Tech for the Local Church
Apps
Does Google Hate Christians? Do Christians Hate Google?!
Nov 9th
Answer: NO. And some.
But if you were to believe some vocal Christians complaining about Google changing their policies, you would think that they do hate us. Google used to give away the Education version of Google Apps to all non-profit organizations, including churches. Now they do not. You can still use google apps for free, but they limit the service to 10 email addresses / accounts.
To be honest, I was sad to hear the news, too. But we cannot assume that this is because they have a low opinion about faith-based non-profit organizations. The laws that protect churches registered as non-profits are also under attack – specifically the tax laws. We should not be surprised by government or business that wants to remove financial advantages that churches have enjoyed for years. And to go further, I don’t think we should make assumptions about the motives behind these changes.
What I do know is that Google provides a great value for churches who want to use their services. If 10 email addresses isn’t enough, I suggest you pay for the service – its $50/year per seat. If you have an IT guy on the payroll who is managing Exchange server, you would save money to retire the server and use Google Apps for email/docs/calendar/contacts and dropbox.com to share files.
That is my advice and I am sticking to it.
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #9 WordPress
Apr 11th
WordPress for iOS is only for those who are fortunate enough to have wisely chosen WordPress to power their website. I have been fairly neutral about the CMS (content management system) choices out there, but the silence is over.
More >
Real-World Discussion of Google Apps vs. ChMS
Feb 14th
We recently received this question in our comments on a previously posted article: Is Google Apps Church Management Software? They were great questions, and we hope others can chime in on this discussion: More >
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #8 Dragon Dictation
Jan 11th
Dragon Dictation
The verbage from their website says it best…
Dragon Dictation, powered by Nuance’s world-renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, allows you to stay connected all the time, even when your hands are busy.
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #7 GoodReader
Jan 9th
GoodReader does magic with PDF files. It does a lot more, as its description in the iTunes app store mentions…
Quick summary: super-robust PDF reader with advanced reading, annotating, markup and highlighting capabilities, excellent file manager, TXT file reader and editor, audio/video player, Safari-like viewer for MS Office and iWorks files.
I attend Metro Calvary, and our pastor, Richard Cimino, posts his notes in their entirety each week. They are, essentially, manuscript sermons. We used to post the notes online after the sermon audio was posted, but people began to ask for paper copies of the notes to follow along during the service. People saw others with the printed notes and before long, we were photocopying over 100 copies of the notes – sometimes over a dozen pages each! Before long, the folks with smart phones asked to have the notes available BEFORE the service on the website. That was good, but when you are used to handwriting notes on paper, or highlighting certain sections, reading text online doesn’t satisfy. More >
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #6 Google Voice
Jan 1st
Google Voice – Super-powered VoiceMail and Texting
Step 1: Sign up and get your new FREE Google Voice phone number HERE.
Step 2: Assign ANY phone(s) to ring when someone dials the new number. Change the destination as often as you like.
Step 3: Let it ring. Get transcribed messages delivered to your inbox. The audio file is there too.
Step 4: Texting is free, so you can do what I did… cancel your regular text message plan and save some dough. More >
REVIEW: 5 Killer iPhone Apps
Jan 1st
We are reviewing the Top Ten Killer iPhone Apps – the quintessential tools for a pastor (or anyone) armed with an iPhone. To catch you up on where we have been, here is our current top five:
- Bible: God’s Holy Word
- Dropbox: Magical Cloud Storage
- Instapaper: Stuff you want to “Read Later”
- Elements: Dropbox Powered Text Editor
- Simplenote: Sync your notes to all devices
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #5 Simplenote
Oct 30th
Simplenote is a simple text note app that syncs your notes to your iPhone, mac computer and a website. It is free with ads on your phone, but you can buy a $4.99 upgrade to remove ads. There is also a premium version with some extras for $11.99 a year that adds some extra features. For me, the free version is plenty.
Why do I need this- I have Notepad?
Wherever possible, I have abandoned any apps that lock my data into the phone and apps that require syncing with a cable to get the data to my computer (I am talking to you, iTunes). More >
dlvr.it – A One-Stop-Shop Social Media Publisher
Oct 27th
dlvr.it - FINALLY! A One-Stop-Shop Social Media Publisher
I build websites for a living and the requests for Social Network Integration have risen over the years. I publish on WordPress exclusively, but never really found a great solution. Today, I have found my solution: dlvr.it – and the great part, is it will work for any website or service that published an RSS Feed (that’s everyone, Folks). I signed up, added in Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, and Buzz. Although it wasn’t obvious at first, I was able to add additional Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. SCORE! The icing on the cake: Analytics. I am hooked.
Love Gmail? Mailplane makes Gmail even better.
