News Archives - Page 172 of 225

2011-10-21

YouVersion Now Available to German Readers, Speakers All Over the World

If you read or speak German, no matter where you live in the world, the YouVersion community is excited to welcome you to the Bible App™ and to YouVersion.com! Thanks to partnerships with generous publishers of Bibles in German, the rapidly growing global community of YouVersion users now has access to popular German versions like Hoffnung für Alle (HFA), easy-reading translations like Neue Genfer Übersetzung (NGU2011) and Schlachter 2000 (SCH2000), and even beloved classics like the Luther Bible 1912 (DELUT) and Elberfelder 1871 (ELB).

Although everything at YouVersion is centered around the Bible, that’s just one aspect of what we do. YouVersion also has an extraordinary community of volunteers who have recently devoted themselves to bringing everything YouVersion has to offer to readers and speakers of German. And that doesn’t only mean the interface (menus and buttons), but also exchanges on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, conversations in email, reading plans—even comprehensive technical support!

German Speakers in Germany. According to Wikipedia, German is the most commonly spoken first language in the European Union, with close to 100 million native speakers. Just in Germany alone, The World Factbook says there more than 81 million people, making Germany the sixteenth most populous nation in the world, uniquely equipping our German brothers and sisters to reach out to their neighbors in the EU in ways the rest of the YouVersion community simply cannot.

German Speakers Worldwide. Of course, Germans are spread throughout the rest of the world, well beyond Germany’s borders. While millions live in places as far away as the United States or Russia, millions also live closer to home, like the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. But a lot more people speak German than just Germans. In fact, German is the most widely spoken language of Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein. And some other nationalities who speak German as a second or third language include Luxembourgers, Dutch, Danes, and Slovenians—to name just a few—raising the popularity of the German language up to something more like 200 million speakers.

Now, for the first time ever, if German is your preferred language, no matter where you live, you can find the Bible App on all major mobile device platforms. Right in your pocket, you have instant access to the Bible translations of your choice, as well as to a whole host of tools designed to help you connect with God’s inspired Word every day—all in easy-to-understand German.

Welcome to our global YouVersion family! Even when we speak different languages, still we share the bonds of unity in Christ’s transforming love. We’re glad to join with you, and we can’t wait to hear your stories about how God’s Word is reshaping your heart, your life, and your world.

2011-10-19

Bible App for iPad Gets Highlights and Advanced Bookmarks, Plus More Great New Features for All iOS Devices

You can get Version 3.6 of the Bible App™ for iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) right now at the iTunes App Store. Here’s what you’ll find new in this latest release:

Highlights and Updated Bookmarks Now on iPad. The advanced highlighting and bookmarking features from iPhone and iPod touch are now available for your iPad! Select individual verses or entire passages, then highlight them in a variety of default colors, or mix your own custom colors. Sync your highlights between YouVersion and other compatible Bible applications. Select one verse or several to bookmark them. You can give your bookmark a name, add a label—even apply a color to it.
Reading Plan Search. With more than 190 Bible reading plans to choose from, now, for the first time ever, you can search for specific keywords across all of them. Want a plan about fasting? Search “fast.” Which plans cover “faith,” or “wisdom,” or “prayer”? Find just the right plan for you, faster than ever before.
Reading plan daily reminders. When you start a new Bible reading plan, the Bible App will ask if you’d like to set a daily reading reminder on your calendar. It’s a quick, easy way to help yourself remember to spend time with God’s Word every day!
Change the Bible App Language. For supported languages, the Bible App has always used your mobile device’s default language. But now, for the first time ever, you can leave your device’s default language as it is, and change just the language used by the Bible App’s interface, menus and buttons. Simply tap Settings (the gear icon), General, Language, and select from Indonesian, Czech, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Netherlands, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Simplified or Traditional Chinese, and Ukranian.
Improved Notes Interface. The interface for Notes now more closely resembles how other parts of the Bible App work. Also, you can now tag a Note with a color to help you identify it later, similar to highlights.

We also improved performance and fixed some bugs. Get your upgrade now in the iTunes App Store. Good friends tell their friends about the Bible App—great friends help them install it! And be sure to come connect with the rest of the YouVersion community on Facebook and Twitter. It’s more fun when you’re there!

Get Your Update Now:

If you already have the Bible App installed:

On your Apple device, tap the App Store icon.
When the App Store opens, tap the Updates icon.
Tap Update for the Bible App.
OR
Tap Update All.

If this is your first time installing the Bible App:

On your Apple device, tap the App Store icon.
When the App Store opens, tap the Search icon.
Search for “Bible”.
Tap the Bible App from LifeChurch.tv.
Tap the FREE button.

2011-10-18

Experience All YouVersion Has to Offer: Completely in German

Today we’re excited to announce the official launch of the German language interface across all of YouVersion, including the Bible App™! While of course the YouVersion.com website has already offered German since February, what we’re sharing today is much more than that. Thanks to the generosity of our publishing partners, and to the passionate dedication of our YouVersion volunteers, now every interaction you have with YouVersion—whether it’s sharing with your friends or engaging with the Bible—you can do entirely in German! German is our ninth complete language, after English, Norwegian, Spanish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Russian, Korean, and most recently, Brazilian Portuguese.

