Fixed

• Minor bug fixes

Fixed

• Possible crash with time slider

New

• Added zoom effect to volume slider
• Sorts music alphabetically on import
• Allowed full duration for free users

Fixed

• volume slider corner radius

Fixed

• Time Slider staying disabled, when switching from soundscapes, and endless soundscape enabled
• Blocks scrolling main view in volume and time sliders
• Section headings in settings
• Fixed potential crashes

Soundscape Favorites

• Select your favorite soundscapes in a short list to find them quicker
• Your favorites are also used for the long press menu on the app icon

Bedtime Reminders

• Get daily reminders when to go to be
• Immediately start a soundscape on tapping the notification
• Your favorite soundscapes are offered in the long press menu

Soundscape Widgets

• Add shortcuts to quickly play soundscapes right to your homescreen
• Add them to your lock screen (especially when you use a specific lockscreen with Sleep Focus)

File Playback

• Music mode is now called Music + Files
• In addition to unprotected music from the Music.app, you can import audio files from the Files.app

Also new

• Added x-callback-url schemes to directly launch a specific soundscape, external or music mode
• Option to enable rotation lock (iPhone)
• Now playing view in list
• Now requires iOS 15+

New

• Added Castro to list of apps
• Soundscapes suggestions note is now dismissable
• Restores the last selected volume on launch

Fixed

• Layout issue when launching to a scrollable view
• Fixed playing indicator if you hit play in soundscapes without specifically selecting a soundscape
• Improved stopping external music

New

• Modal settings view
• Endless mode for soundscapes
• Added soundscapes: Sleeping Dog, Purring Cat, Cicadas, Habor Seagulls

Fixed

• Scrolling in soundscapes list

New

• Added Relaxing Piano, Asian Gymnopedie, Washing Machine, Clothes Dryer, Rain in the City soundscapes
• All soundscapes have now cover artwork
• Now unlocks 5 random soundscapes every day

Fixed

• Unlocked free soundscapes
• Default play duration
• Fixed music playlist layout

New

• Unlocks two random soundscapes every day for free users
• Added soundscape water bubbles
• Added soundscape small boat

New

• Added crowded beach soundscape
• Added coffee shop soundscape
• Added wind chimes soundscape
• Added link to changelog in settings
• Fixed title color in subscription status screen
• Added support for more languages

Fixed

• Fixed layout issue in mode switcher

This my my fifth annual roadmap blog posts. Time really flys. You can find the last year’s post here.

Year in Review

This year is was not only working on Fiery Feeds, but I also tried to bring my other two, somewhat neglected, apps back up to speed. You can see a complete list of all recent updates on the new changelogs page.

All in all, I shipped 7 feature updates, and 31 updates in total across all three apps.

Fiery Feeds

Fiery Feeds is still my primary focus, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. There’s also going to be an anniversary this year, Fiery Feeds 1.0 on the 10. Oct 2013, almost a decade ago. I would have never though I’d still be working on this app ten years later, but here we are. On to the next decade.

New Feed Management

Likely the biggest feature this year was the entirely re-written subscribe flow and Safari extension, and the all around much faster feed management.

Merged iCloud Accounts

Second biggest change, even if not all that exciting, is the updated iCloud sync for feed and read later accounts. Fiery Feeds dropped support for multiple accounts of the same type within the same iCloud account, and the update had to merge any existing accounts into the new container. This worked quite smoothly, and lays the groundwork for the next performance improvements for iCloud sync.

Shared Subscription

The paid-up-front Fiery Feeds for macOS app is more. I only sold it as a standalone app, because in the first 6 months of Catalyst the App, when it was released, the App Store did not support shared subscriptions between iOS and macOS apps. The switch to a shared subscription needed to be done at some point, and with this out of the way, I’ll be able to focus on feature again.

Lock Screen Widgets

Naturally Fiery Feeds supports the new lockscreen widgets in iOS 16 as well. You can show an article (latest or random, and it changes every couple of minutes), or the unread count of an account of your choice. Either in the slot above or below the time.

Upgraded Notifications

I also upgraded the article notifications. Better included actions, grouped by feed and a complete preview of the article when you view the details, powered by the native rendering engine. Some of the actions, like marking articles read or starred should even work when mirroring the notifications to your Apple watch (for those who keep asking me about an Apple Watch app).

Tidur Timers

The multi timer app Tidur Timers also switched to a shared subscription between the iOS and macOS version. I’ve re-written large parts of the iCloud syncing code, which should work now reliable between iOS, macOS and watchOS.

New Widgets

With the limited things allowed to do in homescreen widgets, it was quite a challenge, but I’ve added widget for the next active timers or specific timers, The same widgets are also available for the lockscreen on iOS 16.

