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.
Paul: DailyReader for Palm is limited by the fonts installed on your device. Palm doesn’t use TrueType fonts the way Pocket PC does, so we can’t give you much variety of sizes.
With respect to the update frequency of our programs, our philosophy is not to turn out a bunch of upgrades just for the sake of upgrades, but rather to focus on turning out new content. In the eighteen months since whatever DailyReader upgrade you’re talking about we’ve shipped a dozen or more new devotionals — more than enough to keep you reading for 18 months.
Gordon: Best to post your tech support questions through the tech support help desk, not as a comment on our blog.
Galaxyhunter: MyBible is developed by an outside developer. We market it on his behalf. We pass your suggestions along but aren’t directly involved in implementing them. As far as when your specific suggestion will show up in the program, we don’t talk about what may or may not be in progress. FYI categorized bookmarks are already in our PocketBible program for Pocket PC.
Lowell: If you look carefully you’ll see that the NVI is for PocketBible. We have not announced anything regarding availability of the NVI for MyBible. We appreciate your interest, though.
Will the NET Bible be available for the MyBible reader? I chose Palm for my handheld needs because of their reputation and because they were not Microsft. I’ll surrender someday when PocketPC becomes the standard, but until then will new translations like NET be available?
Hi Craig, I have a suggestion, though I admit I’m not even sure if it’s possible. Each year, I download our churches calendar and import it into Outlook. It’s the yearly reading schedule that corresponds with the church calendar (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod). Each Sunday (along with other important days) there are 4 readings. Old testament, Psalm, Epistle and Gospel.
What I think would be cool is if the readings could be hyperlinked from the Outlook calendar appointment directly to Laridian. An alternative would be to have a calendar directly in Pocket Bible where we could either import or at least setup a calendar of readings.
Anyway…thanks for everything you do. I’ve had Laridian products since 1999 (I think I have them all for the PPC) and it’s changed my life!
Joel
Alan: We haven’t announced anything regarding the NET Bible for MyBible. Remember that MyBible development is done by an outside developer and we don’t have as much control over its direction as we do the Pocket PC products. Expect to hear about some new content for MyBible soon, though.
I’d venture to say that it’s time to think about Pocket PC. As of Q1, Microsoft had over 50% of the PDA market. Palm OS is 13%. See http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8564/gartner-pda-report-for-q1-2006/
This doesn’t include Treo, but the Treo is a voice-first device so it falls into the smartphone category.
Joel: You should be looking at our BookBuilder product. You can create any kind of content you want and if you have the appropriate copyright permissions and your content might be of interest to others, you can talk to us about distributing it on our site.
I would love to see an auto-scroll feature that could be turned on/off.
Pocket Bible! What an awesome product! I’ve been using PB for some time now and this new version just outstrips all. I love Laridian PocsketBible! HOWEVER! Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and have no other God’s before him – HE is still my first love.
Is there ever going to be an option to allow a person to copy a verse or verses with out having to highlight full screens of text at a time? This is priceless for taking notes. (MB4)Blessings.
Thanks for the suggestion. We have such a feature in PocketBible and agree it would be nice to have in MyBible.
I am wondering if you will ever have the Greek Bible for the Palm and fix it so when I highlighted a Greek word that the English would pop up and give the definition and declension of it?
Love the Bible on my Palm
Read the third comment, above.
Craig – like everyone else I love the Pocket Bible. I first installed it on my HP Jornada 540 – quite a few years ago. I’m now carrying a Samsung i730 Pocket PC phone and I have Pocket Bible installed in the SafeStor area! Thanks for making such a useful piece of software. Can’t wait to upgrade to PB3. Question: Since you have branched out to a couple of new platforms (iPod and Blackberry), I wonder if anyone has thought about doing a basic Bible (maybe one of the children’s translations) program for Nintendo DS or Game Boy? I have twin boys (9 yrs old) who have NDS and I think they would enjoy having a Bible on them. I have searched the Internet and it doesn’t appear that anyone is doing this. There’s a lot of handheld game platforms out there – could be a vast untapped market! Thanks again…
I am so glad to learn that the Spanish NVI will be available soon. I read that you are working on 2 Spanish translations. I trust that the other is the Reina Valera 1960. Keep up the great work! Thanks so much!
Hi Craig
Thak you for the great product: Pocket Bible 2. I am very tempted to upgrade to PB3, but I have just bought the Ellen G White Writings PDA eBook Collection 2005 that only runs on PB2. This collection is awesome and invaluable to me, so I am wondering if there will be an forthcoming upgrade to allow it to run on PB3 and take advantage of its upgraded features. Will it happen in the near / mid – future?
Martin
Martin,
The EGW material is produced by the EGW Estate using our BookBuilder product. You’ll have to ask them about their plans.
I switched from a Pocket PC to a Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone (Specifically a T-Mobile SDA Music) which I love but would like to see updated with some of the features originally in the PPC version of Pocket Bible. Most importantly, I can’t use my New Unger’s Dictionary (or any dictionary) with my Smartphone. I used this all the time with my PPC and really miss the feature.
So much of the Smartphone version is a great improvement (especially the fast one handed navigation and the T9 verse entry) that I wouldn’t consider going back – just please keep updating the WM5 Smartphone version too!
Love my Pocket Bible! As a student in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF), I keep my Bible open to the passage we are studying and use my PB to look up all the related verses. PB helps me cover more of the lesson, dig deeper, and spend less time flipping pages.
Heres’ another vote for Greek, Hebrew, and MacArthur.
My tip: Using a PDA, I collect favorites passages by topic by copying/pasting into NOTES or WORD with a page for each topic.
My Pocket Bible is the best. I am never far from it. I am huge fan of the JB Phillips Translation. I am seriously considering purchasing software from rival Olive Tree so that I can download this bible. Would you please consider adding it to your list of available translations? Thanks
I love the form and ease of use of my Laridian software. The Concordant Publishing Concern publishes the Concordant Version of the Old and New Testament. What is most important to me is how they have published a translation that agrees closely to the original language of the Scriptures. In lieu of having a Greek New Testament or Hebrew Old Testament, maybe you could enter into an agreement with these folks about making this text available for the Pocket Bible. How about it?
Raquel and Joseph: Thanks for the suggestions.
Any chance the NRSV w/ Apocrypha will show up for MyBible4? The faithful PalmOS fan base really hates it when the Pocket PC crowd gets to have all the fun. THX!