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- Logos for the iPhone: Portable Biblical Heaven
Carrying physical scripture with you can be challenging, especially when you consider the sheer physical space a Bible or many Bibles require. Thankfully, there are options now available for portable scripture. And, one of the most recent newcomers for the iPhone is Logos Bible Software.
Logos is considered one of the premier Bible study software companies, especially if you own a PC. Its desktop Macintosh offering is still in alpha, however its iPhone App is really something you should consider.
Why? The biggest benefit is that the app is free and that it has a plethora of features that make it really shine.
How it Works
Based upon the type of account you have with Logos, you get the following content with the iPhone App:
- No account (free): One sample book (30 Bible texts)
- Registered account (free): 31 sample books (the 30 Bibles + 31 additional books)
- Registered account (free) + paid product (whichever package you own*): All of your books
* Some books that you might have for your desktop software are not available on the iPhone due to licensing. Logos Bible Software is working to improve this over time. I personally ran into this issue with the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, as it is not available yet for mobile distribution.
The Application
The Home Page displays any recent news from Logos as well as any custom reading plans you have defined.
Logos Home Screen
Logos Library Screen
Search is also wonderful with Logos as you can:
- Find relevant verses within the current text, across all bibles, or your entire library (and it is fast)
- Go directly to a book/chap/verse (very handy).
Logos Search Screen
The reader is very beautiful. Here are some of the things you can do within the reader:
- If you tap-and-hold on a Bible word, you can see the linked cross references, which allows you to click footnotes and reveal the reference text.
- Again, if you tap-and-hold on a word, the Reader will display the underlying Hebrew or Greek (if available).
Logos Reader with selected word highlighted
If you have multiple books (sources), you can tap to switch to different verses (via the slider) or via the book list:
Logos Reader + Tap to Change Source
What’s nice is that when you are in the reader, you have multiple options:
- If you swipe up, you can use the Text Comparison to quickly see a verse in multiple versions, with differences highlighted.
- One of the new features in v1.1 is that you can now share your thoughts with others via Facebook or Twitter by swiping up in the Reader and then pressing the Share button.
Logos Sharing
Conclusion
I spent the better part of the past few weeks using the app and I admit that I am very impressed with it. I used it during both of my Temple visits and found the app to be responsive, even over 3G (and without performing the caching trick below).
Positives
- It is a free App, and with a free registered account, you have 31 books available to study/search/share.
- It has excellent overall usability for reading and searching.
- The content you own with your Logos account/destkop application is shared with the iPhone app (with some caveats).
Negatives
- Requires a live connection for true usability.
- Requires an account to access additional free content (this is moot if you have an account and want to view your own books).
- Not all of the content you’ve paid for is available due to licensing/distribution constraints.
- No offline mode — you must be connected to browse the content. (There is a workaround: get the content while online and then it is locally cached).
Until now, BibleReader 4 from OliveTree was my preferred mobile application. However, with so much more flexibility in the application, I can honestly say that I prefer Logos. I do hope that Logos can provide an offline story that is more useful, although if you do have a 3G or Wi-Fi connection (especially Wi-Fi), the app is still very usable.
Переслать - I Stream, You Stream, We All Stream with Ustream for iPhone
Just released this morning, the new Ustream Live Broadcaster app (iTunes link) actually allows you to stream live video from your video-capable iPhone 3GS to the web, something which the recently released Qik app couldn’t (and still can’t) boast. It’s the first app to offer live streaming from Apple’s handset, and it even allows you to do so over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections.
In order to use the app, you’ll need to sign up for a free Ustream account if you don’t already have one. Ustream will prompt you to do so, and then allow you to register right within the app, without having to even pop out to Safari to complete the process.
As with any Ustream video, your live stream will be automatically recorded and stored on your Ustream account for later viewing. You can also notify your friends via Twitter that you’re starting a stream, and take advantage of Ustream’s built-in chat and Social Stream features to interact with viewers watching your video in real-time while you shoot. Obviously not something you can do while recording yourself, unless you are so intimately familiar with your iPhone that you can type when the screen isn’t facing you.
All of your recorded videos can be shared via the app to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, but people wanting to tune in live will have to go to Ustream.tv. If you’re not within range of a data network when you want to make a recording, Ustream Live Broadcaster lets you record now and upload later, when you do find a reliable 3G or Wi-Fi connection.
Other features include the ability to start a yes/no poll, support for portrait and landscape recording, audio muting, video title editing, video resolution selection, viewer count and the ability to broadcast your phone’s GPS recording while streaming. It’s a very full-featured app, and one that I’m honestly surprised made it through the review process.
I think this app being released indicates a relaxation of some of Apple’s strictures regarding the streaming of live video, and possible the streaming of all video over a 3G connection. I expect an updated version of Qik with similar abilities to follow soon, and possibly a host of other apps that have been waiting at the gates for Apple to give the green light.
