My first taste with handheld devices came with the $99 Palm Z22 back in 2005. It filled a very specific need: 1) having a device to keep track of my life, and 2) keeping a Bible in my pocket. The need quickly came to stop carrying three devices (feature phone, Palm, Zune) and to knock it down to two. So, in 2007 I upgraded to my first smartphone (T-Mobile Dash, a Windows Mobile device), which allowed me to carry just a phone & my Zune. My needs hadn’t changed, other than wanting to carry fewer devices; since, I intentionally did not have a data plan very long after buying the phone. In 2009, I upgraded to the Android G1. Again, needs hadn’t changed all that much, although I wanted to take advantage of the Google ecosystem that I had already made myself a part of with Google Apps. Last Thanksgiving (2010), I had the opportunity to upgrade to the Android G2, as my wife wanted a better smartphone (after having inherited my Dash) & we were able to take advantage of a buy 1 get 1 free deal. A subsequent upgrade to a 32GB microSD card allowed me to ditch my Zune altogether & get down to a single device, which is where I’ve been for the past year.
As you can probably see, part of my upgrades typically come when there’s a need to fill, and I sometimes get the opportunity to alleviate some gadget envy in the process. Recently, I’ve wanted to take a part of the whole tablet craze. I held off for a long while, not being able to fully justify the price or function for my needs. I wanted a tablet so much so that I bought an iPad 2 earlier this year, but returned it after I couldn’t live with the amount I had spent on it. So, when the opportunity presented itself last week for me to purchase a tablet on the cheap, I jumped on the opportunity (and the Lord aligned the circumstances for me to happen to have the funds available). What did I get? I ended up with an Asus Eee Pad Transformer (a Honeycomb Android tablet), along with its keyboard dock accessory.
What finally convinced me to purchase a tablet? Well, simply put: it filled a need. As a student of the Bible and someone who just likes to read in general, I have amassed quite the digital library of theological resources. Many of these resources are great for study, but others are great for just sitting down and reading from cover to cover. Well, when you have a 17″ notebook computer, sitting with it on your lap or at a desk isn’t always the best way to read an electronic resource. Mobile apps have allowed me to read on my phone, but that screen real estate is just too small for extended reading. So, a tablet that can run those same apps fit that niche quite nicely. Also throw in the desire for wanting to be more mobile while staying connected and you can see where a tablet comes in handy. While it’s only a Wi-Fi only device, that doesn’t concern me because my G2 has 4G connectivity & it doesn’t cost me extra (with T-Mobile) to turn my phone into a hotspot.
It’s nice having a device that fits my needs, and with both my phone & tablet being Android, it makes life easy because there was no need to buy new apps, except those that were tablet specific. I was actually quite surprised to find that as soon as I logged in & hit the Wi-Fi that the Android Market was smart enough to automatically download all the same apps that I had put on my phone. While it’s primarily a reading device, I’m also excited about the opportunity to try pushing the envelope of mobile. This weekend I’m taking a business trip to Austin, TX and I’ll be leaving my laptop at home; I’ll only be taking my tablet with me (and phone, obviously). But wait, I’m supposed to be giving a demo of some desktop software. Doesn’t matter, I’m still leaving my computer at home. Why? Because I can simply VNC into my machine from my tablet, and with a mini HDMI port & VGA connector, I can connect to a projector & give the demo from the tablet. How cool is that?!
As I strive to be more mobile in the coming days & weeks, I’m interested in seeing where my phone & tablet take me. I’m looking forward to the conversations that it sparks, both in the office and in public when I’m using my device for reading, drawing, taking notes in church, and more. It’s nice when upgrading a device can also upgrade your life.
I’ve always been a technology geek, but I can’t necessarily say the same for my wife. While she’s proficient with a computer, she’s nowhere near as techie as I am, although she’s grown since marrying me.
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Goodbye Analog, Hello Digital
Sunday, May 20th, 2012This article was originally posted as a blog post at Urban Scholar:
Earlier today I was contemplating the thought of purchasing a new print Bible. One of the first posts I made on this site was about my switching to the ESV. Well, the only print ESV I own is a 2001 text edition, and there have been a number of changes since then with the 2007 & now 2011 update. So, I started to think that I should purchase a new ESV to have on me, especially for when the opportunity presents itself to teach again. I thought about it to the point that I even tweeted about the kind of Bible I wanted, saying the following:
As the day went on, with the thought still on my mind, I wondered if the local Lifeway store had any 2011 ESV Bibles in stock. Then, as I thought about it some more, I was thinking, “Oh, I need a nice ‘preaching’ Bible too, to go with the thinline as my everyday ‘handy’ Bible!” After a while, I finally paused and asked myself a question. If I do all of my studying of the Bible digitally, why should I have a Bible that I only use for teaching? Shouldn’t the same Bible I study with be the same Bible I teach from? The answer was: why not?!
As I thought through this some more, I wondered what this would look like for me. Preaching from a tablet is nothing new and has become more popular in the last couple of years, so it’s not like I’d be breaking new ground or anything; yet, there could be something that better suits how I do things. In my thought process, I quickly realized that the way I teach requires lots of “page flipping” because I typically cross reference a lot of Scriptures. How could I leverage a tablet to my advantage? Right now Logos is my primary tool for study, but their mobile app doesn’t support a split screen of Bible & notes; so, that wouldn’t work. Then, I remembered that I have Olive Tree, which does & can also sync with Evernote. Having Evernote means that I can simply copy/paste or dump my passages or notes into an Evernote note and sync it with Olive Tree quite easily. Then, I can have my notes split with my Bible, and tap to open a reference. Now that could work! That would completely eliminate the need for a print Bible & printed notes.
So, let’s take this further because now I’m thinking about completely getting rid of my laptop from the pulpit. This proves tricky because that’s how I run my PowerPoint slideshow for the congregation to follow along. If you’re asking, yes, I usually run my own PowerPoint. Then I started thinking that this is somewhere that Logos could come back into play. They recently released Proclaim Church Presentation Software and it is built for this kind of thing. So, I just get a computer, any computer, connected to the overhead projector (whether it be my own or the one in the sound booth) and load it up; then, I can use my phone (or the tablet) as a remote to progress the slides as needed. Now that would be cool!
I could really see myself teaching in that fashion, and it’s right up my alley. I’m a digital guy, so working in this fashion keeps all of my notes accessible to me from multiple devices and I’m not in a jam if I ever forget or lose my print Bible. Plus, there’s always the freedom of being able to switch translations on the fly, which is nice. I also feel that technology is at a point now that it is fairly reliable, especially in terms of battery life, where no real red flags are raised for me anymore. I truly think that this is the route that I’m going to go in the future, however the Lord sees fit for that to happen.
Tags: Bible, Bible apps, Bible study, digital, ESV, Evernote, logos bible software, mobile in moment, mobile in personal/moment, Olive Tree, preaching, proclaim, technology
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