Martin Spriggs

This post is the first in a series of reviews on SmartPhone Bible Apps. I’m going to start with Android-based phones and then move on to iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad). First up is the CadreBible from CadreWorks.

For these reviews I’m going to primarily focus on free apps, although most of them, including this one, charge for offline access to copyrighted translations like the NIV. In fact, the CadreBible doesn’t even have an online component. That is a good news / bad news story as it forces them (my assumption) to charge for translations, unlike YouVersion which I will review later, which offers online access but no downloadable content that is copyrighted. A great deal if you always have access to 3G/4G or WiFi. Most of us don’t have that luxury. One of my weekly uses of a Bible app is during Bible class at church which is held in the basement. You guessed it. No cell reception or WiFi. On the positive side however, offline access only tools like the CadreBible take the whole access thing out of the equation. If you purchase a translation you will always have it with you.

The base CadreBible application is free and a quick download. Just do a quick search on it in the Adroid Marketplace and it will be listed along with all the other downloadable content (both free and paid). You can get the KJV and commentaries like Matthew Henry for free, but most other translations and commentaries will require a few greenbacks. The NIV for instance costs $9.59 (US) and comes with the New International Version (NIV); Today’s New International Version (TNIV) and New International Reader’s Version (NIrV). The purchases can be made on the website via PayPal for some and through Google Checkout right from the Android Marketplace for others. For those made on the website CadreWorks sends you a username and password which you will need to download it from within the app. A very seamless process as long as you have an active email address attached to your PayPal account.

The app itself seems very stable, at least in my day of testing. It uses a “tab interface” to switch between translations, books, chapters, etc. It’s search tools seem very robust, allowing you to search exact phrases, boolean (and/or), case sensitive, any/all words, and restrict it to a book, testament or the whole Bible. Search results come up quickly and each verse is displayed with the search term colored green. Tapping on the verse takes you to the verse in context. The default interface shows white type on a black background. Very readable.

Adding notes, while not intuitive, can be done. It is a multistep process of selecting the tools tab, then the note function. It does allow you to create your own category of notes like “journal” or “questions to ask”, but forces you to manually select a verse either by tapping a rather inconspicuous check box to grab the current verse, or to select any other verse in the Old or New Testament. It then adds an icon to the verse you can click on later. BTW, a very precise click is needed to bring it up. You can manually select multiple verses, but not a range of verses, at least not that I could find. Perhaps a better interface would have a long tap bringing up the options of adding a note or bookmark. Hopefully CadreWorks folks are listening. (Upon further investigation I did figure out that a VERY precise tap on the verse number will bring up a side slider menu tab that has these options. I still think a long tap on a verse would be more intuitive).

On the social networking side of the house, you can send a note/quote to Facebook or Twitter. You can “synchronize” your notes with Evernote. A hand feature if you want to do something else with them say on a larger device like your laptop/desktop computer or iPad.

Bookmarks work nicely. You can categorize these as well, just like Notes, and “apply to all translations”. A very nice feature indeed. Bookmarked verses appear with a flag icon next to the verse number. Also on the flyout tab when clicking on a verse is the option to bring up any commentary you have downloaded or parallel views of translations/commentaries. It is not very easy however to exit out of the commentary screen short of going back to the tab at the top and reselecting the appropriate translation or other piece of content.

You can use pre-canned reading plans or create your own. A useful feature for people on the go and have time to kill in doctor’s offices or at the car repair shop. Certainly a better use of time than playing Angry Birds. Guilty as charged.

One gripe I have with the app is that it doesn’t display verses in landscape mode. Interestingly enough it does in “parallel” view. This is fairly minor, but most apps these days with any sophistication to them support both portrait and landscape views.

Overall I’d rate the app an A-. Very solid in most respects and offers most of the things a SmartPhone based Bible app user would need. I am surprised that I had not heard of it before now. A mature product worthy of consideration by Android users looking for an offline Bible app. Grade: A-

In my last post regarding our church’s journey into the intriguing world of Facebook, I shared with you some of the startup tasks that took place as we were considering whether to use Facebook or how to use Facebook. In this post I’d just like to share a promotional insert that was created to raise awareness that the Facebook page exists and how members can sign up. This is only one part of our strategy which will also include handouts to school parents, newsletter articles, short talks in front of existing Bible classes, and of course advertisements on our website and through e-mail.

One good question that was raised is if our Facebook site should be “member only.” Or whether “friends of the congregation” would be invited to join and look at what’s happening within the congregation. As we thought about this it occurred to us that there wasn’t going to be information of such a private nature on the site that we wouldn’t mind nonmembers viewing the information, which in Facebook land is probably a safe assumption — that it’s certainly difficult to control who can see the information that you’re posting.

I’ve also included a copy of the reverse side of the insert which is advertising our Through the Bible in One Year program that we’ve entitled "Join the Journey". One of the reasons we wanted to start a Facebook page was to maintain a connection with all those people who have "joined the journey" and use the page as a continual encouragement to stick with it.