2.2 preview #3

2.2 preview #2

2.2 preview #1

RSV in the UK

For those looking for the RSV or the RSV-CE in the UK, my apologies, but I do not have permission to distribute the text there, so it is not available in the UK store. I often forget about this exclusion, so I've neglected to bring it up.

I will inquire as to what the licensing terms would be.

RV 2.1.1

I have submitted an RV update to the store. Will let you know when it's available.

Update 9/16: RV has been approved for sale. Should be in the store soon.

JPS 2.1.1

I have submitted a JPS update to the store. Changes made are the same as the KJV. I'll let you know when it's available!

Update 9/16: JPS has been approved for sale. It should be in the store within a couple hours.

Douay-Rheims notes

I'm on a roll! Somebody stop me!

In addition to updating Douay-Rheims to v2.1.1, I've also integrated the book introductions, chapter headers and footnotes. Take a look.

Introduction button in the upper-right:


Introduction text:


Chapter header, "*" after verses with a footnote, footnote button in upper-right:


Footnote text:


I have submitted this update to the store.

Update 9/11: Now in the store!

KJV 2.1.1 submitted to store

I just submitted a KJV update to the store. (DR, RV, and JPS should follow in the next couple days.) It includes an OS 3.0 fix, a text correction (2 Chronicles 7:17 -- thanks, Scott!) and:

- Restored autorotation
- Improved low-light mode

For those wondering when fun new functionality will arrive: I promise, some will arrive in subsequent updates! Thank you for your patience!

Update 9/11: Now in the store!

RSV now in store

I'm happy to announce that VerseWise Bible^® RSV has now been approved for sale and is available in the iPhone App Store.

I'm excited about its release because I think it is one of the few iPhone Bibles that include the deuterocanon, the books that were in the common Bible of Jesus' and the apostles' day (the Septuagint) but have since been removed from the Protestant canon. (Don't worry, it defaults to "off" if you only want the Protestant Bible!) And there are even a couple not in the Catholic canon.

There's the running joke about people who have an incredible preference for the King James Bible saying, "If it was good enough for John the Baptist, it's good enough for me!" (The joke being the KJV didn't come around until 1611.) Well, in the case of the Septuagint, the saying might be true!

Feel free to email me or leave comments about this release.

RSV-CE now available in store

RSV-CE (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition), aka "the Ignatius Bible", is now available in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. Please tell all your friends and write plenty of good reviews for it. :)

Thank you for everyone's interest and support.

RSV almost ready

I have completed the text processing for the RSV deuterocanonical books. When that option is turned on, the Old Testament books are ordered according to the Septuagint, from which the deuterocanonical text comes. (Makes a certain amount of sense to do it that way, doesn't it?)

• Genesis
• Exodus
• Leviticus
• Numbers
• Deuteronomy
• Joshua
• Judges
• Ruth
• 1 Samuel
• 2 Samuel
• 1 Kings
• 2 Kings
• 1 Chronicles
• 2 Chronicles
• 1 Ezra
• 2 Ezra
• Nehemiah
• Esther
• Judith
• Tobit
• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees
• 3 Maccabees
• Psalms
• Prayer of Manasseh
• Job
• Proverbs
• Ecclesiastes
• Song of Solomon
• Wisdom of Solomon
• Sirach
• Hosea
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi
• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• Baruch
• Lamentations
• Letter of Jeremiah
• Ezekiel
• Daniel

Along with some additional books, there is also additional text in a few books.

• Psalm 151
• Prayers, other narrative elements in Esther
• Susanna, Song of the Young Men, Bel & the Dragon in Daniel

Even if you're a Protestant, I think these texts should be of interest, their being in the Bible of Jesus' and the Apostles' time.

I only need to finish the logic for switching the deuterocanon on and off. That shouldn't take more than a day. After some testing, I hope to have it submitted to the store (to be approved after a week?) by the weekend.

Update 7/19

I have just submitted RSV to the store. Hopefully it will be approved as quickly as RSV-CE was.

RSV-CE submitted to app store

I submitted VerseWise Bible RSV-CE (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) to the app store last night. My past experience has been for it to take about a week for a submission to be approved and appear in the store, but I hear on the grapevine it may be taking longer these days. We'll see! I'll post when it's been approved.

I am now working on the "regular" RSV release. As I've said before, this will include an option to display the deuterocanon, so I think it'll be of interest to Eastern Orthodox readers as well as Protestants. I have some code work and text processing to do, but I hope it won't take more than a week to get it submitted as well.

