I’m proud to announce that in the next two weeks we will release powerOne version 3. While the look and feel will remain the same we have added some key features for our iPhone, iPod touch and iPad customers. This is a free update and hope you find these improvements as exciting as I do!

Graphing

The biggest new feature is the introduction of graphing. We offer function graphs, scatter plots and bar graphs. Graphing will be added to a number of existing templates plus our Scientific Pro customers will get a Function Graphing template added to their product automatically. (Finance Pro customers will be able to download it from the Library and see In App Purchase below if you are a Lite customer.)

I played with some 15 or so graphing packages for the iPhone and iPad over the past few months and found most of them confusing and unintuitive. I believe we have done one better here. To zoom, pinch. To pan, drag a finger across the screen. Tracing is where we really shine. Hold down on the screen for a second and a function trace line appears and/or a scatter plot closest to your finger highlights with the appropriate information. Drag around the screen to see the data change or enter a specific ‘x’ point to evaluate a ‘y’.

I couldn’t be happier about the implementation and believe it was done in a way that will make Apple proud!

Filtering and Favorites

We added two new capabilities that should make it easier to find the template you are looking for. The first is that you can filter your template list by category. This makes it easy to see all your Finance templates or Engineering templates, for instance. The second is that you can now designate your often used templates as Favorites and filter just on this list.

Advanced Math

Not only did we add graphing but we also made advanced math functions available for our Pro customers (see In App Purchases for our Lite customers). The trig tab now is the advanced math tab. Choose from 7 keypads or select “More” for access to over 160 functions covering everything from programmer’s math, complex numbers, trig and hyperbolic, matrices, statistics, probability, calculus and more.

Template Creation

I already mentioned graphing. We added two new row types: an equation row for entering function graphs and a graph row for plotting the required data. Up to three data sets can be plotted at a time using the new graph() function call. We also added a new constants section, which is similar to macros but creates a constant result (rather than just substituting). This is particularly good for look-up tables where you don’t want to replicate the entire table over-and-over, or when you need results in more than one row.

In addition to new template creation features we also added the ability to create up to 10 custom categories and name them as desired.

VoiceOver

For our sight impaired customers we have added comprehensive VoiceOver support. Now buttons say their names and calculations are read out-loud upon touching equals. Templates are also supported. For instance, tap a row to have its contents read to you!

In App Purchase

For our powerOne Lite customers we have added the ability to purchase some add-on template bundles and features right within the app. Options include our advanced math package, graphing, finance, business, conversions and more.