Tag Archives: bible applications

How Do You Use Study Resources

screenshot of Olive Tree Bible Study App when using concordance resources
The other day while going through email, I noticed a newsletter from the good folks over at Olive Tree Bible Software. As I read, I saw a neat piece in there about how to use a concordance with their software. Here’s a snippet:

…As you can see, the Olive Tree Concordances are much more than a list of cross references for each word in the Bible. With dictionary information tied to the original language, these resources are valuable tools for Bible study. Each concordance comes with a copy of the Bible in the selected translation…

Read the rest of Using A Concordance in the Bible Study App at the Olive Tree Blog

That piece got me thinking back to how I used to use print resources, then print and web, and then later web and mobile resources in order to do my studies. A good deal of the work that went into feature suggestions and the design of Palm Bible+ app which accelerated my travels in this space. It was very important then to not just have access to the resource, but have it in such a way that it didn’t interrupt the reading flow, but was there when needed. Now then, we did things with the PalmOS Graffiti system, and even the keyboard on Treo devices to make that happen. These days with touch and more consistent connectivity, designing these resources into an app is a bigger challenge.

Even with that challenge, its still a suitable flow of use. So, let’s open question that titles this post (how do you use study resources) with a few qualifiers:

  • For those of you who might use commentaries, concordances, etc. in your private reading, how do you do it? What could be done better?
  • For those of you who use those resources while teaching, what kinds of challenges do you run into either from the side of teaching or the side of sharing the sources of that info with students?
  • For those wh might use these resources to teach, but don’t share them with your students/audiences, why?

There you have a few ways to frame an answer. Let’s hear what you have to say towards using study resources, especially with your mobile-enabled audiences.

Adaptive Interfaces

All Books on Nokia N8 screenshot

Many of the user interfaces that I come across on the various mobile devices that I interact with are not all that neat. Let me correct that. They were novel and neat when I first acquired the device or application. But, that quikcly got old and stale – especially in those applications that I interacted with the most. What would be neat in many of those cases is the interface adapting to my increased usage and then changing to either expose more of itself, or trimming to only exposing the features that I use the most.

I’ve taken to calling it adaptive intelligence or an adaptive interface. Basically that as I spend time in the application or program, that it adapts to my greater comfort with some features, and recommends or trims what I see based on what is learned about my usage. This was some of what when into my UI design for All Books – as you went into a book/chapter, the book name/chapter number would “age,” dimming itself compared to what you haven’t read as much. In time, you could see what areas of the Bible it was that you didn’t read much easier than you could get to the parts you did read more often.

I’m not the only one thinking along these lines, but I do think that its something that we can do a good bit more of in this space of faith-based content. It seems like a new UI idea, and even has been proposed as much in an article at FastCo Design:

…In 1975, the Hungarian psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi outlined his theory of “flow” in his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He defined the concept as ‘‘the holistic experience that people feel when they act with total involvement.’’ When in the flow state, people become absorbed in their activity, narrowing their awareness to the activity itself, losing self-consciousness, and feeling in control of their environment. Flow is also proven to have a positive impact on learning. In skiing, novice practitioners are advised to spend the first few days at the green beginner slopes to get the best learning experience. On the other hand, experienced skiers will find themselves bored at the beginner slopes and must seek their optimal experience on the black expert slopes. This individual balance between skill and challenge is, according to Csikszentmihalyi, called the “flow zone” and staying in this flow zone is the best possible way to learn and make progress while still feeling constantly challenged and intrinsically motivated.

While flow has been extensively applied in studying a broad range of contexts, such as sports, shopping, rock climbing, dancing and others, I believe that, by drawing inspiration from video games, flow can be used to improve the user experience in interactive electronic consumer products…

It takes a lot of foresight to make an interface like this. Similar to the classic “choose your own adventure” books, the application author has to be content with designing many paths to a solution, and doing so in a way that doesn’t break up the story. What would a bible look like if it adapted to our reading tendencies? Or better, what about a Bible app that started off doing simple search and reading, then evolved to something like a full-blown study/sermon companion like Logos/Olive Tree’s products? Would be kind of neat IMO.