RSV update (& deuterocanonical text)

I now have most of the text parsed and ready for RSV and RSV-CE and have adapted VerseWise to be able to handle the RSV's deuterocanonical numbering. I will making deuterocanonical text an optional setting in the RSV release. (It will, of course, be standard in the RSV-CE release.)

This is my first exposure to how the RSV numbers deuterocanonical text. My basic understanding of it is that when Jerome translated/assembled the Vulgate he appended the deuterocanonical text onto the end of canonical books. Canonical Esther has 10 chapters, so the deuterocanonical text began at Esther 11. The problem with this is that the content of Esther 11 is actually supposed to be at the beginning of the book!

RSV maintains Jerome's numbering, but returns the text to where it belongs chronologically in the text. This is what the chapter list looks like in VerseWise:

And it's more fun than that -- the first verse of Esther is 11:2!

Needless to say, there were some logic changes that had to be made to VerseWise to be able to handle books that did not begin with chapter 1 and chapters that did not begin with verse 1.

I've seen other Bibles with deuterocanonical text handle the numbering in different ways. Some label chapter 11 as "chapter A", another labels chapters 11 & 12 as "chapter 1" but with verses "1a, 1b, 1c, ..." until you reach the standard chapter 1:1.

I think I have a slight preferences for the "chapter A" scheme. At least I imagine users would find it less confusing. (Though, not completely so -- you'd still have two "chapter3s" broken up by a "chapter C".) But it is what it is, and I'm just happy to have the full text available!

OS 3.0 bugs

Just noticed a bug in VerseWise when running under OS 3.0. When selecting a search result, the window does not automatically scroll to that verse.

I am working on an update for OS 3.0. If you've noticed any other problems with the current release of VW, please let me know!

RSV and RSV-CE

Just a note to let everyone that I am at this very moment working on Revised Standard Version and Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (aka "Ignatius Bible"). I'll keep you updated as progress continues and will let you know when they've been submitted to the store.

More JPS delay

Since I last wrote, the JPS version of VerseWise has been rejected two more times! (Or is it three?) I believe I have remedied all of Apple's concerns and just uploaded a new binary.

Of course, this also affects the other versions of VerseWise. Users of these other versions will noticed fewer graphics in the History section.

Sorry for the delay!

I am also working on a 2.1 update. At this rate, JPS users may see 2.1 within a week or two of 2.0. :\

Landscape

Just wanted to let you know that I am working on restoring Landscape mode. Unfortunately, it is not as trivial as I'd like, what with the new toolbar, which is why I released update 2.0 without it. But iPhone OS 3.0's extended use of Landscape has given me new motivation! 

JPS delay

For those of you waiting for JPS to be updated to 2.0, I apologize! I encountered my first application rejection!

Even though JPS looks exactly like my KJV, RV and DR releases, the reviewer did not like the fact I was using the Bookmarks button to activate View History. Even though Safari accesses its View History through its Bookmarks button. I even re-submitted the app to give the reviewer a chance to see the error of his ways. (Alas, he did not.)

I do intend to add full bookmark functionality, but until then I've updated the button.

I will update the other versions with this button, unless I add full Bookmarks functionality first.

2.0 released

Update 2.0 of KJV is now available in the store. I'll be uploading the other translations over the weekend; they should be in the store within the week.

This update includes:

• View history
• Low light refinement
  
• Settings moved into app

Update 3/3: JPS and RV have been uploaded to the store (and should be available in a couple days). I am now working on updating the DR text (I found a source with fewer typos), and will upload that soon.

View history

Along with making Settings more easily accessible, I've added View History bookmarks to the 2.0 update. They store up to 100 of your last accessed chapters. Being able to bounce between multiple chapters is very convenient!

Expect more bookmark functionality in the future, including bookmarks you can add and save and reading plans (such as Bible-in-one-year and weekly Torah portions).

Psalms numbering in Douay-Rheims

I've had a couple questions come in recently about how the Psalms are numbered in the Douay-Rheims Bible. In some places it can appear they're off by one or two. There is a good explanation on Wikipedia.

Basically, the Douay uses the numbering from the Septuagint, which is the Bible that Jesus and the Apostles used. So, no need to feel bad because you're different! :)

Low light mode refinement

Refining low light mode a little for 2.0. Oh, and is that a new icon down on the toolbar?

Update 3/3: I've had a request to return the navigation and toolbars back to black. I'll work this into a future update.

Settings moving into app

Feature #1 of the v2.0 update:

Update: I'm moving VerseWise's settings internal to the app. No more exiting the app to go to Settings.