Laridian Releases PocketBible 4 - Full Review

[Ed Hansberry]

http://www.laridian.com/winmobile/d...p?ref=apwzwtzws

Today Laridian released PocketBible 4 for both Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone) and Professional (Pocket PC) devices.



There are a number of new features, some specific to the Standard or Professional platform. There is a single installer which will determine which type of device you own. Some of the new features include:

• Maximize Windows - Open multiple windows/books. Maximize any window for full screen reading.
• Flick Gestures while Maximized - Swipe across the screen to switch to another open book (commentaries will stay synchronized with the Bible text). Swipe up or down in a book to go to the previous or next page.
  
• Auto-Scroll - Set a book to auto-scroll for easier reading. Increase or decrease the speed of scrolling to match your reading speed. Great for public or devotional reading.
  
• View in All - View a verse in all Bibles. View a reference in all commentaries. View a word in all dictionaries. Parallel study has never been easier!
• Customizable Toolbars - Sixty different functions available to be included on your toolbar. Put the features you use most, literally, at your fingertip. Choose "Large icons" never use the stylus again!
  

There is a full review of PocketBible 4 for the Professional/Pocket PC platform at eHansberry.com. The upgrade price is $7 and the full price is $10 if you aren't a current owner. All of your books should work just fine, but if you should run into an issue, just go to your Laridian download library and redownload the version designed for PocketBible 4.

[Ed Hansberry]

http://www.laridian.com/winmobile/d...p?ref=apwzwtzws

Today Laridian released PocketBible 4 for both Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone) and Professional (Pocket PC) devices.



There are a number of new features, some specific to the Standard or Professional platform. There is a single installer which will determine which type of device you own. Some of the new features include:

• Maximize Windows - Open multiple windows/books. Maximize any window for full screen reading.
• Flick Gestures while Maximized - Swipe across the screen to switch to another open book (commentaries will stay synchronized with the Bible text). Swipe up or down in a book to go to the previous or next page.
  
• Auto-Scroll - Set a book to auto-scroll for easier reading. Increase or decrease the speed of scrolling to match your reading speed. Great for public or devotional reading.
  
• View in All - View a verse in all Bibles. View a reference in all commentaries. View a word in all dictionaries. Parallel study has never been easier!
• Customizable Toolbars - Sixty different functions available to be included on your toolbar. Put the features you use most, literally, at your fingertip. Choose "Large icons" never use the stylus again!
  

There is a full review of PocketBible 4 for the Professional/Pocket PC platform at eHansberry.com. The upgrade price is $7 and the full price is $10 if you aren't a current owner. All of your books should work just fine, but if you should run into an issue, just go to your Laridian download library and redownload the version designed for PocketBible 4.

[paschott]

Thanks for the heads-up, Ed. I have to say that the Maximized feature is probably the most awesome part of the release for me. No more trying to work through even 2 books open with a SIP on a WM device. Maximized books really make the most of the limited screen real-estate on the device. The auto-scrolling is also pretty cool, especially when reading longer passages.

I think that this is a great update from Laridian and well worth the $7 upgrade cost for any PB 3.0 user.

[abeery]

This is truly an awsome release!... I love the flick scroll feature and the fact that I can setup the tool bars with the features I want... I have one for navigation and one for research.

I wish all my eBooks (not just my Bibles and commentataries) were available to be viewed with this program... best eBook viewer going -- and it happens to be for the King of all books!

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Thanks for the detailed review Ed. This app has simply become my single most important application on my PPC device. Love the customized toolbar feature and the ability to display a verse in a multitude of translations. This application just keeps getting better and better. I have the same gripe though with regards to the page turning speed. This is the only remaining advantage for using a physical bible, especially when flipping back and forth between chapters in the same book.

Great job on the detailed review!

[crimsonsky]

Oh how I wish other software companies would learn from Laridian on how to make great software. For years, Pocket Bible was the only Bible Study software I used or needed. And Pocket Bible is still my MAIN Bible reading and Study tool on 3 platforms - my T-Mobile Wing, my Windows Virtual Machine in Parallels for the Mac, and my iPod Touch. No other Bible software offers anywhere near this complete level of integration across various device at such great prices. And it just keeps getting better and better. Kudos to Craig and his team at Laridian for continuing to produce truly first rate products!

[Ed Hansberry]

For all of you with PocketBible on your device, do you have PB on your desktop too? It sync's about 98% of your data between the two platforms. The only thing that is odd is the highlight sync. You have to convert your "word highlights" on the device to verse highlights since the desktop doesn't understand word highlights. You can then switch back to word highlights on the device. Just go through that excercise each time you want to sync highlights. Notes and bookmarks go over just fine.

[crimsonsky]

I have PB on the desktop running in my XP virtual machine using Parallels for the Mac. The desktop is what makes PB so versatile. Running both the iPhone and Pocket PC sync providers in the desktop means my bookmarks, notes and highlights are synchronised across all three of the devices I have that use PB. So any change I make on any device gets synchronised to the others.

As I said in my other post, no other Bible software has anything this versatile and I am in awe at Laridian for doing this. Fantastic.