A Potential BaaS Experiment

Screen_05-Mar-13_21-27-34

Having the Nokia N9 in my hands as my daily mobile is pretty neat. In part because I’ve always liked the Swipe UI that Nokia released with it. There’s except for the newly released BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 devices, there isn’t anything else like it. Add to that the open source nature of the platform, and even with not-as-much-support, with a little bit of learning, there’s some neat things that could be done with this platform.

One of the projects that I want to get back into is my All Books Project. That was a project to create a UI for a Bible reader that addressed reading and spatial interfaces that are key to how I personally learn. With the N9, I’m seeing that I’m not going to be able to approach that project in the same way and so what I’d like to do is do something that is a bit beyond the normal framework of an app, and takes advantage of the fact that my N9 is usually connected online, and I usually want to do more with content besides read it.

Context
Usually, I want to read the Bible when I’m in church or Bible study. There are times when I want to reference it outside of that, for example when talking with folks or writing, but will normally use a search to do so. Therefore, I don’t so much as need an app, but for my mobile to be an engine to getting me the content that I’m looking for, and then appending it to whatever canvas that I’m working with.

Ideal Usage

  1. I sit in service and my mobile is opened to the search pane (I can use the app Situations to do this auto-magically)
  2. As I begin to type the scripture being read, I get a listing of results filtering until I am done typing (think: auto-complete)
  3. I tap on that verse and am asked to which app or service that I want to send it to (in some cases that would be Evernote, others would be Twitter or SMS)
  4. If I choose Evernote, it opens a new Note with the title of the note being the day/time and then pastes the entire chapter/verse that I was searching for
  5. I go back to the search box and choose another Scripture, and this time I’m asked if I want to append the existing note or start a new one

In all of this time, I basically only interacted with:

  • the seach engine on my device which queries content on the device and content online
  • Evernote

I never opened a Bible reader. I never signed into an account after getting into that bible reader. I never clicked another button asking to export it to Evernote, or send it via email to Evernote.

That’s the kind of All Books experience that I can see from using this N9, and one where the platform bends itself to that kind of usage. I call it Bible-as-a-Service (BaaS). Basically where the bible is served to your container of choice as a service, and this its up to whatever was programmed into your device (or your skills in programming your device) into making something happen.

Breaking Down that Usage Scenario
Something like this cannot happen unless my N9 was connected already to a Bible-as-a-Service entity (think: Logos’ Biblia, are there any others?). Thankfully, the N9 (and BlackBerry’s devices) have this neat Accounts feature where I could always be signed into my account with them and then those services would be accessible throughout nearly all of the device.

That active context filtering as I type would be something that’s supported on the device, but also the BaaS would have to be able to return queries quickly as well. It cannot be something that causes a lag on the device, especially when the person isn’t finished typing the item.

That aformentioned Account piece would factor into the abiltiy to export those results into a Sharing panel for other apps (Android devices are great at this part). But, think about it being the case that you are interacting with the content of the Bible, but the canvas of where you put it would be up to you. I can imagine here that some kind of usage agreements would be put in order for some translations, i.e., you can only copy/paste/export so much content in a session or that you can only do the location but need to point via URL to the content itself.

I like Evernote as a notes resource, but you might have others that you use. Thinking of the N9, the best items are the Evernote client and email for this kind of content, with SMS/MMS being a close second for sharing and additional notes.

Then there needs to be some kind of memory function provided to the platform, possibly from the use of the API, that ensures that you are making a single note that might have several verses to it, not several notes of one verse each.

Potential Project Direction?

It sounds like a great idea honestly, and one that really kills the idea of app and gets more into that blended space where there’s platforms that work for you, services that work for the provider, and content that’s usable by all. There aren’t too many content providers or media entities in this faith space that could even do something like this either. Its really a matter of being able to make the case the the content is worth more being provided as a service than it is as a destination. That’s not normal thinking by any measure.

If anyone wants to go about perusing this project, let’s chat. Even on a “dead” platform, this kind of thing might be pretty fun.

[App Request] Mien/Yao Bible

Image: Palm Tungsten T5 showing Palm Bible+

It has been a while since getting a request here for the availability of a Bible in a specific language or on a specific mobile platform (I think the last one was Telugu for feature phones), but that’s just the thing that happened a week ago. A reader who had combed through the listings on our Bible Apps page didn’t find what they were looking for, and asked if we could help in finding (or lead to the development of) a Mien/Yao Bible.

