Apple TV on Wi-Fi No Longer Reliable for Churches – UPDATE

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jan 23, 2013 in Featured, Ministry, Technology | 0 comments

UPDATE: See my post at GottaBeMobile to understand how this might be a problem fixed.

For over a year we’ve tried to use the Apple TV over Wi-Fi as a presentation tool at the church where I’m a pastor, but this month we’ve given up because the device just doesn’t give us a reliable option anymore.

We connect the Apple TV to a projector in a our fellowship hall, the site of our Wednesday night Bible study and other meetings. The Apple TV connects via Wi-Fi to our network and we stream video and display presentations from an iPad or iPhone using AirPlay. For those who don’t know, AirPlay wirelessly displays content from an iOS device like the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone to an Apple TV.

At first this solution worked great. I really like using wireless to connect a laptop or my iPad and iPhone to a projector via the Apple TV. It definitely beats hooking up to the VGA port and our stereo system. Tethering to the projector and sound via wires limits where I can stand. With the iPad and AirPlay over Apple TV I was able to stand closer to the attendees. I put the iPad or iPhone on a lectern, tapped the Home button twice and swiped right to show the AirPlay screen mirroring feature. The setup worked great for about a year and I relied on it weekly.

Unfortunately, with iOS 5 and later the Wi-Fi on the Apple TV no longer connects reliably enough. A bunch of Apple customers took to the Apple support communities to describe similar situations in a 58 page tread with hundreds of users suffering unreliable connections.

When I connect to the Apple TV using AirPlay everything seems to work fine at first. Then after a few minutes there’s usually a drop blanking the screen. This usually happens during higher bandwidth functions like streaming video. It’s also happened when display slides in a presentation using Keynote.

Connecting over Ethernet will prove costly to us at this time. We tried adding a Wi-Fi extender from Netgear between our wireless router and the Apple TV. The extender normally works well. We’ve also tried tweaking settings in our router and even removing security features.

For entertainment purposes at home, the Apple TV version 2 and newer became a must have iPad and iPhone accessory that only costs $99. We still believe that for home entertainment, it’s a great tool. Users can stream video from Apple iTunes, their iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and now Mac. Users can enjoy video from third-party services like Netflix, MLB and more. We love using it for an entertainment device and wish they would expand their offerings.

Entertainment users won’t put up with a lot of dropped connections, but the occasional hiccup for a device like this doesn’t make me want to throw it out yet. However, churches need a solid and reliable solution that always works. The Apple TV doesn’t give us that.

Imagine standing in front of dozens of people. They came to watch a video that I promoted for weeks. As the presenter, I didn’t plan for a backup presentation because the video, would last the entire hour. After about 15 minutes it dropped a connection. After reconnecting and starting again, it dropped after another 20 minutes. Nearly every time we’ve planned to use the Apple TV for videos and presentations it dropped the connection. Until something changes, I will longer rely on the Apple TV at church. I can no longer recommend it until Apple fixes this issue.

If you don’t mind the occasional hiccup at home and have a wired connection, the it works great. If you can connect the Apple TV to the church’s network via Ethernet, then it works great. But don’t rely on it using Wi-Fi at this time.

President’s Reelection Encourages Me

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Nov 8, 2012 in Editorial, Featured | 0 comments

The President won reelection pretty easily from the perspective of the uninformed and those who only listen to the easily accessed media outlets. In truth, his campaign worked really hard for five years to bring about this win. He built a ground game starting in 2007 before the first election. Unlike most candidates who take a break after their first election as president, I’m told he kept his operation in place and kept organizing communities. Big surprise for a man whose primary job before his first election was one of community organizer for political groups in Chicago. He’s obviously very good at his job and he turned out his constituency while conservatives, especially evangelical Christians, stayed home in huge numbers.

I disagree with a lot of what the President promotes.

• He sees government as the primary tool for helping those with great need financially and otherwise while I believe private groups utilizing their good will do a better job of this with government safety nets for those in extreme need
• He sees homosexuals as an oppressed minority group, whereas I see them differently since stats show they usually are better educated and have higher income than the average public
• He sees American military might as a necessary evil at best and one of our greatest weakness at worst while I see it as our greatest strength and a tool for immense good since we brought peace to the world during the Cold War keeping people free from communism and serve as the only defense against Muslim extremists who want Sharia law to rule the world subjugating women and anyone who’s not an extremist Muslim
• He sees taxes as a good tool to bring fairness to the world since people with too much money don’t deserve what they have since they needed help while I see taxes as a necessary evil that should only support the bare minimum of a strong defense, protecting interstate commerce and providing for those in point number one above.

