Review: Advent08 for iPhone

Following my review of 24 Christmas Days yesterday, I'm now going to take a look at Advent08 and provide a comparison.

Advent08 has been developed by iHabitus.com and offers an advent calendar based on the true Christian dates for this year (Sunday 30th November through to Thursday 25th December) and featuring a mini "service" or devotional for each day.

Look & Feel

Advent08 has been inspired by the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels, and as such has a very traditional, celtic look.

The twenty-six doors are placed around a central cross, with each of the four Sundays (30th November, 8th, 15th, 22nd December) plus Christmas Day placed on the cross itself.

Tapping on any number opens up the content for that day. If the day has not yet arrived, there's the option to unlock it ahead of time, which is a nice touch although there doesn't seem to be any way to reset the doors except by reinstalling the application.

Each day consists of a picture, which can be expanded to full view and for which full artist information is available, plus various scripture readings, meditations, and lyrics to hymns.

New page views are brought in by a virtual page turn, which is a nice effect.

How it runs

The application appears to run very well, with no glitches or crashes while I was using it.

It's a pretty simple application, with no flashy graphical effects or other things to either stop it working or distract from its main purpose.

Conclusion

Advent08 is a lovely application for those wanting to take time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. It would have been nice if some of the hymns and songs had associated instrumental audio files, which may have been possible as many are in the public domain, to assist people in singing them, but that's not essential.

The application doesn't do anything flashy, and indeed that's not what most people interested in this sort of devotional software would want.

Overall, it's a great piece of software, tailored for this year, and at just 59p (99c) it's an absolute bargain. The cherry on the cake is that 10% of all proceeds from the sale of Advent08 will go to World Vision charity that helps children in poorer countries through sponsorship and direct aid.

Comparison with 24 Christmas Days

24 Christmas Days is more likely to appeal to those wanting a light-hearted approach to Christmas, while Advent08 is great for those wanting to spend some time reflecting on the true meaning of the season.

24 Christmas Days has a greater emphasis on multimedia, including music, whereas Advent08 goes that bit deeper.

24 Christmas Days will probably have a wider appeal, but if you're even remotely interested in the real meaning of Christmas, try Advent08. Given that both are relatively inexpensive, why not get both?

Advent08 (iTunes Store link)

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