Unfortunately, the two sites that the requester pointed us to in terms of resources (Site 1, Site 2) have some issues either with their content sources, or with the character encodings. This isn’t an unfamiliar issue when it comes to mobile-friendly biblical data sources.

The other issue that presents itself with this request the the platform choice. As we’ve talked about before, its not about the sales that you pay attention to when it comes to mobiles, but what it is that people have in their hands. The two largest owned mobile platforms (at least from a smartphone perspective) are Android and Symbian. Its for these two platforms that a Mien/Yao Bible is being asked for.

So here’s the request (and possibly the challenge): to those of you whom are developers looking to scratch and itch or sharpen your skills, the Mien/Yao audience need a Bible for Android and Symbian devices. Are you up for it? Or, if you are a content provider, and have already started making available content for the Mien/Yao audience, would you be willing to make it available offline and in the .SIS/.SISX and .APK formats for this audience?

Get in touch with us and we’ll help coordinate the efforts in making this happen.

eInk Bible App for Kindle


Of the items that come across the window that are pretty neat and worth talking about, this eInk Bible App for Kindle devices is a pretty decent one. Here’s a description from the website:

…The e-ink Bible app looks and functions just like an e-book, but it has improved navigation and searching capabilities. Like an e-book, you can:

  • read continuous stretches of text
  • bookmark verses of interest
  • add notes

In contrast to an e-book, the e-ink Bible app:

  • always displays the current reference
  • allows quick navigation
  • supports complex searches…

For those of you with a Kindle, or with folks who have black and white (eInk) Kindle devices, this seems to be a pretty neat solution that’s just a little bit better designed for the context than simply having an ebook Bible.

On the Scene w/Brian Russell of @YouVersion

Video devotionals shown in the YouVersion Bible application
Airplanes are interesting places. Recently, I found myself sitting directly behind Brian Russell from YouVersion on a trip and had the chance to catch up with him regarding happenings at YouVersion and life. While the chat was informal, I was able to ask a few questions which he allowed to be shared here:

MMM: What has been your watershed/best moment to date with YouVersion?

BR: God continues to show us that the best is yet to come. As exciting as it is to see more than 65 million people using YouVersion to spend time in God’s Word, we believe that we could see half a billion or even a billion people someday engaging with Scripture. Instead of accepting predictions that Bible engagement will follow a downward trend, we believe our generation could become the most Bible-engaged generation in history.

MMM: Being that we are on an airplane, and YouVersion travels well (languages, etc); how do you see YouVersion being a part of brokering moments where people are in close proximity with mobile devices want to share the Bible with one another?

BR: People frequently let us know that they are able to share the Bible App with someone right when they need it or during the moment an opportunity presents itself. Here’s a recent example. But proximity is helpful not only in the sharing of the app, but in spending more time in God’s Word. When the Bible is on your mobile device, there are more opportunities for it to intersect your daily life. Many people tell us they read the Bible more than they ever have in the past for the simple reason that they always have it with them.

MMM: I see you have an a few Apple devices going. As a team, what device(s) is/are in your pocket?

BR: Our team uses a wide range of mobile devices to make sure we are well versed on multiple platforms. We’re committed to using today’s and tomorrow’s technology to help people engage in Scripture.

Brian is the Global Partnership & Community Pastor with YouVersion’s community (@brianjrussell). YouVersion is the leading Bible application for just about every mobile device platform available today. For more information about YouVersion, visit their blog or freely download the YouVersion app onto your mobile device/PC and be a part of the “most Bible-engaged generation in history.”

Apps, Services (and Skills?) for Serminaries

BibleWorks, Logos, and Accordance logo compliation
If you’ve been following along via Twitter recently (@mobileminmag), then you might have seen a few tweets in reference to articles posted at one of our favorite sites – Biblical Studies and Technological Tools (BS&TT). Certainly one of the oldest and most theologically grounded tech websites, BS&TT, there’s always the kind of content there that gets you to the point of readily applying tech in faith. Of note, a recent post took at look at a few applications relevant for the seminarian, but left also with a standing question about how other seminaries approach making the decision about which application(s) prefered for students’ learning. By the end of this piece, I questioned if its really an app (or service) that seminaries should steer towards, or should the skill of knowing how to build a Bible app be included into the curriculim.

