Sunday, October 16, 2011

#8: Part 2: My favorite Mormon iPhone apps.

One cool thing I discovered today is that if you run home from Church while wearing a tie, it flies behind you like a little cape and you almost feel like a Superhero....with a little cape.

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I'd like to pick up where I left off yesterday with my list of favorite Mormon-related iPhone apps.  So far I have discussed the official LDS Gospel Library (Free) and the BYU Citation Index (Free).  See blog post #7.

#3 Most Awesome Mormon-related App:  I am a big fan of scripture memorization.  It makes me feel great to know some of the scriptures by heart and to then share them with others at appropriate moments.  I have tried a number of different memorization apps on the iPhone, such as the official LDS Scripture Mastery app, Scriptorian, LDS Memory: Scripture Mastery, and iMemorize.  But I have found each of them to have frustrating features or some buggy drawbacks.  As a result, I continued to look for an ideal memorization app.  AND boy did I find it!

My absolute favorite app for scripture memorization is "Memorize Now!", developed by a guy named Jesse Mecham (Bless him for his impressive APPtitude!).  This app is not technically a Mormon app, but dang, you can sure use it to memorize Mormon-related content. "Memorize Now!" differs from other memorization apps by applying a unique 10-step algorithm for memorizing text.  It claims to help you memorize 400% faster than traditional memorization techniques.  After using it for the past week, I completely believe it.  It requires about two hours to paste in all of the 100 LDS scripture mastery verses, but it is soooooooo worth it (extra o's for emphasis).  The incremental nature of the algorithm makes it intuitive and comfortable to memorize large volumes of text at a very rapid pace.  In addition to scriptures, you can use it to memorize any other passage, such as General Conference talks, lyrics to God Bless the USA, the Gettysburg Address, or Green Eggs & Ham (you can also memorize things that don't start with G, but I haven't tried that yet).

The only drawback of this app is the price--$4.99.  However, although that may seem steep for an app, it's actually less than the price of a regular size Strawberry Surfrider Jamba Juice.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/memorize-now!/id383718865?mt=8
#4 Most Awesome Mormon-related App: Scripture Golf, baby!  This app is sweeter than ice cream.  I used to play Scripture Golf on my mission, and it is great to see it back in electronic form.  In scripture golf, a random verse of scripture appears on the screen.  You then try to guess the corresponding Book of Scripture that contains the verse (Alma, for example).  If you are correct, it will then take you to a list of chapters within the Book.  You then pick a chapter.  If you are correct, then the round is over.  If you are incorrect, it will say "Select higher!" or "Select lower!" until you guess the chapter that contains the verse.  Once you have selected the correct chapter, it will display your total number of guesses, and the total will equal your number of strokes for the round (See? It's almost, kinda, pretty much, exactly just like golf!).  

There is a free "Book of Mormon Only" edition or a full Standard Works version for $0.99.  In the full version, you can still narrow it down to only pull verses from the Book of Mormon.  My favorite feature of the full $0.99 version is that you have the option to give both yourself and your opponent the exact same verse for greater equality.  In the free version, there is nothing worse than getting a verse like "And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them" (don't even pretend you know where it is) and your opponent gets, "I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents...".  That darn Nephi and his easy to guess verses!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scripture-golf/id331736074?mt=8
#5 Honorable Mentions: There are many other great Mormon-related apps, but I'm tired of typing and need to take a Sunday afternoon nap.  Therefore, I will condense the rest to honorable mentions.  My four favorite honorable mentions are all officially developed by the Church.  They are all completerly FREE (can't beat that price).  I personally don't use these apps very frequently (yet), but I know some people who do:


1. LDS Tools. Official LDS Stake and Ward directories.  Great for looking up phone numbers, addresses, and callings of people in your Stake and Ward.  You can even download the information to your phone contacts (although you have to do so one-by-one).  If you download the info, you don't need to keep connecting to the app to get the data, and it will show you on your caller ID when your bishop calls (that way, you can decide whether or not you want to answer and have to speak in Church next week).


2. Mormon Channel. Great app for watching/listening to General Conference, scriptures, Church magazines, Youtube Mormon Messages, and other programs.  Fantastic if you are somewhere with a wi-fi network.  The only drawback is that it will not work over a 3G network, so you cannot use it if you are driving in your car/minivan/Segway.


3. LDS Music.  This app was only released a week ago, but I'm already starting to love it.  It presents the hymns and Primary songs in the actual version that you would see them in the Hymnbook/Children's Song Book, rather than in the text only format in the Gospel Library app. 


4. LDS Youth. This app seems very similar to the Mormon Channel, but with a youthful flavor.  I have honestly never used it (although I am still young at heart).  


Phew!  Made it through the list.  Please let me know if there are any other Mormon-related apps that you love to use.  

1 comment:

  1. Very cool. I need to get me a smartphone one of these days. Until then? My favorite app is calling people. Snake is a close second.

    ReplyDelete