Bindle

A Hidden Theme

Bindle has one reader theme that is not quite like the others. It is called Starship, and it puts your article on the reading display of a starship: an affectionate homage to the panels of a certain long-running science fiction series, with their rounded elbows, bars of butterscotch and lilac, and tall condensed capitals.

It is entirely optional, it changes only the reader, and it is here because reading should be a little fun now and then. This chapter tells you how to use it, and leaves the rest for you to find.

Engage

Open Appearance in the reader and choose the last theme swatch, the black one with a small lilac elbow, named Starship. Or press T in the reader until it comes round.

The display builds itself the way such panels do, one piece at a time, and the article comes up on it. Your font, size, spacing, and width still apply, and OpenDyslexic and Atkinson still win for the text.

To leave, choose Display in the column of blocks down the side and pick another theme, or press T. Like the other themes, the choice is kept on this device.

Finding Your Way Around

While Starship is on, the system's bars step aside and the display's own blocks do the work:

  • Back, Listen, Display (the Appearance settings), and More sit down the side.
  • Readouts along the bottom show your progress and the minutes left.
  • Tap the text to fold the display down to its top band, and tap again to bring it back. Minimal Mode starts it folded.

Every choice Bindle would normally make in a menu or a sheet becomes a panel on the display instead: the Display settings, More, reminders, the speed, voice, and sleep timer while listening, highlights, contents in a book, even the question before leaving for your browser. Only the system's own prompts, such as the share sheet and permission requests, look like themselves.

While text is selected, the display's highlight bar has Say beside Note: it fixes how a natural voice says the word, in a panel of readings to tap and hear (see Fix a Word). The Voice panel has Fix a Word for the sentence being read.

Everything else works as it does in any theme: highlights and notes, Listen, Speed Read, hands-free scrolling, quick actions, and your place on every device. The full-screen player is the one thing Starship does without; Listen plays from the display's own console.

Sounds and Motion

The display chirps when you press it, quietly ticks as you scroll, and has a few more sounds for special occasions. They are Bindle's own, made on the device.

  • Turn them off with "Interface Sounds" in the Appearance panel (it appears while Starship is chosen), or with the SFX block on the display. They are on by default. Turning them off silences every effect, but never Listen.
  • iPhone: The ringer switch mutes them too.
  • They never interrupt other audio, and they fall silent while Bindle listens for a pairing chirp.
  • With Reduce Motion on, the display appears without building, and the effects keep still.
  • iPhone and iPad: Some moments come with haptics, on devices that have them.

Red Alert

There is a Red Alert block. You know what it does. Press it, or press R, and the whole display turns to reds and pulses (it holds still under Reduce Motion). Press it again, now labeled Cancel Alert, to stand down. Leaving the reader or the theme ends it too.

The Other Button

There is also a block marked Coolant Leak, and the C key presses it.

Bindle asks before it does anything, and you can always choose Cancel. If you choose Confirm, your article will be fine and nothing in your library is touched. Beyond that, this book says nothing, except that the crew has opinions, and that it is worth having the sound on.

A Note on Names

Starship is an homage. It uses no logos, insignia, or audio from any show, and its typeface is Antonio, an open font in the same spirit. Any names you meet along the way appear only as text.