Accordance on the iPhone

Today the folks at OakTree Software, makers of Accordance Bible Software, released a screenshot of the current Accordance iOS (iPhone) app due out this Fall. The impending release will be cause for great excitement from many users, myself included. I have been using OliveTree Bible Software on my mobile device for nearly a decade, and it is rocking good on the iPhone. I have a basic set of Greek tools on it, so it will be interesting to see how Accordance's app stacks up once it hits the app store and we get a chance to see it.

I recall at last year's SBL, following the "bible software smackdown," that folks were impressed just what was possible with a mobile app when Olive Tree's Bible Reader had a go at the challenge. What it could do was impressive because the presumed limitations had expectations quite low. This will be a new context. Accordance is bible software whose sophistication and capabilities is unrivaled. This creates a difficult situation where the inevitably limited functionality of a first release will be easy to find disappointing. For this reason, it is lamentable that the Accordance hat won't land in the ring until relatively late in the game.

That said, despite whatever capabilities Olive Tree's Bible Reader has possessed over the years on my portable device, I rarely use it for anything but reading the bible, and rarely a simple search. This is precisely the basic functionality Accordance has told us to expect. I suspect many, many current Accordance users are thrilled to soon be able to simply read their Accordance modules on their iPhones. Fun times ahead.

Office for Mac 2011 Not All Cocoa

On the Office for Mac Team Blog, it was confirmed today that they are behind in writing all the components of Microsoft Office for Mac in Cocoa. For the Office 2011 release, the new Ribbon and Outlook will be written in Cocoa, but the remainder of the apps will not. This does not bode well for Word, and its compatibilities for things such as OSX Services. Still no word on Unicode R-t-L Hebrew either.

SBL Annual Meeting Presentation

The preliminary program book is online for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta. I will be presenting some of my dissertation findings in a synoptics section:

Synoptic Gospels
11/21/2010
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Theme: Revisiting Classic Interpretations
Robert Derrenbacker, Thorneloe University, Presiding

Peter Wick, Ruhr-University of Bochum
The Unspeakable Mysterion in Mark and the Unveiled Mysteria in Matthew and Luke (30 min)
Jason Robert Combs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jewish 'Fools' and their Gentile Foil: Reading Comedy in Mark 15:34-39 (30 min)
Rebekah Eklund, Duke University
The Identity of the Crowds in the Passion Narrative (30 min)
Elizabeth E. Shively, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
A Tale of Two Households: Mark 3:22-30 and 13:32-37 (30 min)
Joseph Weaks, Brite Divinity School
Reconstructing Mark: Problems With Getting Behind the Text (30 min)

Here's the abstract:
Reconstructing Mark: Problems With Getting Behind the Text
In Synoptic Studies, often the examination of a pericope includes our attempts to get behind the text. We rely upon standard criteria for reconstructing source texts. However, we need to improve our capability to assess the reliability of a text that has been reconstructed from potentially independent witnesses that used it as a source. For example, how well could we reconstruct Mark based upon its use in Matthew and Luke? This paper will survey the findings of a dissertation which established a complete reconstruction of Mark from the evidence in Matthew and Luke. The results come from structural analysis and a comparative stylographic statistical comparison between the fully reconstructed Mark and the canonical text of Mark. Assessing what is lost in the reconstruction, what is introduced, and what is changed in relation to canonical Mark helps us understand the limitations of source analysis within the Synoptic gospels. Among the findings is the recognition that a reconstructed text will not reflect many of the dominant features of its predecessor, and likewise, a reconstructed text will bear features unique to its form that have no relevance to the original text it approximates. These findings point to strong implications for how we assess the primitivity of one tradition against another, the presumptions made regarding an underlying textual form of a given pericoope, as well as the reliability of the text of a reconstructed Q source as it is used in other historical inquiry into early Christianity.

