iOS Update

Make that 2! Actually, I have a SIM card… But I only updated to iOS 4 on the weekend. Now I have folders to keep my 7 apps instead of pages. Ah, the relentless march of technology!

I registered just to say that I, too, am anxiously awaiting the official iOS app. I have attempted to use external folder sync with a third-party iPad app, but it doesn’t work as well as I’d like. I have two different computers that I use to write (home and office), and between the three devices things just don’t seem to sync right.

I picked up a Logitech K760 for my iPad in anticipation of the release(it pairs with three devices, so I don’t have that awkward moment of adjustment when I switch keyboards), and am so anxious to have an ultraportable version of Scrivener that I am constantly teetering on the edge of selling the iPad and getting an 11" MacBook Air or Surface Pro 2. I just want something that weighs around 2 lbs and gets around a day’s worth of work done on a single charge!

Oh good, I find using iTunes to sync with my iPad to be the best experience for me. (There seems to be a lot of hatred for iTunes, but I personally love it)

I can’t wait for this app! I love the desktop version.

Hello all. I had a terrorizing thought. How will the ios7 upgrade effect the progress of the mobile Scrivener app project?

The Lit&Lat folks here have stated that it requires iOS7 to function. They’re using alot of functionality from the new Text Kit component that 7 brings to the table, so basically if you don’t have iOS7, you won’t be able to install iScriv.

That said, my iPod Touch 5 just updated to iOS 7.0.2, so obviously there things amiss with the OS itself, so gods know how much havoc that’s going to cause.

For one singular second I thought we were back in 2008!

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I’ve held off updating but I guess I’ll have to soon.

Yup, I’m not sure if we’ve come out firm on iOS 7 being a requirement yet, but the fact is anything prior to that version requires us to roll our entire editor from scratch, and that is a huge pain. It is singularly the reason why iOS is infested with thousands of plain-text programs and a very small handful that can handle even the most basic formatting like italics. That should all be changing now that iOS 7 is out, it is now nearly as easy to make a decent formatting based editor as it is on the Mac.

So, Scrivener will only run on iOS 7. A project without any shadow. There will be so many shades of pink… I’m really flattened!

Paolo

No pink! 8)

I’m currently working on a project in Scrivener that involves writing books 7-9 of an ongoing series (this one). The Scriv project currently is only about 36Mb in overall size, but the core document is more than 720,000 words long and will be in the 900,000-1,000,000 word range when it’s finished (yes, I’m slinging around multiple novels in one project, with keywords and links).

Because I am a lunatic who enjoys living dangerously (modulo having three different parallel backup strategies and disaster recovery plans) I’m looking forward to loading this brick into Scriv on iOS as soon as possible so I can see what breaks.

Byword on my iPod Touch 5 chokes just trying to open a Dropbox folder that has about 150 TXT files in it containing a similar total amount of words. That wasn’t the case just one version and one OS update ago. It seems that performance is certainly going to be a question mark, especially for for the lesser but still compatible devices. There is an obvious learning curve at work here, no matter how much shiny new functionality the new OS provides. Even with Mr. Stross knocking on doors here, I think we still have a bit of a justifiable wait on our hands.

Kensai, have you disabled (what I think is called in English) Documents & Data Synching and Background App Update? With them turned off, my iPhone 4 with iOS 7 is no slower than with iOS 6.

My iPad mini seems as “fast”, but I’ve left transparencies turned on, and the UI is a bit stuttering when returning to the home page. Otherwise, it seems as fine as in the past.

Paolo

I installed iOS7 on my iPhone 4 mainly to be able to use Scrivener when it’s available. My iPhone is faster with iOS7 than with iOS6! Faster and more reliable too so I’m really satisfied. I just hope Scrivener for iOS will run on an iPhone 4…

Its not really general performance that’s the issue, though I did go through and look for what you mentioned and then sussed out a few more things buried in the new settings. Then I went into Byword, opened a new doc, typed a sentence and it promptly locked up. Left the app and came back at different times and it still took several minutes for it to free up, and then managed to do it again. That combined with all sorts of other reported issues that have cropped up between version 2.0 and 2.1, the main difference of which is the switch to iOS 7’s Text Kit, have me a bit worried about Scrivener’s performance where the rubber meets the road. You know, where the words actually happen, not so much whatever other Scrivener functionality makes the leap to iOS. Text Kit should be able to give us an awesome editor, I just think its got at least a few hidden quirks, is all.

Umm, if this hasn’t been decided yet, does that mean the text engine isn’t implemented yet? And if so, does that mean that Scrivener for iOS is still in its early stages? As in “if we’re lucky, it’ll come out in 2014?”

There’s a lot more to Scrivener than its text system, so it’s by no means in the early stages. We’ve been getting everything else working first. But no, the text system isn’t implemented yet, for the reasons that have already been discussed. It will be released in 2014 no matter how lucky you are.

Kensai - you can rest assured that we do not release anything without thorough testing with a decent beta group, and if there are significant performance issues in the iOS 7 text kit, then we will have to find another solution.

Makes sense, thanks.
That it won’t be this year hurts a little, but whenever it’s ready [cue Barney Stinson], I. Will. Be. There.

Will there be any way to encrypt Scrivener documents when syncing through DropBox?

Wasn’t suggesting that, KB.

Just expressing my doubts as to Text Kit being quite the holy grail some have made it out to be and that getting acceptable performance out of it might add to dev time in this instance. Mainly just trying to put some brakes on a mounting sense of, “hey, maybe they’ll release it early enough for me to use for NaNo, even if its full of bugs” that I’ve been getting from various quarters.

Just make plans to use it for NaNo 2014, folks. I imagine it’ll be out and at least modestly updated by then. Right now, participants need to focus on the stable tools they already have. If you’re insisting on using Scrivener and your iOS devices, you’ll just need to put a bit of thought into how to streamline a process with what you already have on hand.

Get Dropbox set up if you don’t have it already, pick a text editor that uses it (IA Writer is my preference, Byword is awesome as well, and could be in the running if they patch the performance issues I’ve been seeing in it on my iPod Touch 5, though it seems stable enough on my son’s iPad 4 as is; there are tons of others, but only some are going to be worthy; remember, being feature rich is pointless for this app as you’ll just be writing prose), then when you’re at your desktop, just import your new text file(s) and stick them where they need to go in Scrivener. A little work by hand isn’t going to hurt anyone, and might give you extra moments looking at your project’s structure which likely won’t hurt either.

I know on my end, even with a BT keyboard available, the iPod, or even swiping my son’s iPad, is really just a stop gap, and having the iPod in my pocket and using the onscreen keyboard is just that thing that keeps me from going crazy, worried that I’m going to forget all the great ideas I get while away from the keyboard (its not entirely true, but it does help ;-p ). In that sense, I feel that having an iOS end to the Scrivener equation is really just a way to keep my head in the game while I’m mobile, and make what little text I do generate while on the move more useful, rather than some magic bullet. Then again, writing is a long game, every little bit compounds across a career.