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Posts Tagged Digital Bible Study

iPad and Bible Study

Jan 30

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, Sermons, Technology, ipad, iphone | 2 Comments

I was one of those Geeks that watched and wondered as Steve Jobs announced the new Apple iPad (worst name of what looks to be a nice product ever). I am an early adopter Tech geek. So I will be wanting one of these devices as soon as they are released.

As I watched, the first thought that I had was what a valuable tool for Bible study out and around this will be. Currently, I have a very heavy HP laptop. It has a huge 12 cell batter which allows me to sit in a coffee shop or the bread place near me for five or more areas not tethered to the power company. It is nice, but also heavy. I’d love to go lighter and though about a netbook. But those tiny keyboards are horrible for a ham fisted guy like me. But an iPad (ugh! – I hate that name) might do the trick. I don’t know yet.

But while my favorite Bible study apps will run on it out of the box, there are going to have to be some improvements to allow me to do full-time Bible study on it. Maybe these will never take place. But here is what I see as the most important improvements needed.

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Logos iPhone App Running in Ipad

  1. Since there is no multi-tasking (the ability to switch from the Bible study app to a word processor and back without closing one to open the other) there needs to be two things. First, there needs to be a good word processor in the app. I’m not talk MS Word quality but MS Works quality or even less. Maybe something as good as Notes with formatting and styles and footnoting.  I won’t likely leave my content there, but I want to be able to write my sermon or Bible study in the app. When I am done, I can export it or copy/paste it into something like Docs To Go or the word processor Apple has created for the iPad. Second, there must be the option to open the app exactly as I left it. This is not a big deal for most of the current Bible study apps for iPhone/iPod Touch. But one or two do not remember your lost location. The Logos iPhone app always loads to what I call there ad page. It contains your Reading Plan as well as announcements from the company. But if I am studying in a commentary and have to exit Logos to write in my word processor, I want to quickly go back to that spot I was studying before.
  2. Split Screen view at least. With more screen real estate to work with, there is no good reason not to have a split screen view with one book open in one half and the other open in the other half. This is already possible in some apps, but not many.

I would love to hear other ideas. I will add good ones to this list.

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Creating Content for iPhone Bible Apps

Jan 5

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, Technology, iphone | No Comments

In a recent post I commented that PocketSword was the only app that I knew of that would allow you to create books for your use in an iPhone Bible app. That is sort of true, but not entirely accurate. Let me explain.

PocketSword lets you create books and then install them using special instructions on their web site. That really distinguishes it from the other major iPod Bible vendors. One of our readers reminded me that Laridian has a program called Book Builder that lets you create your own books. The $29 version will let you create books for some platforms, but not for the iPhone. However, their Pro version for $99, does let you create books that you can then submit to Laridian and have them host the book on their servers, making them available to whomever you choose. So, for example, I could create a book of all my sermons and let them host it and make it available for free to anyone who has the iPhone app from Laridian. So, this does make it possible although not for free. The hosting is free but you have to buy the Book Builder. Not sure how hard this is, but at least it is possible.

If you know of another iPhone Bible app that allows you to create books or translations of the Bible for use on their app, I would love to know about it and will pass it on to our readers.

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Logos iPhone App More Content Available

Dec 15

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, Technology, iphone | 2 Comments

The Logos iPhone app is decent. One of the limitations I complained about in my review was the lack of content you have in the PC app available on the iPhone. This is not the fault of Logos, but still a limitation. However, things got better today as more of my content showed up. I am reading (or have read through) John MacAurthur’s The Glory of Heaven in the desktop app. But it had not be available on the iPhone app. But it is now. Frustratingly, as far as I can tell, there is no list of available content anywhere. Would be interested in knowing if I am wrong and where such a list is.

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WordSearch 9 New Features

Dec 9

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Technology | No Comments

As you learned if you read my blog everyday, WordSearch 9 is now available. There are not a huge number of new features, but unlike some other software companies that have done a radical rewrite, WS9 is an incremental upgrade. I said in my first post that it felt more like a point release than a full number upgrade. Maybe WordSearch 8.1 or 8.5 would not sell as well.

But while it may feel like that, some of the subtle new things are much appreciated and make the program better. I am please so far and think that it is worth the $39.95 I paid for my upgrade.

Two of the new features are the target icon (see red arrow below) on the toolbar and the bigger toolbar buttons (see icons in highlight box below).

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The buttons are designed to be bigger and easier to see on high res monitors. Also for lower res eyes (which now that I’m 40 I find is happening to me).  The target icon is designed to make that Bible the target window for all Bible reference links. If you have a dictionary and a commentary open along with the ESV, HCSB and KJV, you can click this icon and make it the default target for all Bible references in your commentary or Bible dictionary. This happens even if that Bible is not the currently active window. Click a link in the commentary and even if the KJV is showing in the Bible window, it will open the Bible window to your Bible that has the target button engaged. I clicked on it in the ESV but then changed to the KJV. I clicked Isaiah 9:6 in the New American Commentary and it switched the Bible window from KJV to ESV. Nice touch! It lets you change the default Bible quickly without going into a settings window from the menu.

Sadly, another new feature is instability. For the first time I can ever remember WordSearch crashed on me. Hopefully this will not be a harbinger of things to come.

