Go Bible for Android phones

Yesterday I discovered that it is possible to convert any Java ME application to an Android package file APK, using a free online converter called GetAPK.

One of my colleagues has tested this for a few Go Bible applications in a number of different languages, with a considerable degree of success. He wrote,

It's not perfect, it sometimes hangs if you run multiple copies of the program at once, the font is rather cruddy, but it does work. You need to install the J2ME Runner application on the phone but the program prompts you when you don't have it. The small icon compared to the normal sized Android icon is a minor issue.

I have therefore converted the KJV Go Bible to KJV.APK for the benefit of a wider number of potential users. This is a useful interim solution for getting free Bibles onto Android phones.

Depending on further feedback, I hope to convert a few more Go Bibles in the same way, and make them available for download from shared folders in my box.net account. These programs will all be unsupported software, provided on an "as is" basis, as a "stop-gap" measure for Android users. I myself don't yet have an Android mobile phone.

Meanwhile, there is nothing to stop you using GetAPK to convert Go Bible applications by yourself.......

David Haslam
CrossWire Go Bible project leader

About Stephen Denne

Hello,

This post is to introduce myself, Stephen Denne.

I'm a husband, and a father of two young children.

My goal is to increasingly know God and make God known. I've been a software developer for many years, and involved to various degrees in a number of bible software products, helping to make God known. My main areas of software expertise would be in compression, conversion, searching, and catering for small form factor PDAs and mobiles.

2009 has been a year of changes so far for me - moving to Christchurch New Zealand (from Wellington), buying a nice house in Christchurch, moving again, into that house, and finding a church.

In amongst those changes, I've started adapting the GoBible Creator to be able to create GoBible applications from the bible modules of The SWORD Project. After starting that task, I discovered that over five years ago I'd suggested that someone create such an application.

That makes me think that maybe it took me five years to listen to God, regarding the option of helping with GoBible myself, and that having good ideas may be God saying you can be the one to bring that idea into existence.

What good ideas has God given you?

beibl.net announces Welsh Go Bible

I am happy to report today's announcement at beibl.net of the Go Bible application of the colloquial Welsh translation of the New Testament by Arfon Jones. This can be downloaded by visiting this site:

http://www.beibl.net/adre/poced.php

This transation is copyright Gobaith i Gymru / Hope for Wales.

The CrossWire Bible Society has been granted permission to distribute this translation, and it is already available as a SWORD module in the CrossWire beta repository.

Work on translating the Old Testament into modern Welsh is continuing.

Introduction

Hi Everyone,

I'm excited to be getting involved in the Go Bible Project. I'm a Learning Technologies Specialist and Sr. Software Engineer with Mission Aviation Fellowship, Learning Technologies.

I'm particularly interested in orality and mobile learning. Check out my Celuversity presentation.

There more info about us at http://www.maf.org/rhoads. We also maintain a blog and occasionally put out a podcast.

Go Bible at CrossWire - a call for volunteers

The CrossWire Bible Society is adopting Go Bible as one of its open-source software applications and development projects.

Now that there a link to Go Bible project from the CrossWire applications page , I would like to issue a call for volunteers for experienced Java programmers to help in taking the development project forward. There is more to do than any single one of us can manage, given all the other calls on our time and resources.

Please visit my CrossWire Developers wiki page and volunteer to take on some of the tasks listed. By all means add further tasks, as and when you identify a requirement. If you have suggestions, discuss them in my Talk page, and/or send to the relevant CrossWire mailing list.

You will find it helpful to join the Go Bible Forum, Go Bible Google group, and Go Bible Dev Google group, and Google code pages for Go Bible, as and when appropriate. You can find all the relevant links in the side panel of this blog.

Please keep me in the loop.

Kitaabka Quduuska Ah

Kitaabka Quduuska Ah is the name of the Somali Bible. This is now officially available to download free of charge as a Java cellphone application from Nolosha Cusub. Please pray that people from both Somalia and Somaliland will discover this and find it a comfort and a blessing in these troubled times. Remember too the many Somalis who are living abroad as refugees from the conflicts in the Horn of Africa.

Farsi Go Bible

Producing GoBibles as such is not the total focus for me, but producing material for Iranian churches is. And GoBible fits perfectly.

Thanks to David for bringing me into the fold.

Thanks to Magdi for his successful work on the Arabic Bible which kept me going when I did not get the Farsi version right.