It’s been a quite a journey to get here but we’re proud to announce the release of Super Speller 5 this morning!
As promised, Super Speller 5 is a complete rewrite of the app using the latests technologies available from Apple. We believe Super Speller is improved in almost every category: iCloud support and 3rd party sharing, user interface consistency, stability, and of course, 100% more confetti in the balloons. We’ve also added two new themes: Comic Book and a Plain theme for maximum contrast and clarity.
For a bit more on the technical side of this update, keep reading. Or if you’d rather you can skip all that and start exploring the update on the App Store. We’re anxious to learn what people think of it!
Now, excuse us while we nerd out for a moment.
Our primary goals with Super Speller 5 were to lay the groundwork for new features and allow Super Speller to be run seamlessly on all the varied screen sizes and orientations that Apple devices now support. This was quite a challenge! For example supporting each of the currently shipping Apple devices could require as many as seven different backgrounds for every theme. When you add Split View into the mix that number jumps to over twenty! Using the old approach was increasingly impractical.
We began working on a solution to this problem over two years ago and after many false starts and challenges we finally created a solution that we’re happy with. In Super Speller 5 most of the user interface is created by the app which means we no longer have to worry about making backgrounds for all the various screen sizes. And we no longer have to create variations for all of our buttons every time a new theme is added. The app automatically determines the best layout for any size screen. The benefit to us is a big decrease in the effort it takes to support new devices from Apple. The benefit to users is a support for any orientation, multitasking, and a big reduction in the size of the app. Super Speller is nearly half the size of previous versions!
We’re very excited about all the changes in Super Speller 5 and we hope you are too!