MotionApps and Palm have both released updates for the Pre to address compatibility issues. Further details can be found here: Classic v1.1 release is now complete.

Laridian’s MyBible 5, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm are all Classic Certified.

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This may seem like an unusual post, but I’ve been surprised sometimes to find out who uses our software, who reads our blog, and what all you are doing in your churches, parachurch ministries, and other organizations. So perhaps this won’t seem so strange to some of you.

As you might know, last year Laridian launched an effort to create a group texting product for churches at www.churchtextingmanager.com. Churches create accounts at our site, then their members sign up for groups using the SMS texting feature of their mobile phones. Group leaders can then easily send group text messages to all their members when plans change or when they just want to remind everyone of a meeting.

Those who use this service find it indispensable. We have some groups with over 200 members. In addition to group texting, the site also supports polling, autoresponders, and other features.

The product hasn’t been marketed as effectively as we would like and as a result it hasn’t had the uptake required to keep it going in the long term. Without a partner or an outright buy-out, it can’t go on the way it is (i.e. losing money every month).

So here’s what we’re looking for: An organization (church, parachurch, or even secular) who thinks it can make use of the service itself in a major way or would like to invest in increased marketing exposure for the service in exchange for an ownership share.

One possibility would be a large organization (again, Christian or secular) that would make use of it themselves to send on the order of thousands of messages per month. As a partner you’d get your text messages for “wholesale”. Meanwhile the commercial side of the business could keep operating and you would share in the profits from those efforts.

Another opportunity would be someone who would like to invest a few tens of thousands of dollars (in small monthly payments) to fund the service while we expand its marketing presence. This would be in exchange for an ownership share.

I will share full details with serious parties. Contact me by email at craigr@laridian.com. Give me an idea of who you are and what you’d like to do. I’m going to disable comments on this post. So please reply by email.

I’m looking forward to being surprised again by our customers.

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Actually, it should be “And the winners are….” We had so many great responses that we decided to choose three winners from each site. If you are one of the winners please let us know if you would like your library on CD or USB (both include the ability to download the files from the web site). Also, please make sure that we have your correct mailing address on your account (you’ll need to log into your account on our web site to make sure we have all your information).

The winner in each category will receive the Gold Library, the runner up, the Silver Library and the second runner up the Bronze Library.

Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry letting us know how you use PocketBible. This was a lot of fun to read and a great encouragement to all of us here at Laridian!

So…on to the winners!

Twitter:
Gold — @PewPotato
Silver — @bobschaefer
Bronze — @willyp777

Facebook:
Gold — James L (winner with the most “Like” votes)
Silver — Wayne Jenkins
Bronze — Jeff Jaquith

Blog:
Gold — Andy Leiniger
Silver — John Hopkirk
Bronze — Gary Cantwell

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Here are their submissions:

Twitter:
[GOLD WINNER] PewPotato @PocketBible on a train, in a plane; in a pew, at the zoo; on the go, to & fro; small & light, true delight; no matter where, Word is there.

[SILVER WINNER] bobschaefer @pocketbible My challenge: to read / the Bible in 90 days / Glad I have PB!

[BRONZE WINNER] willyp777 @pocketbible More reading of the word from the bathroom to waiting room… Hehe

Facebook:
[GOLD WINNER] James L I am a missionary & I use it as I travel throughout refugee camps & remote areas in Africa training pastors who don’t have access to Bible training. Though I would not whip the phone out in public, it is such a blessing to be able to go back to my hut, pull out the phone and have access to a whole bible library to answer difficult questions and prepare more in-depth teachings. I would never go on another teaching trip without Pocket Bible in my pocket!

[SILVER WINNER] Wayne Jenkins I became a brand new Christian last August and needed a bible set I could be comfortable reading. Since I’m a tech guy, PocketBible seemed to fit me to a ‘T’

I’ve been using pocket bible exclusively for about 6 months. I keep adding little tid bits from time to time as my wallet allows. I’ve not been a big book reader during my life, but reading from my electronic gadgets allows me to run through important reading of God’s word more often with pocket bible than I would any other way. There are times when I pull out my windows device and somebody will see me tapping the screen and think I may be texting soembody and I’ll get ‘THAT LOOK’. I’ll have to explain to them what I’m doing after church is over. I love my pocket bible software package.

[BRONZE WINNER] Jeff Jaquith I’m a skinny guy - if I carried around any actual books in my pocket my pants would probably fall down. PB (that’d be PocketBible, not peanut butter) is definitely keeping the scandal out of my life. Seriously, it’s a lot less obtrusive as well to use in public since I work a restricted-access country.

Blog:

[GOLD WINNER]
Andy Leininger comments:
May 20th, 2009 at 3:02 am e

I am a missionary in Siberia, yes you read it right, Siberia. I have been using PocketBible in various forms since 1999. I travel about 100,000 miles a year and bring PocketBible on my HTC Advantage or on my Windows PC everywhere I go. It is my primary bible and for the past 6 years I have only used a printed bible when I preach. (I have preached from my handheld a half a dozen times or so) I have 5 bible translations, 5 commentaries, several maps, devotionals and a bible reading plan. I have read through the entire bible using your plans each of the past 8 years on PocketBible. Each morning our family of five reads a chapter of the bible and discusses what it means and how we can apply the chapter to our lives. I use one of the commentaries or translations to clear up a point almost every day.

As a missionary, I am constantly working in two languages: English and Russian. Having multiple English translations helps me clarify difficult verses in Russian and provides commentary and insight with the many people that I disciple. The pocket sized computing bible helps me prepare sermons on a train, look up commentaries 500 miles from home, and even find answers to sticky questions while teaching a seminary class. Many Russian brothers and sisters come to me now and ask: “Andy what does your computer bible say about….?” It has become a resource for me and many other people.

I don’t plan on living life, following Jesus or training others without PocketBible. I can’t wait to have an offline version on my iPhone and one day, maybe just maybe we will have foreign language translations of the Bible.

Finally, when my daughters head off to college I plan on cutting and pasting many of my bible notes that relate to them in a special document. It is my prayer that the notes, thoughts and prayers that I have written for them over the years will be comforting when they are 12 time zones away. I couldn’t do this without PocketBible.

