy to take Rick Estrin's lessons on Chicago Shuffle with me. I will be in many places with wifi, so I could continue to download lessons. I leave for Germany on July 17 and then will be in Poland, Lithuiania, Estonia, and Sweden. It would be so cool to be tuning in to Rick in Warsaw or Talinn! Let me know what you would like to do.
Cheers,
Harvey
Hi Tony --- thanks for the note. We're going to have our last round of testing next week. We would be happy to have you join it. I will send you an email next week with the details.
Just signed up, and realized there wasn't anything up yet. Now that I saw your post here regarding the final round of testing it makes sense why there wasn't anything to install yet. thx
Hi Tony --- we're getting the new build ready right now. I will send out an email announcement to our Beta testers later this week.
I jave am ipad retina, and ipad mini air. i'd like to try the beta and help out.
Hi Steven --- sounds good. We will be releasing a new build in the next couple days.
I will send you an email invite to the Beta via TestFlight (iOS Beta service recently purchased by Apple) today.
Thanks.
Hi Mike -
Just repeating my offer from a month ago or so to help with the beta testing. I have an iPad and an iPhone.
Best Regards,
Bruce
Hi Bruce,
Thanks. We're actually getting ready to announce the first release via the App store --- please stay tuned --- it's coming soon.
Mike
I'm up and running with the IOS app. It works beautifully on my iPhone 4s, and also my iPad 2. I'm into the harmonica side of things, and so far I'm carrying Easy and Sentamental journey with me. It's a great extension to the services provided at Sonic Junction. Thanks very much. Ian
Hi Ian --- that's great. Glad it is working for you. When I was testing the App I practiced harmonica in the park during lunch time. I actually got a couple compliments playing Rudolph (I'm a beginning harp player).
Enjoy Jerry and thanks for being a part of Sonic Junction.
Mike -
I noticed that I was able to add the older Flash based lessons like Duke's Blues-A-Rama via the app, but there's no preview icon and it crashes the app when I try to play it. I don't think it actually downloaded anything, because it appeared to download all 10 Blues-A-Ramas instantly, where download are normally kind of pokey, especially multiple simultaneous downloads. Just FYI!
Thanks,
Bruce
Hi Bruce --- great catch, thank you. These lessons should be disabled because they're Flash --- we will put in our list for the next release.
For the downloads --- we are thinking of limiting it to two simultaneous --- just like a web browser. Curious how much of an issue you think it is.
Mike -
I also find that on my iPad, the app crashes when I try to change playback speed, either from the upper right hand corner link or the button in with the tab. It crashes immediately when you click on the link; I'm not presented with a list of choices.
But it works fine on my iPhone! My iPhone is a 5 (not 5S) but my iPad is a little older. It's a retina display, but I think the first of the retina models. I'm running iOS 8.1 on both devices.
Let me know if there's any other info I can send you to help determine the issue!
Thanks,
Bruce
Hi Bruce --- sorry about that and very good find.
Can you double check what kind of iPad you have?
It works fine on an iPad 3 Retina running 7.1.1 --- so it's likely an iPad / iOS 8 issue.
Thanks.
Mike -
According to the Apple site, it's "iPad (3rd generation) Early 2012 model A1416 64GB". I've tried doing a hard reboot, but that didn't help.
I think the idea of throttling the downloads to only two simultaneous makes sense. It's not only when you first load the app that you experience the download pain. I've been going back through some of Duke's older lessons, and when I do, I put all the lessons for a particular song in my practice list. I personally would still like the option of saying "download this lesson now" instead of it being automatic, though. But maybe it's not worth the trouble.
Question: if I remove a lesson from my practice list, does the app automatically do clean up and delete the video if already downloaded?
Thanks!
Bruce
