This is where you’ll find the latest version of PocketBible for Android, a brief description of how to use the program, and notes on what’s new in each update to the program. If you already have PocketBible for Android installed and just want to download the update, you can skip to the bottom of this post.
About PocketBible for Android
We are taking an unusual approach to releasing PocketBible on the Android platform. Rather than waiting until the program is completely ready for public consumption, we’re releasing “alpha” versions as we go along through the development process. An alpha release of a program is not feature complete. Normally you would never see an alpha release unless you worked for us. But in this case the demand for a version of PocketBible for Android is high enough that we thought we’d let you use it while we work on it. Again, few developers ever release alpha versions of their software because it is difficult for people to see past the obvious flaws in an alpha release. We could end up spending more time addressing your criticisms than developing the software. So we want you to know what you’re getting your self into. 
There is little or no tech support for this product. Since it hasn’t been officially released, Tech Support hasn’t seen it. They don’t even have any Android devices. If you have trouble, read the installation and operating instructions below very carefully. You’ll probably find your answer there.
You may be able to download books that contain features that aren’t supported. For example, the current program does not display any images. Our Laridian Bible Maps product, and the various illustrated dictionaries and commentaries we sell won’t be very interesting in PocketBible for Android.
If you are upgrading from version (0.1.x) you will have to re-download your books and Bibles if they are on your storage card, because the new version expects to find them in a special folder on your storage card. The previous version stored them in the root folder. The new version puts them in the “correct” location (/Android/data/com.laridian.pocketbible/files). You can work around this if you have the ability to manipulate files on the storage card. Before you install this new version, move the “lbk” files you find in the root folder of your storage card to the correct folder (/Android/data/com.laridian.pocketbible/files). PocketBible should be able to find them. If you have already installed this new version, you may have to un-install and re-install it to make it find the files after you move them.
If you are running Android OS 2.2, you may have to re-download your Bibles and books regardless of the previous version of PocketBible you were running.
Operating Instructions
When you run the program it will prompt you to either create an account or log into your existing account on our server. If you are a Laridian customer or have ever been one in the past, it’s best to log into your existing account rather than create a new one. There’s a button there that will let you request your password from the system if you don’t remember it. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a list of books you own. Pick one Bible or reference book to download. You can download more than one at a time, but — especially for large books — the program seems to do better downloading one book at a time. It also reduces the demand on our servers.
Note that books are installed to your storage card first, then to main memory if the storage card is full or not available. There may be more options in the future, but for now the program automatically selects where to install your books. Books are installed to an appropriate subdirectory on the card (usually /Android/data/com.laridian.pocketbible/files).
If you have both an “internal storage card” (i.e. an area of internal memory designated as a storage card) and a card slot for an external storage card, your books could end up on either one. This is due to a design flaw in the Android OS in which the OS designers assumed that no OEM would ever, ever have more than one storage card on a device. I mean, really, who needs more than one storage card, right?
When the book has finished downloading, use the “Back” button to view the text.
Flicking up or down scrolls the text, which is displayed one chapter at a time (for Bibles) or one “section” at a time for other books (where “section” is a vague and arbitrary amount of text). Flicking left or right goes to the previous or next page. If you have a left/right button on your device, it will work, too. Links to Bible verses should work. Other types of links may or may not work.
To go to a particular verse, open a Bible then select the Menu button then “Go To…” (or just press the letter ‘G’ on your keyboard, if you have one). Either type a reference or select the book of the Bible from the list then type the chapter and verse. Most book abbreviations you are familiar with will work. You can use a period or colon to separate the chapter and verse. Note that the list of book names comes from a standard list — not necessarily from the Bible you’re viewing. So if you open a Bible that contains only the New Testament, you’ll see OT books in the list but they won’t work when you try to go there.
To navigate in other types of books, select the “Go To…” button or press the letter ‘G’ if you have a keyboard on your device. You’ll see a hierarchical table of contents. Select an item in the table of contents to expand it or go to it, and use the Back button to move “up” in the hierarchy.
If you’ve downloaded more than one book you can switch between them by choosing “Open Book” from the Menu. To download another book or to delete one you’ve already installed, choose “My Library” from the Menu, then “Add/Remove Books”.
New in version 0.2.2: To search for a word or combination of words, press the Search button on your device. Enter a word or phrase and PocketBible will show a list of all the verses the word or phrase occurs in. Note that searching is only partially implemented. If you search for “John the Baptist” you’ll see the verses that contain all three words (“John”, “the”, and “Baptist”) but not necessarily in that order or all together in a phrase. This is coming later. (It’s an alpha version, remember?)
The next time you press the Search button, you’ll see the results of your most recent search and you can select a different verse to go to. Or press the Search button a second time and you’ll be able to enter something else to search for.
Installation Instructions
Below you’ll find a link to the PocketBible APK file on our server. You should browse to that address using the browser on your Android device. Your device should automatically download the APK and give you a way to select it to be installed. You just answer a few questions. If you are an expert Android user, running a rooted Android-powered toaster oven with your own custom build of the OS, you may have another favorite way of installing non-Market apps. That’s fine; whatever floats your boat.
If you are reading this on your Android device, you can download the program by selecting this link: LPB.cc/android.
If you’re not currently reading this on your Android device, just type this URL into the Web browser on your device and the program will be downloaded automatically: LPB.cc/android
If you are upgrading from an earlier version see the comments above regarding the need to re-download your Bibles.
This version requires at least Android OS version 2.2 (that’s Froyo for those of you who insist on cutesy code names for your program versions).