Gratefully: Andy

[SILVER WINNER]
John Hopkirk comments:

May 6th, 2009 at 6:27 pm e

Out of five “bible programes” I have had on my Dell Axim 51v, Pocket bible is very definitly the best I have used in many ways. Every morning my wife and I have devotions with her reading from “hard copy” books and I follow along on PB. I,m enjoying reading FB meyers books at night with quick access to chapter and verses where required. The scrolling buttons are the best for any PPC programes. I also enjoy in-depth bible study with many books open on the screen at once plus it allows me to, with a press of a button, bring the chosen verse at full screen. Pocket Bible makes full use of My VGA screen also.
I keep thinking of all the things that it can do over Esword, Online Pocket Bible, Olive tree, etc. Scripture memorizing, wttnessing with it the list goes on. Im excited about what Laridan has in stiore for the rest of the year.

[BRONZE WINNER]
Gary Cantwell comments:
May 12th, 2009 at 5:52 pm e

I have been an avid user of MyBible since 1998. I have never appreciated it more than a dark day in September 2001…

My father-in-law died suddenly on September 22, 2001 - just 11 days after 9/11. I was out of town and had to fly back to meet my wife and kids who were driving to Grandma’s. The airport was eerily empty that Saturday night. I flew in a mostly vacant puddle-jumper airplane through a horrendous Texas thunderstorm. I had bought my mother-in-law a condolence card at the airport and during the flight I was looking in MyBible on my Palm device for an appropriate verse to share. Thinking of my father-in-law, I searched for the phrase “righteous man” in the NASB and God led me to use NLT translation of this verse:

The righteous pass away;
the godly often die before their time.
And no one seems to care or wonder why.
No one seems to understand that God is
protecting them from the evil to come.
For the godly who die will rest in peace.
Isaiah 57:1-2 (NLT)

I shared this passage in my eulogy at the funeral and heard from many there how God used it to comfort them - realizing that Grandpa was in Heaven now, and was protected “from the evil to come.”

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Here on the eve of the launch of the Palm Pre, we are pleased to announce that all four of our Palm OS programs have been Classic Certified by MotionApps. MyBible 5, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm are all Classic Certified. The Classic Certified Logo serves as a seal of approval letting you know that you can use the Classic Certified application with confidence.

While we have worked with MotionApps to obtain Classic Certification, we have not yet seen a Pre or experienced our products running in Classic. While we expect most of our product features to “just work”, there may be some differences or issues.
For instance, since the Pre does not use the familiar Palm HotSync, installation to the Pre for use within Classic is different. Likewise, data synchronization with PocketBible for Windows may not be supported or may require some extra effort on your part.

Since these products are designed for the Palm Operating System, some issues related to using our products under Classic may not be addressed.

In order to support installation to the Pre, we are now  providing our Palm OS products in “.zip” format, in addition to the Windows Setup program and “.sit” formats that we have previously supplied. The .zip format allows anyone easy access to the Palm “.prc” and “.pdb” files that are installed to a device. (In fact, Windows power users may prefer the zip file and manual install when installing to an older Palm OS device as well.)

MyBible, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm were all updated earlier this afternoon to include the Classic certification. If you’ve previously downloaded our programs, you may want to download the updated versions made available earlier this afternoon.

Over the next few days, we’ll be updating our Web site with additional information on using and installing our programs with the Pre. Watch www.laridian.com/palm for details. And who knows, we may write another blog article or two.

Registered owners of MyBible 5, DailyReader, Memorize! and CountEm may download the updated, Classic Certified versions without cost. If you enjoy these programs in Classic, please consider buying additional Laridian content to use on your Pre.

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I posted the first beta version of PocketBible for our beta testers this afternoon. Hopefully it’s raining somewhere over this Memorial Day weekend so a few of them will get some testing done.

We don’t anticipate this to be a lengthy beta. We’re planning to ship with a short to-do list of features we’ll add in version 1.1 and 1.2 (and beyond). The important thing is to get the application out the door.

We’re currently planning to let you download PocketBible from the App Store at no charge. It will come with the KJV and the ability to create a download account at our site that will let you download all our free resources (ASV, DNT, YLT, etc. Bibles plus several commentaries and devotionals). And of course if you already have a download account at our site you’ll be able to download any existing titles you already own, even if you bought them for a different platform. So the cross-grade charge should be $0. We’re hoping you’ll be so thrilled with the price that you’ll buy more Bibles and reference books to help pay for the cost of development.

I hope to be able to post some quotes from the testers and some indication of our progress over the next few days as we prepare to submit the app to Apple for approval. Then we wait while they give it the once over. We’ll be letting everyone know by email and here at the blog when we see it at the App Store.

Thanks for your patience, and especially thanks to those of you who volunteered but who we had to turn away due to limits on the size of our beta testing group. We think you’re going to be pleased with the results.

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Laridian VIP Ed Hansberry posts the following on InformationWeek.com: Too Many Mobile OS’s Limiting Development For Companies.

Ed writes, “…there are a bewildering number of platforms and variations within the platforms to develop for. Enterprises will take the easy way out and just stick to one platform and a precious few models. Software developers that are selling their apps will have to have enough penetration for each platform to make development worthwhile. Each platform requires its own development team or at least a dedicated development process that takes time away from other supported platforms…. While phone carriers may support six or more mobile platforms, I am not sure the software industry will.”

We’ve been talking about this problem for some time:

• Palm Pre
• On the Problems of Designing User-Friendly Software for PDAs and Smart Phones
• The Hidden Complexity of the Cell Phone Market
• When is a Smartphone Not a Smartphone?
• …and any number of posts when the iPhone first came out.

Ed makes a good observation: There are at least six major mobile platforms. What if there were six desktop platforms? The software industry would be a significantly different place as companies tried to solve the huge problem of cross-platform development, multiple-platform development, and having enough market on any one platform to justify the incremental cost of maintaining or entering the market on that platform.

One thing you can say about Windows: By dominating the market Microsoft makes it easy for developers on desktop platforms. You can focus your development on one operating system. If you make it there you can consider Mac if you have enough users to justify the expense. Once you’ve covered Windows you have 80%-90% of the market. Whether you go for the 10%-15% represented by the Mac OS is a big decision, but at least it’s the only decision you’ll have to make.

For those of us writing software for mobile platforms there’s not only the issue of supporting a large number of platforms, but there’s the fact that the relative mix of market share on these platforms changes over time. Palm OS used to be our largest platform. Today the Palm OS is dead. Palm and Windows Mobile used to dominate the market; today iPhone and Windows Mobile hold the dominant share of customers. Deciding how we allocate development time and money is an ongoing process that changes a couple times every year.

