Lately we’ve been seeing an increasing number of reports of the iPhone or iPad deleting PocketBible books to make room on the device for newer apps, music, or content being downloaded to the device. The assumption seems to be that PocketBible is doing something “wrong” and we need to fix it. It can be argued, however, that PocketBible is following the rules but a) the rules are not what you think they are, and b) the rules keep changing.
When the memory on your iOS device gets close to being full, the operating system looks for files it can delete to make room for whatever it is you’ve asked it to store — usually pictures, music, videos, apps or other large files. This makes the books you download for PocketBible vulnerable to deletion (just as your other data is vulnerable when you download PocketBible books onto a relatively “full” device). To get around this, we originally stored your books in a folder where the operating system promised not to delete them.
When iCloud came out and users started backing up their devices to the cloud, all those files started filling up Apple’s servers. Apple was concerned about the volume of data it had committed to store, so they contacted developers and asked us to move our files into folders that were not backed up to iCloud. Included in the list of files that should be moved were any files that could either be re-created the next time the program ran, or be easily downloaded again. This included PocketBible books.
While it would’ve been easier for Apple to just buy more hard drives for their servers, we agreed to move our files as requested. What they didn’t explain at the time was that by moving the files to the suggested folders, they would be subject to deletion as the device approached its memory capacity. After receiving some complaints, we contacted Apple and they told us how to mark files so they would not be purged even though they were in a folder that is normally purged when the device is low on memory. This solved the problem for a while.
It appears, however, that Apple has released an update that ignores the “do not purge” flag on our files and deletes them anyway. They are now saying we should move the files back to where they were before, but mark them as “do not backup”.
This is a consistent pattern with Apple. New releases of the operating system break small things that were working in previous versions. Rather than fixing the OS, Apple asks all its developers to modify their programs. Since they’re Apple, they can do this and get away with it.
One of the problems we face at Laridian is that making changes to an app and re-submitting it to the App Store for approval is a tricky proposition. Last time we did it, Apple rejected the app not for anything that had changed, but for a feature that had been in the program for the last five or six versions that they had previously approved. It took us three months and three more submissions (each time following the instructions they gave us to assure that the program was more likely to be approved) before Apple finally approved the app.
So we don’t submit PocketBible for re-approval without making sure we’ve included all the changes we might want to make for the next several weeks or months because it is a potentially lengthy process. Right now, we’re in the middle of some changes to PocketBible for Windows, Android, and iPhone to support some new features. We’d prefer not to do multiple submissions and so are hoping to complete these new features before uploading a new version to the App Store.
In the meantime, if your memory usage hovers around “full”, be proactive and remove some PocketBible books that you don’t absolutely need. It’s not that hard to simply re-download books as you need them. I regularly show up at church on Sunday morning and realize all my books are gone because I’ve been removing and re-installing PocketBible during testing. It’s simple enough to grab the Bibles and dictionaries I regularly use on Sunday morning while we’re singing our opening hymns so they’re there for the sermon. I can pull down my commentaries later as I want to use them.
While you’re doing that, we’ll work on yet another update to where your books are stored. And hopefully Apple will approve. 
New for PocketBible: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, New Testament
A video from the publisher explaining the concept and types of information provided in these volumes is linked below. The format and look will differ in PocketBible.
Posted in New Books | No Comments »
PocketBible for iOS users: What can Advanced Features do for you?
Why upgrade?
The Advanced Features available for PocketBible 2 on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch can be summed up in 5 words: Tabs, Autostudy, Voices, Copy, Print.
Tabs (or tabbed panes) are especially wonderful on the iPad. I keep 5 tabs open on my iPad and each tab contains a specific type of book so the headings display category of book (i.e. Bibles, Commentaries) rather than book abbreviation. When you mix different types of books within a pane, PocketBible shows the abbreviation for the top book instead of the category. Tabs make it fast and easy to move from my Bible to a commentary or other type of book and get the information I need to understand what the Bible is saying.
Autostudy is very useful to me because I often compare Bible translations when I read the Bible. If I particularly like or, conversely, don’t understand a verse, I want to see how it is translated elsewhere. Autostudy will put that together in seconds–all on one page. It will do the same for information from other types of books as well – commentaries, dictionaries, etc.. You can get more details on this feature in our article: Have you discovered Autostudy?
