DeepDish GigBook 2.3 & iOS 7

IOS 7 is a significant change for the iOS platform. What users will notice first is the apparent cosmetic changes in iOS 7, but under the hood there has been quite a lot of work done too. In fact, iOS 7 represents the most significant update we’ve seen designing and developing for iOS. Because of it’s enormity, we’ve chosen to break it down (like any good drummer would) and update DeepDish GigBook in a couple of stages. We first want to get a solid and stable version of DeepDish GigBook that works on all three platforms, iOS 5, 6, & 7. This has proven trickier than we had hopped. Fixing something for iOS 7 would break it in iOS 5. We then would get DDGB running well in iOS 6, but there would be new quirks when running in iOS 7. That sort of thing has been going on all summer. We just about had it all worked out, but then the GM release last week broke PDF attachments when opening them on other iOS 7 devices. Oh man, oh man.

Since there were several major crashers in version 2.2, we went ahead and sent in version 2.3 to Apple on Saturday. Because it could take anywhere from 3 − 7 days for Apple to review and approve our app, we were already nervous that a stable version would not be ready by Wednesday (iOS 7’s official public release).

Thankfully, today Apple approve DeepDish GigBook 2.3 and it’s ready for you to download from the App Store on you iPad. From all our testing DeepDish GigBook 2.3 is stable and compatible on all three iOS versions. That’s a good thing! But there are still some quirks that might not have been discovered or changed since the GM release last week.

For example, as mentioned early, unfortunately, the GM build of iOS 7 has caused a problem with email attachments and how they are interpreted on an iOS device running iOS 7. At this point we cannot fix this on our end without breaking things in iOS 6 & iOS 5. We hope Apple fixes this issue (as it’s causing problems in other apps that we’ve tested) or gives us a path to correct things in the very near future.

Oh. Almost forgot to mentions that version 2.3 also contains a new AirTurn framework that allows for the virtual keyboard to appear in most text fields when using a bluetooth foot pedal. And finally we restored page animation for multipage scores. If you do update to iOS 7 and DDGB version 2.3, please use our support page or our feedback channel in the app to send us reports or bugs you might find. We will work hard over the next couple of weeks to iron things out.

If you are going to update to iOS 7, we strongly advise (as usual for any update) that you are fully backed up in either iTunes or iCloud. It’s always better to be over cautious when upgrading operating systems.

If you have an important show or rehearsal coming up, you might be better waiting until it’s over before updating to either DDGB 2.3 or iOS 7.

We are excited about iOS 7 and the possibilities it brings for our users. We will be tackling a UI update to better fit with iOS 7 new look and also updates to incorporate some new features of iOS 7. There just might a few bumps along way as things get up to speed.