September 13, 2023
| News
Today we released a few updates, including Onyx 4.1 which introduces an all-new interactive widget for iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS 14 Sonoma. Much like the legacy Today View widget, it features a grid of buttons that lets you hear a note with just a tap. Unlike the old version, however, this widget can be used on the home screen, Today View, iPhone StandBy, iPad lock screen, and Mac desktop. It supports the three most common widget sizes so you can put it wherever you like.
We also just released Cue 2.1 which improves Dual Page mode when running beside forScore 14.1 (due for release early next week) by adding support for custom button/link accessibility sizes and forScore’s new button labels feature. Finally, we released TuneWave 2.0.2 which optimizes its shortcut widget for iPadOS 17.
These updates are free and all available now for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, so be sure to check them out today!
Our latest major update to forScore is coming this fall, and today we’re unveiling a few of the new features and improvements you can expect to see. Version 14.1 allows you to view up to five pages side-by-side, introduces an all-new pitch pipe widget, makes it easier to share sensitive files, enhances buttons with labels and more functionality, revamps the setlist editor for a better experience in compact layouts, and more.
forScore 14.1 will be released later this year, but you can try it out for yourself today by becoming a beta tester. Otherwise, be sure to check back soon as we put the final touches on this incredible update.
forScore 14.1 Sneak Peek
Last week Justin sat down with Charlie Chapman to discuss forScore’s origin and the experience of building and maintaining an app that has become an incredible success story and is used by so many musicians all over the world. Listen to this episode at launchedfm.com or search for it using your preferred podcast player.
As recent events have shown, running a business as an independent app developer is a risk when your product depends on third parties—whether that’s a service or an app store gatekeeper like Apple. Nothing is certain, so it’s important to celebrate your successes and share the joy of having created something good.
In that spirit, today we’re happy to announce that we’re opening a gear shop to sell forScore-branded merchandise for a limited time. Most of these products are print-on-demand, so the profit margins are slim and the quality may vary, but we’re primarily doing this to commemorate forScore, not to make money.
Thank you to everyone who has supported forScore over the past thirteen years and counting, it’s an incredible privilege to be able to work on it every day. We hope you enjoy these mementos and that they might brighten your day just a little bit.
For today’s episode of the iPad Pros podcast, Justin spoke with Tim Chaten about forScore’s history, his approach to development, and how the evolution of the iPad lineup and its accessories has created incredible new opportunities for innovation. You can find the episode at iPadPros.net or by searching for it using your favorite podcast player.
To celebrate the release of forScore 14 and its brand new icon, we’ve created a few clothing items over at Cotton Bureau so you can wear some of forScore’s iconic logos for the first time ever and show off your support. We’ve never done anything like this before but we had fun putting these together and we’ve got more merchandise planned, so be sure to check back soon for more!
This week we introduced forScore 14, and today we wanted to talk a little more about something that may not seem like a big deal: Apple Pencil hover detection. This feature was introduced last fall with Apple’s latest iPad Pros featuring M2 processors, and unfortunately we got no advance notice that it was coming so we couldn’t take advantage of it until now.
With this hardware upgrade, apps can detect when Apple Pencil’s tip is near the screen but not touching it. This allows developers to add things like preview indicators, advanced gestures like pinching to resize the preset before you draw, and more. That’s already a great upgrade, but there’s one more thing that really elevates the annotation experience in forScore—instant annotation.
Instant annotation is a combination of settings that makes it easier to annotate without entering and exiting annotation mode. This requires forScore knowing when you want to start annotating (easy: when Apple Pencil touches the screen) and when you’re finished (much more difficult). Our solution to this was to provide a setting to automatically exit annotation mode after a period of inactivity. That works, but if you happen to try and draw just as forScore is saving your changes you’ll see no markings appear on the screen.
For this feature to really work well, forScore needs to be able to predict when you’re finished annotating with more accuracy and that’s where hover detection comes in. Now, instead of waiting for a set amount of time, forScore waits until Apple Pencil is far enough away from the screen that it can comfortably assume you’re finished drawing. It removes a lot of guesswork and dramatically improves the reliability of this feature.
Hover detection isn’t something most people can take advantage of just yet, since it’s only available on Apple’s latest and greatest iPads, but as this feature trickles down to other devices in their lineup we think it’ll really make a big difference for musicians who annotate regularly and quickly.
Today we’re incredibly proud and excited to announce the release of forScore 14, the latest major update to our sheet music reading app for iPad, iPhone, and Mac.
After a decade of evolution the metadata panel and tuner have been completely replaced, rewritten from scratch to be more flexible, modern, and powerful. Apple Pencil hover detection supercharges the annotation experience, secondary windows get far more capable, and forScore sports a brand new icon with several alternatives and older versions. With forScore Pro you can do even more like wink to turn pages, and you can now try out Pro features with a 30-day pass that doesn’t auto-renew. All that and more.
Thanks as always to our beta testers, and to all of you for continuing to support forScore and allowing us to keep providing significant free updates like this.
Available now for iPad, iPhone, and Mac
Today we’re incredibly excited to give you a sneak peek at our latest major update to forScore, version 14. This big update features significant updates to some of forScore’s most important components, including a total rewrite of the metadata panel that focuses on flexibility and opens up all sorts of possibilities for the future. This version also includes an all-new tuner, significant annotation enhancements thanks to Apple Pencil hover detection (available on M2 iPad Pros), another huge push forward for secondary windows, and more.
There’s one last thing—a few, actually. After thirteen wonderful years, it’s time to change things up and introduce an all-new forScore icon. There are alternate versions available to forScore Pro subscribers, including a beautiful icon designed by the legendary Matt Skiles. Of course, the older icons are still available so switching back is easy if you prefer the classics.
forScore 14 will be released later this spring, but you can try it out for yourself today by becoming a beta tester. Otherwise, be sure to check back soon as we put the final touches on this incredible update.
forScore 14 Sneak Peek
Today we’re happy to announce major updates to our Music Box apps and two minor updates to Nocturne and Piano with Friends. These free updates involve six apps spanning three platforms: it’s a huge batch of updates so let’s jump right in!
• A complete rewrite of our tuner using SwiftUI for a beautiful native experience across all platforms, TuneWave offers improved audio analysis presented with an even easier to read design. It features the ability to adjust the microphone’s input level for better results depending on your instrument and surroundings, includes a lock screen widget for easy access, and it comes bundled with a watch app for the first time ever (for no additional fee). It’s the biggest update to TuneWave ever, and we can’t wait to hear what you think.
• Pitch, Please! is now called Onyx and sports an updated design with four themes (two of which support light and dark modes) and an updated screen widget for instant access.
• Beat Keeper has been renamed as well: Modus is our new metronome and features a lightly updated design and minor improvements that’ll keep the beat going no matter what.
• Featuring a new split view layout for menus and sepia mode for the first time ever, forScore’s remote control app Cue is ready for the perfect duet.
All of these updates (and the minor updates to Nocturne and Piano with Friends) feature brand new icons, several alternates, and the previous versions in case you prefer them. These updates are free and all available now for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, so be sure to check them out today!