Meanwhile Apple doesn’t make it easy to develop for the iPhone. I am having a major problem with getting the XCode programming tools to talk to my new 3G iPhone. The information at the Apple developer site is insufficient, and the developer forums they provide have numerous questions identical to mine that have gone unanswered for months. When you call “developer support” at Apple you get a guy in Great Britain who admits he has absolutely no idea how to solve the problem because he’s not a programmer and knows nothing about programming. He points me to the documentation, which is what I’ve been following to get me into the predicament I’m in.

It’s actually encouraging to see a major company like Yahoo make the decision to abandon all other platforms but the iPhone. (Actually, they’re supporting other platforms through customizations to their Web-based products.) It makes it easier for us to consider similar options.

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Several months have passed since the original Palm Pre announcement, and our original article on the Palm Pre. Please keep in mind that we don’t have any special “inside information” about the Pre, and that we have not announced any plans regarding software that we may or may not offer for the Pre.

As you probably know, the Palm Pre uses a new operating system called Web OS. Palm has announced that existing Palm OS programs, such as MyBible, are not compatible with Web OS. There have been differing reports on whether a Palm OS emulator, allowing programs such as MyBible to work on the Pre, would be included.

However, MotionApps is developing a product called Classic that will allow some “classic” Palm OS applications to work on the new Palm Pre.

MotionApps has announced that they are performing compatibility testing with some popular products. You can let them know of your own favorite products and perhaps influence which products will be tested for compatibility. To express your interest in using MyBible on a Pre via Classic to MotionApps, click here and fill out the resulting form. (Any information you provide is sent to MotionApps, not Laridian.)

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Laridian is announcing our first “How Do You Use PocketBible” contest. (If you use MyBible or iPocketBible or Noah…feel free to enter as well, it’s just easier to say “PocketBible” instead of “PocketBible, MyBible, iPocketBible and/or Noah.”) It’s simple to enter and you can enter three different places (but you can only win once).

Each winner will receive PocketBible for Windows Gold Edition on a USB drive. That’s a $199.99 prize! You can enter at all three places, but you can only win once.

Blog site: Leave a comment right here on this blog post (we will not read any entries sent via email). Laridian staff will go through and pick our favorite as the winner. We will only read the first entry from each person, so it will not help you to post more than once…just make your first post really good!

Facebook: Our fans on Facebook can leave a comment on our wall. The winner on Facebook will be the person with the most “Like” clicks on their comment (so get your friends to vote for your post). This one will be more difficult than the blog site as there is a restriction to the number of characters you may use (Facebook restriction, not a Laridian restriction). Again…only the first comment will count (if you don’t like your comment, delete it and comment again). You will not win if there is more than one comment from your account.
Facebook is not letting up click “Like” when people post to the fan page. Laridian staff will pick the winner for Facebook as well as for Twitter and the blog. Sorry for the confusion.
Update (6May09): Facebook is now allowing you to click the “Like” link under the wall post on the PocketBible fan site, so…for now…we are going back to the original idea. You pick the winner on Facebook by telling us who’s post you like. Click away!

Twitter: This will be the most difficult. Be creative! Twitter PocketBible with your 140 character description of how you use PocketBible. Laridian staff will pick our favorite. And like the blog site and Facebook, we will only read the first Tweet from each person…so make it good.

We’re excited to see the different ways that people are using PocketBible. So join the fun! You could win $199.99 worth of Bible software on a USB drive!

Enter by May 22, 2009. We will announce the winners at the end of May.

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	The AMG Concise Introduction to the Bible is for every person who has ever wanted to get a firm grasp on Bible history and Bible meaning, but didn’t have a clue how to do it or where to begin. Where did we come from? How did we get where we are? What is our future? Preeminent among all literature about the big questions of life is the Holy Bible. Nowhere else can one get the insight, perspective and answers that God’s Word provides. Find the answers to the big questions of life through the recounting of Bible history made relevant to today’s readers.
	The AMG Concise Bible Doctrine takes hard to comprehend Biblical doctrine and makes it readily understandable for the contemporary Bible scholar. Includes: How to Interpret the Bible Who God Is The Present Ministry of Jesus Christ The Present Ministry of the Holy Spirit The Works of Angels The Nature of Satan and Demon Activity The Nature of Prophecy The Signs of the Times and the Rapture The Eternal Abode of the Unsaved The Eternal Home of the Saved
	AMG’s Encyclopedia of Bible Facts is more than a trivia book, more than an introduction to the Bible, more than a dictionary, and more than a word almanac of the Bible. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about the Bible and then some. Christianity is an historic religion based on countless verifiable facts. Whether you want to inquire about archaeological findings, New Testament manuscripts, culture, people, prophecies or many, many other areas, you will find what you need here. Over 100,000 fun-filled and interesting Bible facts.
	Reese Chronological Encyclopedia of Christian Biographies is a virtual “Who’s Who” of Christian History form the First Century AD to Today! Reggie White | C.S.Lewis | Martin Luther | John Knox | Bill Bright | Francis Bacon | John Milton | John B Phillips | Amy Carmichael | Frinces Ridley Havergal | Merrill Unger | Oswald Chambers | …and thousands more With over five thousand biographical sketches of Christian leaders spanning twenty centuries, readers will be hard-pressed to find someone of note not mentioned in this volume.

Until June 9, 2009 get all four titles for only $39.99 (33% off the list price)!

Click for Palm | WindowsMobile | Windows | iPhone/iPod Touch

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The MacArthur Study Bible Notes are now available for MyBible for the Palm OS (they have been available for our other platforms previously). John MacArthur brings you essentially a complete Bible commentary in one volume. The MacArthur Study Bible Notes treats every passage of the Old and New Testaments phrase-by-phrase, with hundreds of word studies as sidebars throughout. It offers a broad overview of each Bible book and the internal consistency that results from having a single commentator. John MacArthur’s more than 35 years as a pastor and teacher have been characterized by a deep commitment to the truth of God’s Word and its presentation in terms that people can understand and apply to their lives. His credo of Unleashing God’s truth, one verse at a time® has never been more fully articulated than in this study Bible. People are hungry for a clear presentation of God’s eternal message. The MacArthur Study Bible Notes will become the standard for today’s generation of Bible students. Click here for more information and to order.

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Monday morning (April 20th) between 1 AM and 5 AM EDT, we will be performing maintenance on one of our servers.

During that time we will temporarily take down our blog, support site and list server.

