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The narrator of the iPocketBible is Mike Kellogg, who reads Bible passages with a smooth, cocktail-party baritone.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983
T e c h n o f i l e
50 ways to leave your sorrows: A talking Bible for your iPod or other portable MP3 player
July 9, 2006
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard
I love my iPod. It's ready for any occasion, with a little bit of The Moody Blues, a bunch of Leonard Cohen songs, a few dozen Gaither Vocal Band performances, some old Paul Simon ballads and the Sermon on the Mount.
That last recording isn't a song at all, of course. It's a passage from Matthew, the first book of the New Testament. My iPod is able to speak scripture to me any time I click its little wheel, and I'm able to tote a Bible without calling attention to my spiritual side.
Credit the MP3 digital audio revolution. Until the invention of MP3 audio in the early '90s, digital audio tracks were huge, taking up 50 or 60 megabytes for a single song. By compressing the digital signal, MP3 cut that down to one-tenth the size.
And that meant a spoken version of The Book of Job got the same kind of easy-fit compression as "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Scripture passages started appearing in MP3 format a few years ago, but the latest MP3 Bible is the slickest yet.
It's called the iPocketBible. It was developed by Laridian Electronic Publishing and is sold directly by Laridian for $49.99 and by the distributor, Avanquest, for $39.99. Go to Avanquest's site at www.shop.avanquest.com/usa/prod.php?pid=1593. You must have a DVD drive on your computer to install the files.
Let's get some misleading stuff out of the way first. The iPocketBible's audio tracks aren't only for iPods and don't even require iTunes, the software that manages iPods. You can listen to the iPocketBible's audio recordings on any computer or any portable MP3 player.
And here's a bonus: Because most newer DVD players can play MP3 tracks on disks, you might be able to play the installation DVD's audio files on your set-top DVD player, too.
So what's with this iPod-and-everything-else Bible?
It's a combination audio and text Bible, using the New Living Translation, an English version that emphasizes natural grammar and easy listening. The text is designed just for iPods -- it shows up nicely readable on all of them except the no-screen "shuffle" model -- and the MP3 audio tracks sound good, with no obvious sonic deficiencies.
There are separate MP3s for each chapter of all the books of the Old and New Testaments.
The narrator is Mike Kellogg, who reads passages with a smooth, cocktail-party baritone that seems at first unsuited to scripture. (I felt this way because I grew up listening to Alexander Scourby's 1950s recordings of the Bible. Scourby's voice was unmatched for its serious tone.) But after no more than an hour spent listening to Kellogg, I'm ready to admit that Scourby has met his 21st Century match.
Kellogg is joined by others now and then in passages that have multiple speakers, and churchly music creeps in at odd moments, sounding, well, creepy. That's the only criticism I have. In every other way iPocketBible is superb.
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