In January of 2017, I posted a summary of our 2016, and a peek at plans for 2017. With today’s post, this becomes an annual tradition. Read on for a roundup of what happened in 2017 and a look at some of our plans for 2018.

Recap of Releases

Though neither was a major product launch, we actually shipped two new apps last year. On Valentine’s Day, we gave our users the most romantical gift of all: sound control software. The audio device control functionality from the then-retired SoundSource was merged with LineIn’s play-thru ability and modernized to create SoundSource 3. The best part? Rogue Amoeba customers who own a current license for any of our other apps are eligible for a free license to SoundSource 3! If you’re not up-to-date, now’s a great time to get the latest, then take advantage of the free SoundSource offer as well.

Our second new app came about as the result of some unexpected changes made by Apple. In late March, a tvOS update from Apple broke Airfoil’s ability to send audio to the Apple TV. Shortly after, we shipped a new tvOS app called Airfoil Satellite TV. This served as an interim solution for streaming audio to the Apple TV while we worked on restoring compatibility directly within Airfoil.

Fortunately, we were able to work around Apple’s changes, and we released Airfoil for Mac 5.6 and Airfoil for Windows 5.2 to restore full Apple TV compatibility. With these updates, the Airfoil Satellite TV app became largely redundant for the time being. However, it will continue to exist as a fallback. If Apple again breaks the Apple TV’s AirPlay compatibility, Airfoil will still be able to send audio to the device.

One other release worth noting was version 2.4 of our audio editor Fission. This update also resulted from changes made by Apple. The new iTunes 12.7 utterly broke the ability for any app to make custom ringtones for iOS devices, even Apple’s own GarageBand app. Knowing how much users love this feature, we worked quickly to restore it. We also posted instructions for using custom ringtones with newer versions of iTunes, whether or not they’re made with Fission.

Of course, we shipped plenty of updates for all of our applications, with a total of 33 releases last year. This was actually our lowest yearly total in almost a decade, however. This reduction in releases was largely due to a lowered need for bug fixes, which is always a good thing. We also had a larger-than-average amount of work in progress that didn’t ship in 2017, and I expect our raw number of releases will jump back up in 2018.

The Newest Amoebas

We made multiple hires last year to keep our team strong and productive. In June, we hired Andy Taylor to work on Airfoil for Windows. Since then, he’s worked to ship the necessary updates to restore Apple TV compatibility and fix other minor bugs. We’ve still got more in the pipeline for Airfoil for Windows, including the long overdue support for Chromecast, so stay tuned for more updates.

Later in the year, Robert Charlton joined us as we doubled the size of our support team from one full-time tech to two. This larger team continues to provide fast and friendly help, but also has more time to refine and improve our support site, manuals, and backend processes. All of this will allow us to provide ever more solid software.

Other Major News

In February, we posted the results of removing Piezo from the Mac App Store. Piezo actually earned more revenue when it was available exclusively through our store than it did when it was also available in the Mac App Store. That’s a nice outcome, but the far greater benefit to leaving the Mac App Store was that it allowed us to improve the quality of Piezo. Given the convenience the Mac App Store could provide, it’s unfortunate how poor an overall experience many developers have had with it. Fortunately, direct distribution of software is easier and more convenient than ever. In fact, in 2017 we also switched our entire store over to use Paddle.com for payment processing, with very few issues.

At June’s Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple announced the new HomePod, which is finally arriving this week. We’ve confirmed that Airfoil can send audio directly to the HomePod, so you can stream any audio from your Mac or PC to the HomePod, right out of the box. We’ll be updating Airfoil to improve compatibility, so watch for updates in the near future.

Apple also announced a new AirPlay 2 protocol, which they have since delayed. There are many open questions with AirPlay 2, and for now, we’re all waiting for more from Apple. Worth noting though is that Airfoil can already match AirPlay 2’s announced ability to stream to multiple devices, all in sync.

In September, we celebrated a rather momentous occasion, our 15th anniversary. It was fun to look all the way back to the very first version of Audio Hijack, and to reflect on how far we’ve come. We plan to be here providing great audio software for many more years to come!

The Future

We’re always tight-lipped about what we’re up to for the future, but I’ll share what I can.

Last year, I teased a new app codenamed “Iron Beetle”, which has now shipped as our new soundboard app Farrago. We’ve been getting lots of great feedback already, and we’ll use this to help guide the development of Farrago updates in 2018.

We also expect to ship a major Airfoil for Windows update in the near future. This was discussed last year, which means it’s quite overdue at this point. Progress was slowed by the Apple TV issues we had to work around last year, but we’re still working hard on support for Chromecast.

Our work on big updates for Loopback has progressed well, and we hope to have more to share later this year. We’re planning to offer even more power coupled with a more polished user experience. For now, here’s a sneak peek at some interface improvements we’re working toward.

More to come!

We’re not currently planning the release of any brand-new products in 2018, so we’ll instead be focused on updates for our existing apps. That will include new features and functionality, as well as more run-of-the-mill bug fixes. We also always plan for updates for Apple’s nearly-annual MacOS release (this year’s name guess: “Sequoia”).

Stay Tuned

You can keep up to date with our latest news in several ways:

• Subscribe to this very blog.
• Follow us on Twitter.
• Like us on Facebook
• New! Follow Rogue Amoeba on Instagram.

We can’t wait to share more with you in 2018. For now, I hope the new year is treating you well. Stay tuned for updates from Rogue Amoeba!

While we’re always hard at work here at Rogue Amoeba, last year was one of our busiest in recent memory. Here’s a quick look back at the year that was 2016, as well as a look at what’s ahead in 2017.