Oct 24th
Mailplane, the native Mac app for Gmail and Google Apps email, has been updated to version 2.2, adding several new features and improving on others. Version 2.2 is a pretty significant update despite its minor numerical increment. You can download a 30-day demo from Mailplane’s website. If you decide to buy, it’s US$24.95. Naturally, you can always use Gmail in a browser for free rather than spending money on an app like Mailplane. But Mailplane is very actively developed, with new features regularly being added. Having a real Mac app for a mail client is well worth the money for anyone who spends a lot of time in email. If you manage multiple Gmail or Google Apps email accounts, the easy switching alone makes it worth the asking price. Read a FULL REVIEW here and here. Video fter the break… More >
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #4 Elements – Dropbox Powered Text Editor
Oct 24th
Elements – Dropbox Powered Text Editor
Elements is a beautiful, versatile text editor for iOS. Elements allows you to view, edit and share plain text documents on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. All of your data is stored in a folder on your personal Dropbox account so that it’s accessible from any device you have. Whether you are a pastor, a church volunteer, or a member taking notes during the sermon, this is a great app that will help you write long documents, or capture short lists. The Dropbox sync is the killer feature, but read on to see the rest… More >
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #3 Instapaper
Oct 22nd
Instapaper isn’t instant. It has nothing to do with paper either. Instapaper is essentially a simple tool to save web pages for reading later on your electronic devices. (Is it just me or does the title of this Read-Later-Without-Paper app just kill you?!) You flag the content you want to save by using a BOOKMARKLET – essentially a little app that looks like a bookmark button in your browser. To get started, go to instapaper.com/extras and drag the button to your browser bar. Then you view a page and press the “Read Later” button. All major browsers support it – even Mobile Safari on your iPhone (although Apple makes it much harder than it should be). Press that “Read Later” button and BOOM! – it magically appears on your Instapaper app. On your iPhone. Brilliant. This simple little one-trick pony has the potential to transform the way you read online content. Listen to Marco, the author or this app, explain the thinking behind it: More >
Screenr: Video Capture Your Screen and Instantly Tweet or Embed
Oct 21st
screenr is a screen capture program that runs right from a browser – no other software needed. It works as advertised and is a free service. If you need to demonstrate how to use a program, demonstrate a website or anything that happens on your computer screen, this is a great option!
You can drag a little Bookmarklet to your browser bar and click it anytime you want to record something on your screen. Nice. I can see using this to do simple tutorials for iTunes or WordPress.
You can instantly post your video / screencast to Twitter, YouTube, or anywhere you like … say, your blog post, for instance. Screenr Video I made after the break … More >
10 Killer iPhone Apps: #2 DropBox
Oct 21st
Dropbox is simple. You put files in. You get your files out. Its almost too simple. People miss the brilliance. It is not WHAT you put in your dropbox … it is WHERE you get to access those files and how easy it is to SHARE your files.
Access your Dropbox on the go- Download files for offline viewing
- Sync photos and videos to your Dropbox
- Share links to files in your Dropbox
How to Encode Video for Mobile Phones
Oct 18th
If you are a video geek and need a little push in the right direction to make your video as compatible as possible for mobile devices, try the settings below. To simplify: this means a file that ends with .MP4 OR .M4V. Both files are H.264 files with slightly different wrappers.
MOST COMPATIBLE VIDEO FORMAT FOR MOBILE DEVICES
Video: H.264, Level 3.0, Baseline profile
Audio: AAC, 1-2 channels
Check out the essential details and links after the break …
Dr. Google-Love (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love the Apps)
Oct 12th
The headline reads:
(dateline: the Cloud) — Incremental Improvements Add Up to Revolutionary Innovation
As if we needed another reason to recommend that everyone give a listen at the first possible opportunity to our podcast interview with Brad Stark (we shamelessly and repeatedly plug this episode [#4] ’cause Brad’s expertise and information are just that good), here we are again with another.
Make that 4 others. Yes, 4 reasons, and all of them are 9s.
Shards are for Sharing: Google Apps (esp. for Non-Profit Organizations)
Oct 6th
Brad Stark is a Google Solutions Architect (is that one of the 10 greatest job titles ever, or what?!) at Appirio.com, and one the MANY things I learned about Google Apps– for non-profits, including churches– in our recent interview with him (podcast episode coming soon!) is that “shards” are a very good thing for cloud-users who are glad to no longer worry about data-recovery, back-up redundancy plans, happy instead to enjoy all the benefits of flexible, multi-user accessibility to documents and data-security with none of the latent web-security issues we have heard so much about.
How can that be? Shards! That’s how.
Safe and Saferer: Google Apps are Good(er than ever)!
Oct 4th
When ‘good’ data management and security protocols aren’t good enough for some people, they must be made ‘gooder.’ And ‘gooder’ can only be made ‘gooder-est’ when ‘safe’ is made ‘saferer’.
And ‘saferer’ is exactly how to describe what Google Apps is doing with data security in the very ‘cloudy’ extended forecast for us all here in Internetville.
Not all clouds are the same, and this helpful article, Is user data safe in the cloud?, points out several significant security concerns with some forms of cloud-computing. The upshot is that the cloud itself is not inherently secure (no big surprise there), because not all cloud-based business is done with secure protocols. This only news in the sense that some of the causes and effects — the implications for unsuspecting, perhaps too-trusting users– are explained in non-tech-geek clarity.
All of this very practical information invites a closer look to see what IS secure and reliable in the cloud. Once again, we can say hello to our little friends (you guessed it): Google Apps.
5 Reasons Your Church Should Use WordPress + 30 Million From Microsoft
Sep 29th
Microsoft just announced that it is abandoning its website / blogging platform and moving 30 million users to WordPress. This effectively doubles WordPress’s user base to 60 MILLION USERS!! With that kind of endorsement and success, I now pronounce all other website options for churches DEAD ON ARRIVAL. With the juggernaut, that is Microsoft, throwing in the towel and giving the nod to WordPress, the battle for your website content is now over. Read on for 5 reasons WordPress is better (and cheaper) than what you are now using. More >
Recent Comments