Revision History
- 0.2.2 April 27, 2012
- Strong’s dictionaries (or any dictionary that had entries for Strong’s words) were causing the program to crash when it tried to open them. This has been fixed.
- Initial support for searching.
- By popular demand: Don’t swallow the Back button. Allow it to exit the program unintentionally.
- Support for RVR95, NBLH, and LBLA Spanish Bibles.
- Support for the NAB Revised Edition Catholic Bible.
- 0.2.1 February 15, 2012
- Fixed a problem with links in the ESV Study Bible Notes and some other books.
- Recognize inter-book TOC links. NET links to NETNTS is an example.
- 0.2.0 February 7, 2012
- Add support for commentaries, dictionaries, and “other” reference books to the existing support for Bibles.
- Keep track of current location within each book, so that when you return to that book, you’ll be in the same place.
- Trap the Back button to prevent unintentional exit from the program.
- Stores books in the “correct” folder on your storage card.
- Increased the minimum Android OS version to at least 2.2.
My friend and Laridian co-founder Jeff Wheeler passed away this morning, the victim of a rare and particularly aggressive form of cancer. He was 49. 
New for PocketBible: Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Series
We had previously released eleven volumes in this series. You can purchase each volume separately for $19.99 or all seventeen volumes in one money-saving bundle, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary Series, for $249.99 (26% savings over purchasing separately). The books are available for use with PocketBible for Windows, iOS, Android and Windows Mobile.
This commentary series offers some unique features:
Posted in New Books, News | 11 Comments »
Catching up on your Bible Reading Plan
53 days into my One Year Chronological Bible reading plan in PocketBible and I’m already significantly behind. I blame Leviticus. It gets me every year. Thankfully, PocketBible has those convenient “reschedule” options. If (or when) you find yourself in my position, PocketBible actually offers several scheduling options that can help. Here is the best way to use each one:
If you are a visual learner (or you just like videos), here is Laridian president, Craig Rairdin, explaining how the “catch up” feature is used on the iPhone.
Why Have All My Books Been Updated?
I mentioned in a recent Android update that we were going to have to rebuild all our books to support some new search features in the Android version of PocketBible. That turned out to be a 6-8 week rather than a 1-2 week exercise. Part of the reason is that since we had to touch every book that we publish, we used that opportunity to fix all the reported errors that we had on file for each book.
Many of these errors are all but invisible to the user. As a result we tend to let them accumulate for a while rather than jumping on every typo and minor formatting error as soon as we hear about it. The problem is that those things add up after a while and frankly our list had gotten overwhelming. We had one BookBuilder customer who volunteered to help a while back. He did a few books but then gave up. So this seemed like a great opportunity to just clean that list out since we had to look at every single book anyway.
In order to minimize the load on the server from everyone being told all their books had been updated, we created a way we could update the files on the server without the server thinking they had been updated. So the only time we allowed the server to know a particular book had been updated was if it was on the list of books in which noticeable changes had been made. If all we did was change “Laridian Electronic Publishing” to “Laridian, Inc.” (because one is our name and one is not) in the book’s meta data, we didn’t bother to have the server tell you about the change. But if we fixed a number of links or typographical errors — something you would notice — we had the server tell you about it.
We were also a little concerned about the load on the server if everyone went out and started re-downloading all their books. So we didn’t make a big deal about it, and we uploaded the books a few at a time over the last couple of months.
So if PocketBible or our website is telling you that a book has been updated, it means we fixed something that you might notice if you were paying close attention. In reality all the books were updated, but none of our programs currently make use of the new features that necessitated the update. So it’s only necessary to update the ones that say they need to be updated, and then you really only need to update them if you’re picky about every little typo.
We’re not virtual anymore!
Well, times have changed and we’d like to officially announce that we have left our home-based, coffee shop, Skype’ing days behind us for a physical location where we all work together in one office in Cedar Rapids, IA. Yes, there are a few unhappy coffee shop owners in the area but for Laridian it has been a great move. We all loved the perks of working from home (i.e. optional showering, work in your pj’s) but now, having tried the alternative, we have to admit that there are some definite advantages to working together in the same building. We’ve already seen improvements in productivity in every area of the company. And as far as communication goes, we only have to get up and take a short walk to find out what is going on with a co-worker. We’ve replaced our “virtual” reality with a “new” reality that isn’t half bad and might just be worth having to take a daily shower.
Why the change? Until this summer we had used a number of outside contractors and companies to create the books and Bibles that go into PocketBible. When this process was working, it worked well. But recently, two of our best outside contractors had changes in their situations that robbed them of the free time they were devoting to tagging books. As a result it was taking longer and longer to get finished books. So we decided to bring this operation in-house. In addition to having more control over the schedule, we thought it would be easier to manage.
When putting together the budget for the new employees, we decided to include office space, office furniture, computers, internet connections, and everything else we’d need to operate a “real” office. It turned out the cost wasn’t really that bad, and the benefit of having the new people sitting right next to seasoned veterans made training a breeze. So we rented some office space close to Craig and Jeff’s house, then hired the editors. The result is that you saw more new titles from us in the last quarter of 2011 than in some previous entire years.
Just this month, the last of our home-based employees moved into the office with us. Yesterday, we made it official by putting a sign up on the door telling the world (and the FedEx driver) we’re here. So you won’t find us out in the virtual world any longer – we’ve come down to earth and we hope it will be for your benefit.
©2012 Laridian Bible Software