If all goes according to plan, the server will be back up before the start of the business day on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

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Maybe you don’t Facebook, but you Twitter. Maybe you Facebook and Twitter. Maybe you just can’t get enough of Laridian and PocketBible (and/or iPocketBible, MyBible and Noah). If any of this describes you you’ll be happy to know that you can now follow us on Twitter too!

Click the image to go to our Twitter page and start following us.

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Are you on Facebook? Are you a fan of PocketBible (or iPocketBible or MyBible or Noah)? If you can say “Yes!” or even “Sort of…” to both of those we have news for you. PocketBible has a fan page on Facebook! Let all your friends know that you are a fan of PocketBible (or one of its siblings) by joining our fan page today! Who knows you might even find a special offer now and then just for our fans.

Click the Facebook icon to go right to our fan page.

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The ESV Study Bible is now available for PocketBible for Windows, WindowsMobile and iPhone (Palm is coming)!

The ESV Study Bible recently received the “Christian Book of the Year” award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. It contains new study notes, maps, illustrations, charts, timelines, articles and introductions. All of this and the ESV text (if you already have the ESV text watch your email for a special discount on purchasing the ESV Study Bible). It’s the equivalent of having a 20 volume Bible resource library all in one study Bible (and all in the palm of your hand if you’re purchasing it for WindowsMobile or iPhone). The ESV was created to help people understand the timeless truths of the Bible in a deeper way. It was created by a team of 95 evangelical Christian scholars and teachers. I’ve been using it for a while now, both in print and in PocketBible and have found it extremely useful. It really is like having a reference library in the palm of your hand! The ESV Study Bible is regularly priced at $29.99. Until the end of April you can purchase it for $23.99 (20% off).

Click your platform to go to the product page and add the study Bible to your order form.
Windows | WindowsMobile | iPhone (subscription required)

If you’ve purchased the ESV in the past, watch your email for a discount off of the ESV Study Bible.

UPDATE 3/28/2009 6:50AM EST…We released the Palm version of the ESV Study Bible last night! Check your email for the announcement.

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If you’ve been a Laridian customer for a while you know that our policy has always been to avoid talking about products that we are working on until they’re actually available. Starting with the Web-based version of our iPhone product (iPocketBible.com) we made an exception to that rule and openly talked about our development activities for iPhone. We continued that with the native PocketBible for iPhone. We did this as an experiment to see how it would work out.

It’s been an interesting experience. We’ve received many positive comments and suggestions on the blog and by email. Several emails, though, attacked both our products and our personal character, and criticized our programming and management skills. Needless to say, these both consume our time as we try to address the criticisms and drain us of enthusiasm for the project. Even the positive comments often result in lengthy email exchanges.

We’re at the point, especially with the upcoming version 3 of the iPhone OS, that we need to return to the old way of doing things and allow ourselves to work undistracted by both incoming emails and the pressure to release information to the PocketBibleiPhone email list. I’ve removed a few articles from our blog and disabled comments on others. We will return to a “no comment” policy with respect to products which may or may not be under development, and reserve the right to read but not reply to your emails.

We do appreciate your interest but hope you’ll understand our need to focus.

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Official Conference Portrait

Looks like I’ll be speaking at the BibleTech 2009 Conference in Seattle on March 27-28.

My session is the very first one on the schedule at 10AM Friday morning, March 27. I’ll be talking about our group SMS texting service for churches and demonstrating some features that are going to roll out right before that conference. Specifically, using the service for microblogging, voting, and receiving replies from your broadcasts. I’ll be demonstrating the service of course, but will also be opening the hood and talking about how it works. (Since this is a technical conference I have to include something for the programmers in the audience.)

Why am I not talking about Bible software at a BibleTech conference? The main reason is that I spoke on that topic last year; specifically about our synchronization feature that syncs notes, highlights, bookmarks and other personal data between our Windows desktop software and the various mobile platforms we support. And our friends from OliveTree will be there giving the same presentation they gave last year on mobile Bible software development. So I wanted to mix it up a bit and present something different.

Regardless of the topic of my presentation, though, I’d love to see you there and we can talk Bible software if you want. Visit www.BibleTechConference.com for details about the conference, and www.ChurchTextingManager.com for information about our group texting service.

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So we’re at Jim’s place in Pennsylvania this week, having our annual board of directors meeting and doing a little skiing at Blue Mountain. Jim’s on ski patrol there, which requires that he receive training as an Emergency Medical Service: First Responder. We’re on our way to the local Panera Bread to drink some coffee, tap their WiFi, and have our second session of meetings.

As we’re approaching the mall we come across a very fresh accident. The driver of a mini SUV has apparently run a red light and been clipped by a semi, causing the SUV to spin and the driver’s head to break out the driver’s-side window. Jim pulls over, grabs his med kit and heads to the scene to offer assistance. There he finds that the driver is covered with broken glass and is bleeding from a cut on her ear. Pictures after the break…

(more…)

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If you’ve ever needed to contact us at Laridian for assistance, you’ve probably been fortunate to have been helped by Patty. If you go way back, you may have even talked with Patty on the phone. Patty has been our front-line provider of customer support for several years, is knowledgeable about our products, and genuinely interested in helping you resolve any problem that you might be having. (Well, maybe not any problem… but for sure any problem with a Laridian product ).

However, as competent as Patty might be, she’s still just one person. So, we recently began a search to find her some help.

As we were seeking a new person to help on a part-time basis with technical support and customer service, we knew we were looking for some one with a special set of talents:

• Knowledge about our products,
• Knowledge about our subject field (the Bible, mobile computing, etc.),
• Excellent written communication skills,
• Ability to follow instructions,
• Desire to help our customers,
• And, finally, patience, because (as difficult as it might be to believe) sometimes the frustrations of an unexpected problem can bring additional challenges to a support situation.

Knowing that we were looking for some one special, we chose to advertise for our part-time position in three venues:

1. craigslist
2. our local newspaper
3. here at this blog

Additionally, in order to test written communication skills and the ability to follow instructions, the application process included some very specific instructions.

For some (as yet unknown) reason, the ad never appeared on craigslist. So, we didn’t receive any applicants from that source.

The ad in our local newspaper did generate some responses. However, none of these applicants followed the specific instructions that we provided. As a result, these applicants didn’t receive any of our attention. After all, if one cannot follow the application details, how will one perform at a detail-oriented job? (Hint: if you ever apply for a position with Laridian, or even as a beta tester, make sure you follow all of the provided instructions. That’s always our first filter, and it is surprisingly effective.)