Dozzzer

I’ve moved my oldest app, Dozzzer, also to a subscription model. After almost 3 years not working on it, I can finally say it’s in active development again and all known bugs are fixed. It’s maybe more nostalgia to keep Dozzzer alive, it was my first successful app, and my first app being featured by Apple, almost 12 years ago.

Dark Mode

Being an app for drifting of to sleep, it always had a pretty dark interface, but I’ve added another extra dark mode, when the system dark mode is enabled.

Soundscapes

Slight tweaks to all the existing soundscapes, plus the new soundscapes for brown noise, Mountain Creek, Rainy Undergrowth, Lush Forrest, Hawaian Waves and Stormy Cliffs. (I like fanciful names)

External App List

Since Dozzzer can fade out the system volume and stop third party apps, I’ve added handy shortcuts to some better known audio apps right from the external music screen.

Going Forward

Last year I tried – and failed – doing large, completely planned out feature updates. I’ve given up on that by the middle of the year and changed my approach. I’m no longer working at one update at a time (I spend a long time doing just bug fix updates, and putting off working on new features until all the bugs are fixed), instead I’m doing the old main/develop branches and will just release a feature update whenever there’s enough new stuff to make it worth an update. I think this will mean fast, and more, but smaller feature updates for all apps.

Fiery Feeds

The things I want to work for Fiery Feeds are the following, in roughly that order. I’ve already started work on the per feed settings, and I expect to ship it in the next 1-2 months, but I’ve learned not to promise any specific dates in software development.

Per Feed Settings

Ability to set more options on a per feed basis, including sort order, notification settings, number of articles to keep, image caching, and so forth.

Advanced Saved Searches

Advanced saved searches with multiple parameters, think of iTunes’ smart playlists, but for articles, and based on those saved searches, one search per account, that automatically marks articles as read. For example articles older than a specific time or articles containing a specific keyword.

Mac Redesign

I still want to do Mac-first redesign of pretty much the entire app, rewrite the feed and article list based on the lastest APIs, system sidebar, system toolbar, multi selection in the article list, dragging articles to tags to tag them and all the other expected behaviours for macOS apps. This will probably bring some improvements to the iOS as well, but I think the general layout of the iOS app doesn’t need too much change.

• Drag & Drop
• Multi selection
• Browser extension
• Statusbar icon

I’m not sure there’s really going to be a big 3.0 (even if that would be nice).
I’ll probably ship these features one by one instead, as far as possible, to avoid long stretches of no updates.

Tidur Timers

Live Activities

After adding new widgets, live activities are only the logical next step. After all, Apple’s timer app can do that too.

SwiftUI Rewrite

Tidur has always been the app I try out know technology. First watch app, first time I’ve used Swift, first time CloudKit sync. I want to at the very least re-write the watch app in SwiftUI, and probably bring some SwiftUI into the main app as well. I like the way the widgets look, and I can imagine using this design in the main app too.

Spotlight Search

The idea is to start existing timers right from Spotlight, the way you can start music in the Music app. Might also be interesting for Fiery Feeds, but I think Tidur is a good place to try implementing it first.

Dozzzer

Dozzzer is in a pretty good state now, and is not going to require too many changes to the general app.

More Soundscapes + Cover Art

I do plan on to keep adding new soundscapes regularly though. Also having cover art on the now playing screen for each would be pretty neat.

Design Update

Again, I don’t think it needs too much change, but I want to bring back the rounded time dial from pre 4.0 days. Just look how pretty it used to be.

New

• Added Marvis Pro, Pocket Casts to player list
• Added soudscape “Brown Noise”
• Added soundscape “Stormy Cliffs”

Fixed

• Fixed Hawaian Waves
• Fixed song title color in dark mode

New

• Even darker in Dark Mode
• Modernized the interface
• New Soundscape: Hawain Waves

Fixed

• Playback issue with the soundscapes Wilderness, Rainy Undergrowth and Lush Forrest

Fixed

• Smaller Bug Fixes

Fixed

• Fixed timer countdown speed
• Optional Get Plus for legacy users

Changed

• Improved clear all button behaviour

Fixed

• Fixed a bug preventing music mode from jumping to the next song

Changed

• Rewrote music mode playback engine from scratch

Fixed

• Fixed repeat in music mode
• Timer now stops at the end of playback in music mode
• Shuffle and repeat are now respected immediately
• Fixed purchase reminder even if already plus

Changed

• Allow playlist view to use the entire height on iPads
• Added list of some installed music apps in external mode

Fixed

• Fixed issue unlocking soundscapes

New

• Introducing Dozzzer Plus, an optional subscription for more soundscapes
• Long press the app icon to quickly start one of your recent sounds
• Added music library authorization dialog, if not authorized
• Added two new soundscapes: Woodlands and Jungle Rain

Fixed

• Fixed external mode continuing changing the volume after timer ended
• Improved Thunderstorm, Campfire, Wilderness, Mountain Creek

