e-Sword Creator Rick Meyers Endures Questions from Rueben Gomez

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Oct 18, 2012 in Apps, Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Software | 0 comments

Rick Meyers, the talented programmer behind e-Sword, the free Bible software that found its way into the iPad app store, endured some questioning from Rueben Gomez of Bible Software Review. Under the word “endure” was meant as a friendly jab at brother Gomez.

The interview reveals some exciting things coming for e-Sword HD and I am thankful to Gomez for publishing this Q&A.

Most interesting to me is that Meyers hopes to add the ability to use user-created modules. e-Sword has a huge community of users who have created a vast library of user-created content. Like many, my copy of e-Sword has dozens of user-created modules that I’d like to use on my iPad.

Meyers also indicated that some more scholarly modules will come including Greek and Hebrew texts.

The most interesting exchange between Gomez and Meyers is below:

BSR: Given the fact that e-Sword has traditionally been considered freeware, how did you come to the conclusion that you were going to charge $4.99 for the iPad app? Is this a change in your philosophy as a Bible software developer?

RM: e-Sword is still free, so no change there. Everyone who begged me to create an iPad app said they would pay for it. So I made the large investment in development costs to create the app, thus I am holding them to their word

I don’t fault Meyers for charging. He’s given me so much by creating e-Sword, which I used exclusively for many years before God blessed me with my position at Christian Computing Magazine that gives me a chance to play with the best Bible Software on the market for nothing. I’m happy to fork over $5 for an excellent app and hope it grows in the number of excellent books available.

e-Sword HD Makes Reading the Bible Easy Again

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Oct 16, 2012 in Apps, Bible Software, Digital Bible Study | 0 comments

Bible students installed e-Sword on millions of computers around the world making it one of the most popular Bible software applications for Windows. Now the popular app brings the popular blend of function and simplicity to the iPad in e-Sword HD. The app’s simplicity of the app makes it a perfect for the iPad, another simple platform.

e-Sword HD User Interface

Users will recognize the format at the outset. The default translation opens, in the case of a newly installed version that’s the KJV+, with the plus standing for Strong’s numbers added to the basic KJV. The numbers function as links that when tapped show a popup definition window.

Across the top the app shows a toolbar with the following buttons in order:

• Search
• Bible browsing history
• Bookmarks
• Settings
• Help
• Bible view
• Interlinear comparison view
• Parallel comparison view
• LIbrary drop down
• Book browsing drop down

Each of the above functions as expected.  The comparison views let user see different translations in either an interlinear view with a new translations on each horizontal line. The parallel view offers translations in a table format with each translation in a column. When in one of these two views  tapping the settings icon lets the user pick which translations will show up.

Across the bottom of the screen the user funds tabs for the various kinds of books e-Sword offers. Here’s the list from left the right:

• Bible
• Commentary
• Dictionary
• Lexicon
• Reference
• Today – devotions
• Editor – notes editor
• Resources – download books

The simple interface makes Bible study easy. I like the popup references and the intuitive interface that makes learning how to use e-Sword HD easy. I’d like to see a dual pane view so that I can open a Bible on one side and a commentary or notes editor on the other side.

Evaluation

For an initial release, e-Sword did a great job of bringing their excellent free desktop program to the iPad. Unfortunately, it’s not free. Users must pay $4.99 for the app, which is expensive compared to other Bible apps that give the basic app to users for free or a buck and then charge for books. e-Sword differs from other free Bible apps because the user already gets a lot of great public domain and copyrighted content for free that other apps charge far more than $5 to use.

Bible! from Logos Version 3.0 Demo on Video

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Aug 31, 2012 in Digital Bible Study | 0 comments

Earlier this week I showed you the new Bible! 3.0 from Logos that comes with a name change, a new home screen and some other nice features., I decided to demonstrate this on video so you can see for yourself some of the new features.

Here’s the video demo:

You can get Bible! from Logos in the iTunes App Store or find out more at the Logos site.

