Tech Forum

I just bought the new Palm Pre and one of the first things I looked for was a reader for the Scriptures. I could run the emulator and download and install reader for older Palm OS but I was hoping that something would be available for the new WebOS. I am hoping to find someone on here that is more knowledgeable than me and help me come up with a solution to view and mark my scriptures on Sprint's Palm Pre WebOS.

I am there with you man.

But with only 100,000 phones sold I am sure it hasn't become a priority yet for reader developers. The Church doesn't develop the ereader software. But Mobipocket says they are working on Javabased phones and already has a download ready. The Pre has a lot of Java in it, but can't run the program.

So it will come soon. But the Pre is so fast, I have been just logging on the church website and using that for now.

BenJoe

BenJoeM wrote:I am there with you man.

But with only 100,000 phones sold I am sure it hasn't become a priority yet for reader developers. The Church doesn't develop the ereader software. But Mobipocket says they are working on Javabased phones and already has a download ready. The Pre has a lot of Java in it, but can't run the program.

So it will come soon. But the Pre is so fast, I have been just logging on the church website and using that for now.

BenJoe

Been doing the same with logging onto lds.org and just going to their Gospel Library. If anyone hears of anything better please keep me informed.

You probably know this already but most old palm applications will still run inside of the classic application. I'm using MarkMyScriptures until something better designed for the Web OS comes along.

I hope this thread isn't too old to revive. Please let me know if it is. I also just got a Pre. A couple of questions:

cbruns, iirc, the MarkMyScriptures app is tied to the user's Hotsync ID if you use the registered version. Did that present any problems, or does Classic allow you to specify an arbitrary ID?

Also, has anyone tried out the Gospelink offerings? If they have a mobile site, optimized for the iPhone, there's a good chance that the Pre will be perfectly happy with it as well. In fact, I've been slowly exploring the thousands of pages/apps that were made back when Apple wasn't sure they were going to have an SDK and were just telling people to create well-formatted web apps.

I'd really like to move to electronic scriptures and study materials. The only possible problems are 1) I really like books... it's just a tactile preference and 2) imagining the folks at church muttering, "well, look at treesloth, texting and surfing the internet during sacrament meeting. Kids, don't talk to him." :p

treesloth wrote:The only possible problems are 1) I really like books... it's just a tactile preference and 2) imagining the folks at church muttering, "well, look at treesloth, texting and surfing the internet during sacrament meeting. Kids, don't talk to him." :p

Scriptures on PDAs have been around since at least the Palm IIIxe days. As long as you participate in class, they'll figure out what you are reading. My ward avoids me, but it's not for that reason.

treesloth wrote:I'd really like to move to electronic scriptures and study materials. The only possible problems are 1) I really like books... it's just a tactile preference and 2) imagining the folks at church muttering, "well, look at treesloth, texting and surfing the internet during sacrament meeting. Kids, don't talk to him." :p

At a stake priesthood leadership meeting I attended in conjunction with stake conference a few years ago, an apostle said, "Get out your laptops, PDAs, readers, or whatever else you are using and let's go to work."

He cracked open his own set of scriptures (traditional paper), and we were off and running. It was a great meeting.

RussellHltn wrote:Scriptures on PDAs have been around since at least the Palm IIIxe days. As long as you participate in class, they'll figure out what you are reading. My ward avoids me, but it's not for that reason.

I think I had them on that very PDA. Then I upgraded to the IIIc... that's right... color, baby! I tried using a rather small tablet PC, but noticed that was distracting the people around me.

lajackson wrote:At a stake priesthood leadership meeting I attended in conjunction with stake conference a few years ago, an apostle said, "Get out your laptops, PDAs, readers, or whatever else you are using and let's go to work."

He cracked open his own set of scriptures (traditional paper), and we were off and running. It was a great meeting.

It always surprises me how media- and technology-astute the Twelve and the First Presidency are. I'm not saying that Pres. Monson writes Perl code when he's bored (or maybe he does... what do I know?) but they do have an extremely up-to-date understanding of the personal effects of technology.

treesloth wrote:I think I had them on that very PDA. Then I upgraded to the IIIc... that's right... color, baby!

And then there's that one scene at the end of The Singles Ward. That came out 7 years ago. So PDAs in Mormon culture is old school now.

treesloth wrote:I tried using a rather small tablet PC, but noticed that was distracting the people around me.

Trying to read what's on your screen?

RussellHltn wrote:Trying to read what's on your screen?

Not sure... seemed more like a combination of, "hey, tiny laptop!" and "what's that guy doing"? One girl even said, "Oh, it's so CUTE!!!" and started petting it. Humiliating...