[sword-devel] PocketSword is released

[Greg Hellings]

Nic,

I installed it as soon as I saw your message in the list.  I think
it's a good start.  I'm not sure what version of the iPhone hardware
you have, so my comments are coming from someone with the second
version of the hardware (3G).  Overall, I love the app!  It really is
well built and solid.  I like the Lights Out view, very easy on the
eyes, and I like having the ability to select fonts and font sizes.

Firstly, the application is slow to load.  All apps seem to be slower
for me than for other people I know, leading me to wonder if perhaps
my phone has hardware issues, but your app seems to take even longer
than most.  I'm stuck looking at the CrossWire/PocketSword logo for a
good 15 or so seconds before the app brings me to the Bible text I
have opened.  After start-up, most things are fast, with the exception
of changing to a new reference in the Bibles (Commentaries seem fast,
and going between Bible and Commentary tabs is fast).  I've used two
other Bible Software applications on the iPhone (YouVersion.com's
Bible and Olive Tree's BibleReader).  PocketSword is by far the
slowest to bring up a passage... and YouVersion.com was always pulling
its chapters off of the web before rendering!  I don't know if that is
your application or SWORD or the way you're using SWORD.  On the
upside, rendering isn't so slow that it is annoying, it just seems
like there should be room for improvement there.  The selection of
feature settings like font size also require about 5 seconds of the UI
graying out with the circling gif in the center of the screen with
"Loading".  I'm not sure why that is necessary while in the settings
UI, but it was rather annoying.

Secondly, your passage selector is good (better than YouVersion's was)
but not great.  I had languished in my mind for a while how a good
verse selector could be made on the iPhone while I was working on an
iPhone site and also using the YouVersion app.  I never could figure
one out until I saw OliveTree's BibleReader.  I highly suggest you
take a look at their app and see if you can take some ideas from their
passage selection tool.  If, for instance, I want to quickly jump from
my passage in Exodus to a reference in Hebrews, scrolling through 50
or so books to get there in the drop-down is slow and cumbersome.
BibleReader's selector allows me to hit just about any book instantly
with minimal, if any, scrolling.  Their new full-screen text display
I'm not so happy with, I prefer your version with the UI visible all
the time, but it might be a feature you could give in a future version
as well for people who like that.

I'll be sure to ping you if I notice any bugs, but so far it looks
like a very solid, excellent application.  Thanks for all your work!
I look forward to future updates.

--Greg


On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 2:04 PM, Nic Carter <niccarter at mac.com> wrote:
>
> Just a quick status report, PocketSword was made live on the App Store by Apple this morning (well, "morning" for me!), so we now officially have an iPhone app  :)
>
> http://itunes.apple.com/app/pocketsword/id341046078
>
> It was "approved" by Apple 2 hours ago and is slowly making it's way to the various App Stores around the world (well, I know it's available in Australia and the US right now).
>
> I'm still on holidays for a couple more days, so I'm now going to switch this laptop off & continue my (short) holiday  :)
>
>
> ybic
>        nic...  :)
>
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