How to Make It a Five Star

I have been very excited about the Logos iPhone App. If you read my blog during the days leading up to it I was swooning looking forward to its release. Sadly, the final product has not measured up to my expectations, which I believe were spurred on by some very wild claims that have not been real.

Here is what the Logos iPhone app needs to become what I think it can become ... the best iPhone Bible app available bar none. I am comparing it right now to Olive Tree, Mantis Bible, and Laridian. There are many others but none of the others have as many books available as these three. But Logos has something none of these three has. A enormous library that I can use on my Desktop and my iPhone. I could potentially sit down in my office and fire up Logos 4 and do some serious Bible study. Then when my day is over take my library with me via iPhone. While waiting at a restaurant for my wife to meet me or a friend I could continue that study. Then at night after the kids are asleep I could again continue that study. This makes your app so potentially powerful and useful that it will blow away anyone else.

But we are far from there. Here is what is needed.

1. TRUE off line access. Right now you are claiming "offline" access. But right now I cannot read NKJV, HCSB, and many other books offline. Also I cannot do a passage guide search offline.

2. Note taking features - i need to be able to record my study and take it with me and sync it up when I get back home/office. Olive Tree excels with this but requires Evernote to do it. Make this work please from within Logos.

3. Stability - 1.2.1 crashes so much I cannot use it. Sadly, the first releases never once crashed for me but this one does every time I use it. This is a huge step backwards.

4. Not crazy about the Spam on the home page.

5. Let me open to the Bible. It's a Bible app, but I cannot open directly to the Bible.

6. Navigation - the slider at the top of the read window is really useless.

I know that you are struggling to work with publishers to get access to content on the iPhone and to have it offline. But as was posted in another message other publishers have this access. Someone speculated that Logos is going for all at once deals. Foolish. Get the stuff out now.

Just sharing my thoughts and frustrations.

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Comments

Jacob Hantla

1. TRUE off line access. Right now you are claiming "offline" access. But right now I cannot read NKJV, HCSB, and many other books offline. Also I cannot do a passage guide search offline.

I bet they're aware that this is a deficiency and are working on it.

2. Note taking features - i need to be able to record my study and take it with me and sync it up when I get back home/office. Olive Tree excels with this but requires Evernote to do it. Make this work please from within Logos.

We've been promised that it's coming

3. Stability - 1.2.1 crashes so much I cannot use it. Sadly, the first releases never once crashed for me but this one does every time I use it. This is a huge step backwards.

This is a problem. I have never personally experienced a crash, but I have read that many like you are having them. Logos has shown extreme responsiveness as you know, so keep posting detailed bug reports and they'll get it figured out.

4. Not crazy about the Spam on the home page.

Many don't consider it spam. And it is totally justified as they are having tens of thousands of new users to Logos via the iPhone who've never heard of the company and would otherwise have no idea about the deals. It is a free app; and most free apps do include advertising.

5. Let me open to the Bible. It's a Bible app, but I cannot open directly to the Bible.

Not really sure what you mean here, one to three clicks (depending on what I opened last) and I'm in a Bible.

It is much more than a Bible app; it is a Christian digital library app; I'm really glad that they put in the work to make it much more than a Bible reader; although it is that too.

6. Navigation - the slider at the top of the read window is really useless.

Agreed; this could be done better. It is currently a bit better than kindle, but still not very useful, at least not as far as I've figured out.

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/67167#Comment_67167

5. Let me open to the Bible. It's a Bible app, but I cannot open directly to the Bible.

Not really sure what you mean here, one to three clicks (depending on what I opened last) and I'm in a Bible.

It is much more than a Bible app; it is a Christian digital library app; I'm really glad that they put in the work to make it much more than a Bible reader; although it is that too.

Philip Gurgel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/67176#Comment_67176

How to make it a five star:

1) NIV, Reina Valera, NVI, NA27 - without these, I'll continue to spend more time on other Bible apps when on the go.

2) Offline w/o bugs, all Bibles in my L4 library available offline

Extra Credit:

1) Split screen (like in Olive Tree) - this would allow Greek/Hebrew on half the screen and the Lexicon on the other half. Much more useful than having to go back and forth between screens every time.

2) Offline search

Kevin A. Purcell

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/68114#Comment_68114

I keep forgetting the split screen mode. This is one way that OT outshines almost all other other Bible apps. There was another one that had it but didn't have many resources available.

The biggest thing I'd like to see true offline support and then syncing of notes.