Please note the date on this post. Read our more recent posts on the iPhone for more up-to-date information.
Since the whole idea for this product kind of grew out of these blog articles and comments, it seems only fair that we post some kind of a progress report. So…
We’ve posted a short video of me demonstrating iPocketBible on the iPhone. It’s at www.iPocketBible.com. Choose either the WMV version or the QuickTime version. If your browser is set up right it should start playing without waiting to download the entire file. Otherwise you’re in for a short wait.
The screen shot to the left was actually done using Safari on a PC. It looks similar, but not exactly like, the program running on an iPhone. For one thing, on the PC there is a scrollbar on the right. Actually I thought I photoshopped that scrollbar out of there but I see now it’s still there. Oh, well. Pretend it’s not.
This product has been interesting to work on. When you sit back and think about it you think, “This shouldn’t take more than a week.” Then you start in on it and there seems to be no shortage of obstacles. Perhaps the biggest is maintaining some kind of login and subscription management system. The idea is that you’ll pay a nominal fee for access to the program and you’ll have access to all the content (Bibles and reference books) you already own for PocketBible, MyBible, or our other readers. And if you want to add a Bible or a commentary you just purchase it and it shows up on your iPhone. That’s taking some effort to put together.
None of the content actually resides on your phone. But when running iPocketBible, especially in a WiFi environment, you won’t notice much of a difference in speed as compared to, say, MyBible running on your Treo.
I’m working on notes, bookmarks, and highlights right now. That’s another harder-than-expected effort. We have to store all your user-created data somewhere on our server and not get it mixed up with everyone else’s.
So enjoy the preview; I’ll try to shoot another video soon with even more features, then hopefully have the product up for you to check out Real Soon Now. Hopefully the preview will keep you entertained for a while. And perhaps keep your mind off asking what else is coming from Laridian in the near future. Stay tuned!
Just fantastic that you guys are supporting this device. It really is ground-breaking, and workable Bible software is all that’s missing to make this the perfect device. Can’t wait…thanks Laridian (Oh, and per numerous web articles today, iPhone sales appear to be quite solid…I’m certain this will prove to be a good move on your part).
Pocketbible for windows is out, so are you thinking the next couple of weeks? Before Sept?
Give us a couple days to see how PocketBible for Windows is going, then get re-tasked. We’re actually still working on Windows-related tasks such as finalizing the setup program that will go on the USB drives we configure here and handling the initial wave of problems that are always present when you release a new version of software.
But, yes, after that we immediately turn our focus back to the iPhone (at least a couple of us do, with the rest working on sync providers for PocketBible for Windows) with the goal being to get it out ASAP. It will probably be short a couple features but that’s OK because of the nature of the app. We can get it going and then finish it up and everyone automatically gets the latest version the next time they run. It’s not like a desktop or PDA app where you have to distribute a new executable to everyone.
We’ll post an update to the blog next week to let you know what’s going on.
I echo the sentiments of [Wesley Walls comments: August 21st, 2007 at 11:20 pm]
And with this being my birthday week, I’m thinking this would be a GREAT time to release this!! .. ok, for me anyway. =^ )
Thanks for your work on this, Craig. I have LOVED My Bible and The Daily Reader on the Treo for years and can’t wait to have it on my new iPhone. May God bless your labor for the Kingdom.
I just purchased the PocketBible for PC you completed, and it’s nice to have my Laridian apps available now on the pc platform. However, I am far more excited about having the iPhone-ready apps, and from what your preview shows, I like the interface for the iPhone FAR better than the pc apps.
___________________
posted from my iPhone
Craig,
I was wondering if Laridian had given any consideration to the load this will put on the database and/or web server. There may not be a huge number of concurrent users during the week, but I’d be willing to bet that a significant portion of users will be actively logged in on Sunday mornings. Just curious… I write load testing scripts for a major company and I have found that companies often don’t look into these things…
Yeah we’ve thought about that. We run multiple Web servers and a load balancer. The database engine is SQL Server and it runs on its own machine with multiple processors, lots of RAM, and fast hard drives.
We actually get more traffic during a major upgrade or product release like the one we just went through with PocketBible for Windows than we will on a Sunday morning with iPocketBible. Part of the reason is that the data transfers are smaller (AJAX snippets vs. full Web pages and file downloads). We got through the PocketBible for Windows launch without breaking a sweat.
The other issue is that the AT&T network is so bad that most people won’t be able to access it from church anyway. That will help keep the load down.
