v6.4.1 available in the App Store

v6.4.1 of VerseWise Bible, Orthodox Study Bible and Eastern Orthodox Bible are now in the App Store!

New in 6.4.1:
- Fixed some iCloud backup/restore issues

New in 6.4:
- Simplified Highlights & Bookmarks (they are once again conceptually separate)
- Added 3D Touch shortcuts to App icon, "Bible" and "Reading Plan"
- Fixed some Footnotes issues that occurred in Low Light mode
- Some other crash and minor bug fixes

Also new in 6.4 (OSB):

- Also added 3D Touch shortcut "Today's Reading"

- Fixed problem navigating on iPad to "Today's Reading" from apps such as "Orthodox Prayers for Parents"

- Fixed Mark 15:26 (added missing "THE KING OF THE JEWS")

And in 6.3:
- BIGGER TEXT (back by popular demand, adjust text size independent of system settings)
- Fixed crash that could occur when using filter on Book screen

v6.2 now in the App Store

v6.2 of VerseWise Bible, Orthodox Study Bible and Eastern Orthodox Bible are now in the App Store!

New in 6.2:

• iPad now has "low light" mode (see Settings)
• Share now works on iPad
• Fixed crash that could occur on Book screen
• Fixed crash that could prevent iCloud backup from completing
• Other minor fixes/improvements

v6.1 available in the App Store

And v6.1 of VerseWise Bible, Orthodox Study Bible and Eastern Orthodox Bible are now in the App Store!

The biggest change: greatly improved "Share" functionality. You can now easily share scriptures on Messages, Facebook, Twitter and more or save to Photos. Hope you like it!

I also fixed a Reading Plan issue that would select incorrect plan or cause crashes in Orthodox Study Bible.

Still have some things I want to improve in the short term, so v6.2 is in the works.

Orthodox Study Bible & Eastern Orthodox Bible updated

The Orthodox Study Bible and Eastern Orthodox Bible apps v6.0 are now available in the App Store!

They are now "universal" apps. Running them on the iPad now takes full use of its screen.

Bookmarks can now also be "unlisted". This is helpful if you want to highlight a verse but not have it appear in your bookmarks list.

Update now!

v5.1.2 now available in App Store

VerseWise Bible / Eastern Orthodox Bible / Orthodox Study Bible v5.1.2 is now available in the App Store!

- Fixed persistent crash many iOS 8 users updating from 5.0 were seeing
- Fixed History so one can see entries >1 day old

VerseWise Bible, EOB, OSB v5.1.2 update submitted to App Store

A fix to the crashes some iOS 8 users have been seeing updating from 5.0 has been submitted to the App Store. A big thank you to Nicholas for helping me figure out a workaround for this!

And thank you all for your patience.

VerseWise Bible, EOB, OSB iPhone v5.1.1 available

UPDATE:
It looks like some people are still getting crashes! I'm in contact with a few, I hope to have a verified 5.1.2 fix soon. Apologies!

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The 5.1.1 update is now available in the App Store! It addresses a weird 5.1 start-up crash. For those that encountered it, the app could not be started, the app would crash repeatedly. With this update, the app may still crash once, but will recover and start okay the second time.

Here are the 5.1 highlights:

• Converted Highlights to "Bookmarks w/highlight" -- Highlights can now be easily browsed and tagged
• Added "experimental" back-ups of Bookmarks (& Highlights) to iCloud
• Fixed problems that could occur in History when changing time zones
• Fixed Settings screen to fill out iPhone 6 and 6+ screens
• Fixed problem with Highlights not appearing when scrolling between chapters
• Fixed crash going to Tags screen if no tags existed
• Tapping bookmark in Reading Plan no longer crashes
• Now built specifically for (and thus faster on) 64-bit devices
• Added "Bible in 1 year (mixed)" reading plan for non-deuterocanonical text
• Fixed Psalms and Proverbs references in "Bible in 1 year (mixed)" plan for deuterocanonical text
• Other minor corrections to plans and text
• Other minor fixes and improvements

VerseWise Bible, EOB, OSB v5.1 release

Some people are encountering a nasty start-up crash in the latest 5.1 update. I don't know how prevalent this is, but if you haven't updated yet, I'd recommend waiting for the 5.1.1 update I've submitted.