Apps and Services for Serminaries

The BS&TT article mentions these, and we’ve added a few others from previous discussions:

These are only a few of the applications available. Check out our Bible apps page for a more exhaustive listing for several computiing devices and contexts.

Or, Should Seminaries Focus [Also] on Skills to Build the Ideal App/Service?
As mentioned earlier in this article, the BS&TT article left me with the question of “what specifically are these apps doing that is necessary to the study of, application to, and teaching of Scripture?” When I looked at it through this lens, the approach wasn’t that a specific application should be chosen, but perhaps seminaries should focus on those skills common to these applications. If this focus on those skills becomes the lesson, could it be a better lesson to teach how to build a Bible reader app suitable for use in seminary – engaging into the discussions that can better happen when you are closer to the publishing of the text, rather than the transcription of it?

Here’s my comment as posted with the BS&TT piece:

…Why aren’t you teaching folks how to build a Bible reader?

I understand that some of the issues related to Bible software has to do with not so much the content, but knowing the needed features for instruction, learning, and application. What you seem to be wanting here is some easier or more grounded means of teaching specific ways of using these software packages in studies. That doesn’t happen solely by concentrating on a specific package, but pooling their features, plus the needed skills, into something of a lesson.

If I could make the recommendation in this wise, it would be to take John Dyer and the DBS’s work with Browser Bible, and make that the introduciton to tech and Biblical studies, alongside Hebrew and Greek beginnings. To learn how to program the code that makes the letters appear, how to manage a websites oval website, and see directly the challenge of language support and user in traces, that’s what makes for the kind of core compentencies in the text that transcend just knowing an app or having a specific library.

Plus, you end up with a suite of folks who will know first hand the issues of restrictive licensing and publishing, which is every seminary’s real issue with the text as taught.

So, instead of learning the user interface as Logos/OliveTree/etc have designed it, you are learning how to build one that fits your contexts or concepts of learning. For example, with the base of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you could address the lack of non-English resources as you learn the

This is one of those discussions that ends up having two questions knit together:

  • What are some of the computing apps and services found to be helpful for those of you in seminary?
  • Should seminary policy focus on apps and the core skills between them, or the core features of using tech tools for Biblical studies and knowing how to build your own ideal environment?

I admit, this is a challenging topic. But, probablyh one worth having over the larger expanse of the wants and needs of techn tools for faith.

Taking a Look At A Few Bible Apps

YouVersion English - Today ViewIts honestly kind of interesting looking at Bible software on mobiles these days. There’s not as much movement happening in terms of new features, but there is a good bit of attention being paid to the overall experience that speaks towards a sense of maturity in terms of the projects. Here are some pointers to recent (and not so recent) updates from a few Bible apps we like:

YouVersion

…here’s what’s new to love on the Bible App for Android:

Slide Out Menu. Get instant access to all of the Bible App’s features, now just one tap away. On any Bible App screen on your Android phone, touch the menu icon at the top to see the full Bible App menu: Reader, Plans, Bookmarks, Notes, Share…and more!

Available Actions Popup. Wherever you are, when you tap a verse, a handy context-sensitive menu now pops up, with icons for everything you could do with that verse. Tap the verse, then tap what you want to do. It’s fast and easy.

Today View. At the top of the slide out menu, you’ll find the “Today” view option, brand new to Android phones. Today displays the Verse of the Day (ready to share), along with one-tap access to a list of other common tasks: the last passage you were reading, today’s readings for all your active Plans, and the last passage you bookmarked. Taking you immediately to the things that matter to you the most, in this release of the Bible App for Android, the Today view is the new default home screen. (You can change this in your Settings at any time, of course.)

Cleaner Interface. We’ve tried to make your entire YouVersion experience on your Android phone more pleasant all around, with subtle tweaks that make it not just easier to use, but even nicer to look at. When you tap a verse, it displays with a dotted underline to show what you’ve selected. The icons for switching chapters are cleaner and more simplified, as are the audio player icons. While we’ve long offered settings like font, text size, and brightness adjustment to make your reading easier, now you can get to them directly from the Bible reader…

Read the rest of this article at the YouVersion Blog; you can download YouVersion for iOS, Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and a few other mobile device platforms.

PocketBible

…Are you still using the first version of PocketBible on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? If so, we highly recommend moving to PocketBible 2 so you can apply program updates as they are released; we won’t be updating PocketBible 1.4.7 further.

