Logos iPhone app is just plain slow

Speed is the biggest reason I only use the Logos iPhone app to access resources I don't have in my other Bible app. But in fairness to Logos, it's worth remembering that when it comes to searching your library, it blows away the competition on speed.

I'm on a 3GS which is supposed to be the fastest. But it's speed is very poor. On my other Bible app the only time I ever see a spinning wheel is when I access my library. I never see it at any other time, everything is instant. With Logos, I get spinning wheels frequently, even when working offline.

I suspect the problem is due to the format Logos use. I don't know for certain, but I think the format may be optimised for downloading in bits, and not actually for offline use. For Logos to be as quick as other software, and to allow access to all your library over the cloud then the app would need to be capable of handling two formats. I suspect it's not, and that's where the performance drags come from.

Dave,

I appreciate your reply following up on my concerns.
I am on version 1.3 and also using a 3GS. The initial startup speed is two seconds, which is about on par with Olive Tree, but that's about where the comparison ends. In that two seconds, Olive Tree is now sitting at the exact spot where I left off in the book I was last reading and it does not matter what my network performance is.

On the other hand, even if I am connected on a 3G network, in Logos iPhone I am now looking at a spinning circle while news, advertising and reading plans download. I can choose to ignore this and tap on the reading pane and then I wait four seconds or more (I just tried it and it took about 10 seconds) for the page to show up. At this point, I'm not sure which book has loaded, so I have to tap the center to see the title. The title is so abbreviated that I still can't figure it out, so I click the info button to determine which book has opened. That's another 2-4 seconds at least. Now I need to determine if the book has opened to my spot in that book. That usually means browsing back a screen or two and reading (maybe re-reading) the text to remind myself of where I am. There is no page number displayed (a book mark would be the best) to assist me in where I am in the book. By this time, my usually short available moment to read has passed and I have to move on having not even found my spot. Bibles always seem to open to Genesis 1. Non-Bible books very rarely open anywhere near where I was reading; more often than not opening to the title page. If the book does open somewhere near, it has never been the exact correct page. Usually it is anywhere from 1-3 screens back and I have to re-read the text to find my spot.

That's when it is working at all. Earlier today, I gave it another try and all I saw was the spinning circle. In this case, at least the app opened, but the book (which has been marked for Offliine) will not open at all. All I get is the spinning circle for minutes on end. The problem is I only have two bars signal on the phone. I give up and go back to Olive Tree where in two seconds I'm reading from exactly where I left off even though I have no bars signal.

I am entirely aware that Logos iPhone is on version 1.x and I understand that Logos developers have been very busy with multiple new products. I am confident that they are working very hard. My concern is that I'm not seeing enough indication that Logos understands how far they still need to go before this app will be worth singing praises. I want access to the resources I have invested in Logos on the iPhone. For now, the poor performance and even poorer navigation features cripple my ability to use it.

I hope you will be able to consider this as constructive criticism and not simply a rant.
Thank you
Andrew

I concur. With a slow Internet connection it takes forever to load the Home screen or a book even if already downloaded.

Not sure if this is a simple or major change, but would be helpful for Logos iPhone app to look to see if the reading list and books are downloaded and get them there before ever going to the Internet. And then after it loads the book that is saved locally it can cache the other stuff from the Internet like the Logos news or any other future info that may show on the Home screen.

To compare, in the desktop app we can turn off the Home page loading at start up. Would be nice if we could do the same with iPhone app.

With all that said, there is one thing to remember. Logos library is so much larger than any of the other competitors at this point that there is going to have to be a different approach to making that much content available. I think the current road is the right strategy, but could use a tweak as suggested above to make it smoother.

Looking forward to Saturday.

Dave Dunkin said:

If your Internet connection is existant but unusably slow, the app really has no way of know that.

Surely the iPhone API has a network timeout? Can't you lower it? And if (for example) you get multiple timeouts you could offer to turn off internet.

Dave Dunkin said:

In that situation my best advice is to put the device in airplane mode.

Moreover, there's no reason why the app can't have a manually switched offline mode. Why should I lose all background connectivity just in an attempt to make the Logos app usable?

So, I like Logos' design better, but I find the speed intolerable.

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I find the Ipod Touch app to be considerably faster for me, since I can't afford to buy a faster computer right now, and mine Toshiba Satellite Pro is about six years old.  New hard drive and new RAM but it's just not fast enough.  I can run Logos 4 but it's slower than molasses in January.  Unfortunately a lot of my resources are not available for the Iphone.  Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah, J Vernon Mcgee....I guess I can read in L3, but I really like the new features of L4.