Tech Forum

Ever consider Gospel Library and/or Book of Mormon apps for Mac? Please include current languages and American Sign Language.

You will note that the forum for Gospel Library is grouped with Mobile Applications. Mobile devices, for the purposes of these applications, are the smaller screen devices. A Mac has full screen and web browser capability. Those resources available in Gospel Library are available on LDS.org using a web browser.

There have been requests for desktop and laptop computer applications for offline access to these resources. Whether apps will be developed for these devices and operating systems is unknown.

Note that there is no GL for Windows XP/7. If there is one that runs on Windows 8 desktop, that's likely a happy side-effect of development for Windows tablets.

Is there a way to have the bookmarks, highlights, notes, and tags made on the Gospel Library app on an iPhone and iPad be easily accessible on a Macbook Pro? Either in app form or on LDS.org in Safari. For example, is there a simple bookmarks tab to click on when logged in to my LDS.org account to bring me to where I was just reading on my iPhone and iPad?

Also, how simple would it be for the Church to make the same app for Mac to be able to allow Apple users to sync seamlessly across devices?

RGamache wrote:Is there a way to have the bookmarks, highlights, notes, and tags made on the Gospel Library app on an iPhone and iPad be easily accessible on a Macbook Pro? Either in app form or on LDS.org in Safari.

The highlights, notes, and tags already sync between the mobile Gospel Library apps and the Notes area of LDS.org. There are a few implementation differences between the various platforms, but these things sync pretty well.

RGamache wrote:For example, is there a simple bookmarks tab to click on when logged in to my LDS.org account to bring me to where I was just reading on my iPhone and iPad?

Bookmarks, unfortunately, are the exception to the rule, since the bookmark features on the mobile apps and on LDS.org are quite different in philosophy and implementation. You can read a discussion of these distinctions here. Because of these differences, bookmarks don't sync like the other things.

RGamache wrote:Also, how simple would it be for the Church to make the same app for Mac to be able to allow Apple users to sync seamlessly across devices?

It would require development of an entire new app. Desktop applications are clearly not a priority for the Church in this area -- the development efforts are going to mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Windows 8+) for mobile devices, and into LDS.org so that users with traditional desktops and laptops can access study tools via a browser.

I've been looking around for the same thing as RGamache. What would have been nice was to do my scripture study at the phone when I'm out somewhere (bus, on the go) and continue the study when I get back home on my mac. That includes being able to mark and make notes on my mac as well. After reading for some time on my iPhone it's nice to change it up a bit with a bigger screen. I like the function that allows me to view my notes in lds.org, but wish I could make new ones, either in lds.org or on a Gospel Library app for mac.

Levs_Doon wrote:I like the function that allows me to view my notes in lds.org, but wish I could make new ones, either in lds.org or on a Gospel Library app for mac.

You can make new notes on lds.org - in the scriptures at least (I'm not sure how many pages have the feature, but if you're logged into lds.org and go highlight text, a popup should appear allowing you to pick a color, tag, and add a note.

FWIW,

Liz

Please consider gospel library Apps for MacBook Air. Thank you.

One option is to use Boot Camp or like program on your Mac to be able to also run Windows 10 along with OS X. Install windows 10 on the Mac, (you can run both operating systems at the same time.) In the App store for Windows 10 you can install the Gospel Library ,the Gospel Library Beta, Mormon Channel beta, and the LDS tools Universal Windows apps. Windows 10 Home or Pro on a USB drive can be purchased from the Microsoft store or Amazon. (make sure the USB stick/drive is from the Microsoft Corporation if purchased on Amazon)

The Church only has 6 full-time developers working on Gospel Library, LDS Tools, Mormon Channel, LDS Youth, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, LDS Music, and Book of Mormon for iOS and Android, as well as a couple of other apps in the pipeline. There aren't enough resources to develop apps for Mac, unless it's done entirely by volunteers, like the Windows apps. I think that would be nice, but I don't think we'll see it anytime soon. It's more likely that Apple would introduce features that allow iOS apps to run natively on Macs, but that won't necessarily happen anytime soon either...