[From Shelly E. Middleton] Hi Sammy. Thanks for asking about the bible software that palm users like. I like to keep my bible software on my palm, because for me it’s the best way to have God’s Word with me at all times without the bulk. I had a bible on a PDA even back when I had a 512MB Sharp Wizard. I need daily scripture spiritually about as much as my body needs food physically. It keeps me going in the right direction as I make daily decisions and respond to day to day pressures. It helps me see things from God’s perspective. I like to get a full understanding of scripture by using a variety of translations. With a palm, I can have as many bible versions and other references as I want with me and still not add an ounce of extra weight to my purse. I have both a Treo 700p and a TX, and I use the bible on both. I mainly use the TX with its larger screen for in-depth reading, and the Treo when I’m running about and want to look up a quick verse.
My first bible program for a Palm device was the Olivetree BibleReader. It was okay, but I soon switched to the Laridian MyBible. I liked the highlighting feature. They are both very good programs, and I kept both on my palm devices for years though I used MyBible the most. Recently (in about the last 2 years), Olivetree improved their BibleReader by leaps and bounds! So much so that it is now the most used bible reading program on my Palm device. It has the entire Ilumina Mobile software that divides into 3 main areas: bible, encyclopedia, and media center. I carry 12 different translations of the bible with me, including a french bible. It has commentaries, cross reference links, life application notes and a dictionary. In the King James Version and New American Standard versions, I can tap on any word and get its true Greek or Hebrew root word and meaning. I can use auto scrolling (with adjustable speeds) when I don’t want to keep tapping a button every time I’m ready to go to the next screen. Olivetree has now improved their highlighting so that I can quickly and easily use a variety of colors. There is a place to keep your bookmarks and a place to take notes. Navigation through the bible and searches are very easy to do. There are a variety of choices for programming your hard keys for certain tasks while using BibleReader. They put a high importance on you being able to customize the program to do whatever you want. There is also customization on the look of BibleReader with different ways to have your desktop and your window coloring. Oh, I forgot to mention that you can have up to 3 different windows open at the same time for comparing versions or viewing reference material along with the scripture. There are books that you can download and read on BibleReader. It also ties into the BibleReadMe program that breaks the bible into daily readings and has link to them in BibleReader. You can also get maps to view. All of this does not even include the media center part that shows photos and video clips of bible places and bible stories. The best part about Olivetree is that their basic reader and a few of the most basic bibles come absolutely free! Again, in defense of Laridian, MyBible is still a wonderful program, but Olivetree’s BibleReader is my favorite.
Other programs that I have are two devotional readers – Devotions and DailyReader – both use electronic devotional books and pull scripture over to be read in the reader from the Laridian MyBible program. I keep my favorite scriptures in categories using Memorize! which also pulls scripture that you reference into its program through Laridian’s MyBible. There is a wonderful free program called SMS Advance that lets you review scriptures for memorization, read a Daily Reading of scripture, take notes for prayers, sermons, and a journal. It also has a mini launcher on it. Laridian also put out a program called Pray! which has a potential for being very good, but hasn’t been updated since the first time it came out. Its still for a 160x160 black and white screen. Another prayer program called Personal Prayer Assistant is a little better.
I have to admit that since the electronic bibles on my Palm device have become more sophisticated, I almost never use my paper bibles any longer. I was the first to carry my Palm to church, and since then the number of PDA users in church has grown significantly!
Sammy, I forgot to mention that Olivetree is very active in updating their BibleReader. They post updates on their beta page about every 1-2 months. Below are links to Olivetree and Laridian:
Olivetree – www.olivetree.com
Olivetree Beta Page – http://www.olivetree.com/download/beta/palmppc/
Laridian – www.laridian.com
The Devotions software can be found here
The DailyReader and Memorize! software can be found at:
http://www.laridian.com/palm/default.asp
SMS Advance can be found at:
http://www.whatwouldjesusdownload.com/products.html
or
http://www.freeware-palm.com/download-scripture-memory-system-advanced-v6-4.html
Personal Prayer Assistant can be found at:
http://www.freeware-palm.com/download-scripture-memory-system-advanced-v6-4.html
or
http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.answernew&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&keyword=ppa (this version seems older)
Prayer Partner (Pray!) by Laridian can be found at:
http://www.laridian.com/palm/infoprayerpartner.asp?ref=apwzwnnzz
