Mobile Ministry Magazine

While most people don’t carry a Bible on there person daily, most people do carry their cell phones with them. I happen to personally carry a Windows Mobile smartphone, the Audiovox SMT 5600 from Cingular. I wanted to carry a bible (or two) on it and that is where the subject of our review begins. This is a basic user review of PocketBible by Laridian, Inc.

Specs

While Laridian does make bibles for several types of mobile devices, this review will focus solely on the version for the Windows Mobile smartphone. There are two components to this product a reader software and a bible file. I am currently using book reader engine 1.057 by Laridian. This bible reader software is supposed to the designed for Windows Mobile 2002 and following. My device is running Windows Mobile 2003, so that works for this software. I am currently using two bible files NIV and NASB. I use both in the hard copy so I thought it would be a good scenario for this review.

How Usable Is It

There is a trial version of the reader software and free bible files so you can try out this software before you invest any money in it. That is what I did and I recommend the same for you. Once you buy the software, you can download it as many times as you need to from the Laridian website. They also recently rewrote their end user license agreement (EULA) so that if you like to use multiple devices, you can load your purchased software on multiple devices as long as you are not using more that your total number of licenses purchased concurrently. You can even change platforms and not have to purchase the same bible again. See their press release for all the details.

Installation is done by downloading the software to your desktop and perform a sync with your device. The software loading wizard is easy for anyone to use. Once the reader software is loaded you can load multiple bibles on your device. The reader software uses the two soft keys that are familiar to Windows Mobile smartphone users. The left button normally offer the ability to choose, Old or New Testament, Book, Chapter and Verse. The right button is normally reserved for detailed menus about the screen you are on. Press the right soft key and you will have the ability to choose a bible to use, Find feature, Bookmarks, Options (Appearance, Navigation Miscellaneous, Debug).

I loaded two versions of the bible and use the feature of book selection to read the same verse that I have selected in multiple versions, one at a time. I also like to use the Find feature. It is like using a concordance that is clickable. Great feature for study or lesson preparation. The Bookmark feature is nice for marking verses for memorization, favorites, etc. In the Bookmark feature you can create multiple categories, so you can classify your verses accord to their use for you. The only feature missing in the bookmark is the ability to mark multiple verses. I asked the company about it and they are considering it in future reader revisions. The Options feature allows you to adjust the font size, select Christ’s words in red, select indent poetry and select footnotes. I have not used the debug tool and that is a good thing. I am glad to see that the developers of this software care enough about the quality of their product to build in tools to debug, just in case.

I have really been blessed to carry two versions of the bible without have to keep up with two hard copies. Instead I now carry them on my smartphone, which is with me most of the waking day. It has been a great tool and I recommend it to any Windows Mobile smartphone user.

I just picked up a used Blackberry 7280 and might try to load their version of a bible reader on it soon to give all of you Blackberry users a review to look forward to. Remember, with the new EULA, I only have to purchase the new bible reader software for the new platform. How sweet is that!