Before we explain how to make the move, check your version number in PocketBible by tapping on the Menu button and selecting About PocketBible. If it says anything less than PocketBible 2.0.X, keep reading…

Read the rest of this article at Laridian’s PocketBible blog; you can download PocketBible for PalmOS, Blackberry, Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile devices.

Logos

…Sync your reading plans from your PC or Mac to your Android phone or tablet! Take your daily readings with you—wherever you go. Get caught up on your reading in the waiting room, at the DMV, or anywhere else you have internet access.

Choose one of the reading plan templates inLogos 4 or create a custom Bible reading plan to suit your needs. You can start right away, since Logos 4 lets you set the beginning and end dates for every plan—no matter when you start.

You can follow along with daily reminders on your Logos 4 homepage or on your Android device…

Read the rest of this article at the Logos blog; and don’t forget that you can download Logos for your iOS and Android devices.

OliveTree

If you’re like many of our users, you really like taking notes, highlighting and adding bookmarks in your books and Bibles. Maybe you have even accumulated more notes than you can scroll through.  Adding categories can be a helpful way to sort through all of those gems you have in your Olive Tree Bible app. Here’s how to add categories:

Adding Categories to Highlights and Bookmarks

Open the “My Stuff” folder by tapping on the suitcase icon. Select “Highlighters” or “Bookmarks” and find the one you’d like to add to a category. Tap on the blue arrow next to the note or highlight you’d like to categorize and select “Change Category.” The default category is called “Annotations.” To add a new category to the list tap on “Create New Category” at the bottom of the pop-up menu.

Name your category and tap the “Create” button on the top right. Notice that you can also select a different parent category, meaning once you’ve created a category, you can nest other categories within it.  For example, if you added the category “New Testament Highlights” you could then select it as the parent category and create more categories within “New Testament Highlights” for the gospels, Pauline epistles, etc.

Other Bible Apps?

These are only a few of the Bible apps that are available for mobile devices. You can take a look at a selection of these on our Bible Apps page, or do a search on the application store on your mobile device.

If you’ve got an update that’s recently happened to a Bible app that you like or develop, do respond in the comments with what’s new. Or, if you are really bold and going about building your own Bible reader, let us know on your progress towards it.

Where Are the Bible Database Sources App Developers Can Use?

screenshot of Katana, Maemo Linux open source bible reader
The other day, we received a question asking about the location of Bible databases which would be suitable for using for mobile apps. This is something of an undocumented search I’m afraid, as much of what ends up happening either doesn’t get talked about, or falls under the conversations about copyright, licensing, and digital use we hear about from time to time.

While I was able to give the respondant an answer, I thought it a good idea to also share that answer here and ask you where you might obtain your sources for the religious texts that you use within your mobile apps and services.

  • Logos has the Biblia API which is a set of APi libraries into their content database (20,000 items and growing). I do not remember there being any restrictions on using it for other applications, but you will want to check on that.
  • Crossway has the ESV available in both a packaged download (not necessarily a database) and API calls to their server. There is some restriction on usage
  • Bible.org/NET has the New English Translation (and notes) available as a packaged download. They are working on an API into their texts. Refer to their website for specifics, and you would probably end up crossing paths with many others attempting the same
  • CCEL has several Bibles (many past copyright) and Biblical content. Much of it is in semantic HTML4 documents, packaged as zipped archives. All of those are free to use as long as you keep the attribution in your source documents.
  • The WEB (World English Bible) is mostly an open licensed text, I am not sure of the state of their content [in respect to being usable for inclusion into web/mobile applications or services].
  • You might also want to look into Open Doors and Door 43, as they have been working on an open licensed text/audio biblical library. Their project is in process.
  • If you are looking for audio, your main/best resources are Faith Comes By Hearing and GRN. They do make content deals with [organizations and] developers to offer the content based on you providing to them metrics about use/downloads/etc.

Then there’s BibleDatabase.net, the e-SWORD modules library, and I’m sure a few others that I’ve simply forgotten.

Perhaps, in helping to answer the question of licensing and access, hearing about the challenges around discovery and implementation might lend towards some obvious solutions in this space.

If you have a listing of Biblical sources, definitely respond in the comments. If the list grows sufficiently, then perhaps this information becomes something else added to our page of resources for developers/organizations.