Logos - Please invest more in the mobile apps
Comments
-
i just notice Logos is hiring iPhone/android developers I guess that's good news
0 -
Bob,
We appreciate your dilemma. We know that you will never please all of us, and if you were trying to please just one segment you'd end up with a product that was only good for them. So, here are a couple of my praises:
1) You can turn on headers/footers in the mobile app (thus giving me the page number.
2) That I can highlight in LOGOS in my resources.
3) I can see the page numbers in LOGOS on my computer (something that doesn't happen in my Kindle reading - I just get a locational reference number).
The challenge you have is that you've created such an amazing product in LOGOS that people don't want to be separated from it. I for one have read several books in my library with the mobile app and am glad that I was able to do so. The books available in my library were my justification for buying my iPad. As you continue to glean the feedback I'm sure that more and more features will come to both platforms, and I look forward to seeing them. In the mean time, I praise God that I no longer sit with 10-20 books open scattered around my desk while doing biblical research.
As a consumer I know that when something is easy to use and so convenient, I often forget how difficult it was to make it that way. Thanks for all your hard work.[:D]
Blessings to you and you're entire staff!
Pastor John Murphy
0 -
3) I can see the page numbers in LOGOS on my computer (something that doesn't happen in my Kindle reading - I just get a locational reference number).
Speaking of which, Amazon has released Kindle beta 3.1 (3rd generation Kindle device only right now) that includes page numbers. Now, both the page number and location numbers appear at the bottom of the screen.
0 -
I disagree with the assessment that we're behind: for over a year we've offered 4,000+ books on mobile -- way ahead of any mobile competitors. We also offered reverse interlinear lookup, Passage Guide, Bible Word Study Guide, and Text Comparison. I think that's way out in front. (I think it was just in the last month that OliveTree made a big leap, and the Accordance app just shipped. Who are we so far behind?)
You are right Bob. The features I want are not 4,000 books. I love the PG, WBS Guide. But what I bet most people use a mobile Bible app for is searching, note taking and highlighting. I would bet that if polled, those features would trump the others by double percentage points.
I also want the searching, highlighting ect. but I also want the 4,000 books. I do a lot of Bible study for my work, and having it available on the my iPad is a major use. I use it everyday, and often use my library. One thing that I love is the kind of resources you can have access to. It has also saved me money, I wanted to have Greek and Hebrew Bibles on my iPad (they are expensive) now I don't have to, I just download on the several I have in my Logos library. I can access lexicons, which when I teach use all the time.
I think both the "basic features" and the other are possible. I like how Logos is coming along.
Perhaps at the very least we can have copy and paste soon, I don't see how this would be hard, but I admit I am not a programer. I sometimes put presentation together on Keynote for iPad, and would like to add quotes, having the page reference already displayed really helps.
Keep up the good work!
Philana Crouch
0 -
Perhaps at the very least we can have copy and paste soon, I don't see how this would be hard, but I admit I am not a programer.
I can't speak for Logos, but I believe this one might not be technically hard, but getting the various copyright holders to agree to adding copy-and-paste functionality might be a challenge.
Peter
0 -
I would be that copyright is not the issue but technical hurdles is. They just updated the display engine of the app so that such a capability will become possible soon, along with highlighting and note taking. I believe we will see it soon.
Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
Brushy Mountain Baptist Association0 -
And C), i'm guessing that despite the anxiousness to get a solution soon, long-term you'll be glad we did it right. We're working on it. :-)
-- Bob
Bob,
I just bought a Verizon iPhone and the ONLY reason I did was to put Logos on it. If not for that I would have gone with something else. It did not diappoint! I did wonder about some of the features I'm used to with my PC version, but I can definately wait.
No whipping the developers please! [:D] They are amazing. Logos 4 is testimony to their diligence and hard work. Thank you for an excellent product. Both desktop and iPhone. I can wait for notes and highlights.
Blessings to you and your staff.