If you have already updated and you are reading this, congratulations, you've been spared. :)

Orthodox Study Bible trade-offs

Some of you are unhappy with the latest big update to the Orthodox Study Bible app.

Some reviews in the App Store:

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New update of Orthodox Study Buble ★★
by Orthodoxlady - Version - 5.0.1 - Jan 7, 2015
I'm sure this is still a good app of this bible, however the newest update has done away with the attractive look of the app. I would rather have kept the ability to change font style in my own settings. Disappointed!!! ☹ Before the update this looked like an attractively formatted book, it is now just blah!

It's ok ★★
by Toughgirl96 - Version - 5.0.1 - Jan 5, 2015
I'd give a 5 star to the original app I bought, but one star to the update. I want it back how it was!!!

What happened? ★★★
by Kevin May - Version - 5.0.1 - Jan 9, 2015
I agree with the other reviews. What happened to the attractive design?

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First of all, thank you for the kind words about the original design! It (and what we did for the Eastern Orthodox Bible app) took a bit of work to develop, and I was also happy with the way it turned out. (Thank you to Zander Renault for the design help!)

Unfortunately it also took a bit of work to maintain. Adding the custom look made the code different enough from the "plain" VerseWise Bible app it's based on that whenever I fixed a bug or added a feature I risked having a difficult time integrating it with the OSB app code. This was technically doable but, VDUB Software being a part-time operation, it slowed development down. To a crawl at times. (I don't think any new features were added in 2014.)

And then a couple things happened:

• iOS 7
• iPhone 6 and 6+

iOS 7 looks a lot different than previous versions of iOS, but it also changed a lot under the covers. Updating the "plain" VerseWise Bible apps was going to require a fair amount of work. And given how simpler things could sometimes be difficult to integrate with the OSB app, this had to potential to be a nightmare.

And the iPhone 6 and 6+ were released. The iPhone 5 had lengthened the height of the iPhone 4, but maintained the same width, so adjusting to the new size was not always difficult. The new 6 and 6+, however, offered two completely new screen sizes, different in height and width. None of the current custom assets were going to work.

So ... given that I wanted to support the iPhone 6 and 6+ screen sizes as soon as possible, start releasing updates in a timely fashion again and work on new features, I decided to start over. The OSB app would return to the common VerseWise Bible app codebase. 

Some think the iOS 7 looks "plain"; I like to think of it as "clean" or "straightforward". I apologize to those who prefer a more distinctive look, but the choice really is between the app being distinctive or the app having new features. 

What new features you ask? Things like storing bookmarks and highlights on iCloud so they can be easily copied to more than one device. Things like being able to configure "Today's Reading" to use a different jurisdiction's readings or having the reading appear in the "Today" view of your phone. Things like an iPad version.

I'm excited about the possibilities for the upcoming year! I hope you are too. Thank you for your support and your patience.

Orthodox Study Bible v5.0.1 now available

OSB v5.0.1 is now available in the App Store!

See my previous posts for details.

VerseWise Bible v5.0.1 for iPhone available

In 5.0.1:

• Minor bug fixes, textual corrections
• Fixed two crashes

See the 5.0 post for more.

This is now available for:

• King James Version
• Douay Rheims
• Revised Standard Version
• Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition
• Eastern Orthodox Bible

The Orthodox Study Bible update was also submitted but got hung up. It should be available in about a week.

Thank you to user Roberto for pointing out that an app icon is not displaying when VerseWise for iPhone is installed on an iPad. A fix will be uploaded to the store as soon as possible. With Apple taking a holiday break, however, it will probably be a couple weeks until it is available. My apologies!

iOS 7

Hello! iOS 7 will be coming out tomorrow so I thought I'd share an update.

I will be working on iOS 7 updates for the iPhone apps (KJV, DR, RSV, RSV-CE, EOB, OSB). The bad news is that these updates will not be able to support iOS 5 -- they will be iOS 6 & 7 only, if that. (There is a chance they'll be iOS 7 only if it becomes too difficult to support both. But most every device that supports iOS 6 also supports iOS 7, so I don't think that'll be a problem for most.)

