eBible On Your iPad

When you see the name ChristianDroid, you may think that we are solely dedicated to the Android mobile operating system. However, I am an equal opportunity geek. I love anything dealing with technology. The first tablet device that I owned was actually an iPad, which I continue to use on a daily basis. To be fair and impartial, I also have an Android tablet as well as my kindle Fire.

So when I saw that eBible.com had an app for iOS, I had to give it a shot. I use my iPad each week in my Bible studies. I use Logos and the kindle app to study and prepare my Sunday School lessons. I use Keynote on my iPad to present these lessons to my class. And I also use YouVersion to look up Scriptures during the morning worship service. But once again the folks behind eBible have put a wrench in my routine. The eBible app for the iPad has replaced YouVersion as my preferred method of looking up Scripture, and it has become my go to app for my daily Bible readings.

What is so special about this eBible app, after all aren’t all mobile Bibles the same? You have not seen a mobile Bible application like this before. There are a couple of things that set it apart from the rest of the Bible apps in the Apple App Store.

The eBible app for iOS is lightning fast. There is nothing worse than trying to look up a Scripture during a worship service and it takes so long for the app to load that the person sitting next to you has found the Scripture using the $4.99 pew Bible before your cursor stops spinning.
The eBible app is the most like holding a physical Bible of any application in the App Store today. You can even customize the look of the cover by changing the color of the Bible. I prefer the brown, some might like the standard black, while others might prefer the blue or red covers.
The application is simple and intuitive to use. If you have every read a iBook on your Apple device then the eBible will be very familiar to you. You turn the page by swiping left or right just as you would a physical book and you are rewarded by actually watching the pages turn.
All of your notes, highlights and bookmarks will sync with the online eBible, helping you to stay on track. This allows me to highlight passages, take notes and set bookmarks on my computer and then open up the iPad app to teach from with all of my information right there for me to use.
The eBible iOS app has several different translations to choose from that are available for offline viewing. This is critical to me since I don’t have a 3G iPad and I usually don’t have a wi-fi signal available.
The eBible iOS app is free. You can negotiate down from there. The goal is to get the Bible into as many hands as possible so the information and programs are always free to use.

Choose the look of your Bible.

The eBible iPad app is full of functionality, allowing you to do all of the same stuff that you can do with the online version. The only thing that I have found missing at this point is that I would like for the online reading plans to be synced and monitored on the iOS app as well.

One of the really cool surprises with this app is with the process of looking up a particular verse or chapter in the eBible app. When you click the magnifying glass in the upper left corner of the app you are presented with a typical iOS pop-out that gives you the list of the books. This is normal in an iPad Bible, but what immediately struck me was the symbol to the right of the book name. This symbol typically means that you can rearrange the titles, but that would not serve much purpose in a Bible, so instead clicking on these icons brings up a listing of the chapters within the book along with each heading that appears in this chapter. This is a great tool if you are looking for a particular story, you just browse through the titles until you find the one that fits your search. This is a great addition to this application.

Click "Back to" to return to your previous page.

But perhaps the most helpful part of the eBible app is the link at the bottom left of the page that returns you to your previous page. This is great for stopping your normal reading and looking up a parallel verse or different verse all together. When you are ready to return to your normal studies, just click on the “Back to” button and you will be magically transported back to your original page to resume your reading. You won’t understand how efficient this is until you start using it and then you will wonder how you ever managed without it.

The eBible app for iOS is available in the iTunes store, and I recommend anyone with an iOS device to try out this eBible for reading on your iPad or iPhone. But if you are a diehard Android fanatic who will never touch an iOS device, don’t worry we haven’t forgotten about you. An Android app for eBible is not available in the Market (hopefully one is coming) but you will be able to get the eBible on your Android device without any problem.

Just browse to eBible.com on your mobile device and you will be allowed to take advantage of all that eBible.com has to offer. The mobile web site is so well designed and so quick to respond that it will feel as if the app was running straight from your device. In fact, it works so well that I have a bookmark for their mobile web page on my phone’s home screen. The only disadvantage to this is that you must have a network connection. But as long as Verizon holds up, that is not an issue for me.

There are many great features to both the eBible website and the iOS application, but this product is continuing to grow. I look forward to seeing what lies in store for eBible. But in the mean time, you can just enjoy a simple, intuitive, easy to read eBible on your iOS device. You won’t find a better one in the App Store today.