Friday, May 13, 2011

Pocket Vedas for iPhone, iPod Touch, & iPad

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Nope, not talking about the tiny but readable Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita that resides in my bead bag pocket
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But rather the newly updated Vedabase app which is now available for not only iPhone & iPod,  but now iPhone 4 & iPad with its improved retina display.  Previously known as Pocket Vedabase, Pocket Vedas works great.  There is a night and day font and I have used it for reading in dark for hours quite comfortably while the children are sleeping. 

Here are list of the books in the app.  ● Bhagavad-gītā As It Is ● Śrīmad Bhāgavatam ● Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta ● Teachings of Lord Caitanya ● Nectar of Devotion (fixed missing sections from website) ● Nectar of Instruction ● Teachings of Lord Kapila ● Teachings of Queen Kuntī ● Śrī Brahma-saṃhitā ● Śrī Īśopaniṣad ● Mukunda-mālā-stotra ● Nārada Bhakti Sūtra

Retaining all the great features of it previous version such as dynamic book marks, which keeps your place in various books, this update includes a lot of other great features.  All the verse only pages are now available, so you can now read the index page that has all the verses for the each chapter. 

Also all the hyperlinks now work.  Meaning any verse that is in the purport or in the index can be clicked on to go directly to that page.

The reading format is also improved, a simple tap on the screen (instead of the previous tiny ‘+’) brings up various menus.  On the two bottom corners you have the page turn.   If you click on one of those hyperlinks you can also click on the back and forward buttons to return back to the spot in the previous book that you were reading. 











Updated for iOS 4, Pocket Vedas does not only open back to the exact spot you were reading from it also starts up with no boot time once opened.

However the main addition is the ability email booksmarks, verse links from Vedabase.net, and links that open the reader’s own Pocket Vedabase app to the desired verse. 
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This opens many uses such as updating reading notes to Evernote.  Or updating Facebook or Twitter status with a favorite quote with a link.  There a little work that can be done to improve the emailing.  Currently the links appear as such,

In time, learned philosophers or scientists might be able to count all the atoms of the earth, the particles of snow, or perhaps even the shining molecules radiating from the sun, the stars and other luminaries. But among these learned men, who could possibly count the unlimited transcendental qualities possessed by You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who have descended onto the surface of the earth for the benefit of all living entities?

This does not allow editing of the link.   Just a Translation with with link embedded.  I have left a suggestion in a correspondence to just include the raw link, such as http://vedabase.net/sb/10/14/7 which allows the user to decide what text they want to post and also allows the link to work when updated in FB and Twitter via email. I hope to see this updated in the near future.

All in all I am very happy with the update. 

Your humble servant,
Nityananda Chandra Das

PS.   For those who are updating, if you cannot see the hyperlinks and index pages when first updating app there is a simple and one time fix.  Go to the settings make any adjustment and apply and now it will work fine.  You can go back to your original settings again and it will still work, just a one time adjustment.
for more info see Dancing Ganesh

2 comments:

Sikhi Mahiti das ACBSP said...

Any chance of making an Android version?

Girish said...

Hello.. On a similar note, we have just launched an interactive 3D virtual Krishna temple on the iPhone/iPad - http://shoonya3d.com/products/krishna3d

This is a bit of a shameless self-plug to your post but we are honestly looking at getting people to give us some feedback on the app. Our small team has devotional leanings and as with the guys at Dancing Ganesh, our expertise lies elsewhere in interactive 3D graphics.

Would love to hear more...

Jai Shri Krishna!
-Girish.
www.shoonya3d.com