Higher Power

Last month we covered the simpler Bible Reader apps. This month we will focus on the four more powerful Bible Study apps. They are more complex and powerful than the Reader apps. They have more content and can offer more in depth Bible study tools. All are free, which is why I don't include pricing information. However, to get full use out of them you will have to add books either via an app purchase or their web sites. You can use them as inexpensively as you want or you can go all out and spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on content.

Logos - http://www.logos.com/ipad
If you have read my column for any time you have heard about Logos for the PC. There is also a Mac version in development that you can try out. I have reviewed the iPhone app extensively on my web site (http://www.kevinpurcell.org/archives/518).

The iPad app is essentially the same app. The major difference is the size of the screen, the number of toolbar buttons across the bottom, and the double column display when in landscape mode. There is not much difference than that.

The key benefit of Logos is the access to your Logos library. If you register the app you receive access to a large collection of free resources. But if you own a PC or Mac version you get access to a bout 50-60 percent of your library. The reason you cannot access all of it is publishers do not want to give you access. Logos would love to make every book the produce available, but they cannot yet.

The Passage Guide and Word Study Guides set Logos apart. With them you can find all the content you need to do complex Bible study. If connected to the Internet, you can do these searches and more. If you are offline you are somewhat limited; searches can only be performed for content you have downloaded. Every book you can read in the app can also be downloaded for offline use. But it is a painstaking task and if you log out for some reason, you will lose those offline files forcing you to download again.

Logos cannot copy text and does not have a low light reading mode. You can add bookmarks but not notes or highlighting yet. Without these features Logos is severely limited. What makes it a great tool is the potential size of the library. If you are a Logos desktop user, you have to get this app. You will get access to a large percentage of your desktop books. And even if you are not a Logos desktop user, download the app and make sure to register it and you get a lot of good, free content.

MantisBible - http://www.mantisbible.com
One of the most creative of the apps is MantisBible. They just get the iPhone and iPad interface. I have extensively reviewed this app here and on my web site as well. (http://www.kevinpurcell.org/archives/742 for a review of the new voice features recently added) The iPad app is just as good. It is the same app as the iPhone as well.

The "make your own study Bible mode" feature put links to your other translations, commentaries and other content right in the text of the Bible. You access this content by tapping the verse number. It reveals a mini toolbar which has buttons for adding notes, bookmarks, emailing the verse, getting help and two other unique features. The first of these is the Analyze feature. It pops up a window with your verse in every translation you have installed on one screen. The content of every commentary is on another. And the definitions of all the words in that verse are on the third. Finally you get access to all of your notes on the last screen.

The other great new feature is the memorization module which helps you learn scripture by heart. MantisBible is one of only a couple Bible apps in the app store that I know of that have this feature.

Like Holy Bible HD (reviewed here http://www.kevinpurcell.org/archives/856), auto scroll automatically advances the program smoothly so you can read without having to even touch the screen. The new Text to Speech feature reads to you using one of several voices you buy and add on. The review on my web site (http://www.kevinpurcell.org/archives/742) details this new feature.

MantisBible has a unique navigation feature with hotspots on the four corners. Use them to choose which book or translation to open, the books of the Bible, and then chapters and finally verses in the chapter. The abbreviations the book names make it a little hard to figure out what you are switching to at times. But if you can memorize them, it is a quick way to switch.

There is a lot of content that you can purchase right inside Mantis. And there is some free content as well. Also, Mantis has a low light reading mode.

As of this writing, the only real glitch is that the grey triangles marking the hotspot corners in landscape mode get lost. Two of them will move in about a third of the way instead of staying in the corners. Tap them and they go back to the corner and show their menu. By the time you read this, the glitch will hopefully be fixed.
For full and fair disclosure I have been given review copies of much of the content installed on my iPad.

OliveTree - http://www.olivetree.com
OliveTree had a difficult route into the iPad App store because of their in app purchases. They were put in review status to make sure they were a legitimate app despite the fact that they already had the previous iPhone version. The app finally was cleared by Apple.

As they say, it was well worth the wait. The OliveTree iPad app is like many of the new apps for the device - beautiful. The look and feel of the app is stunning with great environmental art work. But lipstick on a pig ain't too cool. This is no pig. It is a powerful Bible study app.

The best part of using OliveTree on the iPad is the space you have for reading. They have had split screen view (two books on screen at once) long before the iPad. But with the extra screen real estate you can read them easier and see more content at once. Gone is the scrolling interface. That's okay because swiping works just as well.

