I apologize for the rather long blogging hiatus. My professional work load is such right now that I do not foresee any noticeable changes in the coming months. I’m simply too busy and have to meet various deadlines. As I’m sure you will understand, that takes priority over any other activities on the side (including BSR). So, don’t count on any new major review anytime soon, although I may be able to blog occasionally. I’ll also try to tweet about what’s new as time permits.

Fortunately, there are some fine people whom you can turn to for news and updates on Bible software programs. Mark’s blog is always worth checking, and Kevin Purcell keeps abreast of the latest developments.

These are exciting times for Bible software, despite the current economic crisis. The recent launch of the iPad has opened up yet another study platform that looks very promising. I plan on getting one myself (it’s not available yet here in Europe), and hope to share my experience with you in due course. Perhaps I will even end up posting some mini-reviews or videos. Who knows?

I’m sorry I haven’t got better news for you at this point. My efforts to have other people join BSR and share the amount of work a site like this entails have not been successful. I’m not giving up just yet, but expect to see me more off than on, at least during what’s left of 2010.

Take care!

Bible Software Review is all about sharing, so I thought it would be good to try to make things easier for those of you who make use of different social networks. From now on you will find a number of icons at the bottom of each post. These will allow you to share the information you find here in some of the most commonly used online social networks. There are also buttons to email the link to the post and print or save as PDF the post itself.

On the right hand side column, under Social Network, you’ll find a new button that will take you to my Twitter page. There I share news that not always make it to the blog, as well as some personal thoughts here and there. It’s a good way to keep updated on the latest developments in the Bible software scene and interact with other users and developers.

I hope you find these little enhancements useful. As always, I’m open to your suggestions and very much value your feedback. Thanks!

Great time and wonderful experience!

As of tomorrow I’ll be officially on “vacation,” away from my computers. This means that no updates will take place for the next ten days or so either here or at the website. Also, no comments will be approved until I get back. Thanks!

I’m traveling to Israel and might be able to post short updates on Tweeter or Facebook from my Pocket PC for my friends and followers.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t blogged much in the last few days. The reason is quite simple: I want to finish some pending reviews. I am currently keeping busy with a review of Accordance and another one of WORDsearch. After that I should be reviewing PC Study Bible and BibleWorks. These are major projects, and take quite a lot of time and energy.

There are other things on my plate, like a few articles on some great tools, more reviews of BibleTime and GnomeSword, ScriptureDirect, Online Bible, BibleSpeak, etc., as well as implementing some new features for the site/blog which aren’t quite ready for prime time yet. Hopefully you will find quite a bit of new material here during 2009, God willing. In the meantime, make yourself at home and consider becoming an active part of BSR by commenting, participating in the forums or sending feedback. Thanks!

Happy New Year to all Bible Software Review readers.

Hope to see you all next year with more reviews and lots of surprises!

As I said in a previous post, I have updated the software that powers this blog. So far so good. You won’t notice any difference, but there are lots of changes in the backend. As a result, most tasks have been streamlined and take less time and effort to complete. Unfortunately, I still have to do the blogging

I am hoping to do at least a couple of reviews during this Christmas break. Meanwhile, my to-do list keeps growing. There seems to be no end to the updating of previous releases and launching of new versions. This is good news, but since “the laborers are few,” I hope to get some more help this coming year. I appreciate your patience and understanding. You, the readers of this blog, are the ones who make this venture a worthwhile effort.

Here’s a rundown of some recent news:

There are already a number of unlockable modules available for e-Sword. The latest one to be released is Baker’s New Testament Commentary (12 Volumes), by William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker. And while on the subject of e-Sword, there is a very helpful Spanish tutorial on the use of the program which may be of interest to Spanish-speaking users. The first blog post includes a table of contents with links, and the tutorial can also be downloaded in .chm format.

BerBible has just been updated to version 2.50.0. I will try to include the new enhancements in the review when I have a moment or two.

Registration for BibleTech: 2009 is now open, and the list of speakers has been published. Plan ahead if you are considering attending the conference, to be held March 27/28 in Seattle, Washington.

Finally, I wanted to recommend Mark’s review of the mapping resources included in QuickVerse 2009 (see full review here), and his comparative analysis on how to search for long, complex sentences in the Gospel of Mark with the aid of Accordance, BibleWorks and Logos Bible Software (Part 1 and Part 2).

I am currently updating the blog to WordPress 2.7. This means that you may find some quirks here and there. I will try to have everything in working order as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

There is now a new section available for reviewing shareware Bible programs. The first review I have posted deals with a little known gem: Workman’s Study Bible.

If you feel comfortable using a command line and keeping your fingers on the keyboard most of the time, appreciate a minimalist approach to user interfaces, and like a really powerful search engine, you will love this program.

I have just posted a new review of Bible Analyzer 3.5, a great freeware application for Windows and Linux users. It is a program I enjoy using, and it has great potential. I hope Tim Morton continues to improve it.

If you like it, please consider ordering the CD-ROM at the dirt-cheap price of $18 + $3 shipping.