Mobile Ministry Magazine

Was talking to a new coworker today and got a chance to play with the new BlackBerry Storm. A really neat device, it got us talking about mobile devices and specifically some features that I use with mine. Besides the 5 megapixel camera, which usually gets a lot of attention, my co-worker was a bit enthralled with the idea of instead of hitting a button to snooze an alarm or hit "ignore" for a call, that I could do those actions with just a simple motion of the mobile.

As I spoke with her, I realized that there are some aspects of mobile devices that really have to be seen to believe. Sure, one can do things such as have a touchscreen or a nice camera, but its another thing to reduce (amplify?) interactions to actual motions.

Think about what the Nintendo Wii and what it has done for casual gaming. The people who want and use the Wii are not people who are "into gaming" but who see the ability to wave the controller and become a part of the game. To these people it is not about specs and the shiny stuff, even though the PS3 and XBox 360 get that look, its about those simple things that one never thought of before when it came to gaming.

Now go back to that interaction with my coworker. I received a phone call as I was talking with her and simply flipped my phone over to ignore it. Simply speaking, she was excited. It was so much a simple activity - ignoring a phone call - but to her it meant a simple activity that was made even more natural by the use a simple behavior.

Besides FlipSilent, which does this simple snooze/ignore technique, I also have an application called RockNScroll which takes that idea of using motions a lot further. With RockNScroll, I am able to not only change the orientation of my phone from landscape to portrait by flipping it, but I can also do things such as scroll web pages and select items by "pushing" or "pulling" the mobile.

If you will, my mobile phone has become more than just an input device, but its an interactive one. And just like my co-worker who chose the BlackBerry Storm in part for the advanced touchscreen, I am using these simple motions as a means to just add a bit of interactivity to my mobile-enabled life.

When you think about it, this is more the future of computing than specs and shiny stuff. And when looked at like this, its going to be something very hard to ignore, and something a lot of folks will be willing to pick up and answer.

This post was previously posted on my personal website, but I'm following a solid request to have it posted here for further discussion and thought.

Labels: BlackBerry, innovation, mobility, N95, sensors, software

MMM had some technical issues from about last Saturday until today where scheduled items did not post. We try to keep to a philosophy here of posting once a day in order to make reading and reflecting on posts easier - this time, that was not the case. Pretty much all of the posts hit this morning and so you might have missed a few. Here's the list of what you might have missed this week:

• Mobile, So Now What
  
• Bible Touch for the iPhone/iPod Touch
• Go Bible for the Non-Smartphone Types
• Review of 2008, No Not Really
• Bible+ 3.4 Release Candidate Now Available

Again, we couldn't do anything about the disruption, but did want to ensure that you had the opportunity to engage in the topics that were presented this week. Blessings, and now back to our normal posting schedule ;)

Of those things mobile and ministry related that we think about, cost tends to be a big one. Whether its a device, service, or support, there is always some monetary cost involved, and usually our thinking considers this last, instead of first.

This is why I like what Nokia and others are doing with the website The Five Dollar Comparison. Its not just a case of saying "what can $5 get for you," but looks at $5 in relation to the needs and uses of people all around the world.

This weaves its way into mobile life when we think of statistics such as what additional cost will technology enablement burden a person or community with? Or, how can we lower those barriers to entry so that a longer-term aspect of spiritual and economic sustainability is gained?

The Five Dollar Comparison is not trying to answer the question, but to get people to think. And especially here in the "developed" parts of the world, where $5 is a lot for a tank of gas, but might not be nearly enough to feed a single person, thinking in terms of the costs involved makes any conversation of mobile and ministry one where we need to consider the costs just a bit more.

Labels: commentary, community, cost, economy, mobile, mobility

The developers over at Palm Bible+ have been plenty busy over the holidays and have produced a release candidate for the next version of the free and popular Palm OS bible reader. Here's a summary of what's going into Bible+ 3.4

New Features Inculde:

• Night mode support. It has own set of colors in font preferences. Look for the additional row; use the shortcut 'i' to activate/desactivate; can be configured via Define Controls.
• Status Gadgets for Treos: Bluetooth, Signal bars and Battery.
• Keys with built-in function can be overridden.
• Memo Pad's category selection in Export personal notes.
• Bookmarks will try go to the current bookmark if any. If the bookmark is in a category other than the current category, select 'All'; close and reopen the bookmark form (if you are in Jhon 3:16 it will try to select that bookmark in the bookmark's list)
• When adding a bookmark it checks if already exist. If so it uses that bookmark. (You can not have two bookmarks for the same verse)
• Popup list when the stylus goes up after sometime.
• 5 way navigation support on Snapshot screen
• Treo 650/TX navigation support.
• Support Jog Up/Down/Back in Book/Chap/Verse choose
• Multi-book versions. Like commentaries.

