Bible Software Review Weblog

I must admit I wasn't fully aware of the tremendous potential of PDAs for Bible study until I recently got one. Well, let me qualify this statement. I've owned a Palm device for almost three years now, but due to its limited amount of memory and pretty basic features I never got round to using it on a regular basis, and when I did it was only as a "glorified" phone and address book. But things have now changed with my new shiny HP iPAQ rx3715 Pocket PC. Being able to use such a nice handheld, with plenty of memory, a fairly fast processor, and room for expansion cards, has led me to revisit the whole area of Bible software for PDAs.

I was already familiar with some of the most well-known programs, and my original impression (going back to 2001 or so) that these were the "Cinderella" of the Bible software industry was still firmly rooted in my mind. However, what I have found out is that, generally speaking, Bible packages for PDAs have truly come of age. They look more like a scaled-down version of their "big brothers" than a watered down version.

Both the number and the quality of the products currently available has come as a nice surprise to me. What's more, the fact that it is perfectly possible to carry around a full-blown biblical library, fully searchable and hypertexted, that comfortably fits the size of your hand, is nothing short of a magnificent achievement. Add to that a weight of less than 200 gr (7 oz) and an absolute silence...

I'm thoroughly enjoying myself testing some of these programs, and hope to have a few reviews done before the end of the year. Meanwhile, here is a list of general-purpose Bible software packages available for PDAs:

Bible With You (with various plug-ins) and Bible Concordance With You, from GMPSoft
BibleLink, from Device Computing
BibleReader, from Olive Tree Software
eBible, from Thomas Nelson (Palm only!)
MyBible/PocketBible, from Laridian
Palm Bible+, from Yih-Chun Hu (Palm only!)
Pocket e-Sword, from Rick Meyers (Pocket PC only!)
QuickVerse PDA, from QuickVerse/FindEx

Note that the above is not an exhaustive list. Nevertheless, If there are any glaring omissions, please let me know. I can't promise they will all get reviewed, but I'll certainly do my best to keep you updated on this growing and exciting area of Bible software.