Jan 5
Brit Hume used to be the anchor of the Fox News Channel’s nightly news broadcast. He still takes part in the network as an analyst and probably other things. He was on one of their programs Sunday and said Tiger Wood should become a Christian to restore himself and his life. In the face of some conflict, you might have expected him to back down and retract his words. Instead he offered these words of wisdom on Bill O’Reilly’s program.
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.
Jan 1
So another year has come and gone!
I do not like the “let’s look back” stories that pop up this time of year. Lists of the best and worst of whatever year is passing. But we do have to remember to look back to learn and reflect and look forward to consider, hope and dream. So why not do so on January 1?
For me, I am too emotional at the holiday times of year. I get very expectant awaiting the coming of Christmas. I enjoy being with my family and taking a few extra moments during my week to slow down and just enjoy their company. I also get a little melancholy after Christmas is over. I do not do well evaluating honestly myself and where I’ve been and where I’m going at this time of year.
For me, the evaluation will be coming soon. For now, just remember the words of the devotion I just read. Psalm 90:12 says:
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Dec 31
PocketSword is a recently released iPhone and iPod touch Bible app sponsored by the CrossWire Bible Society. It is great for those who only want public domain books. It is also the only iPhone app I know of that allows a user to create his or her own module using the format sponsored by CrossWire’s SWORD Project. The project’s purpose is to produce Bible software for as many platforms as possible using a “common technology.” The iPhone app is now available in v. 1.0 in the App Store.
The app is free and has a lot of free content available for download. It comes with the KJV (with Strong’s, but at this point the Strong’s info is not displayed) and Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary installed. But you can add other Bibles and commentaries as well from within the app.
The interface, as you can see is very simple. You open the app and across the bottom there are five navigational buttons. Each takes you to a different part of the program. You can read the currently open Bible, the currently open commentary, or tap the module button to open a different Bible or commentary. Currently, that is all that PS has available – Bibles and Commentaries. Other Bible apps let you read books, look up words in dictionaries, etc. The number of modules available is extensive if all you want are free, public domain books. The only modern translations available were the English Standard Version and the New English Translation. The rest are public domain books. Users of the other CrossWire Sword Project applications for Linux, Windows, MAC or other PDA will be happy. Also if you are an e-Sword (unrelated to the SWORD Project) user, then you will likely not miss the modern works. I do so PocketSword will never be more than just a curiosity to me.
Navigating through the Bible is simple. You can either tap the arrow buttons on the top to take you from chapter to chapter. Or you can tap the reference button which reveals the very unique iPhone scrolling selector. I personally prefer a bingo style Book, Chapter, Verse selector as is available in many of the other iPhone apps. But the scrolling style selector works.
As I mentioned above, there are many available resources. To get them you will have to download and install them. This is a simple process from within the app. Select More on the bottom right and then Downloads. There will be a list of CrossWire sites available (likely two at this point) with a list of all the available modules. Try the first one and you will see Biblical Texts and Commentaries. Tap one and you will see a long list. There are dozens of Bibles in languages I never new existed. I found the Ancient Greek section and downloaded Westcott and Hort’s Greek text of the NT. And then went into the English texts to find ESV, NET, and a couple of others. Downloading takes just a short time on a fast connection. When it is finished and installed you can then open that text to read offline. I then got a couple of commentaries including JFB, Barnes, the NET Notes and others. Make sure you check out the second CrossWire server too. There were a few different works there not available on the first.
The preferences in PS are simple. You can change the Font Size and Style. You can also switch to a night mode with dark background and light text. The app has a lock to keep it from going into landscape mode when reading in bed. You can display text in a verse per line mode or paragraph mode. You can also show words of Christ in red letter in some translations.
There are few frills like notes, devotional tracking, syncing, dual pane view. But you can add bookmarks.
The PocketSword app is a nice Bible and commentary reader. It is not much more. Unless you are looking for public domain books, I would look at one of the more advanced tools available. But due give it a download and test since it is free.
One thing that PS has that no one else does right now is the give you the ability to create and load your own content. To do so you will have to jump through a lot of hoops. See the PocketSword web site for instructions. The process does not look like a minor affair. You have to create a specially formatted Zip file in the CrossWire format. You then load it on your device through a WebKit enabled browser. Safari and Chrome work but the site says that Firefox does not and they have not tried it on IE. You connect your device via wifi and go through your browser and then open the app on the device and go into a special mode from within the preferences called Module Maintainer Mode.
UPDATE: Just to clarify, when I say that no one else lets you create resources for their app, I am talking about on the iPhone. Laridian does have a book builder that is available for $99.00. According to Craig Rairdin of Laridian, they will let you host your books if you use the Pro version to create it. So, Laridian does give you an option to create and load books on the iPhone.
If you want to use the app and get help, not only check out the site but also the user forum. The are not very active yet, but if the app takes off I am sure they will be.
My latest article for Christian Computing Magazine is online at: http://www.ccmag.com/articles/articles.php?recordID=236.
This month I reviewed QuickVerse 2010 & BibleGlo.
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.
Dec 15
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.
How very sad. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in China as they face persecution. For explanation of what I’m talking about see the link below.
Dec 10
Dec 10
In my recent review of Logos 4, I gave it a mixed review. I called it “worth adding to your arsenal” but also said that it was “missing a few of the previous version’s functionality.”
t it is getting better. I just installed the latest beta version of Logos 4.0a which is available for download now. In it there are many new features. Let me mention a few:
First, there is a new ability to change the background color of the open resources. You can see this is the screenshot below.
Also, notice that in the drop down there is the option to show Bible Text Only. The screenshot shows this. It removes all the extraneous things to get at just the text. No titles or footnotes.
Another new feature is the ability to customize the Ribbon on the Logos 4 Home page.
One of the most criticized features was the ribbon. Users said it was too big and they 
wanted to be able to remove things. For example, it contains the above “Choose preferred Bible” feature. I like to do that because I go back and forth between the ESV and HCSB as my preferred Bible. But I don’t like using lectionaries very much. So I removed the lectionary and the recent reading lists. The way to do this is click the customize button on the bottom left of the Home Page as seen to the left.
I also have to say that there are a bunch of things that Logos 4 does that Logos 3 could not do. In a recent Logos 4 forum post, Philip Spitzer – one of the more advanced users – lists some of them. You can see from his list there are quite a few things. Click the link to read more about these, but here are some he mentions.
Sympathetic Highlighting
Savable Guides
Customizable Guides
Syncing
Multi-monitor Layout
Reading Lists
Another advanced user and Logos MVP, Thomas Black added Automatic Updating. I would add the ability to put notes on a Guide.
The single greatest improvement in the beta is performance. Logos 4 is not nearly as sluggish in version 4.0a beta 3 as it was in the pure 4.0 release or even the current public 4.0 SR7 release (SR stands for Service Release, I believe). Sadly, the Notes feature is still very sluggish. But the rest of the beta is much better in the performance department.
Is Logos 4 where it needs to be yet? No. This is just a beta release. When they get all of this functionality and more into a public release, then I will be even more impressed. But I wanted to give credit where credit is due. And they have improved it greatly. At this rate, by mid 2010 Logos 4 should be the great software that 3.0 was.
Verse:
John 3:16; Jn 3:16; John 3
Keyword:
Salvation, Jesus, Gospel
With Operators:
AND, OR, NOT, “ â€
