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.
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 …
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.
Logos CEO Bob Pritchett announced through the company’s support forums that they will end support for Windows XP on October 26, 2012. What does this mean for users running Logos 4 on Windows XP?
So why the change? Mr. Pritchett announced that when Windows updates their .NET framework, a development technology that Logos uses in their software, the new version will not run on Windows XP. Since Logos needs the newer version to achieve future functionality, they too will update their .NET framework to take advantage of some bug fixes and performance increases. Quoting from the forum:
Logos 4 depends on a number of Microsoft platform components, including the .NET framework. With the October 26, 2012 release of Windows 8, Microsoft is upgrading the .NET 4 platform to .NET 4.5, which is an “in-place” install replacing .NET 4 (which we’re planning to move to for many reasons, including performance and bug fixes).
.NET 4.5 will run on Windows Vista SP2 and later version of Windows, but specifically NOT Windows XP.
October 26, 2012 is the release date for Windows 8; at that point it will be 11 years since Windows XP was released (Oct 25, 2001), and it will be three full generations (Vista, 7, 8) out of date.
Very few Logos users remain on XP, and continuing to support XP in new releases takes development and testing resources, as well as making it more difficult to use other capabilities only offered on newer versions of Windows.
It looks like some users can possibly persuade the powers at Logos to change their minds. Pritchett stated that people now have a “chance to speak up if there’s a really compelling reason we should not drop XP on October 26, 2012.”
I support this move. It’s hard to move forward knowing that some might get left. However, Logos made it clear that users of Windows XP can still use current versions of Logos. Some in the forum asked if the current versions that still run on XP will receive bug fixes. Logos did not offer an official answer. I can understand the desire for those who want to see Logos improve without their needing to update their operating system. Many users of Logos don’t have the funds or technical skill to undertake such an upgrade. That’s the cost of doing busing in a fast and changing world.
I want to see Logos improve and especially long for some performance advances. Let’s hope this move provides these advances.
For those who need to update before the deadline, I recommend going for it as soon as one can. Windows 8 on a desktop or laptop will not be fun. It’s a tablet OS and doesn’t feel right on my laptop. It was designed for touch not mouse or trackpad! Get a Windows 7 machine. People who buy one now can get a very inexpensive Windows 8 upgrade which will allow the user to try it out, but go back to Windows 7 if you don’t like the new interface.
UPDATE: They also announced an end to support for Mac OS X Leopard as well stating:
Dropping 10.5 support in future releases will free up development and testing resources and allow us to do more in Logos Bible Software.
I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of Windows 8 on a computer, but it looks like it will run beautifully on a tablet, so I hope that the Bible software companies will embrace the platform to make it an awesome tool for Digital Bible Study. Bibleworks already has. They sent me a link to a video of their app running on a Windows 8 tablet.
You can see how well it works for yourself below. If you want info about the tablet itself, a Samsung Series 9, then back it up to the beginning. There’s also a ridiculous “intermission” just before the start point below and ending.
It looks like its running nicely. I look forward to getting my hands on a Windows 8 tablet once they ship this fall.
Here’s the gauntlet being thrown down. I want to see the other Bible software makers run their app on Windows 8 tablets. You can do it and I’ll happily show it off for you.
Logos 4.5 was released today bringing an improvement to the notes, highlighting and sync features of the Bible Study Software suite. We hope the new Logos 2.0 mobile app will follow soon along with a fix for the broken reading plans that haven’t worked for months.
The application doesn’t look significantly different on the outside. Most of the improvements come under the hood. I can assure you that the performance of the notes function improved greatly in this version. In other words, you can actually use it!
Strangely, Logos chose to change the way highlights are stored. You now get a new note file that is named for the highlighting pallet you use. For example, my highlights were added to a new note file called “solid colors.” It behaves just like a notes file, so you will want to be careful about how you work with highlights.
You can get all the details at the Logos 4.5 Wiki page.
To upgrade your version of Logos, just open it and it should pull the update automatically within a few minutes. If not, then type Update Now in the command box.
Mac users will also enjoy some new gestures. Use your mouse and click and drag left to go back or right to go forward. They added a bunch of these and they’ll be useful if I can remember to use them.
Finally, you get a ton of bug fixes. See the list not he page linked above.
I’m pretty excited about this update. I’ll be singing praise songs when the reading plan debacle ends. Right now, if you want to sync your reading plans with the desktop app and your iOS app. you better not open it on the desktop app. I did and now my reading plan is all messed up. People have been dealing with this for months, but I’ve only had trouble for the last several weeks. It’s quite annoying and ridiculous that Logos let it go this long. Our long national nightmare nears an end!
