Although officially the new 2011 NIV was not supposed to be released until December 21, I received word at 11PM on the 20th from Apple that my iBooks pre-order was available for download.
As most This Lamp readers know, the 2011 update to the New International Version was released at biblegateway.com on November 1, 2010. Although the printed copies will not be available until March, 2011, the updated translation will be available in ebook format beginning today.
As far as I can remember, this marks the first time a major translation has been made commercially available to mainstream ebook platforms before print copies are published. Beginning today, the 2011 NIV is available for all major ebook platforms including Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple's iBooks app for the iPad.
Here are a few screenshots from the iBooks version—the first etext edition I've found available. Click on images to see a larger view.
NIV eBook "cover"
I've already found a "bug" in the etext. Note the location guide at the bottom of the screenshot. The entire Bible is in one long chapter, or more specifically, the preface.
UPDATED: The Kindle version is now available, too. Below are some shots from the Kindle app for the iPad (and no, this is not the first time I've bought the same eBook Bible for competing etext platforms; I like to compare layouts and usability).
Song of Solomon, ch. 4, for comparison with earlier shot of the same spread in the iBooks edition.
Basic text searching is possible in both Kindle (pictured here) and iBooks edition.
I've found a different kind of "bug" in the Kindle edition. Whenever I touch some poetic passages (not all, though), I see a "poetry" flag pop up. I can't imagine this is supposed to be there.