I’m ahead of you Craig. I already got the password for our high speed wireless site at our church. Limping along with a crummy web based Bible program but at least the internet connection is fast. Everything is ready for iPocket Bible. Just waiting……Oh that I would be as eager for His coming !!! Ouch !!
any news? I want to give you my two bucks.
I’ve been hoping to quickly solve the particular problem I’m having so it wouldn’t delay anything, but I’m up against the toughest programming problem I’ve ever encountered in 25 years. I’m sure it’s going to end up being my fault, but it’s a bug that moves as I chase it. It’s exhibiting characteristics of the “observer effect” in which an attempt to measure a behavior changes the behavior. I’ve backed it into a corner several times only to have it disappear and reappear somewhere else. I’ve been working on this on and off for the last two months but I’m down to the point now where I need to solve it to ship this product and it remains elusive. I’m always open to prayer but am at the point where I’d accept goat sacrifices like they use to repair airplanes in Nepal.
I’ll pray….I’m fresh out of Goats.
Dear Heavenly Father please please help Craig find that bug so he can squash it once and for all and we can have our Bibles on our iPhones.
We ask this in Jesus name Amen!
Boy I hope he heard that cuz I’m getting impatient waiting. And don’t tell me patience is a virtue! hehe
Hope you find the bug soon and “Thanks” for making this for us iphone users I look forward to it.
Craig,
Don’t discount the possibility that you’re dealing with some obscure browser bug… Safari on the iPhone is far from a completed product.
I forgot to mention the problem I’m having is in converting files from our PocketBible format to the import format we need to load the books into our Web database. So it’s a bug on the desktop, not with Safari.
I think I’m making progress on it now. Stay tuned!
ooooooh progress yeah. More progress, God give Craig more progress
how’s it going? Sorry to nag. I’m just really looking forward to this.
I was wondering that myself… I for one would be willing to pay $2/month starting now just for access to the work-in-progress, bugs and all.
Those prayers helped. I found the bug I think (it didn’t look like it would cause problems but apparently it did) and we’ve been able to upload all the books. The current plan is to announce the release here on the blog as soon as we can possibly give people access, then send an email to everyone when we get a chance. We have some other emails going out in the next couple of weeks and I didn’t want to make iPhone users wait just because it didn’t fit our mail schedule.
There will be an annual subscription that will not be refundable but that gives people the option to purchase by check or with a card where they don’t want recurring charges. Otherwise, the normal subscription is $1.99 per month. Billing is deferred for 30 days so if you don’t like it you can cancel before your first bill and owe nothing.
There will be some features that we’ll be in the process of implementing over time. They won’t be in the initial release. Right now this list includes:
* Strongs numbers in Bibles that include them
* Reading plan progress tracking
* Highlights
* Notes
* Bookmark categories (but bookmarks are implemented)
* Dictionary lookup (but normal dictionary navigation by table-of-contents is implemented)
* Go to commentary for a verse (but normal commentary navigation by table-of-contents is implemented)
* Browser history (initial release will just have one level of “back”)
* There may be some places where Spanish in the NVI isn’t fully implemented
Also because of limitations of the iPhone, Hebrew and some Greek will appear as little boxes. We can’t do anything about that.
The features that ARE implemented include:
* Access to all your books and Bibles, subject to the limitations above
* Categorized book picker (Bibles, Commentaries, Dictionaries, Devotionals, Other)
* Ability to go to a verse by typing a reference in the Find box (“John 3:16″) or by doing the normal “3-tap” book, then chapter, then verse navigation.
* Search for a word, all words in a list, any word in a list, exact phrase, and any of the above with all suffixes or all prefixes.
* View list of search results and/or use next/previous buttons to step through search results
* All Bible references are hyperlinked.
* Set bookmarks.
* Choose preferred Bible for handling hyperlinked Bible verses.
And there are other features. We’re still adding features while we get ready to make it available. We’re going to start offering it as soon as all the back-end processes are in place to handle taking the order. There are just a couple small issues we’re working on in the program, otherwise it’s ready to go.
So thanks for your prayers and your patience.
Lawson,
I’d love to give you access right now but the nature of this beast is that we’re working on the version that will eventually be live. So having you in there could cause problems. When we do go live we’ll be moving the application to another folder so we can continue to work without interfering with live customers. Just give us a couple days. Watch the blog for the announcement.
sounds good. How far off is note taking and highlighting? Those were some of the features I was most looking forward to. Don’t get me wrong I’ll be excited about anything. Is the hold up on that a “Bug” problem or a “not sure how to do that” problem? Thanks for working so hard on this. I think it will be very helpfull.