I know the Hebrew vowels have NEVER lined up underneath the consonants, but I keep expecting that to be addressed soon, and it never is. It is very hard to read things with the vowels all messed up.
Wyn, here's an update:
We have been actively researching this issue and we were not having any success finding a problem on our end, so we took our question directly to the top. Google's Android development team hosts a weekly Q & A session for developers via their Google+ Hangout system and we were lucky enough to get to ask two questions of the team.
Our first question described the issue, along with screenshots and specific Hebrew words that did not display correctly. We were told that the team was aware of the issue (it's a problem in the entire Android system, not just the Logos apps) and it has actually already been fixed internally and "will be available in the next release of Android". My personal interpretation of that statement is that the issue will be resolved in Key Lime Pie, whenever this is released.
Later in the session, after some internal discussion amongst the Logos Android team, we asked a second question: "Given that it will be a very long time before the majority of our users have this future release of Android, is there anything we can do right now to fix the issue in our app?" Their answer: a resounding and definitive "No". They told us the fix for the problem involved changes to multiple core components of the Android system (I believe he said four different areas) and they strongly discouraged us from trying to implement our own fix.
Normally these Q & A sessions are posted to Youtube after the session is over, but to our great misfortune there seems to have been an error with our particular video (found here) and it has not been posted to Youtube. We were planning on making a post with this information and links to the relevant sections of the video, but unfortunately that does not seem to be possible.
All that said, the Logos team is always hard at work finding answers to your problems. Unfortunately in this case the solution is out of our hands and will only be resolved with time.
Drew,
Thanks for taking the time to explain. I really appreciate it.
Wyn
Yes, it's good to hear this news and look forward to yet another new version of android.
Hi there,
Even on IPAD platform, the hebrew vowel points do not aligned as well. Do you know why?
Best regards,
Eric
I know that Android has challenges for displaying characters with complex diacritical marks. What I don't understand is why Olivetree Bible Reader can display the Hebrew with proper vowel points and Greek with proper accents, but Logos cannot.
Here is Genesis 1:1 in Olivetree Bible Reader:
Here is Logos 2.11 for Android on the same passage:
There are similar discrepancies in the display of Greek with accents. Although the Greek text is fine when reading the NA27, pop-ups windows, searches and Bible word studies do not display accented characters in Logos. But Bible Window has no trouble with this font.
I am using Logos with Android ICS 4.03 on an Acer A100 tablet and ICS 4.04 on a Samsung Galaxy S3.
I hope Logos is able to find a way to resolve this. If we have to wait for Google to solve it, most existing phones and tablets will never display Greek or Hebrew correctly. I know Logos has much more complex multilingual documents to display, so the task is more difficult. But it is a shame, because these limitations reduce the utility of many of the wonderful Bibles and reference books in Logos.
Yes, even while I do not challenge what Google says about the inherent problem with the current version of Android, it is true that several softwares seemed to have found a way around the problem. In addition to olivetree, there is Perpetua, a flashcards app.
I encountered the same Greek & Hebrew problem.
From a software engineer's perspective, I believe Logos needs to improve.
Pray that our Lord help Logos to resolve this problem ASAP.
Hello Harry,
As I posted in another forum, Olive Tree and others most likely resolve this by resorting to using non-unicode fonts. You might be aware that Bibleworks does this on Windows as well. However, what this means is that what you see in the bibleworks font will be gibberish in another font. This has caused some frustration for some of my students who wonder why their Hebrew or Greek didn't turn out when then emailed an assignment. At any rate, using non-unicode fonts may give the appearance of a fix, but it is a step back in some ways. Furthermore, it would be extremely tedious to reset the type for a temporary fix like this.
That said, I share your frustration with this issue. I just upgraded my tablet to Jelly Bean in hopes the Hebrew would be sorted out, but no luck for now. Soon I hope.
Android 4.2 was released today on new Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 devices, along with an update to the Nexus 7 device. Here's a "before" screenshot of a page from "Beginning Biblical Hebrew" in the Logos Bible app on an Android 2.2 emulator:
Here's what that same page looks like on the Nexus 7 running the new Android 4.2 update:
Now, I'm no Hebrew scholar, but that certainly looks better to me.
Do you know when these changes will go into effect for the Kindle Fire? I have the same problem, but I do not have the option to upgrade Android. Any suggestions?
The best we can offer at this point is get Android 4.2. If you have a Kindle Fire HD or a second gen Kindle Fire it's possible that Amazon could update their system firmware to include these improvements. Android is open source and Google has publicly made available the 4.2 source code so I suspect it's only a matter of time before Amazon (and B&N) integrate these latest changes of Android into their own customized versions of Android running on their tablets.
I also have a kindle fire. I'm not very smart when it comes to these electronics. My question is - if Amazon fixes this issue, will it benefit me, or will it only be fixed on newer devices?
Hi Kelli,
If Amazon makes a software update for your device to Android 4.2 or above, it will benefit you. However, I don't know whether Amazon has plans to offer a 4.2 update for your device. I wish I knew more about Amazon's plans regarding updates but I don't.
Does anyone know if the Android Hebrew word order in Treasures Old and New (http://www.logos.com/product/25195/treasures-old-and-new) is being addressed? Is that something that Jelly Bean helps? I've seen the problem in Froyo and Gingerbread. It is a great devotional tool but the words (not vowels) are in the wrong order.
Here's a screenshot from a Nexus 7 for Today's reading. The platform changes made in Android 4.2 should have addressed all the vowel point issues.
It looks like it works on your Jelly Bean device but why won't it work on my Froyo and Gingerbread phones? I don't want to root my devices and I really shouldn't need to since other Hebrew resources work. Check out these two screenshots:
Thanks for looking into this!
It has been a while since the last post on this issue. I am looking into getting a Kindle Fire HD: have updates been released that have resolved the Hebrew vowels alignment issue or is it still the same?
The Hebrew vowel alignment issues were fixed by Android 4.2. I believe the newest Kindle Fire devices are running a modified version of Android 4.2, but I can't say for certain that the alignment issues are fixed on the Kindle Fire (perhaps someone with a Kindle Fire HDX can speak to that). The issue is definitely resolved on devices running "stock" Android, such as the Nexus 7 or Nexus 10.