Fortunately, the article here in our blog did generate interest from several interested and qualified persons. Many, but not all, followed the instructions, and thus made it past the first step. The remaining applicants were all strong candidates. Plus, most were also customers, and therefore already had knowledge of our products.

The second step was a brief questionnaire, sent to each remaining applicant. The questionnaire was designed to further explore written communication skills as well as to obtain more information than what had been originally asked for.

The third step was to further filter our qualified applicants. Craig and I independently reviewed the resumes and responses, then independently ranked the applicants based upon our own individual criteria. When we compared our results, we found that while our rankings weren’t exactly the same, we did seem to be in general agreement.

For the fourth step, I then conducted telephone interviews with the top few applicants. During a 60 to 90 minute conversation, we discussed the company, the position, and the candidate.

The result? If you need to contact us for assistance, you might still be fortunate to be assisted by Patty. But if not, you’ll probably be fortunate to be assisted by Brett. Brett has been an ardent Laridian customer for several years and is excited about the future of mobile computing and its impact on Bible study.

Plus, we learned that “advertising” here in our blog is an effective way to seek candidates for job openings. You all are a remarkably qualified and diverse group!

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There has been some confusion about the status of the ESV Study Bible for PocketBible/MyBible. We frequently get asked when it will be done. The answer is we don’t know, because we’re not doing the development work for it.

As you know, Laridian is the only mobile Bible software company that offers a complete publishing solution that allows the owners of Bibles and Bible reference materials to self-publish in our format, and we’re one of very few non-mobile Bible software companies to do so. When we were approached by Crossway to publish the ESV Study Bible notes, one of the options we presented to them was self-publishing using BookBuilder. This was the option they chose.

In order to save the time and effort of learning our system, Crossway is actually using a third-party to create this product. The company doing the work is one that we also use. They know our system inside and out and have tools that make it easier for them to publish books for us than it would be for Crossway to do it on their own.

The result of all this is that we aren’t in control of the schedule for this product. We hear it’s coming soon. Unfortunately not everyone at Crossway (and maybe not even everyone at Laridian) understands how this project is being done, so there’s been some confusion when customers contact them (or us) and ask about the status. So this is the official word: This is a Crossway project, not a Laridian project. We hear it will be done “soon” but don’t know the exact schedule. When it is done, we’ll post a message here on the blog and send out an email to all our customers to let them know. You’ll be able to purchase it right here at the Laridian Web site.

Comments (6)

We just released two titles that will probably not be making the email schedule over the next couple of months, but I wanted to let you know about them anyway.

The NIV Study Bible Notes (2008 edition) for PocketBible for Windows
	Yes, it is finally available for PocketBible for Windows thanks to our friends over at Zondervan. You can now have the NIV Study Bible Notes on your Windows Desktop as well as your Windows Mobile, Palm or iPhone. If you have already purchased the NIV Study Bible Notes (2008 edition) for a different Laridian platform and you own PocketBible for Windows then this version will automatically be added to your download page. If you haven’t yet purchased either the NIVSBN or PocketBible for Windows you can click the link below and get the program for $26.99 (regularly $29.99) and the notes for $11.99 (regularly $14.99). To purchase the NIV Study Bible Notes (2008 edition) for Windows click here.
IVP New Testament Commentary: Mark
	I know some of you have been waiting for this one for a while. It is available by itself or as part of the complete 20 vol collection. If you have purchased the complete collection previously you simply need to download the updated file from you download page. We are now offering Mark (by itself) at an introductory price of $7.99. If you would like to purchase the complete set of commentaries click the platform link below to receive a 10% discount. To purchase IVP NT Commentary: Mark by itself for $7.99 click your preferred platform: Windows | Windows Mobile | iPhone (subscription based) To purchase the complete IVP NT Commentary set for $116.99 (regularly $129.99) click your preferred platform: Windows | Windows Mobile | iPhone (subscription based)

These discounts are available to you if you use priority code 090123BLG (already built into the links).
This priority code expires 2/23/09!

Comments (2)

Palm, maker of the popular Treo and Centro phones and the venerable Palm OS organizers (also known as connected organizers and the original Palm Pilot), has announced a new phone, called the Pre. You can read about it here: www.palm.com

If you’re into technical details, you can find some here: http://developer.palm.com

While there are some nice Web pages and pre-ads (pun intended) for the Pre, there is surprisingly little information about adding programs to the Pre.

However, based on what we’ve read, this is what we “know” right now:

1. The Pre uses a new operating system
2. Palm will be making additional information available to developers “over the coming weeks and months”
3. Although it’s not been expressly stated, it appears that existing Palm OS programs will not run on the Pre
4. It will be possible to add 3rd party programs to the Pre
5. These new Pre programs are completely new, and not based upon existing Palm OS programs
6. These new Pre programs are more similar to Web pages than to traditional programs written in languages such as C and C++

So, if you’re a MyBible user or are hoping to be a Pre early adopter, what does this all mean? It means:

1. You should not expect MyBible to work on a Pre
2. You should not expect any existing Palm OS applications to work on a Pre
3. There will be confusion about which programs work on older Palm devices and which work on the Pre
4. No one can start working on programs designed for the Pre until Palm releases more information “over the coming weeks and months”

What do we think about the new Pre? On the one hand, it looks like another cool new phone. On the other hand, it looks like just another cool new phone. As a cool new phone, unrelated to the current Palm models except by name, it will require an investment to create a cool new program that will work on it.

As Palm releases more information about the Pre, we’ll have the information we need to evaluate if and when there might be a version of PocketBible for the Pre.

Comments (16)

The new version of MyBible now supports HTML tags. PocketBible for Windows Mobile and Windows desktop also support HTML tags. This gives you some very nice formatting options.

HTML is a “mark-up language” that allows you to control text formatting by inserting special “tags” in the text. For example, to make a word bold you just put <b> before the word and </b> after the word. This simple example demonstrates the basics of HTML: You have an “open” tag at the beginning (<b>) and a “close” tag at the end (</b>). Both tags are surrounded by less-than and greater-than (< and >). The closing tag has a slash after the less-than (</). The “name” of the tag is “b” in this case.

Remember you can always just type plain text notes in PocketBible or MyBible. There’s no need to worry about HTML tags. But if you want to do some more sophisticated notes, you have that ability if you learn a little HTML.

