Next version: v4.0 - only for iOS 4

The next version number of SmartPlaylist will jump from v2.8 to v4.0 to make clear that it is only for iOS 4 and NOT for iPhone OS 3.x - so don't upgrade to v4.0 unless you have updated your iPhone or iPod Touch to iOS 4 (to be released on 21. June 2010).

New feature: Yet more info about songs: skipCount, disc #, track #, releaseDate, albumArtist, isCompilation and comments.

For later versions it is planned to offer searching in comments (e.g. comments contain "wild!") and filtering by release date (e.g. release date before / in / after "1974").

Quit before sync with iOS 4

As mentioned in the help section of SmartPlaylist, you should quit SmartPlaylist before syncing your device.
With the new iOS 4, "to quit" means to really shut it down, not just hide it in the background (new "multitasking" ...).
1. Press your home button to close/hide SmartPlaylist
2. Double-tapp the home button
3. Press your finger on the SmartPlaylist icon in the bottom, until the "Quit"-badge appears
4. Tapp on the "Quit"-badge
 --> Now it is really closed.

Updating Library ...

When you sync your device or when you change the language on your device (say from French to English), the iPod library gets updated and reorganized. When you open the iPod app during this time, you will see:

While the iPod library is being updated, do not use SmartPlaylist - it won't work!

Shuffle by title or shuffle by album

Some users ask for this feature (shuffle) - and it has been there from the beginning!

UPDATE: This feature is now in the Playback Control. See new-feature-in-v410-playback-control

You just have to tap on the detail-disclosure button next to "Title" or next to "Album" on the rules-screen to choose "Shuffle by Title" or "Shuffle by Album" (and don't forget to run the search again for the new setting to take effect).

Some users don't seem to be aware that you can use all the colourful buttons to set the sorting or shuffling:
Sort by "Artist A...Z" (artists in ascending order), "Artist Z...A" (in descending order),
"Title A...Z", "Title Z...A", "Shuffle by title",
"Album A...Z", "Album Z...A", "Shuffle by album",
"Composer A...Z", "Composer Z...A",
"Composer A...Z", "Composer Z...A",
"Genre A...Z", "Genre Z...A",
"Rating 0...5", "Rating 5...0",
"Play Count 0...n", "Play Count n...0",
"Last Played 0...n", "Last Played n...0",
"Duration 0...n", "Duration n...0"

New in version 2.7

To get consistent results as quickly as possible, the search methods had to be adapted. Unfortunately, it was not possible to satisfy all requirements at the same time, as there are some frustrating limitations in the iPhone OS.

Search results are now generally faster. Especially when you have just 1 rule like "Genre contains 'blue' OR 'jazz'".
Now SmartPlaylist always finds all duplicate titles (songs with the same name).

To achieve this, music videos had to be excluded. We hope this is not a problem to our users. (If it is, please write to support.smartplaylist@gmail.com)


Other improvements:
"Play this" is now instant, i.e. there is no more foolish skipping (the solution was so simple).
There is now an option to turn off the badge on the application icon (to display the number of songs in the current smart playlist).
Another new option can be used to turn off repeated playback.