Listen Now

The Theotek Podcast gets a new format with this first episode of Theotek 2.0, the audio edition. Rick Mansfield and Mark Allison join host Kevin Purcell to talk about what they've been up to since the video version ended over a year ago. We also enjoy a Bible Tip. Mark and Rick talk about how to set search ranges in Accordance Mobile Bible app. Our Favorite Things Rick Mansfield talked about his new Jeep with CarPlay. He's never used CarPlay before so we listened to a "video" demo. Mark Allison loves his new iPhone XR and told us why. If you want to find us online go to Twitter. We also will have a new website up soon at www.Theotek.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theotek/message

If you work on a website for your church or ministry or if you create images, videos or art for worship, then this podcast is for you. We talked about the creative tools that we use and what we think of Adobe’s recent update to their Creative Cloud suite. Plus watch the podcast to find out about alternatives if you don’t like the subscription model of paying for your creative apps. If you’re interested in the new tools from Adobe, check out their website to learn more. We talked mainly about photography programs Lightroom and Photoshop since that’s what we use most. But the other apps got some love and they added a new subscription storage option. Alternatives to Adobe Creative Tools for Ministry MacPhun does a great job with some of their new apps. They now offers something called Luminar 2018 and it works on both Mac and Windows. Luminar does Raw photo file editing. It has the advanced features of Photoshop and Lightroom built into Luminar. Pre-order for $60 or upgrade from $40. And for HDR tools check out MacPhun’s Aurora package. These are both great creative tools for ministry. For iPad and Mac users Pixelmator does a nice job. They also will offer Pixelmator Pro which give you a single window interface and it does what it does really fast. It’s not as good at text and Lightroom may do a better job with some adjustments, but the app on iPad and on Mac is a great option.

With all the Bible study apps available on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac, it’s easy to get confused about which app a person should use. I’ll post a few recommendations over the next few weeks, but today I want to discuss a fundamental question. What do you plan to do with the app? People use their Bible study apps in different ways. How do you plan to use your Bible study app? Will you merely read the Bible, track your reading with a reading plan that the app provides or do you want to create your own personalized Bible reading plan? Will you highlight the passages on occasion or add personal notes, like you can do with a pen or pencil in the margin of your paper Bible? Maybe you want to work on a research paper for a Bible class in college or seminary. Some people need to translate the Bible into another language as part of a translator team or for a tribe in the jungles of South America in mission work. congerdesign / Pixabay There are apps that can handle all the above functions of reading or studying the Bible, but many apps work better for some of the things listed above and don’t do others that well. Bible Reading and Devotional Bible Study

Google took to the state and announced a slew of new gadgets for geeks like us to drool over. In this episode of the Theotek Podcast, we talked about the new Google tools. We had some strong opinions about them so watch below or listen at the bottom of this post. In all Google announced some phones, a new Chromebook, a few new Google Home devices and other accessories. Here’s the list of the products with links to the Google device store pages for each item. New Google Products Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL Phones – $649 for the smaller Pixel 2 and $849 for the larger Pixel 2 XL Google Home Mini – $49 Google Home Max – $399 Google Pixelbook Chromebook – $999 for the 128GB drive model with 8GB or RAM and a 7th Gen Intel Core i5; add $200 for 256GB drive and $650 for 512GB and a Core i7 processor; also add $99 for the stylus. Google Daydream View VR Goggles – $99 for new version Google Clips Camera – $249 Google Pixel Buds Bluetooth Earbuds – $159 In the podcast we talked about the above products. Most of us agreed that the new Pixel 2 phone looks like a great new edition of the pure Android experience. It has a great camera with nice form factor. The Home Mini voice activated speaker seems like a nice lower price option for those who are heavily invested in the Google ecosystem. The Home Max competes with Apple’s Homepod for a high-end music listening experience that also in --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theotek/message

Apple announced all their new gear a couple of weeks ago. Our team talked about the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X. We’ll also talked about Apple TV and Apple Watch. Watch below or listen at the bottom of this post. Apple Products Pricing and Availability The new Apple products made it to store shelves and you can order most of these now or will be able to some time soon. Here’s a list of links to Apple’s site to get them. Apple iPhone 8 and 8 Plus – starting at $699 and $799 Apple Watch Series 3 – starting at $329 or $399 with LTE 4K Apple TV – $179 with 32GB or $199 with 64GB Apple iPhone X – preorders go live on October 31 and ship November 3 for $999  Should You Upgrade? Should you upgrade? That’s the big question that people should answer. Here what our team recommends. From LaRosa Johnson… Upgrade only if you can afford to buy it outright and your current phone is no longer working. From Wes Allen… If your phone is still functioning and allowing your workflow without getting in the way then, there is no need to upgrade. If you want to push the limits and want to pass on an older phone to someone while it’s still useful, then an upgrade can be a good idea. I have a 4K tv and am not getting the new unit. Also, I’m very happy with my 6s plus From Rick Mansfield… I can only speak for myself. I won’t upgrade to the new AppleTV because I don’t have a 4K television. If my current gen 1 Apple Watch ever gets lost or if the battery does not last the full day for multiple days in a week, I will get the new one with LTE. I’m getting the iPhone X because I’m in the Apple Upgrade program (so why not?), and I can legitimately write it off on my taxes because I use it for work extensively. From Mark Allison (the new guy) … I had an Apple Watch Series 1 and liked it a lot, but sold it to buy a Garmin Fenix 3, that was a more capable watch for the things I like to do – hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor activities. The new Apple Watch includes an altimeter, which means it can record elevation accurately. It’s also water-resistant, a feature added in the last version of the watch, which makes it a more compelling upgrade for outdoor enthusiasts. I’m not happy about paying $10/month for the LTE version. Paying $120 a year for a watch adds up. Still, it’s nice to be able to make a call without a phone, and the call quality is supposed to be excellent. I have an iPhone 7, and I’m not planning on upgrading. iPhone 8 doesn’t have enough compelling features (in my mind). The iPhone X looks nice, but I’m more inclined to wait a year until they have all the kinks worked out. That’s saying a lot, because I typically get any new phone that Apple introduces. I guess I’m just happy with the iPhone 7 and don’t feel a strong compulsion to spend the money for features I’m not excited about. I have the original AppleTV and the newer one too (not the 4K version). I don’t have a 4K television, so it wouldn’t make much sense for me. If I had a 4K TV (and when I purchase one, it will have HDR, which I’m more excited about than 4K) I’d certainly get the latest version of the AppleTV.