Ordered Lists

Outlines start with the concept of an ordered list. An ordered list is simply a list with numbers. By creating an ordered list instead of just numbering your items manually, you can re-order the items by using cut-and-paste because there are no numbers actually in the list — the numbers are created by the program when it displays your list.

Ordered lists start with <ol> and end with </ol>. In between those tags are “list items”. List items are the items in your list. They start with <li> and end with </li>. So a simple ordered list would look like this in the note editor:

<ol>
<li>Light</li>
<li>Separation of water</li>
<li>Dry ground; plants</li>
<li>Sun and moon</li>
<li>Fish and birds</li>
<li>Land animals and humans</li>
</ol>

Notice that the list has an open and close tag and each list item has an open and close tag. When you view this note it will look like this:

1. Light
2. Separation of water
3. Dry ground; plants
4. Sun and moon
5. Fish and birds
6. Land animals and humans

Note that there were no numbers in the original text above, but when you view it in PocketBible/MyBible the numbers are automatically inserted.

List Attributes

Before showing you an outline, let me point out a useful feature of ordered lists. HTML tags have names (we’ve seen “b”, “ol” and “li”). They also have “attributes”. An attribute is an optional feature of the tag that controls its appearance. One attribute of the <ol> tag is “type”. We use the type attribute to tell the <ol> tag what numbering system we want to use. If we say “type=A” we’ll get upper case letters instead of numbers. “type=a” gives us lower case letters; “type=I” and “type=”i” are Roman numerals, upper and lower case, respectively. So here’s the same list as above, but with Roman numerals:

<ol type="I">
<li>Light</li>
<li>Separation of water</li>
<li>Dry ground; plants</li>
<li>Sun and moon</li>
<li>Fish and birds</li>
<li>Land animals and humans</li>
</ol>

When rendered in PocketBible/MyBible you’ll see:

1. Light
2. Separation of water
3. Dry ground; plants
4. Sun and moon
5. Fish and birds
6. Land animals and humans

Note one of the advantages of using ordered lists instead of just manually numbering your items: You can make a small change to the <ol> tag and it completely changes how the list is numbered.

Sublists Within a List Item

We now have all the tools we need to create outlines except for one small thing: We need to know that list items can actually contain other lists. That is, instead of a list item being some text like “Separation of water” it can actually contain an entire ordered list. We still have to be careful to include the open and close tag for each ordered list and each list item, and this can get confusing. But if you’re careful it’s not hard to get good at it. Here’s a simple example of including a list inside a list item:

<ol type="I">
<li>Seven Days of Creation
<ol type="A">
<li>Light</li>
<li>Separation of water</li>
<li>Dry ground; plants</li>
<li>Sun and moon</li>
<li>Fish and birds</li>
<li>Land animals and humans</li>
</ol> (This is the end of the sublist under “Seven Days of Creation”)
</li> (This is the end of the list item “Seven Days of Creation”)
</ol> (This is the end of the main list)

Note that we don’t close the “Seven Days of Creation” list item until the end of the list that is under it. This is important and is what makes the outline work correctly. If you type the above into PocketBible/MyBible (without the italicized comments at the end) this is what you’ll see:

1. Seven Days of Creation
   
   1. Light
   2. Separation of water
   3. Dry ground; plants
   4. Sun and moon
   5. Fish and birds
   6. Land animals and humans

Outlines

We now have everything to create a complex outline. Here is the code you would type into the note editor, followed by what it looks like when fully rendered:

<ol type="I">
<li>The Account of Creation (Gen 1:1-2:4)
<ol type="A">
<li>Light</li>
<li>Separation of water</li>
<li>Dry ground; plants</li>
<li>Sun and moon</li>
<li>Fish and birds</li>
<li>Land animals and humans</li>
<li>God rests</li>
</ol></li>
<li>The Man and Woman in Eden
<ol type="A">
<li>Garden of Eden
<ol type="1">
<li>The conditions before
<ol type="a">
<li>No plants</li>
<li>No rain</li>
<li>No people</li>
<li>Springs came up to water the ground</li>
</ol></li>
<li>God plants a garden
<ol type="a">
<li>Where: In the East</li>
<li>Puts the man there</li>
<li>Fruit trees</li>
<li>Tree of Life</li>
<li>Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil</li>
</ol></li>
<li>The river
<ol type="a">
<li>Flows out of Eden</li>
<li>Four branches
<ol type="i">
<li>Pishon</li>
<li>Gihon</li>
<li>Tigris</li>
<li>Euphrates</li>
</ol></li>
</ol></li>
</ol></li>
<li>The Man and Woman
<ol type="1">
<li>Their purpose
<ol type="a">
<li>Tend it</li>
<li>Watch over it</li>
</ol></li>
<li>The warning
<ol type="a">
<li>Eat freely except...</li>
<li>Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil</li>
<li>Eat its fruit = death</li>
</ol></li>
<li>The helper
<ol type="a">
<li>Man was alone; not good</li>
<li>Animal parade</li>
<li>Man sleeps</li>
<li>God creates woman from his rib</li>
<li>Man happy</li>
</ol></li>
</ol></li>
</ol></li>
<li>The Man and Woman Sin</li>
<li>Etc.....</li>
</ol>

1. The Account of Creation (Gen 1:1-2:4)
   
   1. Light
   2. Separation of water
   3. Dry ground; plants
   4. Sun and moon
   5. Fish and birds
   6. Land animals and humans
   7. God rests
2. The Man and Woman in Eden
   
   1. Garden of Eden
      
      1. The conditions before
         
         1. No plants
         2. No rain
         3. No people
         4. Springs came up to water the ground
      2. God plants a garden
         
         1. Where: In the East
         2. Puts the man there
         3. Fruit trees
         4. Tree of Life
         5. Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
      3. The river
         
         1. Flows out of Eden
         2. Four branches
            
            1. Pishon
            2. Gihon
            3. Tigris
            4. Euphrates

   2. The Man and Woman
      
      1. Their purpose
         
         1. Tend it
         2. Watch over it
      2. The warning
         
         1. Eat freely except…
         2. Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
         3. Eat its fruit = death
      3. The helper
         
         1. Man was alone; not good
         2. Animal parade
         3. Man sleeps
         4. God creates woman from his rib
         5. Man happy
3. The Man and Woman Sin
4. Etc…..

Comments (5)

MyBible has been updated to version 5.003. It includes the following updates.

