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Well, iOS has grown quite a bit since Roastmaster came to the store a number of years ago. It has matured greatly, and we’ve done our best to make sure Roastmaster has followed suit. As iOS has grown up, though, much of Roastmaster’s core code and user interface has stayed the same.

Through the years, Apple has deprecated much of the original iOS framework, especially with regard to the User Interface. The remaining legacy code, though viable, has become very dated compared to the shiny new framework code that has adorned the last couple of iOS releases. These new frameworks take much of the burden off of developers when coding for a growing number of devices and screen resolutions, and let us focus effort on more important aspects of our software.

When you couple that with the plain ol’ fashioned improvements in programming languages themselves…it was time for a rewrite. We had discovered, to our dismay, that we spent too much of our time designing and programming fragile interfaces with legacy frameworks, that stood the risk of breaking when a new device hit the market.

Roastmaster deserves better. We needed to bring the code to a state where our time was spent on features and functionality, not interface buttons, switches and graphics. We take joy in adding new capabilities, not implementing device support for the newest iPad screen sizes.

So, we made it happen. Roastmaster for iOS 10 is the end result of 7 long months of complete code overhaul. The interface was re-imagined and re-implemented. The workflow, in many places followed suit. Every interaction that you, the users, have with Roastmaster was a candidate for the chopping block, if a better, more efficient way was conceivable. Everything from iconography to typography has been improved, with one goal in mind–a better experience for you (well, us), the users.

And, even with all of this going on, we managed to pack a ton of great new features into this update as well!

We sincerely hope you enjoy the new interface, workflow and functionality. This was a very long beta testing period, since the battle-tested legacy code was stripped out, and the potential for bugs was high. We’ve already had some great feedback on the new version, and welcome any more that you may have.

New Features

• iOS 10 compatibility (iOS 9 users must be running the latest iOS 9 update – 9.3.5)
• A new interface, redesigned from the ground up, offers a fluid, unified and content-focused experience that is faster, more informative and easier to use than ever before.
• The new split view master/detail layout puts everything at a finger’s reach–allowing easy navigation and data browsing.
• Subtle color palettes combine with redesigned iconography and typography to create a clean interface–designed to put the focus on your data.
• Direct value editing makes data entry fast and effortless.
• Auto Layout ensures screens are optimized for any device.
• Adaptive layout conforms to available real estate–making multi-tasking effortless.
• Enhanced toolbars provide easy access to common actions, while new action menus display descriptions and reduce screen clutter.
• Use the new “Roast Builder by Yield” feature to quickly plan, configure and generate your day’s roast–based on your batch size and desired roasted yield weight–with just a few taps. Whether you’re roasting single origins, or pre or post blending, Roastmaster will calculate the required green and roasts to fill your orders.
• Calculate the weights of a blend’s individual bean components based on an overall yield weight.
• Key commands in the Roast Analyzer make roasting easier when paired or docked to a keyboard. Hold the command key down to see a list of available commands.
• The new Roastmaster Datagram Protocol (RDP) allows the Data Logging option to communicate with thermocouples on ANY hardware equipped with a microprocessor. Download OpenSource software, or write your own to build an inexpensive custom probe host on any type of hardware–Macs, PCs, Arduino, Raspberry PIs, and many others.
• The new Analyzer Roast HUD view provides a large, informative display to let you monitor temperatures from a distance and track changing roast metrics. Expand, condense, or drag it around the screen–it’s your flexible assistant, showing you important milestones of the current roast as they change.
• Improved item naming and display
• Delta curve smoothing
• Enhanced Analyzer targeting mode
• New pyrolysis event type enables you to track development more precisely, regardless of crack time, and link it directly to bean temperature.
• App-wide sorting of child items, e.g. curves, roasted/blended/cupped items, etc.
• Each measurement field remembers the last measurement scale you used when entering data.
• Print labels from multiple items in one step, and specify multiple copies.
• A new cupping timer helps you keep cupping sessions on track.
• Informative prompt system and icon badging alert you to low inventory, roaster cleaning and other warnings.
• Informative deletion warning view provides information about which items will be left with missing data, and whether or not the delete action will cascade to other items.
• Temperature-based report metrics.
• Time-based event triggers.
• Enter notes about individual samples when performing a flight-style cupping.
• Export any entity as an XML file, for use in a 3rd party backend system, or spreadsheet software.
• Export Roastmaster Exchange, PNGs, XLM, TXT and more directly to iCloud Drive, Slack, Dropbox, or any other URL-type app on your device.

