Long time no write. There have been some interesting developments in the LDS iPhone community as of late. One that I am most excited about is an app that will allow you to stream the audio on your iPhone or iTouch, even over 3G!

A brother in the church developed an app called ooTunes. It actually streams A TON of radio stations, but one of them will be Conference. Check out the website, or subscribe to this blog that he created just for this project. The app does cost $4, but I am always for supporting brothers in the gospel that are working to make LDS resources available, and I hope you will be as well.

One awesome thing he is doing though, is offering the app for free for the first 40 people (is there even that many of you out there?) that write a comment on his blog or send him an email. It only works for 4 weeks… but hey… that get’s you through conference! Check out this post for more info.

If you would like to support him, but just can’t swing it right now, there is a free alternative to try out called FStream that should work as well.

I have noticed over the past couple of months that I am getting a lot of traffic on this site from searches for “LDS Spiritual Thoughts” and related searches, even though that is only a small portion of what I write about.

With that in mind, my sweet wife and I have created another website dedicated soley to LDS Spiritual Thoughts. I won’t be posting any more spiritual thoughts on this site, but focus on technology and it’s use in the gospel. Go check it out!

LDSSpiritualThoughts.com - "Spiritual Thoughts to Brighten your Day"

I have used three different versions of the scriptures for the iPhone/iTouch and I like them all for different reasons!  I thought I would give a little rundown of the difference in hopes that it might help some others that are looking for scriptures for their iPhone or iTouch.  Obviously if you have an iPhone you can get to the scriptures online, so this is for those that want to do more/faster/or offline (iTouch). 

Here is a little breakdown of the functionality with pro’s and con’s as I see it.

The Scriptures (iTunes, Website)
Developer: Lee Falin

• Cost: $FREE!
• Search: Yes
• Chapter Summaries: Yes
• Footnotes: Yes
• Topical Guide: Yes
• Bible Dictionary: Yes
• Marking Capabilities: No
• Notes Capabilities: No
• Bookmarking Capabilities: No 
• Multiple Languages: No
• Settings Page: Yes – change font size, style, alignment, night viewing, remember position settings. (UPDATED… I originally had this wrong!  Thanks Lee!)
• Change Font/Size: No… maybe… can’t see a way to do it. 
• Navigation: All screens have a scroll navigation/search button. 
• Developer Actively Updates:  Yes… today I got the latest!
• Stability: Great!  Haven’t had it crash at all.

Review: 

I must say I am very pleased with this application.  It is fast.  The latest version (released today I think) has study helps and a very nice search feature that updates with each letter entered.  It is free… and the developer (a PhD student who could no doubt charge for this app and use the money has made it not only free… but asked that all proceeds be donated to the Perpetual Education Fund.  The only major feature I would like to see is some marking capabilities… but that is on his “not yet” list… so maybe one day.

Potential Audience: People that just want to have the scriptures on their devices so they have them with them for reference, occasional reading, etc.

Rating: B+: I would really like to see annotation capabilities… but it’s Free… can’t beat that!

LDS Books (iTunes, Website)
Developer: Terry Evans (I actually think Terry and his wife work together on this one… but I can’t find her name… How cool is that to work with your wife on a project like this?)

• Cost: $14.99
• Search: Yes
• Chapter Summaries: No
• Footnotes: No
• Topical Guide: No
• Bible Dictionary: No
• Marking Capabilities: Yes.. and they are AWESOME.  Backup capabilities… underline, highlight, change font color… etc, etc. 
• Notes Capabilities: Yes – and you can even show them inline with the scriptures.  
• Bookmarking Capabilities: Yes
• Multiple Languages: No
• Navigation: All screens have a home button/search button. 
• Settings Screen: Yes – Fonts, Colors, Alignment, Display options, Landscape, and others.
• Change Font/Size: Yes (pinch and settings)
• Other Features: Auto scroll feature, can even control via tilt.  Backup Feature!
• Developer Actively Updates: Yes!  Also got the latest today, which prompted me to write this!
• Stability: Pretty good… I had a couple of times it crashed today, but that is to be expected with a new update.  It is normally really good!