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How Much Should Bible Software Cost

Dec 8

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, Technology | No Comments

Nothing!

Next question…

Now let’s wake up and return to reality. There are some great, free Bible software solutions. The most popular is e-Sword. But if you want modern translations, then you likely will have to pay even with e-Sword. So how much should you have to pay if you want more than just public domain Bible study tools?

The more commercial products range from $30-$90 for a very basic product. Yet, you can also pay thousands of dollars for extensive, scholarly libraries from companies like Logos or WordSearch. These are very good applications that will help the average Christian read, study, and learn about the Bible and its message while offering Bible scholars the advanced tools they need. If you get one of the inexpensive collections of these programs you may later want to add some books to help further you study. To do so you will usually have to pay.

So, how much should Bible software cost? Or more accurately, how much should publishers charge for their books in electronic format?

I have an Amazon Kindle. Typically, books are cheaper on the Kindle than in hard copy format – or as I like to call it, dead tree edition (not because I am a big environmentalist extremist, but because it’s just funnier). I think this is fair since it costs Amazon far less to store, ship and distribute electronic books than it does dead tree editions. Shouldn’t all ebooks be cheaper than the dead tree editions?

Digital editions of Bibles and Biblical resources is not as simple as sending a Word file, text document or PDF of the books over the Internet. In Bible software they have to tag it, add hyperlinks to Bible references, among other things. This can be labor intensive. Some are just text. But the better Bible software engines do more to the book than they do to a dead tree edition.  So it takes extra effort to make a Bible software copy of a book and it has added functionality. So why not make it cost more? Digits do not cost any money to reproduce after the original file has been produced. With a book, there is a cost with every copy of that book that is sold. The cost is tied up in the actual paper and ink, the storage while the book is waiting to be sent to the customer or the store, and the cost of the sending.  With an ebook you simple copy it to a new location.  As the cost of storage plummets, we are talking pennies or fractions of a penny. The Bible software company only has to have enough copies on a hard drive somewhere to ensure it is backed up safely. Every time a consumer buys that book, they just make a copy and either send it across the Internet or put it on a cheap storage medium, like a DVD or flash drive.  Each copy of the Bible software and the dozens or thousands of books costs pennies to dollars in raw material.  Add a little bit for the cost of the person who is taking the order (if there is such a person) and the other overhead of supporting that program, and you have a minimal cost compared to dead tree books. So, instead of costing them more because of the extra work on the front end, the ebook actually costs much less to produce. Therefore, instead of being more or even equal in price, the ebook should be cheaper than the dead tree book.

There is another issue to consider. With ebooks there is a far greater risk than there is with dead tree books. What if the company goes out of business or stops distributing the program. I have Zondervan’s Pradis version of Expositor’s Bible Commentary. After this year, they won’t be selling it. And soon they will not be supporting it. The argument could be made that I can always use that program and the books contain in it. But what if the next version of Windows is incompatible with the current program? I will be stuck either maintaining a current generation Windows PC just to use that program or I will lose it. Of course Zondervan can help alleviate my fears and those of others by giving us a free copy of the Logos versions. But that is unlikely given their track record.

For two reasons stated above – the added risk of ebooks and lower cost of producing them – Bible software companies should sell their Bibles and resources at a reduced rate.  The good news, most do. But the point is all should.

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Zondervan for Logos Discount

Dec 7

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, Technology | No Comments

If you have owned Zondervan’s Pradis Bible software you may be interested that the company is discontinuing that program and supporting Logos. They will be making it available next year some time. A comment posted on my previous post about this claims the discount will only be 35%.

The comment says:

Hey guys, I just found out from a sales rep today that the discount will be a measley 35% off

I cannot speak to the veracity of this post. But if that is true, I would be a little disappointed.

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Laridian PocketBible for iPhone Update

Nov 12

Posted by Kevin Purcell in Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, Technology, iphone | 1 Comment

There is a new version of the Laridian iPhone PocketBible.  I just downloaded it and here are a few of the new items and fixes:

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Notice the first one on the list in the screen grab above: NOTES!! And the functionality of the notes seems to have lots of bells and whistles. You can copy verses to the clipboard so that you can paste them in other apps. I use Docs To Go so this will be nice when editing files on the iPhone when I want to include a verse. You could also post to Twitter/Facebook.

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When you open PocketBible and go to a verse that has a note attached it has a hyperlinked “note” next to it (see above left). That way you will know it is there.  This is in keeping with the very simple and clean interface of PocketBible. Other programs use icons, bit I kind of like this approach. It is a taste issue, but the interface feels very uncluttered.

Above are also screenshots of the notes editing environment (above center) and the HTML tag insertion screen (above right).  The notes feature lets you add HTML to spice up the look of the notes.

There is also a Rotation Lock feature that allows you to keep it from automatically rotating to landscape mode when the iPhone senses it is rotated.  I do not use this feature in other programs, so I doubt I will in PB.  However, I know this was a much requested feature during the beta testing phase, so I’m sure many will be jumping to get the update just for that feature alone.

This is a wonderful update and makes PocketBible a much more enticing option in the very crowded iPhone Bible space. Now, let’s hope for some notes syncing with the Desktop version of PocketBible and also a split screen view.  My 4 star rating is getting much closer to five stars!!

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