A Brief Look at Some Recent Enhancements
Olive Tree developers have been very busy lately with enhancements to the iPhone version of their Bible Reading Software. David Trotz has been doing an outstanding job in leading this team of developers. These are exciting days for users of their software! Beta testers are currently reviewing version 4.09.001868; I’m excited to post some of the enhancements we’re seeing!
To the right is the new splash screen. Keep in mind that Olive Tree may elect to make changes before submitting to Apple … but as it stands, the splash screen sports an attractive company logo with a rich textured cloth look in the background. The screen opens the program before text fades in.
Although the Bible Reader software can be configured to look the same as the currently version, the default full screen mode allow more text to be visible. The display mode (full screen or not ) can be made by locking or unlocking the main GUI toolbar. This is controlled by an icon that appears when tapping the upper left corner of the text area.
Tapping this area once will reveal the lock/unlock toolbar icon. Tapping again will toggle the locked state of the icon, and the Toolbar display mode will follow the icon state.When in full view mode, the toolbar is only visible a few seconds before rolling off the screen. It can be brought back at anytime with a tap to the main screen area. The GUI has the typical Apple gel motif – very attractive!
Upon careful investigation, current users should notice something missing … the slider button now only appears on command when called upon to do its job, once done, it fades out of view.
Another enhancement of great value is the rotate lock/unlock button, which can be called up at anytime ( like the slider button, and the toolbar lock button ) by tapping the lower left corner of text. Of course when the phone is rotated it will also display. As advertised, it works very similar to the rotate lock feature of the Kindle for iPhone App.
It’s difficult to decide what other changes to include in this post, ( there’s lots to review ). I’ll mention one more for this post.
An easy feature to cover would be the optional changes to the PopUp Window appearance. There are customized settings to control transparency and shine contrast, as well as background color. With these setting controls, you may have an “Apple” look to Olive Tree’s third reading pane – or – you may take contrast to zero, and transparency to zero to maintain the current standard without the eyecandy “Apple” look – it’s all up to you.
All in all, I’m impressed with these changes. I’ll try to cover a few more exciting features of the software in the next few days or so …