I have always loved the ability to sync user notes with Evernote. There is talk of replacing this with a proprietary sync to the OT server. I hope they do not do this.

Copying verses is not as easy in OliveTree as some of the other apps. You have to tap the verse number or a button on the toolbar and a popup window shows options for copying and other things. It works and at least they have that feature even if it is not as simple as other apps.

OT has devotional tracking, but no custom reading plans. Only Logos offers this via their desktop app.

One new feature is the library management. You tap your books icon and it shows you a shelf with the book covers of all of your books. Tap the Store button to buy books. Olive Tree has a wide selection of books including a lot of great, free content, more advanced academic content, and more common reading material for the average believer. If for some reason you want to remove a book, tap the Edit key and you can get rid of books by tapping their red X button.

For language study OT shines. If you have one of the Parsed Bibles (Greek NT, Hebrew OT, or Septuagint) then tap the underlined word and a popup window gives you the translation and grammar information from the corresponding dictionary. You will have to own the right books for this to work and they are not cheap. But if you plan to do original language study, OT is the app the use.
OT's version of low light reading mode requires you to go into the settings and change the color of the background and text. It is not easy, but possible.

OliveTree is a great Bible app. It has a lot of features. It doesn't have as big a library as Logos, but all of your books are installed on your device. The only time you need the Internet is to buy content or sync notes. And OliveTree is aggressive in adding great, new features.

For full and fair disclosure I have been given review copies of much of the content installed on my iPad.

PocketBible - http://www.laridian.com
PocketBible is a rock solid iPad app. Unlike the other apps, PocketBible is a significant change in the feature set and interface. The change is definitely for the better.

In my first review of iPhone apps, I put PB towards the bottom. It was newer than OliveTree and Mantis and didn't have the library support of Logos. No longer is the kid brother trying to catch up. In some ways it is setting the pace.

PocketBible's best new features are the ability to show more than one book at a time. It has split screen mode for both the iPad and iPhone. You can have two panes on the iPhone and an incredible five panes on the iPad. You might think the screen is not big enough for that, but it works great.

Another new feature is the Toolbox. It is a small column in landscape mode or row in portrait mode that includes tools for searching, bookmarks, highlights and notes. One thing I love is the ability to have your note editor open all the time. And if you want the toolbar to remain in one spot while you move around in the Bible or other books, tap the lock icon. All of your personally created content syncs with the Laridian servers for backup and restoration, should you have to reinstall or you get a new device. And you can keep two devices synced this way. This along makes PB's new version a stellar upgrade.

One minor complaint I have is the interface of the notes editor. It uses HTML tags to do things like adding bold, italics, etc. For people who do not know HTML, this will take some getting used to. It seems a strange way to handle this. But if you don't mind getting used to it, that is a minor issue.

There is a lot of customization that you can do through the settings menu. You can also track devotions and read in a quasi low light mode where you just turn down the brightness. I wish it was a toggle switch to turn the background black and text white, but it does the job. You could use the iPad's accessibility features, but other programs build it in and I wish PB did as well.

There is a button in the Toolbox that expands it to make it cover about two thirds of the screen. This is great for looking at search results or editing notes. However, it covers the majority of the Bible. I wish it would shrink the Bible pane. The reason this is an issue is that the navigation system for PB requires that you tap in the lower corners to advance a chapter. This is covered up by the Toolbox so they are not available. This is a very minor issue as well and should not stop anyone from getting PB.

Laridian's PocketBible is a great new version for the iPad. They were not the first to the iPad app store, but they definitely have made their app one of the best. It is free to try but you will have to pay for the best add-ons. However, there is always free content and they are aggressive in running sales. For full disclosure, I have benefited from some beta tester discounts, but I have never been given anything free for PB that was not available to the public.

Video Reviews
I am currently working on video reviews of all of the iPad Bible study and Bible reader apps on my web site. To see these programs in action go on over to http://www.kevinpurcell.org/bible-study. There you will find reviews of all these apps as well as the apps reviewed in last month's column. The link in last month's column was not correct; sorry if that caused confusion.

In the future the above site will have reviews of Bible applications for all of the iOS devices (iOS is Apple's new name for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad operating system). I will also have links to Windows and Mac reviews as well. And there will be tips for use too.
If you want more coverage of the iPad then you can also find me at Notebooks.com (http://www.notebooks.com/author/kevin-p/).