Social networking and Bible study should go together. The iPad may help us in this venture. I read about some interesting key points (thanks to Gizmodo) that Apple wants developers to keep in mind as they prep iPhone and Touch apps for the iPad coming sometime in the next two months. One of the points said:
They’re super into the sharing thing: "Think of ways people might want to use your application with others. Expand your thinking to include both the physical sharing of a single device and the virtual sharing of data."
As I read that I thought again about the thing I am most excited about when it comes to using the new iPad – Bible study. How could developers of Bible study apps incorporate more “sharing” so that we could take advantage of the “application with others”? Already there is some social network built into a few of my favorite Bible apps on iPhone/Touch. YouVersion is probably the best at this with their community based app that can be used by people together in church or together commenting and sharing about the app. My problem is I don’t like the YouVersion’s selection of content or the interface. I also really don’t like only being able to use it online, although you can now download a number of Bibles. While it may be the most downloaded app, it is not more favorite and I don’t have it installed.
Of my favorite Bible apps, Logos can post to Facebook and Twitter from within the app. You can also email verses from within Logos. But there is no two way interaction. Olive Tree syncs notes with Evernote, so I guess there could be some do it yourself interaction there. Neither Laridian PocketBible nor MantisBible have any social interaction at all.
Imagine, if someone would really jump on this with some really useful social interactivity. I could imagine a Bible app that …
- Let’s people share reading plans by marking them to be shared between devices and posted to social networking sights
- Highlighting and other mark-up that is shared in real time. A pastor or Bible study leader wants everyone to look at the word “perish” in John 3:16 so in social networking mode, everyone’s Bible app would sync to the same place (John 3:16) and the word “perish” would be highlighted. Then a note he had already added the word would pop up on everyone’s device with the same content saying “perish means to destroy yourself. God is not responsible for our perishing; we are.” I could then tap a spot in the pop up to save it to my mark-ups or just let it go away once the social networking session is finished.
- What if I had a book on my device that I wanted others to see while we are studying together – like TWOT as we look up an Old Testament Hebrew word. They might have access to TWOT, but for this session they can see it temporarily during the study. There would also be a link somewhere on the other person’s screen giving him/her the opportunity to purchase this book either now or later. This would be a good way to legally share content either temporarily or permanently and would give a revenue stream to the software maker.
- Like YouVersion, it would be nice to have a “wall” where we could post comments or sermon notes so that anyone searching that version could access the public content. There could also be a collaborative way to create content together from within the program that is later searchable.
These are just a few ideas. What would you like to see in this kind of app. I know that some of the Bible app producers read this sight so you can speak to them via this post and comments.
Tags: apple, ipad, iphone, ipod touch, Laridian, Logos, Mantis, Olive Tree, PocketBible, social networking, YouVersion
Laridian has produced what it calls an eTract for the iPhone. The concept is that this is a witnessing guide for use on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You open the app and follow it as you are sharing the Gospel with someone. It follows, for the most part, what is traditionally called the Roman’s Road. This witnessing presentation usually uses four scriptures from the book of Romans.
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
Romans 5:8
Romans 10:9
The tract is pretty good and strays a little from the traditional Roman’s Road. But in a good way. While I kind of wish it was a little more colorful and I also wish there was a way to give it away, it is a good little app. For only 99 cents in the App Store how can you go wrong?
There is a possibility that there might be future eTracts using the same framework but with different content. I would love to be able to submit my favorite witnessing format and have them create an app.
Tags: etract, Evangelism, iphone, Laridian, Romans Road, tract, witnessing
Dave Dunkin, a developer of the Logos iPhone app, created a very nice and very fair comparison chart of all the major iPhone Bible apps. The reason this is significant is that he is extremely honest and fair when judging his own app. He don’t just glow about the Logos app. The extensive chart compares Logos, BibleReader from OliveTree, PocketBible from Laridian, YouVersion, Paul Avery Bible and Mantis.
Check it out at Dave’s Blog over at the rabble.rule blog.
Tags: Bible, Bible Software, Bible Software. review, Bible Study, iphone, Laridian, Logos, Mantis, Olive Tree, Paul Avery Bible, PocketBible, YouVersion
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.
Tags: Bible, Bible Software, Book Builder, Digital Bible Study, iphone, Laridian, PocketBible, PocketSword
If you use an iPhone and want to improve your prayer life, then this app is for you. PrayerParnter from Laridian is a nice little program and it is available in the app store now. I will update this post with a more in depth review, but just so you know that I will be giving it at least four and probably five stars in the App Store.
The basic gist of it is that it helps you keep track of your prayer requests and praise reports. It is able to tie requests to contacts and can email encouragement and requests to others. It is simple to use and Laridian paid attention to detail with this little app. At $1.99 it is a no brainer. I often get review copies of apps, but I just bought this one. It is already at 1.0 the best prayer app in the app store.
Tags: iphone, Laridian, prayer, prayerpartner
Sorry, but this is not a post about my offering to enter into a prayer partner relationship with you. Although I might.
What I’m talking about is a new iPhone app that I’ve had the pleasure of beta testing from Laridian, the makers of the great new, and always improving, Bible app, PocketBible.
PrayerPartner is not yet available on the iPhone but it has been submitted so it could be ready in as little as 2 weeks. The app does what its name says. It partners with you to help you in your prayer life. The app lets you record and track prayer requests, praises, and people. It interfaces with the iPhone’s contact database so you can attach prayers to a person. You can also make prayers repeat. The app will probably cost just $1.99 so check back and I will post when it is ready. Below are some screen shots from the Laridian Blog article about it. By the way, I often get free review copies of the apps I talk about here. But this is one I will not even be asking for a review copy of … I will be paying. Not much but it shows the real value I place in this app.
This is the home screen
This is the screen where you edit a request
Here is the category list
This is the screen where you record the request.
You can also keep a prayer journal, email prayer requests to other people or send an email to a person for whom you are praying.
Tags: iphone, Laridian, prayer, prayerpartner, review
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:
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.
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!!
Tags: Bible Software, Bible Study, Digital Bible Study, iphone, Laridian, notes, PocketBible, update
I get excited about some very boring things sometimes, but today I read about this about an upcoming Laridian PocketBible for iPhone update:
The major new feature is notes. You can associate notes with any Bible verse. Notes are independent of the Bible you’re reading. So a note on John 3:16 in the KJV also shows up on John 3:16 in the NIV.
Notes are indicated by a “Note” link at the start of the verse. Tap the link to view the note, or simply tap-and-hold anywhere on the verse to open the context menu and from there, choose to view or create a note.
Any references to Bible verses in your notes will be automatically linked. While viewing a note, just tap the reference to view the Bible verse. Notes are happy to be just plain text, but if you’re comfortable with HTML you can use most HTML tags in your notes. We provide a menu of HTML tags you can easily insert, and bold and italics are available from a toolbar in the note editor. So select the word you want to italicize, then use the <i> button to italicize it. No advanced HTML tagging knowledge required.
The note editor supports undo and redo. Few iPhone apps do, and for good reason. The current state of the text editing features on the iPhone is pretty primitive. It’s difficult to get access to everything you need to support undo/redo.
That will be great. Of course their competitors at Olive Tree are doing some really exciting things with notes and syncing with Evernote. Also Mantis Bible has some form of note syncing and their web site. Both are still very much in “beta”.
The update to Laridian’s software will be coming in a few weeks. When it does it will also add rotation lock, copy/paste of passages and verses to other apps, and some bug fixes.
Tags: Bible, digitial bible study, Evernote, iphone, Laridian, Mantis, notes, Olive Tree, PocketBible, software
