The Bible component of iLumina includes the text of the Bible in two versions: Tyndale's own New Living Translation and the King James. I'll explain how this works in a moment, but first let's look at what each component consists of: The Bible
ILLUMINA BIBLE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE
The iLumina software itself contains six distinct components: The Bible, an Encyclopedia, a Timeline, the Media Center, Extras, and My Study Center.Įach component offers you access to different kinds of content, yet there is a high degree of integration among the various components. Interestingly, the marriage between Visual Book Productions and Tyndale has turned out to be a particularly suitable match, as we'll see a little later. I have no idea how many publishers chose not to back the development of iLumina, but ultimately Tyndale did. To be willing to invest in the development of such a product, a publisher would need to have faith that iLumina would sell in volumes far beyond those which any previous Bible program had achieved. Saba wanted to make iLumina relatively inexpensive. As we'll see, the technology behind iLumina is incredibly expensive. Saba began approaching publishers about the possibility of bringing iLumina to market. The danger of "thinking different" is that some people will fail to catch the vision. The folks at Visual Book therefore decided to develop a Bible study program which would be accessible to anyone, reasonably priced, and which would use the latest technological innovations to help make the Bible come alive for people. Saba pointed out that people today are more likely to respond to visual, multimedia presentations of the Bible than they are to purely text-based approaches. Add to that the expense of purchasing these large libraries of Bible texts, commentaries, dictionaries, and related study aids and you end up with a situation where most people spend more money than they should to get lots of stuff they'll never use. Saba explained that all other Bible programs, whatever their distinctive features, basically present the user with a wealth of material for study but unless the user already knows what to do with all that material, it is unlikely to help him understand the Bible any better. It quickly became apparent that the developers of iLumina are "thinking different" about what Bible software should be. Nelson Saba, President of Visual Book Productions, explains his vision for iLumina Saba began by explaining the original vision behind iLumina, and the direction they see the software taking in the future. Visual Book Productions happens to be based here in my hometown of Orlando, and they were kind enough to give me, my wife, and my two boys a tour of their studio. It's one of the first things I was told by Nelson Saba, the president of Visual Book Productions. I've said that iLumina is unique, in a class by itself, but that's not just my assessment. Ultimately, you'll have to judge whether or not you think I've given a fair review, but at least you're now aware of any biases I might have. I'll deal with the extent to which iLumina competes with other Bible programs such as Accordance toward the end of this review, and I'll do my best to give a fair assessment of iLumina's capabilities throughout. So why am I making an exception in the case of iLumina? Precisely because iLumina is so unique. Since I'm not that smart, I'll just do my best to describe what iLumina can do.īut first, the obligatory disclaimer: Until now, I have always avoided writing reviews of Bible software programs because I actually help to develop a Bible program called Accordance, and it would be unfair of me to review a competing product. Basically, iLumina is so unique it deserves its own category, and if I were a little smarter, I'd coin a really cool-sounding name for it. With all its multimedia elements and educational emphasis, it could easily be classified as "edutainment", but somehow, that label doesn't quite do iLumina justice. It's Bible software, but it's so different from most other Bible programs that there is surprisingly little overlap. ILumina is one of those programs which is difficult to describe, because it doesn't quite fit into any of the existing categories. What if you could step back in time to witness the amazing events recorded in the Bible? What would it be like to see Goliath shouting threats from across the valley? Or to see the baby Jesus lying in a manger? What would it be like to stand before Herod's awe-inspiring temple and to hear Jesus say that not one stone of it would be left on another? With iLumina, the innovative new Bible program developed by Visual Book Productions and published by Tyndale, you can do all of those things and more.
ILLUMINA BIBLE SOFTWARE FOR MAC OS
A Look at the Latest Bible Software for Mac OS X.
0 kommentar(er)
