CadreBible: Read the Bible on Your T-Mobile G1

One of the greatest things about having a full-on smart phone like the T-Mobile G1 is having the storage space and juice to run resource-heavy applications, like Bible study software. CadreBible lets you store multiple biblical translations, commentaries, and other sacred works right your T-Mobile G1, and then study them with an impressive array of features and an aesthetically pleasing, intuitive interface.

Available Texts

CadreBible, available from http://cadreworks.com, includes several translations and biblical books for free. The American Standard Version, The King James Version, The Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, and even Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, along with several others, are available for download to your T-Mobile G1 at no charge. The New American Standard Version is available for $20. This is a great selection, I don't mind reading from the ASV or the KJV, but I'd personally like it if the English Standard Version was offered, and it's bit disappointing that the world's most popular translation, The New International Version, isn't even available as a commercial offering.

User Interface

First of all, I love how well the user interface for CadreBible works with the default operating system on the T-Mobile G1 - Google's Android. It feels native and fast, and looks just like an Android app should...sleek and elegant. I also like that although the default look for CadreBible is great, the colors are also customizable, so you can easily have black text on a white background, etc, if that's easier for you to read. It's also a simple process to increase or decrease the font size, and of course scrolling is as easy as a finger flick up or down on the screen. Going to the previous or next chapter in a book is accomplished by flicking your finger right or left--a gesture that feels really natural on the T-Mobile G1.

Individual books of the Bible are selected from a finger-friendly drop-down menu, and other volumes from your virtual library can be selected from the "Library" menu item. Easy peasy!

Features

CadreBible feels almost feature complete, with full text search, bookmarking, verse lookup, UI customization options, and parallel view of biblical commentary if the user has a commentary installed. I'd like to see a more robust bookmarking system in future releases with tags or categories for bookmarks. Another essential feature that should be added in future releases is the ability to export your personal notes. In the current version (1.5.1) your notes are stuck in CadreBible, with no way to view them on your desktop computer or other device. This limits their usefulness prevents the user from backing up their important thoughts and insights on the text.

Conclusions

CadreBible is one of the best Bible study applications out there for the T-Mobile G1/Android platform, and works well for light Bible study. The user interface is great, and the application is an overall pleasure to use. That being said, it would be nice to have more translations available, and the user's personal notes really should be able to be exported to other formats for backup.

If you're looking for Bible study software on the go, CadreBible is definitely worth look!