iPad Case Quest

We've had the iPad to use since the release date, and I have concluded that the iPad begs for a case. The question is whether one wants a sleeve to keep it in for transporting, or a flip case that it stays in all the time. I find holding the iPad itself a bit of a chore. I'm too 'careful' with it. And, it really works best if it's propped up. Holding it and looking down at it for too long hurts my neck. Hence, we want a flip case for it.
The iPad fits well on my elliptical for viewing during a workout. The typing in landscape is as good as could be hoped for, really. It is quite fitting for sitting on the couch and doing email and web reading. It makes a great reader. My wife loves taking it places to read with it.
I have been watching as many iPad case releases as I can. MacWorld has done three round-ups now. I have concluded that Apple's own iPad case is tops for our needs. A chief criteria is a flip case that has a sturdy low angle propping up option which is ideal for typing, and, it must be able to work well on your lap. Every other case I've seen (including inCase's Convertible Book Jacket) either is too wobbly for good typing or props the iPad up with a little stand which wouldn't work across your lap, unlike the full bottom laying flat as in Apple's case. I've been holding out a few weeks, using a simple foam slip-case, to see what options arise before purchasing, but it's looking more like Apple's will be the one.

In the interim, I gave the classic book-conversion case a try tonight. I found just the right size book in the bottom of a bookshelf in the basement. I am very impressed with the results. I was careful with the measurements and the cutting, so the fit is quite snug. I would totally use this case for transporting the iPad, even reading from it. Here are some quick pics:

 

This will be fun to use for a bit until we make a purchase.

Update: The case is still getting a lot of use, and had held up amazingly well and proven itself to be surprisingly functional. Someone asked for more details on the process, so here are the basic steps I used:

1. Lay the iPad face down on card stock and trace the face of it.

2. Cut it out.

3. Find the right size book, height, length, and thickness. I got lucky and had a perfect one… you'll want at least a half inch of paper to border the iPad. (A hard-cover book that opens, lays flat, where the front cover can flip open but doesn't pull the pages and bottom cover with it, so that it can still lay flat with the front cover open is ideal.) This is the book I used: http://www.amazon.com/Psalms-Timothy-R-Botts/dp/0842349553

4. Open the cover and on the very first sheet, lay the template and and trace with pencil.

5. Using an exacto knife (though I actually used a less-desirable carpenter's knife), cut the outline, cutting 2 to 6 pages deep.

6. You know longer use the template, but rather, use the cut-out pages as the guide to scribe further down into the paper. You eventually be "opening" some pages, pulling them back, always leaving a couple "cut-out" pages as the guide for further scribing.

7. Repeat ad nauseum. As you get deeper, to a check with the template and/or the actual iPad to make sure your hole is still true. Keep it snug, though. You can always trim away bulging sections and corners to enlarged the hole. Make tweaks to adjust. Took me an hour or so total.

8. As you get close to the back cover, place hard surface under the pages so you don't cut into the back cover.

9. With all the pages cut, pull away the loose bits. Try fitting the iPad. Carve out bulging places. Ideal is a fit where the iPad slides in with just a teeny bit of effort. Even better is if one side is a little narrower at the top than down into the paper, so you have to angle it in and then it hold a little in place. Mine turned out this way on its own.

10. Hold all the pages open, against the front cover using a clothes pin or something, then free the last sheet, and with a glue stick, glue it down to the back cover.

*Important is to make sure the bottom cover is lying flat and the the binding is lying flat at the 90% angle so that the paper is glued as far onto the back cover as it cant.

11. Repeat with the next sheet, next, and next, again, ad nauseum. Make sure the cut-out lines up with what's below it each time.

12. One you've finished. After confirming the fit, and letting it dry, the next day, some pages will pull apart. Reglue those with regular elmer's glue and once those seem go, go ahead and spread glue on the 3 edges of the stack of paper to give it added hardness and stability. You may have to reglue a couple pages for the next few days of use.

Brite's Jewish Studies appointment

Glad that Brite Divinity School's new Jewish Studies chair appointment is getting wider press, thanks in part to Jim at PaleoJudaica.com. It is a rather unique position for a seminary of Brite's posturing. It offers great potential for seminarians, and even more so for a Qumran scholar, over against a Midrash scholars, as was the previous position-holder. There remains a NT position open at Brite. Interested to see what transpires there.