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YouVersion Bible App Wins Prize in Palm Contest

The YouVersion Bible app for Palm webOS was recently awarded $1,000 for being one of the most-downloaded webOS apps. Palm held a developer contest to see which webOS applications could garner the most downloads over a specified period of time, and thanks to you, the amazing YouVersion community, the YouVersion Bible app for Palm webOS was honored to be among the most downloaded free apps in the Palm App Catalog.

Ever since we announced the launch of our first Palm webOS Bible app, and then our relaunch with a native, full-featured app, the YouVersion Bible app has remained among the hottest apps in the Palm App Catalog. Whether it’s because of our passionate users or because it’s the most advanced app in the YouVersion lineup of mobile apps, the webOS Bible app has been one more tool to help more people engage in Scripture wherever they are.

Thanks again to our amazing users for helping us win the $1,000 prize. We’re excited to invest it into more development to continue our mission of increasing Bible engagement around the world.

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Introducing “Free Bible” Pages for Your Organization

We live in exciting times! Through the Internet and mobile technology, more people than ever can access the Bible anytime, anywhere. And today, we’d like to introduce an opportunity for you to join us in this mission to spread God’s Word. With a Free Bible page, your church, business, company, or organization can generously offer a free Bible and connect people to the the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit as they engage in Scripture.

For no cost, we’ll create a Free Bible page on YouVersion.com featuring your logo and a personal message from your organization. Actually, we’ll create two different pages: a page that’s optimized for mobile and another for standard web browsers. The content will focus on making it easy to download the free Bible app.

An Example

Oral Roberts University is having their first chapel of the semester this Friday. ORU President Mark Rutland will ask students to pull out their phones and visit bible.oru.edu to get a free Bible. ORU took the initiative to set up that customized link, which will redirect to the standard URL we provided on our web site: youversion.com/free-bible/oru.

Would you like to have a Free Bible page for your organization?

Your organization has influence over people that might not discover the free Bible app on their own. This is a great opportunity for us to partner with incredible organizations like yours, who share our passion for spreading God’s Word.  Fill out this form if you would like to have a Free Bible page like this for your organization.
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Big News! New Bible App for Symbian Phones

We’ve been working hard to bring you a new Bible app for the Symbian platform and we’re excited to announce that it’s ready and available for download now in the Opera mobile store and on GetJar.com. Many Americans aren’t familiar with the Symbian mobile platform, so we’ll take a moment to explain why we believe this is a big deal.First, Symbian accounts for about 40% of smartphones in the world. There are hundreds of millions of people carrying a Symbian-powered device in hundreds of countries. Second, because Symbian is so ubiquitous outside the United States, we’re excited to see how God uses this step to reach the world with the Bible, helping millions more engage with Scripture.

Like the first version of our mobile Bible app on other new platforms, the Symbian app is currently a basic Bible reader that accomplishes our foundational purpose of increasing Bible engagement around the world. Future development will bring more features you’ve come to love on other mobile platforms, like Reading Plans, social sharing with Twitter and Facebook, YouVersion Live, and more.

Have fun with the new Symbian app and don’t forget to tell your friends to download the YouVersion Bible app on their phones. It’s the easiest way to give someone a free Bible!

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Free YouVersion Promo Video – Download now!

We love seeing more people engage the Bible through YouVersion, so you can imagine that we’re pretty excited that the YouVersion Bible app is being downloaded to a new mobile device every 4 seconds. But individual downloads aren’t the only thing to celebrate. We’ve been encouraged by how small groups, churches, conferences, and universities are adopting YouVersion Live as part of their events and gatherings and we’ve seen even more groups simply encouraging their people to download the Bible app during their regular meetings.

So, to make it even easier for churches, conferences, musicians, universities, small groups, coffee shops, and others to share the Bible and YouVersion, we’ve made the video above available as a free download on OPEN, LifeChurch.tv’s library of free digital resources for churches and other ministries. (Choose “Week 3 Whispers Promo” in the list near the bottom of the page.) The video can be downloaded in multiple formats and is free for you to use at church, in your small group, or just sharing with a friend.

Have fun and don’t forget to let us know how you plan to use the video to tell people about how they can engage the Bible through YouVersion for free!

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Introducing YouVersion in Norwegian

Today is an important day for YouVersion. It’s the day that YouVersion begins a long-awaited initiative to help people around the world engage the Bible, no matter what language they speak. We’re incredibly excited to tell you that YouVersion.com has been translated into the Norwegian language. It’s the first of many steps that will make it possible for millions of people to read the Bible in their native language and in community with others.

To visit YouVersion in Norwegian, just go to http://no.youversion.com. Or, if you’re already on the site and want to switch to a different language, you can click the button that says “English” in the footer of any page on the YouVersion website to see a list of language options. (Right now it’s English and Norwegian with Spanish coming soon.)

Thanks to the generous folks at Norea Mediamisjon, the entire website has been translated by native Norwegian speakers and not by translation software. Human translation means it should be much more accurate and feel more natural. We’re committed to making further refinements as necessary to make sure the site is fully localized (geek-speak for translating a website) and ready for someone who only speaks Norwegian to enjoy.

We have big plans for YouVersion as it moves into the international community and more people around the world will be able to engage the Bible in their own languages. And, as usual, with big plans come big announcements, so stay tuned for more big news in the coming days and weeks!