Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:02 pm
As an iPhone user, who is consistently asked for members phone numbers from other members, and is part of a highly dynamic ward, having access to an "update on demand" database is highly useful. Safari is great and all, but it takes on the short end two minutes to login to the church's website, and start browsing the membership lists.... and that's on wireless. 3G is about five minutes, and EDGE is 'forget about it'.jbh001 wrote:On one hand, as an iPhone owner I don't see the need for such an app since I regularly access my ward's directory via iPhone's Safari and the LUWS.
On the other hand, the usefulness of the LUWS could definitely be enhanced to be less obtuse and to provide more useful features, not only for iPhone users, but for other Internet users as well.
There are also other needs, too. Bishoprics and other ward leaders need to have access to home and visiting teaching routes, stake leadership information, and more. Having this information always with you is beneficial like having the internet is beneficial to family history work.
The issue isn't that the church is holding out on the increasingly tech-savvy members. The issue is that there is a way for members to change "the way things have always been done" to better and more efficient methods without making sure to safeguard the data like the church does.
As an aside, there is a new app called "iWard" that allows members to import data from the LUWS with their individual logins. As far as I can tell, the data is sent over the internet just as if it were coming into a browser, only stored on the iPhone for later use.