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Rumors abound about the new Kindle^® devices that will be released soon.  Some Olive Tree users have been wondering: What makes BibleReader different from Kindle, or from other eBook readers?

The main difference is that BibleReader is tailored to the experience of reading and studying the Bible.  BibleReader is Bible-centric technology.  In contrast, reviewers have pointed out that Kindle is “dominated by the book metaphor.”  Kindle reads and handles almost exactly like a book (and not like a magazine, reference work, newspaper, or website).  If all you read is fiction, or linear non-fiction—books where you start on page one and read, page by page, straight through to the end, the way you’d read a novel—then Kindle and other traditional eBook readers may work well for you.

But as anyone who has done any Bible reading or study can tell you, that’s not the way most people interact with their Bibles. Certainly, reading the Bible from cover to cover is a valuable practice, and if you’ve never done it, you should try it at least once. But for many people, daily Bible reading and study takes place in primarily non-linear ways.

And that’s where the specialized features and usability of BibleReader come into play.

• Say you want to open your Bible to a specific place—not just the third chapter of the book of John, but John 3:16 exactly. BibleReader’s Verse Chooser lets you navigate quickly to any verse in the Bible.
• Suppose you wonder how the word “spirit” is used throughout the Bible. BibleReader’s search function lets you look up every occurrence of the word “spirit” in both the Old and New Testaments. And when you scroll through the search results, it takes just one click to open the Bible of your choice to that verse.
• What if you’re reading Nehemiah, and you need more historical background on the Temple and its importance in Jewish culture to really understand what’s going on in the story? BibleReader’s versified commentaries let you switch to the commentary of your choice that opens right to Nehemiah, or wherever you were reading in your Bible.
• BibleReader’s split-screen reading makes commentary or other Bible reference works instantly available as you read—the two screens are linked so your commentary is always open to the right verse. Or you can use split screens to read two different Bible translations side-by-side.
• Many Bibles have additional information like textual notes, cross-references, or Strong’s numbers. BibleReader includes hyperlinked notes that are available with one touch.
• If you make a personal note on a specific verse in the Bible, you can access these notes in any Bible version, tied to the same verse.

While you might not need any of these functions while reading an eBook, reading the Bible is a different story. BibleReader was created with the unique experience of Bible reading in mind, and its features are designed to let you get the most out of your Bible reading and study.

As we’re fond of mentioning in the Olive Tree newsletter, we post new items to the BibleReader 4.0 library almost every week.

We’ve now got over 180 titles for you to choose from when you browse the titles available for iPhone, ranging from commentaries and cross-references to eBooks and daily devotionals, and, of course, Bibles.  Many different translations are available, including Bibles in different languages–like Spanish, French, and German, and even Albanian and Norwegian.  We know that Olive Tree users speak many, many different languages and live all over the world.  We hope you can find something in the Olive Tree library that suits your Bible-reading needs!
Two of our most exciting new titles are Bibles in Greek and Hebrew—perfect for original language scholars and anyone else who wants to read the Bible in the first languages it was written in.  Check out BHS/HMT (Hebrew Old Testament) and GNT NA27 (Greek New Testament) for iPhone to see what we mean.  Below are screenshots from each:

**For BlackBerry users—don’t lose heart!  While these two original language titles are not yet available on BlackBerry, we are working hard to resolve font issues and hope to make them available later this year.

The Olive Tree version of the ESV Study Bible brings a wealth of resources to your mobile device. We’re excited to make this product available for the iPhone, BlackBerry with Storage Card, Windows Mobile Pocket PC (Professional & Classic), and Palm platforms.
 

A Great Value
Olive Tree is able to offer this incredible resource at $29.95, a significant discount over the suggested retail price of the hard copy. In addition, if you purchase your ESV Study Bible from the Olive Tree website by January 4, 2009, you can take advantage of our currently running coupon which will give you an additional 15% in savings (please note that this discount isn’t available to purchases made on the iTunes store or other Olive Tree outlets).
 

Navigating the Notes in the ESV Study Bible
If you’ve purchased the ESV Study Bible offered by Olive Tree, you can enjoy the rich, deep features of the ESV Study Bible notes by selecting ESVSB from the commentaries category of your BibleReader. You can then use the verse chooser to quickly navigate to the Study Bible notes for any location in the bible.
 

Table of Contents – Get’s You Where You Want to Go!
Some of the main features of this Bible, however, aren’t tied to specific verses in the text. So Olive Tree has provided quick access to the wealth of articles, maps, and charts with a new drill-down table of contents, a first for Olive Tree and featured in this product. Palm and Windows Mobile users can access these features by opening the verse chooser and unchecking the verse mode box at the bottom of the screen. IPhone users will find the table of contents button at the bottom of their verse chooser as well. Our BlackBerry with Storage Card users can access the table of contents directly from the main menu within the BibleReader when the ESVSB is onscreen.
 

We hope you enjoy this great product, and that it will enhance your study of God’s Word!

I have a lot of the Olive Tree products, but one thing that makes all these products work so well together is the BibleReader itself. The more I’ve used the BibleReader, the more I’ve discovered and began exploiting its robust features: text highlighting, searching (we’ve all had those “where is that verse again?” moments), making notes, and daily readings. As I discovered more and more of the built in features, I got so excited about it that I would get it for all my friends that had PDAs. I felt so strongly that they would find it worthwhile that I was willing to invest in the products for them.

I had used the daily reading feature of the Bible Reader off and on for years, but it wasn’t until the year I commuted daily from San Jose to San Francisco that I really appreciated its value. On my daily 60-minute train ride (which was followed by a 15 minute bus ride once I arrived in San Francisco) I had my Clie UX-50 in hand, reading the Word, and faithfully checking off the boxes in the daily reader as I went. I was transformed, held in intimate communication with my creator right there in the midst of the crowd. It transformed time that could have been wasted, and brought me closer to God. More recently, even though the I no longer commuted, it became an important part of my courtship. I and my fiancé (now my husband) read the daily reading each evening over the phone, he in Washington and me in California, he on his IPAQ and me on my LifeDrive. It was a great way to draw us closer together spiritually as we struggled with the hardships of a long-distance relationship. The daily readings served as a springboard for us to discuss all kinds of topics, including marriage and family.Another feature of the BibleReader that became important to me over time was the ability to make notes on my reading. When I put a note in, the Bible Reader would place an asterisk in the Bible text where the note was inserted. Now, when my Bible reading brings me to a certain verse, and I see that asterisk, I know that opening that note will bring me a piece of my own history. Have you ever read a journal that you wrote years before? It can be an odd experience to glimpse into the trials and triumphs of your younger self. I experience the same feeling when I open a Bible Reader note; it is kind of like reading an old journal. Only it is spiritual younger me that speaks back, not just a chronological younger me. I’m reminded of how far I’ve come, what I’ve learned, and how the Lord has changed me. The great thing is that even though I change devices, I am able to take my notes with me!And there is still more. Windowing… Linking… Verse Syncing… Searching… Bookmarking… Olive Tree has provided some great information on how to use the BibleReader on your device. You can head to the learning center for both video tutorials and user manuals at this link: Learning Center