When WildObs Observer for the iPhone and iPod Touch was conceived, the plan was to develop an offline capable application. Much of wildlife is to be seen where there is no wireless or cellphone connectivity and I wanted to support people getting away from it all, and getting into nature. Also, back then there were tens of species in the WildObs database, but not hundreds/thousands.

Since then the database has grown, the species list is far wider and more exotic, and downloading all the images was taking way too much device resources (especially for the casual observer.) So, here we have WildObs Observer 1.4 with some new settings:

1. “Show Species Icons” shows you the thumbnail pictures when in the species pages. Turn this off to hide these images and significantly increase scrolling performance.
2. “Download Images” enables downloading for all images for offline use. It defaults to be off, and when off only those images of species you’ve reported, or use regularly, or are known to be around you are downloaded. All other images are downloaded on demand over WiFi or 3G or phone network.

Version 1.4: Lightening the image load...

If you think you see a hedgehog in Colorado, ask WildObs Observer…

WildObs Observer selecting Hedgehog

Press “show” to have a look at a picture…

Showing the Hedgehog

Press “info” to have WildObs lookup the species for your current location and return the closest encounter for that species…

Hedgehog information