Here are just a few examples of the many ways that you can now enjoy God’s Word and His people—completely in German:

Great German Bibles. Our publishing partners generously provide—for free—high quality, widely read German versions of the Bible for all of us in the YouVersion community. To see a complete list, visit the Versions page and look for “Deutsch.” Or, in the Bible App, select the Bible version you’re using, and you’ll see a long list of other versions, including several excellent ones in German.
Entire User Interface. Try selecting German at YouVersion.com or in the Bible App on your mobile device—iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android, or BlackBerry. Now you can display all of your controls, buttons, and menu options in German, all thanks to YouVersion’s worldwide community of amazing volunteers.
Communication in German. In the upper right corner of the English language version of our blog, you’ll see a place to select other languages—including Deutsch. You can also go directly to the German language version, where you’ll find articles specifically relevant to YouVersion’s German-speaking users, courtesy once again of translation by YouVersion volunteers. And if you send us an email in German, or post a question on Facebook or Twitter in German, German-speaking volunteers will respond to you—in German!
Support in German. Need help with the Bible App or YouVersion.com? If you submit your question in German, German-speaking volunteers trained in YouVersion support will gladly assist you. Even our all-new Tech Support site now offers a German version.

At YouVersion, one simple vision guides everything we do: To help as many people as possible freely, easily engage with God’s Word, no matter where you live or what language you prefer. And you can help—if you have friends whose heart language is German, please share this great news about YouVersion.com and the Bible App with them. Also, please come connect with us on Facebook and Twitter and share your personal YouVersion story!

Just the beginning… To all of our German speaking friends: We are thrilled and honored to welcome you to the YouVersion family. We’ll continue sharing more details about the German language launch over the next few days, right here on our blog. We hope you’ll be as excited as we are about all that your new community has to offer you!

2011-10-14

From YouVersion: The Brand New Bible App for Java!

As a mobile platform, Java can reach hundreds of millions of devices, literally all over the world. So to reach the most people possible, we wanted to make version 1.0.1, the latest release of the Bible App™ for Java, the best app for Java mobile devices we’ve ever done.

So we started fresh and completely rewrote it from scratch! The Bible App for Java is back and better than ever, available for immediate download from GetJar. The Bible App for Java can now do almost everything that the Bible App can do on all of our other major platforms. You’ll find significant improvements to its basic presentation, specifically designed to make it much faster and easier to use:

Dashboard. The brand new Dashboard Launcher gives you instant access to the features you use most—right from the first screen.
Bible Reader. The Bible Reader keeps track of where you left off, returning you when you come back to the last version, book, and chapter you were reading. And it’s all-new, cleaner and faster loading, designed specifically to make it comfortable for you to read for long periods, in any conditions.
Notes. Capture your thoughts about verses or entire passages, keeping your notes organized with titles, labels—even colors. Keep private notes for yourself, or share them with friends or the entire YouVersion community.
Reading Plans. Take full advantage of the more than 190 Bible reading plans YouVersion has to offer, in 10 languages (so far). Reading plans make it easy for you to read the Bible on a schedule, just a little each day.
Bookmarks. Bookmarks are a great way to label individual verses, whether you want to look them up later to share with friends, or just jump quickly to your own favorites.
YouVersion Live. Event coordinators use YouVersion Live to help attendees interact with what’s happening onstage. You can follow along with message outlines, take notes, read Bible passages, vote on polls, ask questions, donate, request prayer, and more! Simply look up YouVersion Live events by ZIP code or city.
Settings. When you sign in to the Bible App with your free YouVersion account, now you can personalize how you use it, and it remembers your unique settings between uses.
Search. Jump quickly to verses or passages based on keywords you enter.

Get your update for the Bible App for Java now. And please come connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear your YouVersion stories!

2011-10-112011-10-13

The Bible App for Windows Phone Now Offers Audio, Highlights, Easier Reading

You can get the newest release of the Bible App™ for Windows Phone right now at Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Version 2.1 of the Bible App for Windows Phone brings more functionality than ever, adding features and settings specifically designed to help you make the most of the time you spend in God’s Word.

Audio Bibles. For the first time ever on Windows Phone, now you can listen as the Bible App reads to you through streaming audio, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. (Be aware of the data usage plan for your provider or, for best results, use Wifi.) Listen while you drive, work, exercise—even read along! Audio versions are available in several languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese (to name just a few).

How it works: You can tell if the version you’re reading offers audio if it displays a speaker icon. Simply tap the icon to display controls for playing, pausing, and jumping forward and back within the chapter. If you don’t see the speaker icon, tap the current version’s “short code” (the abbreviation at the top). A list of available versions displays. The versions offering audio have a small speaker beside them.

Custom Highlight Colors. When you sign in to the Bible App on your Windows Phone with a free YouVersion account, you’ll find many of the same features offered by your favorite paper Bible. One great example is highlights. You can use highlights to mark your favorite passages—and even create your own custom highlight colors.

How it works: Select the verse(s) you want to highlight. Tap the rainbow icon to select a custom color. Select your basic color, then slide the shading bar to make it lighter or darker. (A preview displays your custom color as you make adjustments.)

Easy Reading. Even on the best mobile devices, sometimes surrounding lighting and screen resolution can interfere with your reading experience. This update of the Bible App for Windows Phone includes tools that help you customize your Reader display for maximum readability. You can change font faces and sizes, and alternate colors between the font and background.

How it works: In the Bible Reader, tap the settings icon (the little gear) to display the viewing controls. Tap the sun icon to make the background white and the text black, or tap the moon icon for white text on a black background. Tap the little “A” to make the font smaller, or the larger “A” to make it bigger. Tap the font name for a list of available fonts, then simply tap the one you want. Try experimenting to find the combination that works best for you. Once you get your view how you want, simply tap the settings icon again to hide the viewing controls.

The latest update for the Bible App on your Windows Phone is available immediately. If you have friends with Windows Phones, please spread the word and let them know, too. Also, we’d love to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter and hear your feedback.