Improved Features Inculde

• Snapshot's navigation
• Made fast search faster on devices with more free memory, especially ARM-based devices

Fixes Include

• Major search bug (the fast search on ARM systems would sometimes miss a number of hits)
• A problem with the built-in hi-res Hebrew font
• A little bug in the Search results
• Fatal error displaying a starting verse footnote when Equal-Width Verse Numbers and Minimize Space After Number are ticked in Options, Preferences, Layaout.
• Fatal error in Search's menu.
• Fatal error when the title was too long.
• When copying a verse more than one time.
• Some memory leaks
• Selecting a Bible for the upper/lower part when in the lower/upper part the selected book is not available
• Verse Chooser only goes to 219
• Choosing books in the row 12 when there are more books than can be displayed on one screen.
• Navigation in goto Chap/Verse

As you can see, this is a pretty through list of fixes. Download the Bible+ 3.4 Release Candidate. And make sure that you download a Bible (or two or a lot more) to read with it.

Labels: Bible+, free, open source, Palm OS, software

With most folks and websites taking the last bits of reflection towards 2008, I just want to encourage folks to continue on the paths of following the Lord and His heart for others as the year turns.

Here at MMM, I honestly have no clue of what 2009 will expect. Personally, I don't live on the calendar year-to-year kind of goals. My goals go from May of one year to May/June of the next (13months). This past May the goal has been to have a life that "walks off the pages." To that end, its been more than just observing and writing, but making sure that I walk out those things that are sound and profitable to the Body.

Where that leads with MMM in 2009 I don't know. We will be at BibleTech 2009, there will most probably a lot more mobile devices and services talked about, and there will (finally) be the addition of a consistent 2^nd writer. I really cannot say what else will happen. Nor do I want to. The future is God's to open as the present to us when we get there.

So I'll just point you to the bottom right side of all of the pages to the Archives for all that was posted last year. From the MMM Mobile Experiment, to the iPhone and BlackBerry posts, to just the intentional posting on spiritually-relevant ethical items such as stewardship, we will just keep rolling a life that walks off the pages when our use of mobile technology intersects with faith. What that looks like to you might be a different device or service, but as long as it begins and ends with Christ being on the throne, let's continue to innovate where others haven't.

Labels: commentary, community, devotion, innovation

Now this is what I call cool, Go Bible is a Bible reader that works with non-smartphones, think Moto RAZR like phones.

A free and Java-based application, Go Bible 2.2.6 Features:

• Christ's Words in red
• SMS scriptures
• Bookmarks
• History
• Coloured themes
• Fast search

The best thing about Go Bible is that its just simple and straight to the point. Can't beat that. And with some recent support by the Crosswire folks, you can bet that Go Bible will do more than just make a dent on phones. Looking forward to seeing that mobile ministry.

For more information and to download, visit the Go Bible website.

Please do keep this ministry in your prayers. Go Bible has a reach that can make it hard for developers and ministries to support the effort. If you have the ability, just drop the developer and Go Bible team a note of encouragement, or just lift them in your prayer today. Thanks folks.

Labels: Bible, Go Bible, phone, software

CrossComm, Inc. has released Bible Touch for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Bible Touch is basically a single edition Bible application in which the ability to read the Scriptures is not limited to needing an online connection.

Bible Touch is available in four editions: Bible Touch NASB, Bible Touch ESV, and Bible Touch LBLA and Bible Touch NBLH offer the La Biblia de las Américas, and Nueva Biblia Latinoamericana de Hoy Spanish text translations.

Bible Touch is available as a download from the iTunes App Store for $9.99 USD per edition. For more information and to download, visit the Bible Touch website.

Labels: Apple, Bible Touch, iPhone, iPod Touch, software, wireless application