I could go on.

He won reelection by out hustling the Republicans and stirring his base to go vote while appealing to moderates by promising not to raise income taxes for a year after his election. That’s right! A year, since he said he wouldn’t raise them on those below $250,000 next year. He didn’t say he would never do it.

So, how can someone who so fundamentally disagrees with the President be encouraged?

The policies of the administration will prove to fail and when its obvious, people will seek help from somewhere. If conservatives can learn from the President’s reelection campaign, then we can start working to both get our base out and vote during  the 2014 election and start educating America that big government liberalism failed. Sadly, this will require some pain before it gets there. I don’t like that. I hate to see anyone suffer, but if that’s the only way for people to seek help, then so be it.

The President provided a model for getting elected even when your views don’t match the majority of the country. Most people want smaller government despite what the liberals and even the moderate media keeps saying. The President didn’t win because of the welfare state. He won because he outworked Republicans in getting out his vote. So, if we can learn how he did it and match it, we win. On an even playing field conservatism always trumps liberalism in America. If Mitt Romney was really a conservative and got out those 3 Million conservative Christians, he wins. He failed because he didn’t work as hard and wasn’t espousing his sincere beliefs – moderate to liberal social views and moderate to conservative fiscal policy. People didn’t trust him because he didn’t really believe what he was saying.

Third, I’m encouraged because some really conservative people are waiting in the wings to take on the liberal establishment in both parties next time around. The 2014 election will also bring more of them into office because the out-year election always provides gains for the out party. I predict the Senate will turn Republican and the Congress will see a larger control by Republicans and most of those will come from true believer conservatives.

For the next few weeks, don’t let the liberal media convince you that moderation is the key to winning for Republicans. Why would anyone elect a Republican liberal when they can get a real liberal from the Democrats? We need candidates that are true believers and they will win. Why do I say that? Because it was the only way Republicans have succeeded in the past 32 years.

• Ronald Reagan – true believer and won by landslides in both elections due to his strength of character and skill as a communicator telling America why happy conservatism really works.
• George H. W. Bush – he wasn’t a true believer, but he enjoyed the pixy dust from the Reagan years. On his own, after raising taxes, he failed to win reelection.
• Bob Dole was a moderate and lost
• George W. Bush wasn’t as conservative as Ronald Reagan but was closer than any other candidate since Reagan and he won barely in 2000 and handily in 2004.
• John McCain sounded like a conservative but was more moderate than he sounded and only seemed conservative compared to the President
• Mitt Romney governed as a moderate in Massachusetts and we were all told that’s only because of the Democrats in his state, but he still did it and failed to convince the real conservatives in his party that the real Romney was the guy running this year not the one who governed. That’s because we’re smart and look at your actions which drown out your words when they contradict.

Last, God is still on the throne even if Satan himself takes over the USA. And no, President Obama is not Satan!

Accordance 10 Now in Mac App Store

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Sep 19, 2012 in Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Featured, Software | 0 comments

For those want to check out Accordance 10, the best shot is to download it from the Mac App Store for $49.99 which includes $49.99 of credit for an upgraded package. In other words, downloaders will get a nice discount on a larger package.

The previous version was available, but only a more expensive $200 version. This makes entry easier with a lower threshold. On their blog the listed som differences between the Mac App Store version and the regular version purchased directly from Accordance. (see it below quoted from their blog)

Mac App Store

• Requires Intel Macs running OSX 10.7.3 or later
• Updates are released through the Mac App Store
• Updates may be delayed due to Apple’s approval process
• Possibility of future iCloud support
• No special discounts are available for full-time students, ministers, or teachers
• Requires a separate download of the Accordance files for each “user” running Accordance on your computer
• May require you to redownload your current Accordance modules due to sandboxing. This is the case if they are currently in your local HD rather than your user folder.
• Only the Accordance 10 Starter Collection is available

Direct from Accordance

• Requires Intel Macs running OSX 10.6 or later
• Updates are released as in-app downloads
• Updates are released as soon as they are ready
• iCloud support not available, but other sync options like Dropbox are being considered
• Special discounts are available for full-time students, ministers, and teachers
• You have the option to move the Accordance files to a location that is accessible to all users on your computer
• All Accordance 10 Collections are available

The key difference is that you get iCloud from the app store which will possibly sync between machines in a future release. Also they don’t offer discounts for full-time students, ministers or teachers.