Our team talked about the Apple WWDC 2017 in our 100th episode of the Theotek Podcast. WWDC stands for  World Wide Developer Conference and at this event Apple reveals their new plans for iOS and macOS as well as other interesting tidbits. It’s for developers, but a lot consumer-focused information often hits the newswire after the keynote event that opens the conference. In this episode we talk about tvOS, which powers the Apple TV, as well as watchOS 4 for the Apple Watch. Then we discussed macOS High Sierra and MacBook Pros, iMacs and iMac Pros powered by the new updated operating system. Next, we discussed iOS 11, the new operating system that will run iPhones and iPads. Apple revealed a new iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch screen so we all discussed that as well. Finally, we covered the new HomePod Sierra speaker coming out this year just in time for Christmas.

If you’re a Bible software user, then you’ll want world-class training on how to use your software like a master. We’ll give you advice on how to best improve your skills and learn to use whatever program you prefer whether it’s a Bible software program on Windows, Mac or an app on your smartphone or tablet. We started out talking about getting training direct from the software maker’s website. For example, head over to the Accordance Bible Software website to find their large college of podcast, visual training offerings and even webinars or live seminars in your area. Other sites have them as well so go to your program’s website and look for a support link or training link. Your next stop should be the company’s support forums, if they have one. For example, one of the most active forums for a Bible software company comes from the Logos Community. You’ll find an active collection of users ready to help out quickly. They get a little prickly if you complain about Logos, but they do like to help new users. Accordance has a good community too. Many of the others offer one as well. Look for the Help menu in your Bible Software. If you can’t find the help you need or just want to learn more, then check out the in-software help files. They will open a great set of help files in most of the packages. Rick bragged that Accordance won an award for their in-app help system.

Our team all uses tech of some kind to track fitness and such. We’ll talk about what we use to get fit, stay fit and track our health from fitness tracking watches to apps for calorie counters and devices we connect to our phones for keeping diabetes in check, at least for two of us. Sorry, no show notes with links. Just had to get this one up and it’s been really busy as ministry happens! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theotek/message

We take questions from our viewers and listeners in this week’s episode of the Theotek Podcast. We won’t list them or anything, so just watch the video below to enjoy those. Our Favorite Things I had two favorite things this week. The first is my new Samsung Chromebook Plus. I’ve got a full review over at GottaBeMobile.com. I love this Chromebook, partly for the great hardware quality and for the S Pen feature. You can use it as a tablet and take notes with a fine tip.

With the huge libraries of books available today in Bible software and eBook readers, some people now own massive libraries. Is this a good idea? In this episode of the Theotek Podcast, we talked about that and shared reasons to avoid it as well as tips for what to do if you already own a lot of eBooks in Kindle or in your digital library of Bible software. There’s also a few ways to convert eBooks so you don’t get stuck with books in a format you can’t use anymore because the program goes away like the old Pradis software. This includes making Kindle books from Bible software book and converting Kindle books to a less proprietary DRM-laden format. We even get a workflow for converting papers books to digital library books using a scanner and cutting the binding off books at Kinkos or other office supply stores. Convert Digital Libraries – To and From We mentioned a few things in the Podcast. First, here’s the link for exporting Logos books to Kindle using the Send to Kindle printer driver. You could adapt this to work with any books in any Bible software although it may not work as easily as this system found in the Logos user community forums. Next, Wes talked about converting Kindle books to other formats. He uses a tool called Calibre to do this. Digital Trends hosts a useful tutorial on how to convert books using Calibre among other tools. Favorite Things

We do a live streaming podcast each week at Theotek Podcast so we thought we’d talk about whether a church should stream their services live each week. Then, we got into the best reasons to live stream and where to do it. Finally, we looked at the Mevo from LiveStream, which streams in high quality to Facebook Live and LiveStream. The company just announced a service which will live stream to YouTube as well. Live Stream with Mevo The Mevo camera that I mentioned in the podcast offers a great way to stream to Facebook Live and other services. The free version of the service only works with Facebook Live and LiveStream, but a paid service that costs $10/month just opened up. It streams to the following: Facebook Live Livestream YouTube Live Periscope Twitch It claims to do this at the same time. I’ve not tried it out yet, so I can’t say how well it works streaming to all five sites. I have tested it on my Facebook page and it worked well considering I don’t yet fully get how to use the software. The Mevo streaming app runs only on iOS right now. They may come out with an Android version. Our Favorite Things For our favorite things this week, I talked about the Mevo camera.