My son went to the East Burke High School prom with his girlfriend who goes there. Here is one of my favorites. The rest of the pictures are available at my Flickr site. You can click the picture to go there.

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Wanna see what PocketBible is going to look like on the iPad? Me too! Thanks to a post at the Laridian blog, you can.

Feel like a kid in December waiting for this one to get in the app store. They waited to test their app on the actual iPad which will hopefully result in a much more stable release. I like PB on the iPhone, but with the new ability to open multiple books at once it is going to be a killer iPad study tool!

Aside from split pane view, you will get notes and searching of notes. Some of what is being added on the iPad will work in the iPhone app.

“I don’t want to sound like an Apple zealot or iPad fanboy, but I’m starting to think the iPad is the platform for mobile Bible study. I know, I know — you’d like to make that decision for yourself. We’re getting close. It will be worth the wait,” wrote Craig Rairdin of Laridian. Welcome to the party! You’re just now “starting to think” that? He’s right. It is a great tool for mobile Bible study and I think PB looks like it will be a great weapon in that arsenal. Can’t wait to see if I’m right.

Working hard to get your app ready for the iPad launch date must have been a harrowing process. Sadly, a couple of Bible app developers have been frustrated by the app approval process. First Olive Tree has had trouble getting their app approved even though it has already been approved for the iPhone. Now Laridian is reporting that one of their apps has been languishing in the Cupertino dungeon of unapproved iPad apps.

Laridian posted screen shots of their PocketBible iPad app, which is not yet finished. But in the post they stated that their Roman’s Road witnessing tool was made ready and submitted in time for the April 3rd launch, but they have not heard anything from Apple.

Come on Apple! Get these apps approved! Maybe tomorrow!

Found this over on Warner Crocker’s personal blog. It is hilarious.

My review of the Apple iPad over at Notebooks.com is (at least right now) the highest news item on Google. Here’s the proof!

Of course it has already been replaced! But my 15 seconds of fame …

But not right away.

Today, Craig Rairdin, the head honcho at Laridian, posted on their blog that they have had a lot of requests for an Android version of PocketBible. He said that they have plans to offer a version for Android, but explained that since they are working hard on other priorities and are limited by having only two full-time programs (himself and Jeff Wheeler). When you consider all they are doing, that is pretty good output for just two guys.

He said their priorities are the iPhone OS devices followed by Android. They are partnering with other entities to work on Blackberry and WebOS versions. The will not be devloping a Symbian version and are taking a wait-and-see approach to Windows Phone 7. Palm and Windows Mobile don’t have much promise going forward and he seemed to suggest there won’t be much done on those two platforms.

So be patient and be looking for PocketBible for Android. Just not tomorrow!

Over at Notebooks.com we have a video posted that … well … is amazing if it is authentic. It shows a guy putting an iPad into a heavy duty blender. The result is pretty amazing. Hit the link. It is worth it!

If you have been following the tech news this Easter weekend you’d think that Jesus resurrection was the second most important event celebrated today. Personally, I had a ball in church proclaiming “He is risen! He is risen, indeed!” I told my wife as I was exiting the sanctuary that I felt like a kid coming off the roller coaster. “Can we go again!”

After going home and taking a holy nap to recover from the busy weekend of worship prep, I am starting a week of vacation and excited about both preaching and the iPad.

For the last week the various Digital Bible study outlets have been prepping for the iPad launch. Sadly, only a few of them made it over the finish line. But never fear because the race is not over. Some are taking the slow and steady pace approach and others the get there and get it done approach. One of those latter, sadly fell victim to the App store approval process and so wasn’t ready despite great efforts.

The ones that are available are getting in on the excitement. Logos is shining the brightest in my opinion. It is atop the store when you search for Bible and has some really good reviews. YouVersion is very popular and gets a lot of downloads from people who are not looking for a serious Bible study tool. BibleXpress is making a name for themselves, but also has the the most expensive price in the currently available apps for the iPad. HandiBible is there too with the most instances – they have the basic app, a version in Romanian, German, and The Message. holiwrit (yes it is supposed to be lowercase h) is a newcomer going after the crowd who only want a simple Bible reader. Coming soon are OliveTree, PocketBible and MantisBible.

I am excited about the future of Bible study on the iPad. The things that are net yet out may be some of the most creative and use the space most effectively. So be looking for them soon. Until then, it is a little sparce.

One sad note! I did a search for Bible in the Apple iBook app and found very little. You can get the KJV, NIV, and NRSV, but none of the other most popular translations like ESV, HCSB or NLT are there. I hope this changes. On the Kindle side publishers have had a large collection of Bibles for a long time and this helps Bible students who want to read on their iPad. There are also some commentaries and reference works available in iBooks and Kindle. I found the Expositor’s Bible Commentary in iBooks.

Olive Tree’s excellent Bible Reader for the iPhone is growing up as the iPad is about to be released. And the folks over there are showing off what is coming with some screen shots on their web site. Obviously, it will be interesting to see what the “little guys” in Bible study software can do with the extra screen real estate. I hope they don’t forget the creativity they have required to make top quality software on the small screen. But these shots are promising. Can’t wait to see more from my other favorites.