The direct version might offer syncing via a Dropbox. The rest works like usual.

They also said the following:

Once you register your Mac App Store purchase, you can receive a $49.99 credit towards the purchase of a larger Collection on our website. If you do not automatically see the credit in your cart, be sure to send the order to manual processing with a note requesting the credit and our sales team will adjust the price before charging your card. We appreciate your patience as we process the order

A Full Toolbox for Exposition Part One: Text Comparison

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Sep 6, 2012 in Bible Software, Featured, Preaching, Software | 0 comments

Does your Bible study solution offer all the tools needed to do good Bible exposition so you can preach the Bible using an expository style? That’s an important question before you select a tool, invest more money for resources to grow your toolbox or as you consider a change in software or adding a secondary tool.

Expository Preaching Needs

I believe all expository preaching requires a preacher to do inductive Bible study first. That means I will study God’s word without the use of any extra-bibilcal sources first. Then, I will do things like language study, comparison of translations and cross-reference checking.

Image credit: DrGBB on Flickr

Doing this kind of Inductive study requires a couple of things.

1. Multiple translations – it helps to read the text in more than translation before going to language study
2. Translation comparisons – It’s helpful to see how the various translations differ from one another so a student can focus on the places they differ wildly since this clues us in to complex translation issues
3. Language tools – Greek and Hebrew offer complex ideas that sometimes English doesn’t give an equivalent translation
4. Quick topical search and good cross references – the ability to quickly find passages that relate to the topics in my text helps me know how my text fits into the context of the book, the testament and the Bible

Tools to Look For in Bible Software

First, ask if your Bible software or a solution you might buy offers at the least the following translations:

• KJV
• NKJV
• NASB
• ESV
• NIV

Why those five? They’re the most used and popular translations today. Most of your congregation will likely read from them as you preach. I’m not a huge fan of the NIV, but more people likely will read from the KJV and the NIV in the congregation than any other, unless you’ve actively promoted one translation over another.

You might also want your favorite. I use the HCSB to preach because I love the way it translates the text into easily understood language while also keeping true to the original text. If the KJV and NASB represent more literal translations and the NIV or NLT represent a dynamic translation that’s not as “word-for-word” exact, then the HCSB sits in the middle.

Other tools to look for include the ability to visually compare the text. Some will highlight the words that differ between two or more translations. Some will simple put them in columns next to each other offer them in a parallel way with one line for each. I prefer the ones that offer a visual difference. Look at an example from Logos Bible Software. Below see the Text Comparison tool.

That’s just one that Logos offers. Here’s another way to compare the text using what they call the Passage Analysis tool which includes five different ways to visually see how the text differs in the multiple translations.

Notice Accordance 10′s ability to mark up a text to show differences between two translations.

If you’re Bible software doesn’t offers some form of text comparison tool, then consider a change. If you’re looking at buying one without it, look somewhere else.

These aren’t the only two that offer this kind of comparison. They’re just two that I often use. I’d love for the makers of other software or apps to comment below to explain how they offer this capability in their toolboxes.

Looking Ahead

In a future post I’ll consider the language translation tools in various applications. Then we’ll look into tools for doing cross referencing. If you’ve got a recommendation, let me know in the comments below.

Don’t Get Fooled! It’s a Business Not a Ministry

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Sep 4, 2012 in Featured, Ministry | 0 comments

Don’t get fooled! It’s a business not a ministry?

What am I talking about? The many companies that choose a primary business model of using the church and Christians as their primary target for profit.

Don’t get me wrong. Doing business with the church or with Christians almost exclusively isn’t a sin. I’m not advocating avoiding such companies. It’s not a reason to never do business with such companies. I work with many such businesses to help me in my ministry as a pastor, a writer and as a disciple of Christ. If Lifeway Christian Resources, the many Bible software companies, and some great online resources that help me present the Gospel in church on Sunday didn’t exist, it would make my life more difficult. I once bought a computer from a “Christian” computer reseller and the business helped me get a great machine at a fair price and supported it well when it failed.

