The world's first Christian tablet. (Family Christian)
Steve Jobs worshippers need not apply.
But if you’re looking to get in God’s good graces, or you’re simply in the market for a family-friendly tablet, you may want to check out Family Christian's Edifi.
Billed as the world’s first Christian tablet, its genesis came with the inevitable intersection of technology and religion, according to Brian Honorable, a technology supervisor at Family Christian, the group that sells the tablet.
“We wanted to be able to offer our customers the ability to use our Holy Bible application, which has 27 different English translations of the Bible,” Honorable told FoxNews.com in an interview.
“We basically wanted to spread God’s word through a tablet.”
“It goes along with our mission: trying to get people closer to God … through a tablet.”
The Android-based tablet is manufactured by South Korean firm Cydle, and sports a resistive touch screen (480x800 resolution), 512MB of RAM, and 8GB of expandable storage. If it sounds like the Kindle Fire, it should: Honorable said the company has Amazon squarely in its sights.
“We basically stacked it up to [Amazon’s] Kindle Fire,” Honorable said. “Only theirs is $199.99. Ours is $149.99. The battery is actually stronger than everybody else out there on the market.”
But the Christian tablet is more than just an e-reader. It also comes with movie-watching capabilities, Christian radio stations, and even a web browser with built-in “safe search,” so the tablet is safe for the whole family. “We put that on there just in case it was given as a gift to a child, so they wouldn’t have access to things they shouldn’t have access to,” said Honorable. “We definitely had to tailor it to our customers.”
And the company already has plans for future versions.
“When the next version comes out we’ll make changes,” he told FoxNews.com. “We’re looking at other things, probably a newer tablet, with better screen technology,” he said. But don't pray for a Christian smartphone -- that's not in the works.
The Family Christian Edifi tablet, which came out last month, comes with earphones, a wall charger, a removable stand, a protective cover, a stylus and a tablet pouch. Honorable declined to specify sales figures, other than to note they were "strong" so far. The world’s tablet can be purchased through the Family Christian website or from one of the company's 300 stores across the U.S.
This isn’t the first time technology has helped bridge the gap with God. Last week, the Telegraph reported the Hotel Indigo in Britain was replacing bedside Bibles with Kindle e-readers pre-loaded with a digital copy.
Nor is it technically the first religious tablet. That honor, of course, goes to Moses and the Jews.
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