Changed

• Updated for the latest operating system

Changed

• Removed In App Purchases, Dozzzer is now once again a regular paid app
• German localisation

New

• iPhone X support

Changed

• Removed all ads and “remove ad” purchase

Fixed

• Fixed a layout issue

New

• New Soundscape: Mountain Creek
• Increased maximum time to 120 minutes
• Restores the last selected playback duration on launch
• Clear All Button is now displayed at the top of the playlist
• Moved repeat and shuffle options to music view

Fixed

• Fixed a UI problem with very long playlists
• Fixed situation where repeat would not work correctly
• Now properly filters unplayable tracks in music mode

Fixed

• Fixes a bug where purchases would not be saved

New

• Completely rewritten from scratch in Swift 3
• Completely new design for iPhone and iPad
• Music playback no longer shows the volume overlay
• New: External Mode: Reduces the volume while any other app is playing music
• New: Soundscapes: Sleep with the sound of rain, a campfire, thunderstorm and more

A new version of Dozzzer is now available. It is completely rewritten from scratch in Swift 3 and completely redesigned, with a couple new features throw in.

Music

The new music mode plays your selected songs right in the app. It no longer relies on Apple’s music app for playback (which was kind of a hack), which means it no longer has to display the volume bezel while it’s running and it works much more reliable now.

However these improvements come with a drawback, namely it can no longer play DRM protected media (Apple Music), not yet downloaded songs and it no longer updates the playback position if you listen to a podcast.

External

That’s where the first of the new modes in Dozzzer 4 comes in. The external mode works essentially the same way as the music mode in previous versions: Dozzzer runs in the background, reduces the system volume and send a stop command to the music app when it’s done.

You’ll just have to start the playback in the music or podcast app of you choice. (If you’re using Spotify or a 3rd party podcast player, instead of sending the stop command to the music app, Dozzzer will first start playback in the music app – which cancels the 3rd party app – and then stop it. That means it works with and app now.)

Soundscapes

The second new mode is called soundscapes. Dozzzer comes bundled with soundscapes like “Mountain Creek”, “Thunderstorm” and “Campfire”.

These are not just single audio files played on repeat, instead they’re using tens of different sound files, that are layered in multiple tracks on top of each other and played randomly. All in all Dozzzer uses 90 different file for 6 soundscapes at the moment. You can try a different soundscape everyday for free or unlock all soundscapes forever with a one time purchase.

Download Dozzzer 4.0 now for free.

New

• The Remove Ads button now displays the price

New

• Shuffle albums option

Fixed

• Hide ads automatically available if purchased before version 3.5

Fixed

• Bugfixes

New

• Updated app icon
• Added helpful messages
• Restores volume when done

Fixed

• Fixed a possible jump in volume when the 5 minute mark is reached

• Support for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
• Fixed deleting songs from the playlist

New

• Support for Split Screen and Slide Over (iPad)
• Select all button in music selection

Fixes

• Fixes for iOS 9
• Fixed jumping volume

• Fixed volume jumping up and down in some cases
• Fixed shuffle settings reseting itself
• Fixed playback pausing immediately after starting

• Switched back to the old way of playing music.
• Support for Podcast + Audiobook positions
• Fixed repeat problem
• Fixed shuffle problem

• Requires iOS 7
• Saves shuffle / repeat option
• Editing mode for playlist
• No longer shows the volume bezel while not in the app
• No longer supports iTunes Match or syncing the playback position in podcasts and audio books. (Sorry.)

I’m proud to announce that I’m bringing two more of my apps to the iPad. These updates are of course free for everyone who bought the iPhone app already. Thank you for your support, I couldn’t have done this without you!

The first update is for my music player replacement app Audious. The iPad interface feels just like the iPhone app, helping you discover long forgotten songs in your music library with it’s gorgeous interface and large cover art. The larger interface plays it’s strength when displaying play queue, play view and library one a single screen. Plus: New in this update is full iTunes Match support. You can turn it on in the settings; Otherwise Audious will only display songs available locally. You can find the update on the iOS App Store.

The second app is the Apple featured app Dozzzer, that let’s you drift asleep to your favorite tunes – now even better with the iPad’s larger speakers. You can get it on the iOS App Store as well.

I present Dozzzer 2.0. There are a lot of changes in this release, most of them under the hood, but a few are quite visible such as the completely revisited design throughout the app.

The behavior for playing in background has been changed as well. Before it kept reducing the volume until you quite the app (remove the from your recent apps that is). Now the app quits automatically as soon as you pause the music (if it’s running in background).

If you don’t already have the app you can get it here: App Store.

The sleep timer app Dozzzer got featured by Apple this week as “App of the week” in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It’s a great to get the attention and I feel honored to occupy the most prominent space in the App Store.