This blog is new. But rather than waste a bunch of words welcoming you to our new blog, let’s just get down to business and talk about some products that are going to be coming out soon.
Normally we don’t talk about what may or may not be under development, but I don’t think it will hurt anything to mention these. Don’t bother writing to ask when they’ll be released or what the status is. They’ll be released when they’re done.
Nuevo Versión Internacional
One of our most frequent requests is for a Spanish Bible. We’re working on a couple Spanish translations right now for our PocketBible program for Windows Mobile Pocket PC. The first one you’ll see is the NVI, which is from the same people who translated the NIV in English.
PocketBible is being updated to accommodate Spanish Bible book names everywhere English names are currently used. So your search results and any links within the Spanish Bible will use names like “Génesis”, “Éxodo”, and “Levítico”.
Like all our Bibles, the NVI will include the Prefacio and Glosario sections, as well as the Tabla de Pesas, Medidas y Monedas. Words in the Bible text that are discussed in the Glosario will be hyperlinked to the appropriate entry.
Since Bible bookmarks and notes in PocketBible are “universal” your existing bookmarks and notes will appear in the NVI. Sorry, we can’t translate them to Spanish for you, but if you’re using the NVI we figure you can handle that.
New American Bible
Another frequent request is the New American (Catholic) Bible. We’ve been working on this for quite some time. The text wasn’t in very good shape when we got it, so we’ve put a lot of time into cleaning it up.
You’ll see the NAB first in PocketBible for Windows Mobile. One of the interesting things about the NAB is that in many places the verses are “scrambled”. For example, as you’re reading along in Isaiah 14, you’ll find two verses from chapter 8 (vss 21 and 22) inserted in the middle of 14:25. Then in chapter 40 you’ll see 41:6,7 inserted after 40:20.
The NAB contains those books known among Protestants as the Apocrypha or deuterocannonical books. We’ve published the NRSV, which also contains these books, so they don’t generally present a problem to PocketBible. However, the NAB integrates a couple of them into other books. So the NAB version of Daniel contains the book the NRSV calls “Azariah” as Daniel 3:24-90. Daniel 3:25 in the NRSV is thus Daniel 3:91. The NRSV books of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon are chapters 13 and 14 of Daniel in the NAB.
Because PocketBible is able to synchronize scrolling between Bibles and transfer your notes and bookmarks to other Bibles, all of these idiosyncrasies (and there are hundreds of them) have to be identified and built into our program. So when you’re scrolling the NAB and NIV side-by-side in PocketBible you’ll always see the right verse, even if the verse number is different. As an exercise for the reader, try that with the other Bible software available for Pocket PC. I think you’ll be surprised. (In fact, try it in your Windows desktop Bible software and you may be surprised there as well.)
NET Bible
Finally, the last new product I want to mention is the NET Bible. This Bible is known for its extensive notes, which will all be included in the PocketBible version of the NET Bible.
We haven’t announced any release dates, nor our specific plans for releasing these Bibles on any platform other than Pocket PC. We just thought you’d enjoy finding out about them now that we have this cool new blog as a vehicle to communicate with you.
Thank you for a Spanish Bible! I’ve been hoping for this forever. Even though I personally use the Reina-Valera 1960, the NVI will do for now! Looking forward to its realease (whenever that may be.
)
Don
I have been a LONG-time user of Pocket Bible but have been waiting for years for the Greek New Testament. What are my chances of seeing that in the near future? I love the functionality of PB, but have had to use E-Sword for my Greek connection…
Todd,
The level of effort involved in creating a Greek New Testament plus adding the search tools to make it useful is very high, and therefore expensive. The level of interest in Greek and Hebrew is very small, and therefore offers very little revenue to offset the costs. When you put those two things together (and add the difficulty of licensing the Greek text from UBS) you can understand why we haven’t developed a Greek New Testament for PocketBible.
With that said, we’re not saying we’d never do it. After all, these same conditions existed when we were at Parsons Technology and we did the Greek New Testament when we were there.
FWIW, the work we’ve done on Spanish actually paves the way for Greek because it lays down the functional foundation for non-English Bibles in PocketBible.
So I can’t say if we’ll do it or not, or if we’re already working on it or not. In the meantime, you’ve got e-Sword.
I mostly use pocket bible these days, but I still use olive tree for NET, TEV, and NAB. Looking forward to the new versions!
What would be the chance of you distributing the The MacArthur Study Bible in NAS and NKJV? His study notes are some of the most exhaustive I have come across.
These Bibles contain John’s personal study notes below the full-length Bible text. Virtually every scripture has a matching study note with detailed information, explanation, and helpful insight. The notes are based on John’s verse-by-verse approach to the Bible and nearly forty years of careful study. John’s goal is to let the Bible speak for itself—nothing more, nothing less.
I would also be interested in his complete commentary series.
Hi Craig,
Will MyBible4 for the Palm have a New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance?
PocketBible already has one.
Thanks!
Hi Craig, thanks for PB, its great I just love the search capabilities and it is extremely fast. I’m currently looking into getting a PDA phone but I am put off by them not having keys to put in numbers. Having access to my PB is very important, any chance of PB for Symbian in the future.
[...] Our friends over at Laridian have recently added a blog to their website. Laridian offers first-class bible software for Windows Mobile, Palm OS, iPod and BlackBerry devices — check out their new blog when you have a chance. [...]