Review: 

I have to say that I am very pleased with this application, and I use this one as my main scripture application.  I love the marking capabilities.  I am big on interacting with technology, and interacting with the scriptures.  This brings those two worlds together and I have noticed my study is much much better because I can mark the scriptures. 

The only downside is that there are no extra’s like chapter headings/footnotes/etc.  I have not doubt Terry could do it, but from what I gather he is really big on making sure he has the rights to distribute that content… not just scrape it off of the church website, and that is much harder to get since it is not public content, and he is charging for this app.  I hope he can figure out a way to make that work, but it is still a great app!!

Potential Audience: People that would like their phones to be their scriptures.  People that like to mark scriptures!

Rating: A-: I would like to see some study extra’s some day…

Scriptures (iTunes, Website)
Developer: Michael Jensen – He developed the first online ReadScriptures.com for the iPhone before Apps were an option and make an application out of it when they came out.  He was the first to release a LDS scripture app in the App Store

• Cost: $14.99
• Search: Yes
• Chapter Summaries: Yes
• Footnotes: Yes
• Topical Guide: Yes
• Bible Dictionary: Yes
• Marking Capabilities: No
• Notes Capabilities: No
• Bookmarking Capabilities: No
• Multiple Languages: No
• Navigation: All screens have a home library/search. 
• Settings Screen: Yes – change font size, style, chapter summaries off, invert colors
• Change Font/Size: Yes (settings)
• Developer Actively Updates: Yes… at least he used to… I haven’t seen one in a while though.
• Stability: Good… but slow. 

Review:

It’s strengths are definitely in it’s content and interface.  It not only has the scriptures, chapter headings, footnotes, and all scripture helps, it also has hymns, teachings of the prophets, preach my gospel, true to the faith, Sunday School study guides, Quotes, Joseph Smith Translation, Proclamation on the Family, Lectures on Faith, Living Christ, For the Strength of Youth, the US Constitution, and even a large section of good quotes. 

The user interface is also very nice.  Easy to ready.  You can instantly jump to verses when you get to chapters.

Really the big downside is the speed.  I think that the large amount of content takes a long time to load… even when navigating into books and chapters.  I believe it also cost me $19.99 when it was first released (I think because it was the first one released), but then went down to $14.99… that makes me sad that I paid more…

Potential Audience: This would be the same people that are interested in Lee Falin’s first application.  Those that would like to have a reference with you.  It really is quite an impressive library of information to be carrying around with you, and if Lee’s doesn’t cut it for you… this one certainly will!

Rating: B-: Too much for what it does, and the speed really detracts when you are trying to look stuff up quickly in class.  You’re supposed to be faster than those with paper scriptures… not slower…

Other Applications worth Mentioning

There is also a fourth scripture app called Scriptures from Two Desk Software (iTunes) but it the website link doesn’t even work.  Jacob Thurman, the developer, doesn’t appear to be updating it anymore.  It has about the same functionality as the first application, but it costs money, so I haven’t tried it.  

Conclusion

So, if you just want the scriptures for reference, Lee’s is great.  If you want a lot of stuff… go with the Michael’s.  If you want to mark the scriptures, go with Terry’s.  Their all great in their own way.  I’m just glad to see the LDS tech community actively developing applications. 

In a future post I will write about some of the other LDS apps out there and my ideas for some other good apps for the LDS community!

• Sharing the Gospel on YouTube
• Beta versions of New FamilySearch utilities starting to appear
• Turn Gmail in an Always-On Baby Book [Parent Hacks]

– This is another great idea for keeping your personal history. Gmail has tons of space… and it’s free. The search options can’t be beat!