Interestingly, the app description says that both the 3GS and the 3G models are supported, although the sole purpose of the app is to broadcast live video as its recorded, which last time I checked wasn’t available on a standard, non-jailbroken iPhone 3G. Any users out there who have a 3G, get downloading (the app is free) and help us solve this mystery.
Переслать - Rumor Has It: Apple Tablet Due in March or April, Says Analyst
Source: Piper Jaffray
Apple is all set to begin production of a 10.1-inch LCD tablet starting in February 2010, according to a recent analyst note by Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner. Following that, the device should then go on sale in March or April, Reiner says, with an initial production run of around 1 million units.
Reiner isn’t working off of leaked or inside information, but his predictions are based on industry supply checks, which means he’s making an educated guest based upon Apple’s activity with its overseas suppliers of late. That’s not the only source of rumor fodder, either.
As reported by AppleInsider, Reiner notes that additional support for the upcoming tablet comes from contacts involved in the U.S. publishing industry:
Contacts in the U.S. tell us Apple is approaching book publishers with a very attractive proposal for distributing their content. Apple will split revenue 30/70 (Apple/publisher); give the same deal to all comers; and not request exclusivity. We believe the typical Kindle split is 50/50, rising to 30/70 if Kindle is given e-book exclusivity.
The deal would then be more attractive than Amazon’s, if the estimates about Kindle revenue-splitting are correct, and Apple wouldn’t insist on release exclusivity in order to provide the 30/70 split. If Apple curries the favor of the publishing industry, and offers a more versatile reading platform, the e-book market could be in for the fight of its life come March or April.
Note that Reiner doesn’t see an OLED panel going into the production tablet, as has been predicted elsewhere. Instead, he says the device will use the same kind of LTPS LCD multi-touch display found on the iPhone, only this one will be 10.1 inches. Estimated retail price for the Apple tablet is around $1,000, according to Reiner.
Compare that with the recently unveiled JooJoo tablet (neé CrunchPad). Fusion Garage is offering its device for $500, and you get a good quality 12.1-inch touchscreen display capable of handling HD video. It would seem to undercut Apple significantly, except when you consider that the Apple tablet will likely be much more than just a web-browsing device.
If the Apple tablet resembles a computer more than a glorified, oversized media player, I think a price tag around $1,000 is fully justified. If I got decent on-device storage, a great on-screen keyboard, and lots of productivity apps, as well as wireless connectivity and e-reader type features, I’d be happy to pay more than I would for a bare-bones net tablet. I think OS choice will be key to this device’s success, but Reiner makes no mention of whether it’ll be designed to run iPhone OS or full-blown OS X.
Переслать - Rewind 2009: "Best of" Lists in the iTunes Store
Apple has published the “best” and most popular choices for 2009 at the iTunes Store, and the results are interesting, if not necessarily representative of the world outside the store.
In music, the top-selling album, “Only By the Night” by Kings of Leon, was also chosen as album of the year. Lady GaGa was best new artist, while Michael Jackson was artist of the year. Since the iTunes Store has a catalog of some 10 million songs and roughly accounts for a quarter of music sales, at least in the U.S., both the popular and editorial choices make sense. With movies and television, not so much.
“Up,” from Disney, whose second-largest shareholder and board member is Steve Jobs, has the top corner spot among best movies, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Arguably, what is wrong is “Pineapple Express” being second in top sales and rentals. According to BoxOfficeMojo, that film ranked 34th in 2008, though it was only released this year on disc. However, the highest-grossing movie of 2009, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” released on disc in October, isn’t yet available at the iTunes Store. Clearly, in terms of film, “best of” comes with a “what he got” caveat, as it does for television. When your best-seller list for television includes “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” you know you have a problem.
It’s a problem Apple has been trying to address for years, most recently reported as plans for a subscription-based model for video content. For $30 a month, one would get all the television one could watch. So far, the networks, and for that matter the movie studios, have largely remained outside the iTunes Store, but that’s true for pretty much every other digital store. In contrast, the App Store is exactly where application developers want to be.
Following the release of the “funnest” iPod touch ever, we have the best and most popular applications of 2009 divided into games and other apps. Apple appears to increasingly see gaming as intrinsic to its mobile devices. Critics of iPhone OS as not being a viable and commercially profitable gaming platform take note. All but one of the 10 best-selling games for 2009 costs $4.99 or more, and many of them, like The Sims 3, originally sold for $9.99.
Among other apps, MLB.com is not surprisingly popular, probably because it’s free right now, though $9.99 for the season. More surprisingly, MobileNavigator North America ranks among the most popular of applications, despite a price of $89.99. TomTom U.S. & Canada at $99.99 is also in the top 10, as are SlingPlayer Mobile and Golfshot: Golf GPS, both $29.99.
Again, the point is that the App Store is not a place with 100,000 free fart and flashlight apps, but rather a store where serious money can be made at the right price for the right content. If only the movie studios and television networks realize that — perhaps the iTunes Store “Best of” lists for 2010 will be just that, rather than the best of what’s available.
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