Visit from YouVersion
Mar 4th
Yesterday, Olive Tree hosted two of YouVersion’s representatives for a great time of fellowship and sharing ideas. Bobby Gruenewald and Terry Storch, both pastors of LifeChurch.tv, spent the day with us. It is great to spend time with coworkers in the Gospel who have a similar passion to get the Word out. Olive Tree is very appreciative of their ministry. Below is a picture of Drew Haninger with Terry (left) and Bobby (right) standing in the Olive Tree office.
Olive Tree’s first official Android tablet!
Feb 24th
With today’s release of the Motorola Xoom by Verizon, one of Olive Tree’s Android developers, Scott Currie, braved the foot of snow that fell last night here in Spokane to be one of the first to get his hands on one. Upon entering the Olive Tree office, the new Xoom found itself immediately surrounded by not only the Android development team but also our iOS and other department teams excited by the new addition to our expanding tablet family.
Within minutes of arriving Scott installed BibleReader for Android. This tablet is sleek! Actually having a “live” Android tablet in the office is only fueling our developer’s drive to bring Android BibleReader’s potential to fruition.
One of Olive Tree’s employees has installed BibleReader on his personal Notion Ink Adam, also an Android Tablet. The picture is a little out of focus, but you can still see the text.
Bible on Xoom
Zondervan Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Bible on Xoom
Greek New Testament on Xoom
slightly fuzzy picture of TDNT on the Notion Ink Adam
Pastor John Piper mentions Olive Tree
Feb 22nd
In a previous blog post we mentioned our trip to Minneapolis and the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference. Wow!…was it a busy time! There were times at our booth that conference-goers were stacked three deep the width of our booth. Personally, I was drinking tea and popping mints just to keep from losing my voice!
It was exciting to hear Pastor John Piper give a shout out to Olive Tree in the the last session. In the video below you can hear him mention his use of Olive Tree in his personal devotions at 1 hr 24 mins. into the video.
Yesterday, he mentioned Olive Tree in the Desiring God blog as a great resource to commune with God. He wrote, “I’m serious. Never has God’s voice been so easily accessible. The ESV app is free. The OliveTree BibleReader app is free. And so are lots of others. Let the Bible threaten your focus. Or better: Let the Bible bring you back to reality over and over during the day.”
Thank you, Pastor John.
BibleTech 2011 – Intersection of Bible Study and Technology
Feb 17th
What better place to see the unchangeable Word of God meet the fast and fleeting world of technology…
Does the Bible change how we look at technology or does technology give us new light into the changeless truths found in God’s Word?
This year at BibleTech 2011, the Intersection of Bible study and Technology, Olive Tree will present two talks. Drew Haninger will be “Laughing at Radical Changes in Electronic Publishing Especially as it Relates to Bible Software,” and Steven Cummings, our Chief Content Engineer, will talk about Olive Tree’s latest development, “BibleReader 5: Reinventing BibleStudy for Mobile.”
If your passion is the Bible and technology, this conference is for you! It will feature both a high- and low-level technology track, offering something for the interested layperson, hobby technologist, and technical programmer. This two-day conference is designed for publishers, programmers, webmasters, educators, bloggers and anyone interested in using technology to improve Bible study.
From Palm to iPad
Feb 15th
The years have been good...
I have been using Olive Tree Bible Software since 2004. I began mobile study with an ancient Handspring, moved to a Palm T3 then a Palm T5. I loved the T5 and it served me very well for several years, but eventually I was won over to the iPhone by apps like Olive Tree’s Bible Reader 4.0+. These days I am LOVING study on the iPad using the BR5 and awesome features like the Resource Guide, note-taking capabilities, and resources like the ESV with Strong’s and the lemma feature.
I have been a pastor for over 20 years and remember the days when my study for a sermon took at least 10+ square feet of space, with a Strong’s Concordance opened up, several commentaries scattered about, and other background study volumes in addition to one or two notebooks for recording my findings. I have always had a strong desire for greater compactness and mobility in my study. Wouldn’t it be beyond amazing to be able to do a study from an entire, well-equipped biblical library while at the same time keeping sermon notes and do the entire study regardless of where I am? I can do that now! With the IPad and BR5, whether I am in my office, at the mall, in the van waiting for one of my children to finish choir practice, or doing a mission trip in the Ukraine, I have all I need in one compact device. Text to detailed study to observations to sermon notes seamlessly!
This is also a great way to buy up those 5, 10, or 15 minute time slots during the day. Open up the IPad, choose Olive Tree, and I am suddenly and instantaneously surrounded by all the Bibles, commentaries, and original language resources I could need, and they are even put in systematic order for me in one place with the dream-come-true Resource Guide. My thanks to God for the technologies that have been harnessed for Kingdom work and to Olive Tree for pressing on to develop tools for those of us who use them not only for our devotional life but for vocational work for the Body of Christ.
Mike Williamson
Pastor, Fellowship Bible Church of St Cloud, MN
Olive Tree at Desiring God Pastor’s Conference
Jan 28th
This Monday, January 31, Desiring God kicks off their annual pastor’s conference. Olive Tree is privileged to have an informational booth alongside two other Bible software companies, Accordance and Logos. Our own Steven Cummings will be giving a presentation on Olive Tree software on Tuesday, February 1 at 8:45 pm in Auditorium 3 (next to the plenary sessions) and Daniel Scott will man Olive Tree’s booth. Be sure and attend that session to see the latest features and capabilities of how you can Mobilize your Bible study!
Below is Desiring God’s promo video for the conference.
Food for Thought
Jan 26th
Aaron's pizza choice
Upping the Caffeine
For example, the Olive Tree team gathered for our monthly staff lunch and meeting yesterday. We had fantastic pizza from our local delivery, extra caffeine in the form of Pepsi and Mountain Dew to keep us alert while dimming the lights to watch a slideshow by our developers explaining priorities for the upcoming year. Of course, one of us had to ask where the popcorn was and another wondered if the lights were being dimmed so he wouldn’t be noticed taking a nap. Joking aside, the team really appreciates these meetings.
In our previous lunch meeting, we had an opportunity to begin an introductory course in Greek by Dr. Bill Mounce, Olive Tree’s Vice President of Content and Learning. These meal-time meetings are great for personal enrichment, but also serve Olive Tree by building our team’s capacity and continue producing excellent biblical software.
David describing our secret development proposals
Four Olive Tree Testimonials
Jan 10th
“I hardly even use my PC for bible study anymore; with all that’s available on @OliveTreeBible there’s no need!” – T.C., TX
“Using BR5 w/ iPad for sermon prep has allowed me to spend far less time tied to my pc, and more time w/ my family. Thank you. 9 years using OliveTreeBible and its always improving. Now with BR5 and iPad, it’s my primary Bible software. -David Palmer, SC
“I’m thrilled to have my AccordanceBible library on my iPhone but OliveTreeBible is still my primary mobile Bible reading software, elegant.” – John, MO
“I’ve just been in a warm cafe looking out over the Mediterranean, reading BR5. Actually, marveling more than reading. While there, I emailed friends saying that the world had just changed. Bible-study-wise, there was the world before BibleReader 5 and the world after BibleReader 5. This software is the stuff we dream of, on a phone, in my pocket. My friends, my old mum, my old dad, everyone I know thinks it’s amazing. Well done.” – Jools, Malta
iPhone, iPad Update to Verse Chooser
Jan 5th
From our wonderful users input, we are including the following updates as options in the BibleReader 5 ($.99 already out and free soon to come). Watch the App Store for your updates to take effect soon! The verse chooser will also be updated on the iPad.