A Brand-New App, A Major Upgrade

The winter of 2016 was a frenzied one for us, as we shipped one new application and released a pair of simultaneous upgrades to another.

Loopback

Loopback is our first brand-new product in several years, and it allows you to pass audio between applications on your Mac by creating virtual audio devices. Loopback has proven much more popular than we’d expected, and we’ve continued working to improve it, shipping Loopback 1.1 in December.

Airfoil

Shortly after introducing Loopback to the world, we shipped simultaneous upgrades to Airfoil for Mac and Airfoil for Windows. With its new ability to send to thousands of Bluetooth audio devices, Airfoil 5 is now about much more than just AirPlay audio.

Even as we shipped Airfoil 5, work on streaming audio to Google Chromecast devices was already in progress. Airfoil for Mac 5.5 shipped near the end of the year with the power to stream to Chromecast and all Google Cast devices. Windows users should keep an eye on our site for similar updates to Airfoil for Windows in 2017.

Updates, Big and Small

Last year we added compatibility with MacOS 10.12 (Sierra) and fixing myriad bugs and issues, but also found time for several larger updates, including:

Audio Hijack 3.3

This update continued our string of incremental improvements to our flagship audio recording app, adding powerful new low-latency options great for podcasters and musicians, improved AAC and ALAC recording, support for capturing audio from Slack, and more. Take Control of Audio Hijack, the companion eBook designed to help you get the most out of our app, was also updated for the latest version.

Piezo 1.5

Our simplified audio recorder now includes the Instant On component, which restores its ability to record from several hard-to-capture apps including Safari, Chrome, and FaceTime. However, this change forced Piezo to exit the Mac App Store. Fortunately, we were able to transition existing Mac App Store customers to our direct version, and we’ll continue to sell all of our software directly through our own store.

In total, we shipped nearly 50 distinct updates across our entire product line last year, or nearly one update every week. That’s not easy, but we want to provide our users with the latest fixes and features as rapidly as possible.

Reviews and Awards

2016 featured some wonderful distinctions for our team. We started with phenomenal reviews from Macworld, as Loopback earned a 4.5-mice review and Airfoil 5 followed that up with a perfect 5 out of 5 mice. That’s a veritable infestation!

On top of that, Audio Hijack 3 was selected by iMore as the Mac App of the Year for 2015. The many accessibility improvements we made also led to a Golden Apple award for Best Mac App from AppleVis, a site for visually-impaired users. It’s very gratifying to be recognized with awards like these.

A New Identity, and Other Staffing Notes

Our designer Neale really began to show his stuff in 2016, with improvements seen in both Loopback and Airfoil. The single biggest change he’s made, however, is Rogue Amoeba’s new logo and branding, which debuted in August. Yes, after almost fourteen years, we’ve rebranded with a splashy new logo and look.¹

For a small company, staffing is both tremendously important and tremendously difficult. In 2016, we bid farewell to our longest tenured employee Jeff, who departed after providing eight years of rock-solid code inside just about every one of our apps. Our hope when we hire is always that an employee will stick around for such a long tenure.

Given that, we were delighted to celebrate two anniversaries in 2016. We marked Grant’s five year anniversary with a motorcycle-themed gift, and a few months later, we celebrated Ed’s five year anniversary with some delightfully geeky hardware. I’m humbled to be able to work with the many talented folks we employ, and honored to have them stay with us year after year.

Toward the end of the year, we began looking to hire for three different roles. We’ve made great progress on filling those positions, and we anticipate expanding our team very shortly.

What’s Next

Enough about the past. You want to hear about what we have planned for the future. Long-time readers will know we’re fairly tight-lipped, but I’ll certainly drop a few hints.

We’ve already announced that Airfoil for Windows will gain support for Chromecast, just as its Mac cousin did. Unforeseen challenges have led that update to take longer than we’d hoped, but we remain committed to getting it out to our users.

After Loopback found a larger-than-expected niche, we’ve decided to dedicate more resources to it. We received a lot of great feedback and ideas, and we’ve got a very solid plan for future improvements. It’s not yet clear what we’ll ship in 2017, but Loopback is getting plenty of attention.

We shipped a small but useful update to Fission last year, with version 2.3 adding the ability to read and write for MP3 chapters and offering faster MP3 encoding. We’ve got a lot more in the pipeline for Fission, however, and we’re eager to get moving on it.

Of course, we won’t be ignoring any of our current applications. As usual, you can expect updates big and small to all of our products. We’ll be adding features, fixing bugs, and bringing compatibility with the likely next version of MacOS (our guess for the name: “Mojave”).

Perhaps most exciting is a brand-new application code-named “Iron Beetle”. Without revealing much, I’ll say that we think many of our existing customers will be quite pleased with this playback-based addition to our line-up. Keep an eye on this blog, as we’ll be starting a private beta test in the coming months.

Thanks To You

Let me close this post by thanking you for being a Rogue Amoeba customer (or at least for reading our blog). It’s your support that allows us to continue running this great software company with the strange name, putting out powerful audio tools that make the world just a little bit better. We’re incredibly grateful to those of you who purchase our software, provide us with valuable feedback, or even just tell a friend about our products.

Now here’s to 2017, and all the progress to come!

Footnotes:

1. Our old mascot Ammo has taken a backseat, but you can still get one of the special plush toys we first created over a decade ago. We’ll ship a free plush Ammo to anyone who makes a new software purchase in January and requests a plushy. Purchase through our store, then request your free plushy through this form. We’ll ship him out to you free of charge. ↩︎