Apple MacBook Pro Sonoma 14.5
Logos Bible Software 32.1.31
http://fcov.org (Faith Church of the Valley)0 -
It's a different world now, Logos needs to flow with the technology advances or they may find that the mobile bible software market has passed them by. Personally I have spent thousands on Logos over the past 20 or so years, building my library, upgrading with each new release. I want to be able to access my investment in Logos on what ever mobile device I choose to use. I am very disappointed that you would gripe about expanding your offerings to androids or window devices. If you intend to win the mobile bible app war, I don't think Logos has any options, tablets are going to rule the day. I believe that android devices will sell just as briskly as apple products. The apps that work the best and offer the best resources on both platforms will win, I believe Logos has the best content-just develop the apps to put it on devices that are not built by apple. Logos can do this. [Y]
0 -
Hi Thornell
From Bob's post above - http://community.logos.com/forums/p/27896/207975.aspx#207975 - they clearly understand that they need to address the mobile market - they just want to get it right.
I don't see that they are griping about doing this - I do think they will be careful about assessing which mobile devices to support as we have seen in the initial adoption for Apple and the work going on to deliver Android capability
Graham
0 -
I noticed this thread hasn't been updated in 9 months. What is the status on markup/notes syncing? I am waiting to purchase logos until they get this working well because I love to use the inductive study mhod and mark keywords with custom symbols.
0 -
I noticed this thread hasn't been updated in 9 months. What is the status on markup/notes syncing? I am waiting to purchase logos until they get this working well because I love to use the inductive study mhod and mark keywords with custom symbols.
Suggest reading => Reading plan sync status (posted 26 Oct 2011) since sync between mobile apps and Logos 4 is overwhelming current Logos framework.
Hoping for sync v2 stable release later this year. Logos 4.5 Beta is currently on release 5 (not know how many more before release candidate, which would be followed by stable Logos 4.5 and mobile app updates with sync v2).
Lightweight option: MacBook Air can use Logos 4 Mac highlighting, including precepts.
Keep Smiling
0 -
Hi
For this (markup/notes syncing) to work requires something known as "Sync v2" - a new framework for synchronisation.
This is something Logos has been working on and the current beta release of the desktop software (4.5) is intended to provide a lot of required functionality. We don't know when this will be released to the stable channel but from hints we have seen it should be by the end of the year.
Updates to the mobile apps will then be required to enable this to work.
We have seen screenshots from the developers showing what this might look like (see recent discussion at http://community.logos.com/forums/t/40065.aspx) but we don't know any specifics as yet
Graham
Edit: Morning KS4J - sorry I was writing as you posted!
0 -
Amazing that this post jumps out a year later and most of the original posts issue are still relavant.
Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
Brushy Mountain Baptist Association0 -
Amazing that this post jumps out a year later and most of the original posts issue are still relavant.
Indeed. I am amazed that Logos pumped out another app (Vyrso) without the function of notes and highlighting. Really need to see progress in some of these areas.
0 -
I am amazed that Logos pumped out another app (Vyrso) without the function of notes and highlighting.
No reason to be amazed. Vyrso is basically the same app with a slightly different UI. The notes & highlighting requires an advancement in the desktop app, which is currently in beta (4.5)
0 -
Amazing that this post jumps out a year later and most of the original posts issue are still relavant.
Indeed. I am amazed that Logos pumped out another app (Vyrso) without the function of notes and highlighting. Really need to see progress in some of these areas.
I'm more amazed that in the past year Logos decided to divert their limited resources (maybe not developer resources, but certainly financial resources) to yet another product (Proclaim) while so much still remains to be done to fill some glaring gaps in their existing products - iOS, Android, Mac. I understand the need to expand into new markets and clientele, but the decision to do that while there are such significant customer satisfaction gaps and while the company is already stretched so thin (by Bob's own admission) continues to baffle me.
0 -
Amazing that this post jumps out a year later and most of the original posts issue are still relavant.
Indeed. I am amazed that Logos pumped out another app (Vyrso) without the function of notes and highlighting. Really need to see progress in some of these areas.
Vyrso and Logos mobile apps share same code base; Vyrso uses subset of Logos code (e.g. not need Bible Word Study).
Looking back at original posts, noticed split screen shipped many months ago while sync v2 framework is currently high priority development for all Logos apps.
