OliveTreeBlog.com

Olive Tree provides a wide range of products for a variety of mobile devices. This is wonderful for our customers – so many choices! But it also can be overwhelming. We get questions like, “Does your software work with my mobile device?” “What products work with my mobile device?” and “I had this mobile device but now I have a new one, can I still use my Bibles?”

In an effort to help you find just what you want and what will work with your mobile device our website has a way of picking out just what will work with a particular mobile device. On our main page you will see a section entitled “Choose a device.” From here you can either choice from our selective list or use the drop-down menus to choose from our full list. There are two ways you can find what you need; either you can find your specific device (which it seems there are new devices every day that we try to keep up with) or you can choose by the Operating System that your mobile device uses. Once you are able to select your mobile device or Operating System and have chosen it our website will now only show you items that will work with your device. This works well if you have a particular product in mind and can find out if it works with your mobile device.

But what if you are just browsing and want to see all the products offered for a specific mobile device or Operating System? Well here is a simple solution. On the main page go to the box that says, “Olive Tree Announces. Click on “480+ total Bible resources”, this will take you to a screen that will list all of the products we offer. Now, you want to see what works with your mobile device? At the top of the screen you will see “Please select your current device” click on it and you will be taken to a new window that will give you many ways to select your mobile device. Choose either your device, “By Manufacturer” or “By Platform” (Operating System). Once selected you will be taken back to the master list but now it will only show you the items that work with your mobile device. Now you can see at a glance everything that works with your device!

Michael Borgstede ~ Olive Tree Tech Support and Associate Pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in beautiful Aurora Colorado. Michael is married to Sara and has four children. He uses a Palm Centro.

When you immerse yourself in an inspiring eBook and the bus ride home goes by in a flash, or when finding a Bible verse is as easy as reaching into your pocket or purse—that’s the purest experience of the value of Olive Tree software. The words of the Bible, or any number of other Christian resources, are right there in the palm of your hand for reading and studying.

Most of us don’t need in-depth knowledge of the technology that makes all this possible—as long as we can make our PDA work, we’re fine. But for Olive Tree software engineers, this complex technological and programming aspect is what they spend most of their days thinking about.

Underneath the words you see on the screen is the hardworking BibleReader, telling your handheld device how to deliver the text to you in a readable format. But every mobile device is different, and that’s why BibleReader is a multi-platform application—it works with many different kinds of devices. Currently, Olive Tree has 14 builds of BibleReader on 5 platforms (4 for the Palm OS, 2 for Windows Mobile, 6 for Symbian, 1 for BlackBerry, and 1 for J2ME).

That’s a lot of different versions, and the market for mobile devices is changing and expanding all the time. You’ve probably heard of the iPhone, the newest device to make a splash in the mobile market. As you may also know, Apple recently released the beta version of the Software Developer’s Kit for iPhone.

Have you seen Olive Tree’s iPhone Bible survey? In a world where there are so many mobile devices and platforms to choose from, advice from our customers really makes a difference in where Olive Tree decides to go. And if you complete this survey, you’ll also get a coupon for 20% off your next Olive Tree purchases. We value your input!

We know as well as you do how exciting it can be to upgrade to the next sleek new mobile device, and our software engineers work hard to stay ahead of the game in a world where technology is always changing. All this means you can keep reading the timeless words of the Bible, and enjoying the inspirational and educational writings of other Christian authors, no matter what cutting-edge technology is in your hand—or how it changes over time.

The oldest words and the newest technologies . . . it’s a strange and wonderful combination, isn’t it?

~Sarah P.

Sarah Peterson works for Olive Tree Bible Software as a Project Manager and Administrative Assistant. She has an M.Div. from Earlham School of Religion, of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Richmond, Indiana and serves as a youth minister at her home meeting in Spokane, Washington.