But don’t get fooled! They’re businesses and not ministries.

Why am I writing about this now? Because a company reminded me of this today in a disappointing way.

I contacted a company hoping they would help me out. I considered moving from a Windows PC to a Mac for our church’s presentation computer. A video I created failed to play on the Windows machine while it worked perfectly on my Mac at home. I decided to look into the cost of buying a new Mac and transferring the license of our presentation software from Windows to Mac. Other companies did this for me without even a small administration fee. A couple more just charged a small clerical fee. I swapped out my Adobe Photoshop license from Windows to Mac for nothing so long as I didn’t use the Windows version any longer. That’s one of the most expensive programs I own. A couple of other very expensive Bible software applications let me switch without a fee or charged just a small fee and I can keep using the Windows versions as well.

The presentation software company offered what they called a “crossgrade” for hundreds of dollars. This, they said, let me continue to use both the Windows and Mac versions. Great! I don’t want to use the Windows version. I will only use one copy on the Mac. Too bad. I still had to pay. I reasoned that this didn’t make sense since the two version work almost identically. They look a little different because of the different operating systems, but the basic functions were nearly identical. But the company won’t budge. That’s their right.

I replied to the sales person’s last email saying their policy disappointed me. It felt like they should want to work harder to keep me as a loyal and long time customer. I’ve used and recommended the software for almost a decade. The policy ensured that I will not use that application any longer just as soon as I can afford a suitable replacement. That’s my right.

All of this serves to remind me that the companies that exist to take money out of the church are not ministries. They’re businesses. They may employ Christians. Many run under the control of a Christian. A lot of them work hard to help the church and Christians, but they do so to make money knowing its good business to offer good customer support. Some focus more on the business and less on the support, just like companies run by secular people.

A Higher Standard

If a business calls itself Christian it must operate at a higher standard. A “Christian” mechanic I once had dealings with proved that the term often functions more as a marketing ploy than a real description of their ethics.

Christians who run businesses also must operate at a higher standard because all Christians should operate their lives at a higher standard, whether they own and operate a business, teach school or pick up trash for a living. God expects more of us.

If you own or operate a business, ask yourself this question about how you support the church. Does your business plan center around taking money out of the church or does it focus on adding value to the church seeking payment for this just like a pastor or other staff members get paid. Parasitic companies operate under the first ethic, while other businesses work under the second. I like to work with the second class of company, but they’re hard to spot and the first often look like the second.

If other companies can afford to offer the same service you offer without sucking as much out of the church treasury as your business does, then you’re doing it wrong. If you wake up every day asking, how can I help a pastor, a church secretary, a minster of music or youth, then you’re likely doing it the right way.

Image credit: 401(K) 2012 on Flickr

WORDsearch Offering Training Conference in Nashville

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Aug 30, 2012 in Bible Software, Featured, Software | 0 comments

If you’re a WORDsearch user and want to learn the basics or go deeper, you might want to consider signing up for their training conference October 2-4 in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference will cost $160 if you sign up early enough. Here’s how they describe the conference from their own site:

Our purpose is to provide practical and productive training for those using WORDsearch or QuickVerse 10. Basic Training offers “How-To” class instruction for beginners to become better acquainted with the program. Advanced Training offers more focused instruction for those already familiar with the program, refining that knowledge in a more specific way. Come and learn why and how WORDsearch 10 is the most effective tool for studying! As always – Come for Instruction, Come for Fellowship, Come for Fun, Come and Be Blessed!

The conference will offer two tracks – Basic and Advanced options. In the Basic option users will get training in …

• navigation
• searching
• verse and topical studies
• desktops
• collections

The Advanced track will offer training in …

Research, Collection & Preparation of materials for a variety of situations and purposes! Plus get exposure to new materials and tools to aid you in your ministry.

With the conference fee users will also get a free upgrade to WORDsearch 10 as well as some free books with an advertised value of “over $150″ plus discounts on other resources.

On hand will be Dr. Ronald Meeks of Blue Mountain Bible College.

To get more information see the conference site which lists hotels and other details for the conference. It’s also where users can sign up.