Over the last few months, we’ve been getting our plans sorted for Ember. It’s an app that we love dearly, as well as use all-day everyday. In recent months while we’ve been working on the app, there haven’t been any notable updates - and you, our customers, have noticed that!

Today, we’re sharing our plans to correct things.

In the next 6 - 8 weeks, we’ll be releasing a free-to-use public beta of Ember 2. We want to make Ember the best it can be, and we don’t want to build it in isolation from the people who use, love, and advocate for the app.

Firstly, I want to reiterate that we’re focusing on the Mac only. Ember for iOS will not be returning in its previous guise (if it ever were to return), and Ember 2 will not work with the discontinued version of Ember for iOS. We know that for some people that’s not what you want to hear, but our focus on the Mac is to ensure that Ember continues to evolve and can be as powerful as possible on the Mac (where it has a loyal, vocal userbase).

One of the biggest problems we want to fix is sync. Formal sync in Ember right now, given the typical size of an Ember library, hasn’t performed as well as it should have - and we know that you also want to use other services besides iCloud and Dropbox. So, instead of just the two sync options we’ll be giving you the option to both relocate the library, as well as have multiple Ember libraries! For those of you wanting to use Google Drive or some other service you can - just place your Ember library in the chosen location.

Beyond the move away from the current sync options, what else are we planning?

1. A freshly-reworked library view - now that we don’t need a standardised size to keep things lightweight on iOS, we’re going to make your library look even better!
2. Full support for Yosemite sharing services so you can share images easier
3. Relocatable and multiple libraries
4. All-new, Mac-centric annotation tools (see video below)
5. More! We’re also looking to improve the website capture in Ember, and potentially move the snapping to a Sharing extension.
6. It will be a paid upgrade, and we’ll be making sure that upgrade pricing (for Mac App Store and direct customers) is a no-brainer once the public beta concludes.
7. We will only offer Ember 2 directly, so every Ember customer can receive upgrade pricing. No MAS-ing about ;)

To give you an idea of our progress, here’s a sneak peek at the new annotation tools:



During Public Beta, Ember 2 will require OS X Yosemite - though as we adopt certain new OS X El Capitan features, this system requirement will likely change.

If everything goes to plan, we’ll be launching Ember 2 later this year. If you want to join the public beta, sign up below and we’ll let you know when things kick off!