I’ve had it now for a few days.  And I wanted to say a few things. I do not have room in my Christian Computing Magazine column this month about Logos new release for much about the iPhone so I am putting it here.  So here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good

It’s free.  This is only somewhat true since to get a lot of use, you have to be a Logos 4 user on the PC.  I have Logos 4 and like it.  I really like the way the iPhone app works with it, potentially. I say that because there is a great framework for a killer app, but it is not yet there.  It is free!  If you don’t have Logos 4 you can get access to the resources available at http://bible.logos.com.  That’s limited, but it is something.  Also, if you register you can get 31 free resources. Strangely, I am  registered yet the program has a link in the Home Screen asking me to do so. It should already know that I am and remove this link.

The other good thing about the Logos iPhone app is the overall interface. It is nice. It opens to the Home screen which lists reading plans and news information. Tap on Library and there are two lists, the bookshelf (pictured above) and the library. It is a little confusing to have a library tab on the library page. I wish they had made it more obvious that the bookshelf is the most used books while the library tab is all available books. Titles like Favorites and All would be more explanatory.  I’d also like to see a tab here for purchasing new books from within the app.

Notice above that next to the Library button there is one for Search and Read.  You can search all the books available in your library. On the Read screan you can read them.  When you first select Read, it will show the currently open book. It takes a couple of seconds to load it on a fast Internet connection, but when it appears, tap in the center and the toolbars appear (pictured above). Notice that at the top there is a place to type in a reference or you can select the button next to it and it will reveal a page to choose the book of the Bible or the Table of Contents of a book.  The blue bar slides back and forth to quickly move to a spot in the open book.  The book covers show recently opened books. Tap one and it will reopen.

Tap on more and you get a list of other features. Text Comparison is for comparing multiple translations of a verse. The Passage Guide behaves similarly to the desktop app. It finds resources about a particular passage. The Word Study Guide does the same for a word or topic.  The others on the More screen are Settings, Favorites and About which are self explanatory.

The interface is intuitive and simple. It works. I prefer to read books by scrolling but it has a swiping method.  I do like the app and for an initial release it is very good. I reviewed it in the App Store and gave it 4 stars.  Why not 5?

The Bad

Sadly, there are some little glitches.  The library tab on the library page does not properly load books. When you get to the bottom of the list there is a button for more books. Tap it and you would hope the next set of books in alphabetical order would be added to the bottom of the list. But instead, they are inserted in the middle of the currently loaded list. You have to scroll down to see the new books added.  Notice below how The Swanson New Testament Greek Morphology book is ahead of The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint book.

Speaking of Interlinears, I opened one and sadly the layout is all mashed together. It is inelegant and in my opinion useless.

Another very minor flaw is that it forces you to open to the Home screen. In both Logos 3 and 4 for desktop you can open to the previous location instead of the Home screen. But not in the iPhone app. Minor but would be nice.

These are bad but also minor and I suspect will be fixed very soon. However there are two more serious problems with the Logos iPhone app.

The Ugly

These two things make the iPhone app nearly useless to me. First is the problem of reading books offline. You have to be online to read the books and I am not sure if this will change anytime soon.  The best iPhone Bible apps read offline like PocketBible from Laridian and OliveTree.  Neither of these require Internet access to use them, which puts them way ahead. While it is bad on my iPhone which only has Edge access in our area, it would be worse with an iPod Touch.

Secondly, most of the books in my Logos 4 collection that I would want to read away from the computer are not even available in the app at all due to publisher agreements.  This is not the fault of Logos and Bob Pritchett of Logos assures me that this will change.  They are working hard to retain the rights to let us use our books in the app. But until it does it is severely limited. Until they can be downloaded to the app, it is useless to me away from Wifi access not having 3G coverage in my area. (AT&T when?)

But the app is free so don’t just take my word for it. You definitely should download it and give it a try.  Register to get access to the 31 free books.

If Logos solves these Ugly problems then their iPhone app will be nipping at the heals of with what I call the big three (Laridian, Mantis and OliveTree).  Solve all of them and it will be a real contender.