The news about the addition of both the NAB and NET versions is good to hear. The NAB has a good, basic set of textual notes, most of which even non-Catholics would find helpful. It is unfortunate that this excellent English translation is generally avoided by non-Catholics, put off by the ‘official’ status it has been given in the U.S. Catholic church. I was taught in seminary by one of the primary translators of the revised Psalms and the team did an excellent job. By and large, denominational bias is restricted to some of the book introductions and theological notes, though these also are more apt to simply reflect good scholarship.
The NET has far and away the most extensive translation notes I have encountered in any general-release version. A reader not conversant in the original languages can get a better understanding of the translators’ challenges and options as well as see the most well-attested alternate texts for questionable sections. For most readers who are not able to work with the original languages, these questions get hidden behind the manuscript choices made by translators. Kudos to the NET team for making this information much more easily accessible as a part of their extremely extensive system of notes. The scholarship reflected in the theological notes is nothing to sniff at, either.
The addition of these two versions is going to be a tremendous enhancement to the PB library.
I must confess that I also miss access to Greek and Hebrew texts on PocketBible, so I tag-team PB with OliveTree’s reader which I use for original-language texts and the New Oxford Annotated version of the NRSV.
Keep up the great work on your products. I would love to see a version of the Book of Common Prayer for my WM5 Smartphone. With my T-Mobile SDA with me and PocketBible with several translations, I don’t even need to carry my Bible with me any longer. It’s always handy on the phone. And thanks for the change in the licensing structure across platforms.
++Mark
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. As you know if you’ve been around here for long, we don’t comment on what may or may not be under development but we do appreciate your suggestions.
Randy makes some good points about the NAB and NET. We have some concerns about the potential negative reaction to the NAB from our non-Catholic user base, but we would encourage them all to take a look at the NAB. Most evangelicals haven’t read the NAB notes, some of which are quite interesting. Most also haven’t read those books known among protestants as “the apocrypha”. You don’t have to read far in Sirach to recognize some of Paul’s influences as expressed later in books like his letter to the Romans.
Another long-time PB user nearly since it came out. I’m an extensive Pocket PC user and have used it to write sermons on the road as well as Bible studies and regular reading. I love how you integrated the daily reader with PB instead of having 2 products. That was a great improvement.
However, I am another of the few looking a Greek version of the NT with a possible Hebrew at a later time. I suspect there is more interest in Greek. Olive Tree has integrated it into their product. Craig, I know you and your team have the capabilities. There is no question over that. How about doing something similar to Logos, start a poll and see what people would be willing to spend to purchase a product. It may supprise you with what money may be available to develop this. Once Logos has enough interest, they determine a price and then charge the customers that agreed to that price. They don’t lose development dollars because they already have guaranteed orders to begin with.
Craig, I can’t question your business sense. Laradian has grown leaps and bounds since it began several years ago. But if there is a fiscal way to do this, please consider it. The Greek has so much more to offer.
To all the staff at Laradian, thanks for all your hard work making PB a better product through the years. It’s an outragously useful product and just keeps improving with age. Thanks and God’s blessings to you all. To some this may seem like a business. But, to me, it’s a ministry help that I am greately thankful to have.
I love Laridian products, and am a long time user, I appreciate and love all the work you guys are doing, keep up the good work! I once emailed you guys about this long ago, but I wanted to bring it up again. I’m sure it is a huge undertaking, but one of the biggest things i lack when carrying my pocketbible is an atlas, common fair in many bibles. I am wondering if you guys have any plans to add an atlas component to your program… I can’t tell you how often we are discussing places in bible times and maps of routes, modern day and ancient would be wonderful. I’m sure this isn’t easy, but I think you would a well implemented version VERY popular.
I’m thoroughly delighted with the PB3; an incredible upgrade for less than $10.
I have several hundred highlighted verses in my 4 versions of the Bible and wonder if there is a way to transfer the highlights to a 5th version which I may download?
The Laridian products on my Pocket PC are awesome. I have the New Bible Suite that was offered a few months ago which includes the New Bible Dictionary, 2 Theological Dictionaries, and the New Bible Commentary. I also love the ESV Bible with its ample cross references. Also Gregg Beale’s Commmentary on Thessalonians is wonderful.
Although John MacArthur has good notes, he is somewhat Dispensational: a Bible Study-theological system that is going “out” and is hardly taught today in Christian colleges and seminaries.
My favorite Study Bible is the Spirit of the Reformation from Zondervan. An electronic version would be great. Gregg Beale’s commentary on Revelation would also be great since he uses so many cross references . Thanks
Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions.
We see them and appreciate knowing what you’re interested in.
I’m a regular user of the Daily Reader. However, I’ve always hoped that you would do something with the font sizes; your two choices of large or very small are somewhat limited. I notice that there has been no update on this programme for over eighteen months. Is there anything in the pipeline for Daily Reader?
Paul M.
I am a long time PB user and it is by far the best bible program for PPC as you can imagine I have a lot of books I have bought over the years and I am one of the hurry up types who did not read the instructions when I downloaded PB3 and now I have lost most of the downloads I had, when I log on they are gone, only the PB3 books are there——HELP SOMEBODY.
Gordon
I have suggested this many times and gotten a response that it was a good idea and we expect to incooperate it in a future release. But have not seen it used yet. WHEN WILL IT BE INCOOPERATED???
Here it is:
When saving bookmarks. It would be nice if you could create a topic or new folder and save bookmarks topically. For example. Make a folder titled “Prophecy”. Then save all the prophecy verses in it.
The prospect of an NVI addition to the My Bible series is exciting. I hope that someday NRSV will also be available.