This release is dedicated to Aaron. Your keen mind, logic and input was invaluable to Roastmaster, as was your friendship to me. Glide high my friend!

Roastmaster for iOS 9 is available for download from the app store!

You had ideas and we set to work…we had ideas and we kept going! What emerged is a brand new Roastmaster, with a host of new features aimed at streamlining any workflow, but especially geared toward serious specialty coffee roasters and anyone who has a serious passion for nothing but the best possible coffee.

The job of software is to make your life easier. Nobody likes extra work, and the new features in Roastmaster are designed to eliminate as much of that as possible. We want to help free your attention–letting you be more focused on your coffee, not on software details.

With automatic bean lot tracking, curve events, advanced reporting, inline calculators, inventory reminders and a host of other features, this version is geared toward speed, efficiency, and most of all, to unlocking the hidden information of your beans, vendors, roasts, cuppings. Quality is key…and we want to help you achieve it!

New Features

• Spanish, French, Simplified Chinese and Korean Languages.
• 64-bit native on compatible devices.
• Roast and Curve Events: Add time-stamped markers to any roast or curve to signify a point of interest. Or, define a custom temperature trigger in a curve event, and Roastmaster will alert you when it’s been reached, annotating the curve to match.
• Advanced Reporting Capabilities: View and compare detailed information about virtually any detail of your library, as well as many new calculated metrics. See side-by-side metric comparisons, groupings and tallies, or view this information in interactive line and bar charts with overlaid cupping information.
• Smarter, Faster and Easier Numerical Data Entry: All of Roastmaster’s numerical data entry screens have been redesigned with better layout, form-based navigation, and custom keyboard and measurement units pickers, allowing for faster and easier data entry.
• Easier Node Entry: Redesigned curve entry panel with selectable text and custom decimal keyboard make entering node data a breeze.
• Bean Lot Tracking: Track and audit information about individual beans lots, such as lot number, cost, moisture, density, Q Score, screen size and more. Roastmaster creates bean lots automatically as you received inventory, providing an audit trail for changing attributes.
• Inventory Warning Threshold for Beans: Roastmaster will alert you when that bean’s stock needs to be replenished.
• Full Control of Auxiliary Entities: Caffeine, processing, market, size, growing, density and roaster temperature types can be created, deleted and edited at will.
• Custom Roast Names: Easily distinguish among roasts by entering custom names.
• Roast Yield Prediction: See what the expected yield is for any roast and roast style, based on recent roasts in your library.
• Estimated Green Weight from Yields: Use past yield information to predict the required green weight based on recent roasts in your library.
• Expanded Roast Attributes: Pre and post moisture, density and weight values, along with many calculated metrics via Curve Events, such as turnaround, drying and ramp times.
• Expanded Cupping Protocols: Choose from a number of different protocols aimed at tracking roast efficiency and/or green attributes, or choose the manual style to enter a quick score.
• Interactive Cupping Spider Graphs: Edit attribute scores graphically by tapping and dragging on the spider graph itself, or via an enhanced numeric keypad.
• Cupping Flights: Select multiple roasts to create a batch of cuppings, then perform a flight cupping in-line with spider graphs.
• Expanded Cupping Attributes: See the brew ratio of your cuppings, and store many new attributes, like water temperature, TDS, grind settings, and extraction time.
• Manual Roast Sorting: Roastmaster now provides the ability to reorder roasts by dragging, making it easy to define the order in which a day’s roasts should be performed.
• Default Roaster. Set any roaster as the default and it will be automatically tagged in new roasts.
• Analyzer Graph Shift: Drag the Y axis downward to quickly pull taller reading curves into view.
• In-Line Calculator: Access a custom calculator complete with “paper tape” style readout anywhere numeric values are entered. Perform any computation, and apply the results.
• Create nodes without typing by dragging curve labels in the analyzer.
• Roastmaster will now prevent iOS from sleeping when in the analyzer or console with a bound data logging probe, allowing you to monitor the roaster as it warms up.
• Non-metric volume and density measurements now translate correctly between US common units and UK Imperial units, and can be entered in either system.
• Analyzer composite notes now shows the roasted weight and roaster.
• Agtron fields now allow decimals
• Fixes a bug that would result in a crash when adding a bean when the bean sort mode is set to region.