I’m in a small group of Silhouette users who help Silhouette America test their software. We’re called Beta testers. We test drive the software before the company releases it to the general public and give feedback to the developers. We help them find potential bugs, give opinions like “I really wish the software could…”, tell them how the features are working, etc. We have now have permission to let everyone know that there’s an app coming for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets!
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It’s something we’ve been Beta testing for just a couple of weeks. I can’t tell you everything about it, but here are some key things to know:
- The app only works with machines that are Bluetooth compatible, as that’s how the mobile device connects to the machine. Those machines are the Cameo 4, Cameo 4 Plus, Portrait 2 and Cameo 3. The Cameo 4 Pro (20″ model coming later this year) will also have Bluetooth so will also work with it.
- It’s MUCH better than the Silhouette Mobile app from a few years ago. That one was very hard to work in and you still had to have your computer as a bridge between the app and the machine. The company pulled it.
- In the new app, you can send a cut job from your mobile device WITHOUT a computer — just the app.
- It’s easy use as well. I was able to jump into it right away on my first use both on my iPhone and Fire tablet.
- You will be able to use any design in your Library, since the Library is cloud-based.
- It will not be as sophisticated as the Silhouette Studio software. There’s just no way an app could be. For that reason, I would still recommend anyone who has a Silhouette machine have a computer for general use. To me, the main attraction of the app is that you can take your machine somewhere and cut without having to take your computer as well.
- It will start out with some basic features and add more later.
- There’s no specific date for the release to the general public. Stay tuned here and I’ll let you know when it’s out.
When will this be released?
Hi Teresina — The last I heard last week is that it is in the final stages of approval by the app stores. There’s more info in this post — https://smart-silhouette.com/app-silhouette-go/.
The app is now available in the Apple and Android app stores. To read more about the app, see this post — this post — and this one.
Studio ap
Hi Jamie–
Did you have a question about the app?
The app is now available in the Apple and Android app stores. To read more about the app, see this post — this post — and this one.
I love how they say the design studio is too robust to “reduce to a mobile app” when there are numerous mobile apps with far more, as far as processing power required. Make a proper design app already 😒
Smartphones and tablets (basically larger phones) are made with a different “architecture” than computers. Even top-end mobile devices usually have a smaller amount of storage than a basic computer. That’s because they were originally intended for different uses (even though they are getting closer all the time). The original focus for computers is work — so power; while the original focus for phones and tablets is play — so the focus has been more on portability and battery life. Therefore, they use different types of processors and so the mobile devices can’t run programs in the same way. Computers have cooling fans so that the processor doesn’t overheat as it tries to complete commands quickly. My gaming laptop, for example, has 2 all-metal cooling fans and an advanced video card with its own processor. That’s so it can take care of many processes quickly that are needed to run a game, which is really about graphics. Without the fans or the extra processor on the graphics card, it would overheat too easily. Mobile devices do not have cooling fans, so you can’t have as fast of a processor. There’s no room for a fan in a phone and it might make too much noise that would interfere with its main purpose of being a communication or streaming device. The battery on a mobile device will last longer than the battery on a computer, because it was made with that in mind. But that means there’s a trade off, which is slower processing speed. There’s also a big difference between the way you input commands — touch screens (mobile devices) and keyboard driven inputs (computers).
Many mobile apps are actually tying to something online or don’t have the full capabilities of a software by the same name. A computer will always be able to run a more complex program than a mobile device, at least where the technology is right now. Since the Silhouette software is based heavily on graphics, it needs a good amount of processing power. Maybe someday we will get to the point where mobile devices can run the full, complex programs, but technology simply isn’t there at this time.