Logos Updates iOS App Changes Name to Bible!

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Aug 29, 2012 in Apps, Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Featured, Software, Technology | 0 comments

Logos updated their iOS app for Apple iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch and changed the name to Bible!, probably to get it higher in the search results sorted by alphabet. The new version still gives users access to most of their Logos books and resources while on the go, but adds some awesome new features bringing the app to version 3.0.

What’s New

The biggest change you’ll notice are the new home page that looks a lot more like the Faithlife Study Bible app, the new panels that include the Passage Guide, Bible Word Study and the Text Comparison tool.

I really like the user interface of the Home page of the app. Notice above the Library view that shows either the book covers in a grid view or a list view (see below).

In the upper right panel the app shows once of 6 panels. In order they are as follows:

• History of recent passages
• Devotions available
• Search history
• Available documents like reading plans, notes and highlighter documents
• Bible Word Study and Passage Guide
• Tools with Favorites, History and Text Comparison

Above the Library list you’ll find the library search box where you can look up books by title, subject and author. The sort button lets users sort by Title, Author, User Rating and Recently opened books.

Next to the sort box the user interface shows two buttons that change between the list and grid views. Finally we get the button that shows the library in full screen mode.

Users will like the ability to still add notes and highlight passage. Searching for words and bookmarking them still exists. And the app lets users copy and paste to other apps.

Logos offers a great free app. I really like it and find it one of the best mobile Bible apps available on the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

Room for Improvement

I don’t like the button used to show the resource panel that slides out from the right side of the app. You’ll find it in the image above just to the left of the reference box and left arrow. The icon’s just too small and hard to tap with my big fingers. I would like to see Logos increase the size or make it accessible with a gesture like a two finger swipe from the left edge. In fact all of the toolbar icons are too small.

Some don’t like that it doesn’t work as well offline, but I’m not as worried since I use a 4G LTE iPad.

Nexus 7 Tablet Makes a Great Bible Study Companion

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jul 31, 2012 in Digital Bible Study, Featured, Technology | 2 comments

I got ahold of a Google Nexus 7 Tablet and really enjoy using the Android 4.1 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet. The device comes with a 7-inch display that looks beautiful. Text shows up crisp and easy to read, except in bright light. The user interface runs smoothly, thanks to something Google called “butter” as in buttery smooth. The technology caches the OS display elements and they run quickly thanks to the fast Tegra 3 processor powering the Nexus 7 Tablet.

The tablet comes with either 8 or 16 GB of storage. For those who want to install a large Logos or Olive Tree library, get the 16GB for $50 more. I don’t install all of my books, just those I use a lot. You’ll need to connect to Wi-Fi to stream your content using a tool like Logos or the YouVersion Bible app that also streams some of the Bibles available. The Nexus 7 Tablet doesn’t offer a 3G version, a real weakness.

The main thing to consider is the size. The iPad gives us plenty of room, but also makes the tablet less mobile and heavier to hold as I read. I love the smaller 7-inch form factor. It feels more like holding a book. It’s more comfortable.

One weakness makes it a little less than perfect for preaching. I use my tablet to hold my notes. The iPad works better with the larger display. I write my sermons on a Mac, so, with Mountain Lion’s new iCloud tool, I can write using the Pages word processing app and save them in iCloud. The notes show up as soon as I open the Pages app on my iPad, simplifying my sync workflow.

If you’re scoring at home, the iPad wins for syncing and the workflow used to get preaching notes on the tablet. The Nexus 7 Tablet wins for size and form factor. Both look great, perform quickly and smoothly and function well. The Bible apps on the iPad have a slight edge over those available on the Nexus 7 Tablet and Android in general. But not enough to make that an obvious win for the iPad thanks to recent improvements to the best Bible apps. The size of the Nexus 7 Tablet trumps most of the iPad’s strength’s making me a Nexus 7 Tablet guy primarily and an iPad user for only a few occasional tasks, like preaching.