• Google Translate Automatically Detects and Translates Languages [Language

– I have written about Google Translate in the past for family history research and missionary work… here is a nice development. In your research you never know what language you might come across… this will help!

• General Conference Audio before 1997

– It sure would be great is we got this audio out there… but you know what would even be better… an indexed version with links to specific places in talks where they talk about principles… awesome!

• Gilbert teens say they were attacked for being Mormon http://tinyurl.com/5m9swg

– Interesting news considering all that is going on right now with “Mormons” in the news.

• LDSLiving News

– Another great example of Apostles recognizing the power of technology, both for good and bad. We personally have a family music website to collect "the best music" (D&C 88:118)

• John Cleese visits Laughing Club in India – Boing Boing

– “You know, as I watched this video, I couldn’t help but start laughing myself… Great way to start out a day! ”

Hi and Welcome to MormonTechie.com.  I an avid technology lover and love to research new and evolving technologies… but unfortunately I have about a bazillion things going on in my life right now, so I am going to take a break from blogging for a while so I can focus on the things that are most important!

It is amazing how the death of someone near to you can impact your life and help you to evaluate where you are and where you are going.

That being said, I hope to return to blogging in about 6 months when I finish up some of the big projects I have going right now.  If you have any cool technology you think I would be interested in, please send it my way!  Feel free to explore past posts for some really cool stuff out there!

The Gospel is True!  What else Matters?

~Jeff VanDrimmelen
Chapel Hill 2nd Ward
Durham North Carolina Stake

…or by day…

Academic Computing Expert
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I just read that ldsWebGuy just put up a website dedicated to President Hinckley.  This is awesome!  Newsroom stories, video’s of President Hinckley bearing his testimony, a nice timeline, and even notable talks.  Great, great great!

Here are a couple of BYU-TV Stuff about President Hinckley (from morning study and today’s proceedings!)

• “Gordon B. Hinckley: Man of Integrity”
• “Remembering Presdient Gordon B. Hinckley” with:
• Professors Brent Top and Robert Millet
• Richard Cowan
• BYU President Ceicl O. Samuelson
• Sheri L. Dew
• Funeral Services

It appears that some of these links are not working exactly right, but they should get you close and give you an idea of what is there. 

I came across this great video this morning…

So… can you imagine? Some great questions in a humorous format.

First thought has to do with all the things the man who crashed the internet was doing. What really got to me was the question about bloggers. I am not the best at writing in my journal, but I do write on our family blog fairly often. All of my pictures from the past 5 years are on there, not to mention our comings and goings. In light of my recent “Are Blogs Modern Day Scriptures?” this really makes me sick…

Just imagine the other effects something like this would have…

I am Mormon. I have been my whole life. That doesn’t mean I have never doubted, or that I didn’t have to come to a knowledge of God myself, but I’ll save that for another post. I am also a techie. I love technology and use it every day, practically all day long. I love to blog and maintain an instructional technology blog as well as MANY personal blogs for my family members.

As an avid blogger I also read a lot of blogs and one of my favorites is the More Good Foundation. The premise of their word is to “Promote good LDS content everywhere.” They often have great articles about using technology in the church and using technology to promote missionary work. They wrote a fantastic article today entitled: “Write fewer emails, more blog posts.” In that article Richard encourages people everywhere to put good content on the web. The Spirit has been working on me for several weeks with this exact same idea and I decided it is about time I joined in the effort.

So I took some of my lunch today (it doesn’t take long) and set up this blog. As I ponder about what I will write about I think this blog will have two main themes. First, I want to write about my thoughts and feelings about the Gospel. I often read something that I absolutely love. It may be music, a story, a quote, some scripture. Anything that is appropriate will go on here. The second thing I want to write about is my use of technology in the church. As I mentioned, I love technology and spend quite a bit of time researching new technologies. I often see great applications that could be used in the church as well. I only hope and pray that my writings may help someone better understand the church, or assist a member in this great work in which we are engaged!