Apple has approved the first maintenance release for PocketBible. You’ll be happy to see synchronization can actually be turned on and off now. When it’s turned off, you can synchronize all your open Bibles and commentaries to any verse by tapping-and-holding on the verse, then selecting “Sync To…” from the context menu. When it’s turned on (Menu > Settings > Synchronization), all your open Bibles and commentaries should track to the active Bible.

A related problem came up when you were using a Bible with Strong’s numbers. Going to the dictionary for a particular number would show you the correct entry in your preferred Strong’s dictionary, but if you had other Strong’s dictionaries open they would not move to the new entry. This is fixed now so you could have several Strong’s dictionaries open and they’ll all go to the right entry (as long as synchronization is turned on in the Settings menu.

After the nightmare of the first 24 hours after PocketBible shipped, we’ve updated the network error reporting to include more detail than the classic “(null) (null) Customer ID (null)” message that was so informative in the last version.

We’re currently working on the note feature. That will be the next update. I don’t have a time-frame yet but it’s coming along nicely. There are also a couple more little bug fixes that will be rolled into that version.

Fixes in 1.0.1

• Synchronization was effectively always on. Fixed so it honors the setting in the menu.
• Once zoomed for link disambiguation, it was possible to choose something from the menu or tap the title bar and confuse the app about the zoom state of the text. Fixed so that any interaction with the program resets the zoom state.
• Following a link to a Strong’s number would display the preferred (or default) Strong’s dictionary, but other Strong’s dictionaries would not follow when synchronization was on. Fixed so all sync links to dictionaries result in proper synchronization.
• Registering an email address containing a + (plus sign) failed. Probably other special characters would fail, too. Fixed to use proper URL encoding.
• Significantly beefed up the error handling while communicating with the server to register new users, send login credentials, and download your books. Eliminated the now-famous “(null)(null) Customer ID (null)” message that was so informative.
• Changing from “reference only” search results to one of the results with excerpts would result in a correct results list but some excerpts missing. Fixed to always check the selected results format and always reformat each result.
• Fixed typos in Welcome and Help documents. (These are downloadable now using Add/Remove Books.)
• Built with book reader engine 1.066 which contains support for a new Bible translation.

When I lived in Virginia, I was blessed to be in a church and under the tutelage of a man on fire for God. He remains to this day my favorite Pastor and as I have moved and traveled in the years since, I still miss being taught by him. His style of breaking down scripture, verse-by-verse and phrase-by-phrase—really dissecting God’s word and all its meaning helped me to grow more than I had before in my Christian walk. His style is a lot like that of pastor and author, John MacArthur. And though I can’t hear the pastor that I love, I can continue my study of the Bible in the same manner through MacArthur’s Study Bible Notes.

MacArthur’s verse-by-verse dissection of Scripture lets me study the Bible the way I want to—in-depth, serious study. From the beginning with an article on “How to Study Your Bible,” through the use of over 50 Bible maps, charts and diagrams, book introductions and outlines and, of course, MacArthur’s own words giving detailed descriptions and explanations of each verse in every book, I can truly dig deep and understand the context of God’s Word. To me, studying God’s word is much more than a morality speech, or a feel good sermon. To study God’s word is to truly seek out the meanings and truth behind it, to help me grow—closer to the Author of Scripture and stronger in my Christian walk. MacArthur’s Study Bible Notes is an excellent text that is everything needed to dig deep into God’s word in one complete volume and is probably (in my opinion) one of the best study Bibles out there.

Laridian offers nine study Bibles ranging in price from $14.99 to $39.99. Here is some key information on our top-selling study Bibles to help you in choosing the one that is right for you:

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We just sent out an email to current customers offering 20% off all iPhone Bibles and books. You can use priority code PBEL99 through the end of the month to save 20% on all Bibles and reference books for iPhone. Just go to www.laridian.com, select the iPhone site, then select Order Form from the upper right corner of the screen. Select the books you want to order and enter PBEL99 in the priority code field at the bottom of the order form.

iPocketBible.com Subscribers: Wait for Your Email Before Ordering

If you’ve been a monthly or annual subscriber to iPocketBible.com, you’re entitled to an additional 10% discount for a total of 30% off any PocketBible for iPhone Bible or book. Details are in the email you should receive later today.

Speaking of iPocketBible.com, subscriptions are now free. If you already have a monthly subscription, you’ve already made your final payment and won’t be charged again this month. If you have an annual subscription, you will continue to have access to the service beyond the end of your subscription.

“Donating” to Laridian

Many of you have asked if there is a way to donate to Laridian as a way of saying “thanks” for making PocketBible for iPhone free. We’re truly humbled by the suggestion and appreciate your generosity. However, we don’t want to give the impression that we’re a non-profit, charitable organization as some of our competitors do, so we’ve decided not to put a “donate button” at the site.

However, if you’d like to say “thanks” you can do so by simply not using the priority code when you place your order. It doesn’t have the same feel-good vibe as a “donate button” but the effect is the same. And we’ll get the message. Again, we’re really moved by your response to our efforts.

Don’t Have an iPhone?

You can still take advantage of this offer. First, verify the book you want to purchase is available for your particular platform (Windows Mobile, Windows desktop, Blackberry, or Palm OS) by going to the appropriate area of our site and checking the order form. Then go to the iPhone area of our site and place your order using the priority code. If you order a book or Bible for the iPhone that is available for your platform, you’ll be able to download that version through your download account. It’s a little tricky, yes, but we don’t mind. In fact we encourage it!

We’ve been notified by Apple that PocketBible has been approved for sale in the App Store. It was fun hearing that it was available in different countries as each local App Store enabled it for their users around the world.

Now that it’s approved I can tell you what the original problem was. It seems the testers at Apple chose not to register the app and download the 39 free books that are included. As a result, when they went to the “Open Book” dialog to open a new book, they saw that only the “Bibles” and “Other Books” categories were active (the former contains the KJV and the latter the help files). They assumed that meant that PocketBible was a “lite” version that did not include the ability to view commentaries, dictionaries, and devotionals, because those categories were grayed out. If true, that would be a violation of the rules of the App Store. We explained that those categories were grayed out because they hadn’t downloaded any commentaries, dictionaries, or devotionals. That must’ve been sufficient because they later approved the app.

If you can give us some positive reviews at the App Store that would be great. If you can’t think of anything nice to say, send your negative comments to me by email so I can fix the program to your satisfaction.

It’s getting hard to pick out our answers to your questions in the comments below. It might be best to send them to Tech Support. Select the Help Desk link on our site.

As I said before, I anticipated we’d have problems getting PocketBible for iPhone through the approval process at the App Store. It’s a complicated app for one thing, and Apple’s approval process has a bit of a checkered reputation for another.

Late last night we were notified that PocketBible was being rejected. The issue was a misunderstanding about how PocketBible works. We immediately submitted an explanation, added details on how they can access “help” from within the program, and resubmitted the application.

I don’t believe this puts us at the end of the approval queue, but even if it does it only took a week for them to look at the program.

So I’m expecting our next rejection within a week.