Would you like to have the program read the Bible to you? The Advanced Feature Set adds the ability to do this but you will need to make one more purchase of a voice (at $1.99 each) to take advantage of that ability. PocketBible voices are synthesized which means they are electronic but I have found this feature extremely handy for keeping up with my Bible reading in the car, as I clean the house, on a run — time that might otherwise be wasted can be reclaimed for a good purpose.
If you like to copy passages from your reference or other type books, you’ll want the Advanced Features as they allow you to do just that. And if your printer supports AirPrint, you’ll be able to print from the program.
You can watch a quick overview of the upgrade process and how to use the new features at the video link below:
How to upgrade
If you are already using PocketBible 2 on your iOS device, adding these new features is straight-forward:
You’re all set!
If you are still using PocketBible 1.4.7 (or earlier) for iOS, follow our 3 Steps to Move from PocketBible 1 to PocketBible 2 on your iOS device.
Posted in How to's, iPad, iPhone, Tech Support - General | 8 Comments »
Everything I Need to Know About Business I Learned from Ronald McDonald
The other day I was joking with my wife that I should write a book of life lessons that I learned from my first job: Flipping hamburgers at McDonalds. Today one of those lessons played out in real life.
McDonalds was known back in the 70′s for its fast service. As long as you didn’t want your burger with no pickles or your fries with no salt, we usually had your order cooked before you arrived. We counted heads in the lobby and had a formula for how much meat to put on the grill. It usually worked out pretty well.
Sometimes, though, we ended up throwing away food that sat under the heat lamps too long. At the end of the day, the manager had to dig through a big garbage can full of that day’s waste and count how many of each type of sandwich was in there so he could do inventory. This was especially nasty if there were milkshakes mixed in with the Quarter Pounders and Big Macs.
One night, one of the girls who worked the cash registers asked the boss, “Why don’t you just write down each thing as you throw it away so you don’t have to count it at the end of the day?” He looked at her for a second then looked at his garbage can full of Shamrock-shake-soaked McMuffins, muttered something unsuitable for inclusion here, and the next day there was a clipboard by the heat lamps and no more counting waste.
Today one of our publishers asked if we could send them their royalties on an annual rather than a quarterly basis. They said they’re trying to reduce their processing costs and they’d rather handle one giant report at the end of the year than four smaller ones sent four times throughout the year. That’s kind of a pain in the neck for us, because we’re set up to do everything quarterly.
So I suggested that they cash our checks every quarter (that just requires a rubber stamp endorsement) but file away the detailed report until the end of the year, at which time they can pull four quarterly reports out of the file and do whatever it is they have to do with them that is so complicated. My guess is they won’t be very receptive to that idea, so I’ll just do the same here: When I get their check from our accountant I’ll shred it and file away the report. At the end of the year when they email me to ask “Where are our royalties?” I’ll get out the reports, add up the total, get a check issued, and send it to them.
Maybe this is the opposite of what I learned at McDonalds (“Sometimes it’s easier to keep track as you go than to do it all at one time.”). But it’s close. What are you doing that would be easier if you either put it off until you could do the sum of a few smaller tasks all at one time, or if you kept track as you went along instead of doing it all at once later?
Bible Searching Tips using PocketBible
Let’s say you want to find every verse in the Bible where Jesus spoke. You could start your search with the phrase “Jesus said.” Depending on what platform you are using PocketBible on, tap or click on the Find icon in PocketBible (or choose Find from the menu) and type Jesus said in the search box. Hit the Search button. The results will list all verses containing the phrase “Jesus said” but only when the words appear in exactly that order. That means you won’t get every verse where Jesus said something. For example, you’d miss Matthew 12:48 where it says, “Jesus didn’t respond directly, but said…”, because the words Jesus and said are not together. To get this additional verse and others like it, modify your search to jesus AND said. AND is one of several Boolean operators you can use to enhance your searching in PocketBible. You can read about using Boolean operators for more effective searches in the program Help File (tap on the ? in any version of PocketBible). Below is a video that explains this concept as well:
In addition to picking specific books or sections of the Bible, PocketBible will also let you narrow your search to look only in verses you’ve highlighted or bookmarked. Just be careful to clear these options out after you are done with your search or you may end up getting “No verse found” on your next search (when you know there is a verse that contains what you are looking for).