1. A customer contacted us to report a problem while using Graffiti Anywhere on a Treo. MyBible’s Graffiti Go To feature could not be used with Graffiti Anywhere. We were able to determine why Graffiti Anywhere was aborting Graffiti Go To, and make provision for it. So, MyBible 5.003 is now compatible with the program Graffiti Anywhere.
2. Some TX users reported that the device reset when tapping a verse hyperlink in books such as commentaries. We were able to determine that the TX model uses some of the memory dedicated to MyBible, and resolve this error.

This is a recommended update for TX users and anyone that uses or wants to use the Graffiti Anywhere product.

Registered owners of MyBible 5 can download this free update. As always, just login to your personal download account at www.laridian.com to download your purchases and any available updates.

As a reminder, remember that technical support questions should be addressed at the Laridian help desk (and not as a comment to this blog article). Also, many common questions are already answered in the knowledge base, so you may find what you’re looking for there.

Comments (0)

MyBible 5 has been updated to address two suggestions from our customers.

One consistent request related to the new MyBible 5 has been to make the autoscroll feature smoother, rather than line-by-line. MyBible 5.002 includes a new option to turn on smooth scrolling, which “slides” the text up the screen rather than jumping from line to line. Depending upon the speed of your handheld, the autoscroll rate you’ve selected, the number of notes you’ve written, and other factors, there may be slight pauses as MyBible considers how to fill in the text. However, the scrolling effect is quite visually pleasing.

(If you prefer the line-by-line scrolling, that option is still available.)

A second, though less-frequent, request was for the option to turn off images within books. Many of the newer books include some wonderful pictures and illustrations; however, these can take some time to load. When time is of the essence, all images can now be turned off so that you’ll never have to wait for a picture to load.

Registered owners of MyBible 5 can download this free update. As always, just login to your personal download account at www.laridian.com to download your purchases and any available updates.

Comments (7)

MyBible 5 is now available.

For additional information, see:

• Laridian Web site: Palm OS Products
• Blog Article: Coming Soon: MyBible 5!

Upgrading from MyBible 3 or 4?

• Simply purchase and install the new MyBible 5 program.
• You don’t need to remove or delete your previous version of MyBible before upgrading to MyBible 5. (In fact, if you do delete the prior version of MyBible, you’ll also erase your notes and bookmarks and highlights, too.)
• You don’t need to re-purchase, re-download, or re-install your current MyBible Bibles and books; these will work just fine with MyBible 5.
• You won’t lose your notes, bookmarks or highlights when you upgrade to MyBible 5. MyBible 5 will automatically convert your notes and bookmarks to the new format used in MyBible 5.

Comments (18)

MyBible 5 is complete and will be available soon!

We expect to begin sending upgrade announcements to registered, active customers as early as next week. If you’re a registered owner of MyBible, you can take these steps to ensure that you receive your upgrade announcement in a timely manner:

1. Make sure that email from news@laridian.com makes it through any junk mail filters that you use. If you’re not sure how to do this, we offer some suggestions here.
2. If you have not placed ordered with us within the past 18 months, you may have rolled off of our mailing list. If you’ve not ordered from us in a while, one easy way to be sure that you’re an active customer is to place an order for any of our products, including a free product.

So, what’s new in MyBible 5?

Zoom: MyBible now supports two viewing modes: Zoomed and Unzoomed. Unzoomed is the method provided by previous versions of MyBible. Zoomed is the new method supplied in MyBible 5. Zoomed allows any book to be zoomed to near full-screen size, allowing you to easily switch between seeing several books at a time and only one book at a time. A screenshot of MyBible 5 in zoomed mode is shown below.

Autoscroll: Any Bible or book can be automatically scrolled at a rate of your own choosing. Both books and Bibles scroll by a line at a time.

Enhanced Bookmark Features

• Bookmarks can now be categorized into categories of your choosing.
• The number of bookmarks that you can add to your Bibles has been increased from 250 to over 64,000. (You probably won’t ever hit that limit!)

Enhanced Note Features

• Your notes can now include html tags to apply formatting such as bold and italics.
• The maximum size of each note has been increased from about 2000 to about 10,000 characters, and limits on the number of notes per book of the Bible have been removed.
• Bible references in your personal notes are automatically linked to the specified Bible verse or passage.
• Navigation from note to note has been improved.

Synchronization of Personal Data: Your personal notes and bookmarks are now in a format that can be synchronized with other Laridian products, such as PocketBible for Windows. Any notes and bookmarks from a previous version of MyBible will be automatically converted to the new format. Additional (free!) synchronization software is required and will be released in conjunction with MyBible 5.

A while back we invited some of our blog readers to beta test this new version of MyBible and personal data synchronization. What are our best testers saying about the new MyBible?

I love the zoom feature. Not only does it make having multiple resources open much more useful, navigation is virtually effortless–I just zoom in on the resource I want and use the 5-way navigator on my Palm T|X. I’ve been very happy with every Laridian product I’ve purchased over the years and MyBible 5 is clearly another success.
- Jeffrey S., Rockledge, Florida

Comparing how different translations treat a particular verse or phrase has never been easier. MyBible 5’s Zoom feature enables you to display 3 of your favourite translations full-screen and switch between them with a single click. Time is of the essence in Bible class and sermon prepararion today. I now prefer MB5 over my paper Bible.
- Roland R., Whitby, Ontario Canada

Laradian’s MyBible version 5 is easily the most comprehensive and powerful Bible software that I’ve ever found for the Palm Treo and Windows. I am one VERY happy customer!”
- Bill Z. Hillsboro, Missouri

We’re excited to be able to bring you this upgrade and (finally) data synchronization with PocketBible for Windows! Registered MyBible customers can watch their inbox for an upgrade anouncements. And if you’re not yet using MyBible 5 on your Palm OS device, now’s the time to give it a try!

Comments (7)

It was ten years ago today that Laridian was incorporated. Time flies!

I started working on Bible software for Windows CE in April of 1998 while I was still at Parsons Technology. Parsons had decided it wasn’t interested in software for PDAs. That didn’t really matter since the sale of Parsons to Broderbund in 1997 had accidentally left me under no non-compete nor any intellectual property agreement of any kind. So I was free to launch a Bible software company even though it looked a little questionable.

