1. These forums have been archived.
    Please switch to using our new GitHub Discussions and Issue Tracker.

News Equipd Bible App Launched Today

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by iMatt, Jun 26, 2015.

  1. iMatt

    iMatt Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2015
    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    343
    Welcome to the first Announcement in the Forums! I am proud to launch the new Equipd Bible app for iOS today. It should start appearing on your App Store later today.

    I encourage users to join the Support Forums and share your ideas, feedback and questions. I will focus on populating the Knowledge Base and other forums over the coming days. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds in the forums or get emailed when updates occur.

    I sincerely hope this new app can accomplish its goal and help you to be “completely equipped for every good work” — 2 Timothy 3:17.
     
  2. Kim Ezra

    Kim Ezra New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    8
    Hello Matt, thanks for bringing back Equipd working again. Anyway, just a quick question, what is the difference of the Bible feature in the original Equipd app from the Equipd Bible. The only thing I understood is that you can highlight and take notes on the new Equipd Bible app. Besides from that, what are the advantages of it? :-D
     
  3. iMatt

    iMatt Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2015
    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    343
    Hi Kim,

    This forum is all about the new Equipd Bible app - it is not really a place to compare to the older app which was removed from the App Store due to changes to the Terms of Use on the underlying web content.

    Anyway, I guess it is worth asking the question, as I am sure others will! So...

    The main reason, which also happens to be the primary answer to your question, is that the new app is available for anyone. Those who missed out on the older Equipd app are now able to access this Bible functionality. Which many, especially those in the foreign language field, have been begging for.

    In terms of absolute differences - I believe these were already addressed in the official announcement about the older app being updated. As of version 1.0 the differences are limited to:
    1. It is an EPUB reader. This may or not be seen as an advantage, but it is a huge difference to the old app.
    2. You can add notes against verses
    3. You can organise bookmarked scriptures by topic/category
    4. It supports offline audio which the older app did not
    5. It has many optimisations to the interface, such as landscape support on the iPhone and more
    6. It has many optimisations to the Chinese support
    7. It supports the x-callback-url standard which some developers were asking for
    Many of the advantages of this newer app are described in passing on the About page - hopefully you looked there.

    And moving forward this is the app that will be updated with new features and be supported into the future.

    I hope that partly answers your question. As mentioned, if you are fortunate enough to have the older Equipd app, then you may not be interested in this new app. Fair enough ;)
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2015
  4. SandyCP

    SandyCP New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    2
    Yay!! I have sorely missed Equipd and this new Equipd Bible App is so exciting. I can't wait to learn how to use it. Thank you so much for sharing all your hard work with us. And may Jehovah bless your efforts to help us get as much out of studying as possible. SandyCP
     
  5. Kim Ezra

    Kim Ezra New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    8
    Hi Matt, sorry about that, I should have read the other info from this site first. Yeah, I just finished reading the full announcement so I have a clearer picture now. Thanks for highlighting the major advantages of the new app too.

    Anyway, I am actually interested with the new app because of the major support it has to the Chinese language. I am in a foreign language field right now but I wanted to specialize in the Chinese field in the future so the new features on the new app would definitely be very helpful.

    Thanks for the update again and for the new app! :)
     
  6. AppChasers

    AppChasers New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    4
    Wow, I didn't see this coming!

    Thank you so much for bringing Equipd back Matt!

    I've written up my full review of Equipd Bible for iPhone and iPad here:

    How to use Equipd Bible for iPhone and iPad

    Please let me know if there is anything I've missed :)
     
  7. iMatt

    iMatt Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2015
    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    343
    Wow that was fast! Thanks so much @AppChasers - it is a very well-written and thorough review of the new app.

    A couple of small recommendations.

    1) It might pay to change the wording slightly around "ability to import any Bible in ePub format". This is not quite true. As mentioned on the About page, the app can import any "compatible" EPUB file. Because EPUB files are not consistent at all - each EPUB can use different folder structure, different file names for the Bible chapter files, and totally different HTML inside each file. So the Equipd Bible has to be able to locate the Chapter files and then be able to parse the chapter HTML in order to detect the verses. Maybe change this sentence slightly to use "compatible" or similar as well.

    2) Since you have done such a great job incorporating some "tutorial" level training - one thing users might really benefit from learning about is the ability to create links inside verses. So in a Note, you can "double-quote" a word in that verse, and Equipd will create a link around that word in the verse. So you have a screenshot of a note for verse 16 of 2 Timothy 3. If you put inside the note.
    When you save the note then the verse will suddenly have a link on the word "inspired".

    Hope that all makes sense?

    Overall I loved the review and really appreciate the effort and enthusiasm with which you recommend my new app. Makes all the effort worth-while :)
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2015
  8. Fritz thompson

    Fritz thompson New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2015
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Thank you, Thank You! THANK YOU!!
    That is all I can say.
    Sooooooo Happy that you fixed the Equipd App and improved the Bible reader app.
    Is there anyway you can host the ESV version? We have a seminary here in our territory and they use this translation.
    Thank you again for all your hard work to make the most comprehensive Bible study program around.
     
  9. Kim Ezra

    Kim Ezra New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    8
    Wow. Finally understood that feature of making a link. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

    Anyway, is that what you meant too when you said we can highlight in the new Equipd Bible app. I realized you can only highlight take notes on the number of the verse. Compared to the old Equipd on the Study articles where you can highlight the paragraphs. Is that a feature we are going to see soon?
     
  10. iMatt

    iMatt Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2015
    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    343
    @Kim I don't believe I have ever said that you will be able to highlight in this new app. In fact, quite the opposite. See this thread. If I did, please let me know where so I can correct the statement...
     
  11. iMatt

    iMatt Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2015
    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    343
    I don't believe the ESV is in the Public Domain sorry @Fritz thompson. Which means that I cannot host it here.
     
  12. Kim Ezra

    Kim Ezra New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    8
    Hello Matt, I thought I read it on the About tab, but it turned out I didn't read it well - on the 'Add Notes' you meant Bible Highlights and not the capability to highlight the Bible or Scriptures. Sorry about that.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 29, 2015
  13. iMatt

    iMatt Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2015
    Messages:
    778
    Likes Received:
    343
    No problem!
     
  14. Bohemian

    Bohemian Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2015
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    15
    Adding my gratitude, Matt, for this fine app. The original Equipd app has been my mainstay study app for so long, and I love the app just for the Bible. Great work.
     

Share This Page

Loading...