During 2011, sync speed for reading plans has slowed down while mobile use has increased (overwhelming initial sync framework design). Praying sync v2 framework has better design for scalability along with handling data securely; hoping for sync v2 implementation for reading plans later this year. Anticipate reading plan sync to be less data replication intensive than highlighting and notes. Ideally, cross platform sync would consistently be done within few minutes at any time (implies lack of thru put bottlenecks throughout entire framework along with high availability: lots of stuff needs to work correctly).
Wonder if sync v2 rollout has incremental plans: e.g. reading plans first, verify can handle current data replication workload across platforms (check for capacity through out entire framework), then enable highlighting and notes for cross platform sync (while monitoring framework capacity and thru put).
Wonder which is more irritating: waiting for highlighting and notes on mobile devices OR waiting a long time for your changes to propagate cross platform ?
Keep Smiling [:)]
0 -
I am amazed that Logos pumped out another app (Vyrso) without the function of notes and highlighting.
No reason to be amazed. Vyrso is basically the same app with a slightly different UI. The notes & highlighting requires an advancement in the desktop app, which is currently in beta (4.5)
Understood. When I look for an app to simply read a book, the basic (and probably only) functions I am interested in are highlighting and notes. So, to this point, I really have no use for this app.
0 -
Wonder which is more irritating: waiting for highlighting and notes on mobile devices OR waiting a long time for your changes to propagate cross platform ?
My two grievances exactly! [:)]
0 -
Wonder if sync v2 rollout has incremental plans: e.g. reading plans first, verify can handle current data replication workload across platforms (check for capacity through out entire framework), then enable highlighting and notes for cross platform sync (while monitoring framework capacity and thru put).
I don't have time to look for the post right now, but Bob or someone from Logos posted that 4.5 will have sync v2 for highlighting and notes, but reading plans won't happen until around the end of the year I think.
EDIT - Oh, duh...it's pinned to the top of the iOS forum.
0 -
I think Logos should seriously consider making a paid version of the app ($5.99?) that has the features of highlighting and syncing reading. That would be a revenue driver for Logos, and would certainly be worth the value for the Logos user.
Fred Greco
Senior Pastor, Christ Church PCA, Katy, TX
Windows 10 64-bit; Logos 7.1 SR-2 (Reformed Platinum)0 -
I agree. I would be willing to pay up to US$15 for a good, solid, feature-complete mobile app, if that would help fund and speed up development on the mobile apps. Of course, I do hope that existing customers will be grandfathered.
On the desktop apps (PC and Mac), I think Logos may also want to revisit their pledge from years ago that "the engine is always free." If a reasonable price (say US$50) is applied to the initial program purchase, that might again help fund the expensive development costs on those platforms. This in turn would hopefully allow the resource prices to come down.
There have been many complaints about the high prices of Logos resources compared to competitors. Perhaps this is one of the reasons (other vendors do charge for the engine / app on top of the individual resources).
Thoughts?
Peter
0 -
I think Logos should seriously consider making a paid version of the app ($5.99?) that has the features of highlighting and syncing reading. That would be a revenue driver for Logos, and would certainly be worth the value for the Logos user.
Fred. Say it ain't so! No way, my friend. Here is what you need to know about Logos... The primary driver for the business is the DESKTOP app. The mobile app is a very nice side benefit. Logos IS working on an app with notes & highlighting, but the first requirement of the app is that it work with the DESKTOP client. They are working on it, but you must be patient. Logos 4.5, currently in beta, will bring the needed changes to allow for notes & highlighting. A reworking of the reading plan sync is next in line.
0 -
I think Logos should seriously consider making a paid version of the app ($5.99?) that has the features of highlighting and syncing reading. That would be a revenue driver for Logos, and would certainly be worth the value for the Logos user.
While forking over a few bucks to get these features might be a worthy thing to do, it would also be an insult to those of us who have been using this app for a year now with the promise that these features would be "coming soon" for many months now especially when you consider that the majority of iOS apps upgrade for free as the norm. A company producing Bible software should not do something as insulting. I also doubt this is not a revenue issue as much as a problem finding good programers willing to relocate to Bellingham WA.
Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
Brushy Mountain Baptist Association0 -
While forking over a few bucks to get these features might be a worthy thing to do, it would also be an insult to those of us who have been using this app for a year now with the promise that these features would be "coming soon" for many months now especially when you consider that the majority of iOS apps upgrade for free as the norm. A company producing Bible software should not do something as insulting.
While I tend to agree, Logos would not need to charge existing users, only new users. The upgrade can continue to be free, but new users would need to buy the app
I also doubt this is not a revenue issue as much as a problem finding good programers willing to relocate to Bellingham WA.
On Page 1 of this thread Bob said that one of the main reasons the mobile team was small is that there is no revenue attached to the mobile app. Charging for it would fix this problem. Charging for it a year ago and adding resources may have even made it happen that much quicker...
0 -
I agree that you have an impossible task keeping up with all the platforms. I moved from a competing desktop based product largely because of the perceived benefit that all platforms were synced, and I have bought a fair amount of content since moving. I did not get the mobile app because it was free but because I thought it would allow me to access the library I had purchased. It was only after buying that I realized it didn't really all sync up except in online mode. That was a painful discovery, since I am in offline mode much of the time because of travel I'm adjusting as best I can and hope some of the worst issue are fixed soon. You are correct i would not use it all on the mobile app, but I would use way more than I currrenlty can offline. I would even be willing to pay for really good app. I admint I was using Olive Tree for my mobile app and something else for my desktop so I'm spoiled as Olive Tree has a great mobile app. If I really want to find something out offline I have to switch back to Olive Tree.
We are never going back to the desktop focus, it's all going to moving to mobile solutions, so I think strategically its' something to embrace as a key survivial strategy. I do appreciate that commitment to cross platform and agree that gives you great power. Perhaps a strategy for a premium mobile app that was truly functional would provide the resources to help develop it I don't know. But the lack of a true offline and online mobile app will be the achiles heal for your company until it is fixed IMHO.
I do wish you the best, and appreciate the hard work that your company puts into the software, I know it's not easy, and we users always want more.
0 -
On Page 1 of this thread Bob said that one of the main reasons the mobile team was small is that there is no revenue attached to the mobile app. Charging for it would fix this problem. Charging for it a year ago and adding resources may have even made it happen that much quicker...
I can see your point. I'd be willing to pay $9.99 for a new Logos Deluxe app if it was guaranteed to have the features I'm wanting. I have a feeling this is coming soon anyway so hopefully Bob won't read this post and get any ideas.
People like to say, "well its fee so you can't complain." However, I didn't set the price and I would have paid if they had set it higher than free. If at the very beginning Logos said, "We're going to give you access to most of your library for $9.99 extra on the iPad, iPhone, and Android devices" I'd have willingly paid. They set it at zero and I took them up on the offer. As a customer of the product regardless of price I have expectations that I hope will be met and I use these forums to express them because I know Logos personnel including the top dogs read them. If I didn't think they read them I would use another venue.
Of course I have a lightly bigger megaphone than most since I have a monthly column in a digital magazine with a circulation in the tens of thousands. I haven't said too much about it there, but would if I didn't think Logos was being responsive to its users. Fortunately, they seem to be even if slower than I'd like.
Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
Brushy Mountain Baptist Association0 -
Kevin, how can we subscribe to your column?
0 -
Go to Christian Computing Magazine's website. www.ccmag.com - free monthly mag.
Dr. Kevin Purcell, Director of Missions
Brushy Mountain Baptist Association0 -
Well I at last have bible software that has notes, resources, highlighting, notes, and works on my Mac, iPhone and iPad, syncs across all of them easily, searches resources quickly and works offline as on line and makes the library available on all platforms. It isn't logos.
I still use logos, I bought a lot of books on it. I can read them on my iPad when I download them. But for me that is it with logos. Recently I tried firing it up on my computer and it had to spend an age updating and then crashed.
I know the good points, they are not good enough. I know we all have a lot of cash invested, but I have found a better library investment. Sorry logos, but the other day I found myself recommending a competitor and so have to ask myself, why not follow my own recommendation?
0
