This week the Atlantic noticed something that readers of my blog have known for quite some time. The iPad is a great tool for Bible study. According to the site, Olive Tree cracked the top 100 highest grossing book applications for the first time. They are citing Drew Heninger, CEO of Olive Tree.

The huge selection of Bible apps actually has one affect that likely waters down the overall figures. Since there is likely only going to be a few apps that will sell popular books from NY Times best selling authors, those sails will rise. The latest Dan Brown or John Grisham can be bough from two or three at the most. But the Bible can be had in more than a dozen different iPad apps. This dilutes their impact. If you could combine all of the Bible app sales and rank them against all the sales of each of the other titles in all their various outlets like Kindle, iBooks, etc., I would bet the Bible dwarfs most books. But despite the dilution, the Bible is  breaking into the top 100.

The Atlantic is trying to say this somehow gives us a hint at who iPad users are. I doubt that. But it does show that the most popular book in human history is popular even as an eBook too!

iPad version of Olive Tree’s Bible Reader is available in the app store. Get it here.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Olive Tree is one of the best iPhone Bible apps available.  I gave it a test drive back in my Windows Mobile days, but was not really excited about it back then. I can’t say how their WinMo app is today because I don’t have one. But the iPhone app is top notch.

I did a review of the program for Christian Computing Magazine awhile back. In that review I rated it as one of the four best apps for Bible study on the platform. To be honest there is little difference in quality among the four (Laridian, Logos, MantisBible are the other three). But since that time there have been a couple of unique developments that I wanted to share with you.

As you can see it is a very simple interface. The Title bar reveals the current book or Bible translation that is open. The Library icon opens up to reveal your installed library, favorite books list, the store where you can download many new add on books and Bibles, your available downloads from both iTunes and the OT store, as well as the more screen where you can show books by authors/contributors.

One of the new features in 4.10 is the ability to buy and download books from within the Library screen’s store menu. Apple has not yet approved all that OT has submitted for download. But when it does it will make buying add-ons much easier.

Back to the main screen (shown to the left) you can see the Verse button. Tap it and it lets you go to a specific reference in the Bible or location in your book. For all books besides Bibles it will say Conents.

On the lower toolbar there are arrows for going back and forth in the history of opened books and locations.  The Plus button is where you add bookmarks, notes, and copy verses to paste in other apps.

The second new feature I wish to highlight is the notes in OT 4.10.  Unlike almost any other Bible app, they sync very nicely to Evernote. You can add notes here or by tapping and holding a verse number.  The popup menu gives you the option to add notes to a verse.  Then, when you go into the Notes list you can sync your notes manually with Evernote. They show up either in Evernote’s online notes application or in the desktop/iPhone app in a special folder created by OT.  You can find your notes by tapping the toolbar icon furthers to the right with the box and arrow.  There you can sync them, read them and delete them. Notice in the picture above (lower right in the set of four) there is a line that says “Pull Down to Sync Notes”.  That is how you do it.  With wi-fi or 3G it happens pretty quickly.

Another new feature that I wish to highlight is the Olive Tree University, which is their built in help system.  You access it from the same menu where you find your notes list. It has At the top (not pictured) you see “What’s New in 4.10” It will play a YouTube video that highlights the new features in the app. In the screenshot to the right you can see the next section which is the internal help system showing the Basics and the Advanced Topics.  Below that is a section that includes a link to the In-App Bookstore, User Reviews and OT’s Forums page from their web site.  Below that (not pictured) are links to allow you to interact with OT people view a newsletters signup, the company blog, and a link to the official OT Twitter page.

The OT University is well done. It may be one of the best and easiest to learn help systems in any of the Bible apps I’ve reviewed. Laridian is a close second, but they keeping true to their emphasis on simple interface, only have text. The videos and images in OT help are nice.

The best new feature in OT 4.10 are the original language tools. In the upper left screenshot of the four shots together above, you see the popup that shows the Greek information. This is the NA27 Greek New Testament. Each word is a link that opens a popup.  In the popup you get the parsing and definitions from UBS Dictionary.  The Hebrew OT uses BHS and the BDB Dictionary for its definitions. Also available are tools for studying the LXX.

This is a significant advance for OT and for iPhone Bible study ease.  Previously Mantis had the easiest Original Language tools with the hyperlinked Complete Word Study Bible.  The two programs use different approaches. Either one is a great solution for doing language study. Olive Tree is ahead in one area – split screen viewing. You can move a bar to share the screen between two books. It has a handle to adjust it so you can show a small window for one and a larger for the other. Or just split the screen in half. Of course one feature that is lacking in OT is the ability to track your devotional readings.  Mantis lets you open one of its many reading plans and when you click the link to that passage, read it, then return to the reading plan and the passage is automatically checked off.

In my original review of Olive Tree (4.08) I gave said:

The BR’s split screen mode, pop-ups, and the ability to add notes along with its large library makes it a very attractive choice. If you are already an Olive Tree customer, most of your books will transfer to the iPhone app. Using the iPhone App store rating system, I would give it 4 ½ stars. Just a few minor things like the lack of a comprehensive help system drop it down from a five star app.

Notice that the major downfall was the lack of a comprehensive help system. With Olive Tree University that is no longer a problem. However, there is still the issue of no devotional reading tracking like Mantis has. So I will not change my rating yet. But if that is added, I will have to give OT a 5 star rating.

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.