Do you have any questions or tips about searching in PocketBible? Please share them in the comments.
Posted in How to's, Tech Support - General | 2 Comments »
Why Are My Books Being Deleted?
When the memory on your iOS device gets close to being full, the operating system looks for files it can delete to make room for whatever it is you’ve asked it to store — usually pictures, music, videos, apps or other large files. This makes the books you download for PocketBible vulnerable to deletion (just as your other data is vulnerable when you download PocketBible books onto a relatively “full” device). To get around this, we originally stored your books in a folder where the operating system promised not to delete them.
When iCloud came out and users started backing up their devices to the cloud, all those files started filling up Apple’s servers. Apple was concerned about the volume of data it had committed to store, so they contacted developers and asked us to move our files into folders that were not backed up to iCloud. Included in the list of files that should be moved were any files that could either be re-created the next time the program ran, or be easily downloaded again. This included PocketBible books.
While it would’ve been easier for Apple to just buy more hard drives for their servers, we agreed to move our files as requested. What they didn’t explain at the time was that by moving the files to the suggested folders, they would be subject to deletion as the device approached its memory capacity. After receiving some complaints, we contacted Apple and they told us how to mark files so they would not be purged even though they were in a folder that is normally purged when the device is low on memory. This solved the problem for a while.
It appears, however, that Apple has released an update that ignores the “do not purge” flag on our files and deletes them anyway. They are now saying we should move the files back to where they were before, but mark them as “do not backup”.
This is a consistent pattern with Apple. New releases of the operating system break small things that were working in previous versions. Rather than fixing the OS, Apple asks all its developers to modify their programs. Since they’re Apple, they can do this and get away with it.
One of the problems we face at Laridian is that making changes to an app and re-submitting it to the App Store for approval is a tricky proposition. Last time we did it, Apple rejected the app not for anything that had changed, but for a feature that had been in the program for the last five or six versions that they had previously approved. It took us three months and three more submissions (each time following the instructions they gave us to assure that the program was more likely to be approved) before Apple finally approved the app.
So we don’t submit PocketBible for re-approval without making sure we’ve included all the changes we might want to make for the next several weeks or months because it is a potentially lengthy process. Right now, we’re in the middle of some changes to PocketBible for Windows, Android, and iPhone to support some new features. We’d prefer not to do multiple submissions and so are hoping to complete these new features before uploading a new version to the App Store.
In the meantime, if your memory usage hovers around “full”, be proactive and remove some PocketBible books that you don’t absolutely need. It’s not that hard to simply re-download books as you need them. I regularly show up at church on Sunday morning and realize all my books are gone because I’ve been removing and re-installing PocketBible during testing. It’s simple enough to grab the Bibles and dictionaries I regularly use on Sunday morning while we’re singing our opening hymns so they’re there for the sermon. I can pull down my commentaries later as I want to use them.
While you’re doing that, we’ll work on yet another update to where your books are stored. And hopefully Apple will approve.
3 Steps to Move from PocketBible 1 to PocketBible 2 on your iOS device
Are you still using the first version of PocketBible on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? If so, we highly recommend moving to PocketBible 2 so you can apply program updates as they are released; we won’t be updating PocketBible 1.4.7 further.
Before we explain how to make the move, check your version number in PocketBible by tapping on the Menu button and selecting About PocketBible. If it says anything less than PocketBible 2.0.X, keep reading.
Why the extra steps? Normally, when you update a program, you just go into the App store and it tells you an update is available. PocketBible will work that way again once you download the new version. If you want to know the “why” you can get it from our initial post on this new version.
Anything else to know? Yes (but it is optional). Once you install PocketBible 2, you can also purchase and install an Advanced Feature Set for $4.99. If you purchase the Advanced Feature Set, you can add a Voice or two to the program and listen to the Bible or any book. Voices are synthesized and sell for $1.99 each.
