Hi Tony,

Thanks for getting back to me!

I don't suppose that a software company needs to have a professional relation with Apple to send them a short support inquiry about their hardware. Also as you ported your tool to OSX, I suppose you are registered as an Apple Developer? Wouldn't that qualify as a professional relation? And then there's also the Apple support forums for just about anyone, where I have yet to see a thread from you about this problem.

I don't believe your point, that this is just a Apple hardware problem in these line of MacBooks, is quite justified, as other MIDI-over-USB software (BOSS, Yamaha etc.) works quite well. But then again that is one, actually three of the questions that I would still like an answer to:

Quote from the end of April:

- Also I am still wondering why other MIDI-over-USB Apps don't seem to have that problem (I also tried some BOSS and also Yamaha software, that communicates with a keyboard, all work flawlessly).

- Does the Pod use some sort of special protocol?

- Could that be a possible solution, relying more on tried and tested standards?

And yes, you are responsible for direct hardware support as far as the interaction with your software is concerned, or at least for getting together with Line 6 to solve this matter, because your software is the link between their product and the hardware people use with it. I think it's the least you could do to tell Line 6 "Hey guys there's a problem that we can't address, maybe you can fix it". Also I believe that you don't code programs for them for free, so I both your companies should have an interest to solve this problem. Even more so as a) the MacBook line is currently one of the most sucessful and common models and no niche product that only a couple of people use and b) Vyzex Editor represents an integral part of functionality of the Pocket Pod, so without that it is only half as useful, and I highly doubt I would've bought it, knowing this.

I'm sorry to say that your second paragraph is unacceptable: you imply that it would make more sense/is the only way, that Apple would revise/recall one of their most successful product lines because of an issue, that only causes trouble for your Vyzex Editor / Line6's Pocket Pod? Every other software I know of, even MIDI-over-USB ones from other manufacturers, don't have any problem at all with these shared USB ports. IMHO the route much more likely is for Line 6 to supply an firmware update correcting this, or your company to work around this problem. It appears more and more that this is a problem that lies with the Pocket Pod and not Apple (from what I hear windows users also seem to have quite some problems).

But to give you a break, reading your third paragraph I somewhat understand that in your eyes there's simply nothing more that could be done on the software side.

Basically your saying

"I cannot speak for Line 6 with regards to the PocketPOD USB hardware, but we know that PocketPOD requires an unshared connection with the host computer"

clears something up for me that I hadn't thought about so far. The PP causes this problem, that you appearantly can't work around. This is why other MIDI devices don't have this problem. On the other hand it isn't and shouldn't be my problem, whether the solution lies with Psicraft or Line 6. I bought a working solution, and it's up to your two companies to get the promised functionality to work.

A couple of questions now after obtaining at least some feedback (some old ones that you didn't care to answer so far as well):

1- Did you get in touch with Apple for a work-around?

2- Did you get in touch with Line 6 for a solution?

3- Could that be a possible solution, relying more on tried and tested standards?

4- Also last month you cryptically mentioned something about a new Vyzex version coming soon, does this new version fix any of the known problems? (Maybe even the old and boring "dropping files in OSXs root folder"-issue ;-) ?)

5- And is it's release anywhere on the horizon?

And please, if you won't at least answer the above questions, then don't bother, because I have read enough about why this isn't Psicrafts fault and that you're doing all that you can (which is nothing at the moment, so my statement, that nobody at Psicraft is working on solving this issue, is entirely true). And if it really isn't your fault, and that might just as well be the case, then please accept my apology and at least bring this to someone's attention that might fix it or offer some other solution (Apple or Line 6).

Also on a sidenote I would like to mention that neither the way this problem was handled, by you and subsequently Line 6, nor that this problem is nowhere mentioned, so one could anticipate that a certain Line 6 product doesn't work on selected hardware before the purchase, doesn't make me overly eager to buy more Line 6 equipment, especially those that use connections to computers.

All the best

Thinkdifferent

P.S. in all fairness, I should like to mention, that I filed a feedback ticket with Line 6, pointing them in the direction of this thread and this problem, maybe this might help the situation.