(Interestingly, this would get tested in 2002 when the stockholders of Mattel sued Mattel and its executives over the lack of due diligence in the purchase of The Learning Company, which at the time was the owner of Parsons Technology. I was a witness for the plaintiffs (the shareholders) and was deposed for a day and a half. A team of lawyers went through my notebooks and phone logs covering the last couple years I was at Parsons. When they discovered I had started Laridian before leaving Parsons they really dug in — looking for a way to discredit my testimony. They were unable to find any evidence of any wrong-doing on my part, and eventually the shareholders won the suit and received several million dollars from Mattel.)

We incorporated on October 21, 1998 and our first sale was on November 28, 1998. I resigned from Parsons on December 11. Jeff Wheeler and Jim VanDuzer followed me in January.

The product now known as PocketBible for Windows Mobile was our first product. At the time it was called PalmBible and Windows Mobile was called Windows CE. Sometime in 1999 or 2000 some idiot at the US Patent and Trademark Office granted Palm, Inc. a trademark on the word “Palm” pretty much in any imaginable context. Palm started flexing its newly found power and threatened everyone using the word “Palm” in the title of their software. We received a letter saying we needed to change the name of our product. Microsoft had just come out with a new type of device it was calling “Pocket PC” and promised not to trademark the word “Pocket”, so PalmBible became PocketBible.

We didn’t know anything about electronic commerce at the time. Parsons sold a lot of products through its Web site but none of us were involved in the technical implementation of online sales so we didn’t know where to start. Fortunately Bob Parsons had started a Web hosting company in Phoenix by then so we called him up and had his company implement our Web store. As is normal with such things they did about 90% of it and called it good. We had to finish up a number of things, but that ended up being a good thing because it forced me to learn how the site worked and how to write VBScript and SQL.

Laridian was then and has remained a virtual company. We’ve never had office space; we all work from home. For a long time we sold our products only through the Web site, and only by download. So there wasn’t any inventory. We even provided our own computers for the first couple years (and worked without a salary), so the company didn’t even have any physical assets.

Over time that has changed a little bit. For a long time we distributed our physical products through distribution partners but we got burned three times by three different companies. So now that’s all handled in-house. Our “warehouse” is a storage garage, and we make trips there as necessary to replenish the stock of products one of us keeps at home for direct orders, or to put together larger orders for stores. (We sell our iPocketBible audio Bibles through Christian bookstores. Right now those are our only physical products.)

We’ve all had to make adjustments in our homes to work full-time from home. I had a small 9′ x 12′ office off our family room when the company first started, but I quickly outgrew it and needed more storage and work space. We ended up building an addition on the house so I could have a bigger space (and better sound-proofing). Now I have about a 14′ x 20′ office with a small storage room attached. This works great as I’m completely isolated from the rest of the house. This is important because we taught our five kids at home so there was always a lot of activity during the day. The kids were good about letting me work, but they still made a lot of noise. (My oldest three are married and out of the house now; the youngest two go to the Christian school run by our church.)

I worked ten years and two months for Parsons Technology, and that was my longest time at one job. In March I’ll have been working full-time for Laridian for that long. I think we’ve accomplished a lot and hope to keep doing it for another ten or more. We all appreciate those of you who have made us your PDA Bible software source over the years. You’re a big part of what makes it fun to do this job. Thanks for ten great years!

Comments (16)

We’ve been sitting on some big news here at Laridian. We’ve kind of been dropping hints about some titles that are coming out soon, but didn’t want to say anything until we were actually closer to release dates.

Well that time has finally come. Here it is…

We have signed a contract with Thomas Nelson for twenty titles!

I’ll list the titles below, but just want to say how hard we’ve been working on this contract and on the titles. Both things have been happening simultaneously. Watch your email this month for offers for some of the titles on this list. Because of the things that need to happen in the background we won’t be releasing all of the titles at once, but they will be coming out over the next several weeks.

Enjoy!

Commentaries:

• Believer’s Bible Commentary
• MacArthur’s Bible Commentary MacArthur Study Bible Notes
• Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary
• Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee
• With the Word Commentary
• Women’s Study Bible Commentary

Dictionaries:

• Find It Fast In the Bible
• I Never Knew That Was in the Bible
• MacArthur’s Topical Bible
• Nelson’s New Christian Dictionary
• Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
• Nelson’s New Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible
• New Strong’s Greek & Hebrew Lexicons
• Nelson’s Topical Bible
• Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of OT/NT Words
• What Does the Bible Say About…
• Where to Find It In the Bible

Devotionals:

• Grace for the Moment
• On This Day
• Truth for the Day

Comments (22)

Zondervan has announced the upcoming release of the NIV Study Bible for Windows Mobile and Palm. We are doing this product in partnership with Zondervan. It will include our Windows Mobile and Palm readers (PocketBible and MyBible) plus the option of a one-year subscription to iPocketBible.com for iPhone and iPod Touch users.

The NIV Study Bible has undergone a 25% revision to its over 20,000 in-text study notes. It also includes a comprehensive topical index. Zondervan will be selling a CD-ROM version of the product through Christian bookstores and other retail establishments. Laridian will sell it through its Web site. The release is slated to correspond to a reprint of the print edition of the NIV Study Bible coming out this fall.

We are pleased to be able to work with publishers during this phase of a new release. The timing allows both the print and electronic products to benefit from the promotion of the other and reduces questions about the availability of each. Forward-thinking publishers are beginning to do this more and more — thinking about electronic rights at the same time they’re releasing major new reference works in print. Zondervan is among that group.

We don’t have further details such as pricing at this time. We just wanted to let you know about it as soon as we could. You should see this product in September from us, and in Christian bookstores for the Christmas season.

Comments (19)

As you may have heard, Tyndale recently announced their plans to publish the NLT Study Bible based on the New Living Translation (second edition). The study Bible will have almost 26,000 notes on various verses. It will include maps, charts, illustrations and a built in word-study system. It also has introduction notes on ten major sections of the Bible, personality profiles and more in-depth articles on places and topics.

Laridian is happy to announce that we have been chosen by Tyndale to be one of the first Bible software companies releasing the electronic version of the study Bible simultaneously with the release of the print edition (slated for the fall of 2008). The collection will include the NLT(se), NLT Study Bible Notes and cross references, two volumes of the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Series (Matthew/Mark & Romans/Galatians), the Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary, the Tyndale Bible Dictionary, the One Year Bible and One Year Bible Companion, One Year with Jesus and One Year Walk with God devotionals. Tyndale will be placing this bundle in Christian retail outlets. Laridian will be adding all these titles (and some others) to our existing product line.

These titles will be available for PocketBible for Windows,