It was with great excitement that I purchased Olive Tree’s iPod Touch Bible software (well, the reader was free) and ESV Study Bible with 80,000 notes and maps and commentary and other stuff. Better still, the discount of the product was 25% with an additional 10% for being a first time customer.
The software itself is still evolving (yes, evolution can just mean change over time) but even at this early stage it is very good. Three “touches” will take you to any verse in the entire Bible. Split screen action means that you can have the Bible text in the top section of the screen and a synced commentary in the bottom section. Maps can be zoomed in and out using the two finger salute, I mean pinch.
To be perfectly honest, few things shock me these days, for good or for bad, but the touch screen interface on the iPod Touch is astonishing. It is so good that I have found myself using my laptop very little as the Touch does email, RSS, MP3s, web browsing, and Bible study! It is an online device as it has built-in wifi and connects in a few seconds after the instant-power-on is actuated.
What is going to happen next is quite fascinating. The Apple iPad will be an iPod Touch on steroids and the Bible study tools developed for the iPad will be nothing short of amazing I suspect. Imagine carrying a library in a digital book: maps, commentaries, multiple translations, original language tools, Spurgeon’s and MacArthur’s books libraries, all John Piper’s free eBooks, and of course an RSS feed to Manawatu Apologetics! I wonder if my Pastor would be hip enough to use one of these mega-devices?
An incredibly exciting device, long speculated by many people, has finally been revealed to the masses. You can check out the videos of both the keynote speech by Steve Jobs, and the iPad video here:
http://www.apple.com/nz/ipad/#video
This device will no doubt revolutionize the way many of us access information. The great pricing will guarantee that millions will buy it, and the consuming masses guarantee lots of dollars for the numerous developers that will be writing software for the beast right now as you read.
I did a quick search for Bible software and found this:
Of course, this will not run on the iPad right now … I am having you on … in fact it will run this app right now as the iPad will run iPhone and iPod Touch applications without modification.
However, the Olive Tree company will no doubt modify this app to use the large screen and make tremendous improvements to a product that is already highly rated by users on the Apple store.
Given the base price is $499 USD, these should land in New Zealand for about $700 NZD I would expect 
Here’s hoping!