Posted in iPad, iPhone | 5 Comments »
New for PocketBible: Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
Why should you take the time to learn more about the culture and land of the biblical world? The answer is simple: doing so will revolutionize what you see when reading your Bible. The Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, now available for PocketBible, offers a fascinating and inspiring portal to the biblical world.
As the Holy Spirit led the inspired authors of the Bible to write, He also led them to fill the pages of the Bible with vibrant images drawn from the culture, natural history, and landscape around them. Using such vivid imagery as looms, donkeys, water cisterns, grapes, sackcloth, and shepherds makes what they say both more beautiful and more memorable. These images stimulate our imagination, animate our interest, and make the abstract clearer.
Today we live in a world of smartphones, grocery stores and airplanes, and these illustrations are unlikely to relate to our everyday life. As students of the Bible, we need someone to explain both the meaning and significance of the imagery found in the biblical text which is exactly what the Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery does.
Entries explain images that correspond to a cultural artifact from the biblical world (such as arrow or sandal), a component of natural history (such as fox or fig tree), a named place (such as Mount Sinai or Nazareth), or a component of the Promised Land’s physical geography (such as mountain or wilderness). Each entry contains a description of the element or image, examples of how the image is used in the biblical text, and appropriate black and white photographs and maps that further illustrate the ideas presented.
Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery sells for $23.99 and can be used with PocketBible for iOS, Android, Windows PC and Windows Mobile. It is also available for use with MyBible for Palm OS.
Posted in New Books | 2 Comments »
PocketBible Bookmark Basics
Put a bookmark on a Bible verse and it will be shared between all Bibles.
Put a bookmark in a book other than the Bible and it will take you back to the start of the table of contents entry for the section of text you’re reading. So don’t be surprised when you return to a bookmark in a reference book and you find it is a few paragraphs earlier than what you remember setting it at.
How do you set a bookmark in the different versions of PocketBible?
How do you delete a bookmark? The same way you added it! If you try to set a bookmark on a verse or place you’ve already bookmarked, instead of an “add” option, you’ll get a “delete” option.
Do you like things organized? Use categories when you store your bookmarks. For example, you might want to organize your bookmarks by topics such as “salvation” and “repentance.”
Of course, you don’t have to use categories – you can keep your bookmarks “uncategorized.” Conversely, you can place a verse in more than one category if you’d like. Keep in mind that if you delete a bookmark from a category, it is only deleted from that specific category. When you delete an entire category, you’re only deleting the category. Any remaining bookmarks in the category will show up as being uncategorized.
If you’ve already whole-heartedly embraced this feature and have tons of bookmarks, make sure you are backing them up or synchronizing with our server. There are instructions for this in the help for each version of PocketBible.
How are you using bookmarks? Let us know in the comments.
Posted in How to's, Tech Support - General | 5 Comments »
New for PocketBible: Halley’s Bible Handbook
Halley’s Bible Handbook makes the Bible’s wisdom and message accessible. Whether you are new to the Bible or have read it many times, you will find insights that can give you a firm grasp of God’s Word. It will help you develop an appreciation for the cultural, religious, and geographic settings in which the story of the Bible unfolds. You will see how its different themes fit together in a remarkable way. And you will see the heart of God and the person of Jesus Christ revealed from Genesis to Revelation.
In addition to its section by section commentary, the PocketBible edition of this handbook includes the full color pictures, maps and charts.
The handbook was born out of Henry H. Halley’s conviction that everyone ought to be a devoted reader of the Bible. His interesting story (links to PDF) is a testimony to a man who lived his beliefs.
Halley’s Bible Handbook sells for $19.99 and can be used with PocketBible for iOS, Android, Windows PC and Windows Mobile. It is also available for use with MyBible for Palm OS.
Posted in New Books | 2 Comments »
Shortcuts for turning on/off Strong’s Numbers in PocketBible Bibles
Do you own a PocketBible Bible that features Strong’s Numbers? The possibilities include:
While you probably chose these Bibles because of the Strong’s numbers and links they provide to included and related dictionaries, it is sometimes nice to turn them off! Especially when you are simply reading the Bible text. Here’s the quickest way to do that in each version of PocketBible:
Related article: Accomplishing Word Studies in PocketBible.
Posted in How to's, Tech Support - General | 3 Comments »
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