Because there are still a couple fixes I want to send to the iOS 5 folks, I submitted what may be the final iOS 5/6 update to the App Store for KJV, DR, RSV and RSV-CE today. EOB and OSB will also be updated soon.

The current versions in the App Store work pretty well in iOS 7. I did notice a little more crashing in iOS 7; today's submission contains a fix for that.

I've been using iOS 7 for the past week. After some initial disorientation, I am coming around. I am looking forward to the apps I use updating to the new aesthetic and am looking forward to updating VerseWise as well. Particularly there are some advances in text display that I would like to use. (I guess that's an argument for going iOS 7-only.)

Stay tuned!

Orthodox Study Bible 1.2 in App Store

In case you haven't noticed already, OSB 1.2 is now in the App Store!

• Fixed crashes in start-up and Today's Reading 
• Fixed Facebook sharing to use native libraries and thus work how you'd expect (iOS 6 only) 
• Fixed Isaiah 49 (no longer appended to chapter 48)
• Fixed Wisdom of Sirach, Epistle of Jereimiah, Joel 3 & 4 entries in Reading Plans 
• Other minor fixes & enhancements

Unfortunately there still appear to be some start-up crashes. (Argh!) I haven't seen any crash reports coming in for Today's Reading, but let me know if you've seen one personally.

There is also a problem entering Today's Reading in landscape orientation. Will fix that!

Sirach and Epistle of Jeremiah in OSB Reading Plans

Another fix coming soon are "Wisdom of Sirach" and "Epistle of Jeremiah" entries in the Orthodox Study Bible Reading Plan entries. Unfortunately they were labeled "Sirach" and "Letter of Jeremiah" and thus were not loading correctly. (Computers can be so literal sometimes!)

The affected plans:

• Bible in 1 year (chronological)
• Bible in 1 year (mixed)
• Major Prophets
• Wisdom

Thank you to Anna G. on Facebook for pointing this problem out!

OSB Isaiah 49

Apologies to those looking for Isaiah 49 in the Orthodox Study Bible! It's there, just appended to chapter 48. This was due to a parsing error that has since been fixed. An update will be available soon.

Orthodox Study Bible 1.1 now in App Store

OSB v1.1 now available in the App Store!

Includes Daily Readings and the 1 Samuel reading plan fix.

Spread the word!

I'm personally very excited by the upcoming Daily Readings in Orthodox Study Bible. I know, too often, I fall short trying to maintain a daily reading discipline. I need all the help I can get and I hope that this feature helps others as well.

To that end, I'd like to spread the word about this as much as possible. Will you help? Please follow Orthodox Study Bible on Facebook and/or on Twitter. I have some free download codes I'd like to share and will post details on that tomorrow.

Thank you!

OSB Daily Readings

Coming soon: Daily Readings for the Orthodox Study Bible!

It takes only one tap (and a periodic connection to the internet) to read the Epistle and Gospel readings of the day.

Swipe left to view previous days, swipe right to view upcoming days.

This update is in Apple review right now. I hope to have it available by the beginning of (Orthodox) Lent. If not exactly then, it should be available soon after. Stay tuned!

1 Samuel in OSB reading plans

Thank you to Katie T. for pointing out that 1 Samuel is broken in the Orthodox Study Bible reading plans. This is because the plans, adapted from other Bible versions, don't take into account that the OSB calls this book "1 Kingdoms". 2 Samuel (2 Kingdoms), 1 Kings (3 Kingdoms) and 4 Kings (4 Kingdoms) are also broken.

This affects the "Bible in 1 year (mixed)", "Bible in 1 year (chronological)" and "History" reading plans.

As it is, I have an OSB update almost ready to be sent for review. I will include this fix and it should be in your hands in a week or two.

Orthodox Study Bible v1.0.3 now available

The OSB v1.0.3 update is now in the App Store. This fixes the Settings button crash.

Will submit a v1.0.4 update to fix the latest Footnotes issues soon.