Lumiappaday #32: Bible demoed on the Nokia Lumia 800
Since it’s Sunday, I thought it would also be quite apt if I review a bible app. There are several available and in the video you do get a quick look at 3 in total, but the one I’m checking out is the ‘You Version’ of the bible because of some additional features such as bookmarking and an audiobook reading counterpart.
#32) Bible
Price: Free
Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/57f524fa-93e3-df11-a844-00237de2db9e
Developer Blurb:
Version 2.2 – Performance Improvements
Features: Audio Bibles, Verse Highlights,
Font Settings, & 153 FREE Translations
We want to make it easy for you to read and share God’s Word. It’s the Bible and it’s FREE. There are no locked features or expensive downloads.
MANY GREAT TRANSLATIONS:
*Free access to many modern English translations including the NIV, ESV, NLT, NKJV, AMP, NASB, CEV, NET, WEB, NCV, TNIV, HCSB, The Message, and more.
*Free access to many modern Spanish translations including the Reina-Valera 1960, NVI, LBLA, NBLH, and more.
*Free access to many foreign language Bibles including German, French, Italian, Chinese Simplified and Traditional, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Norwegian, Czech, Bulgarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and more.
MANY SPECIAL FEATURES:
*Easily search the Bible for either a reference or a keyword. Search results are displayed quickly for fast navigation.
*Over 60 different Bible reading plans to help you stay on track with reading the Bible on a regular basis.
*Connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts to easily share verses with friends.
*Bookmark your favorite verses.
COMING SOON:
*Offline Access
*YouVersion Live
Rating: 8.75
Design: 8
The app looks quite simple a the start menu, with bible, bookmarks, plans and social network sharing at the bottom and search and settings at the top, but it looks ok with that sort of plain white papyrus background.
The bible part itself is where this is really a star with a great abundance of options covered in usability.
Design wise though the menus and settings look nice, well laid out and look great.
Usability: 9
The bible part is well presented. At the top you have your book selector. You can select either a chapter in that book or select amongst the various books. There’s no separation between OT and NT, they’re just in the order that you would find them in that particular version of that bible.
At the top right you can select not only a myriad of English bibles, you can also choose bibles of various different translations. The ones with audiobook versions have an audio icon next to them.
A little bit like the Amazon Kindle reader, you have options to change background colour (white/black) as well as a font size (small/large) and a selection of fonts. Not bad. The black version is better for battery life on AMOLEDs but it does conflict with the next feature -
Highlighting: You can highlight particular verses. Very nicely thought out. It’s easy. Just tap a particular verse, a button pops up telling you how many verses you’ve clicked on, click on that button and you can highlight as well as bookmark text.
I did not know this at the time of filming but blue actually works with black (if you highlighted things in yellow they are difficult to see). Furthermore, you can even select your own colour from the colour palette.
I guess my only qualms would be that the whole screen should switch to black and not just the reading portion?
The bible chapters are read by scrolling and to go to the next chapter, there are buttons at the bottom to go left and right.
Performance: 9
Fast start up, quick and fluid as usual, features all work as advertised, no hiccups.
However you will need to have an internet connection. As you can see in the features, they are working on an offline version.
The biggest gripe then probably is that it doesn’t support multitasking, It will blink, sometimes say resuming and go back to the beginning of that chapter, not at the verse you might have left it at (though at least not restarting the whole app and not remembering what book you were looking at).
The bookmarking features will require you to sign up but that took me seconds to do and it’s all within the app.
Price: 10
Free with no ads.
Conclusion:
A fantastic bible reader if you are ever in need of one, with various translations, various books, audiobooks and more features (OFFLINE version) to come in the works.
Alternatives:
If you need an offline bible right now, a couple I have used are called Bible (also, the only difference is the developer and icon) and Bible7.
Category: Applications, Nokia, Video, Windows Phone
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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So you are religous?
Anyway, I guess the other alternatives for the app would include stuff like Koran, Vedas, or the God Delusion!
I set out this weeks apps last Sunday. Just came from a carol service my friend invited me and my friends to. But yeah, officially Catholic.
The other holy books are there and already put them on the list to check out. Will ask my friends of that religion to see what they think of it.
excellent, hats off the balanced approach! if only they made app for the agnostic!
Great thing about being agnostic or atheist is that you don’t need any ridiculous guide/rule book, written by some superstitious perverse madmen, telling you how to live your life.
Those “holy” books are for the intellectually challenged people or those unfortunate ones who were brainwashed early on in their childhood with religion. Any brainwash-free rational human being has no use for them. Religions are the cancer of humanity.
Great thing about being agnostic or atheist is that I don’t feel a need to write hateful comments about someone reviewing some religious book.
I’m sure agnostic and atheists in general can still respect others who do have such beliefs and not act like an asshole to belittle those people.
Eh? I think being an asshole is in the blood though and just can’t be helped, eh coco?
That would be really nice, but…
I find disturbing the very existence of Bible (or whatever ‘holy’ book there is) apps for modern smartphones. Don’t know, connecting bronze age superstitions with modern age science is somewhat unsettling, especially given that the hard-core followers of those are generally against the modern science.
It’s kind of like going to a Planetarium and watching the representation of the Universe that was considered accurate by the cavemen.
Then again, those apps are serving a good cause – the World needs more skeptics/atheists/rational people in general, and nothing will get you there faster than reading those ‘holy’ books.
Lol, you really think those “skeptics/atheists/rational people in general” really read and study the ‘holy books’?
And you’re not disturbed by fact that there’s also those things called online Bibles which can be used with smartphones? Only the smartphone apps gets to your nerves. Okay…
“I guess the other alternatives for the app would include stuff like Koran, Vedas, or the God Delusion!” Thanks, Captain Obvious!
thanks for co-opting my nickname!
I have met several scientific professors who are renowned in their field that are religious. A few agnostics and a few just non believers of evolution. Not always black and white, religious =/= crazy fairytale believer.
As I’ve said there are apps for everybody and guess what, even religious people use apps too.
Religious people are either intellectually challenged or were brainwashed by religion already in their childhood, which by the way is the worst kind of abuse you can do to a child. Exploiting child’s innocent blind trust of his/her parents and of other adults and brainwashing and indoctrinating him/her with the perverse superstition of religion, is really sickening and should be outlawed everywhere.
Just because there are people in the scientific community who are religious, doesn’t mean religions are any more true and valid. There were scientists who believed earth was flat and the center of the universe just a few hundred years ago. Well that didn’t make those things any more true either.
Wow that is not even where I was going but well done on that. Wouldn’t expect any less.
Cocco Bill, I’m adding you to my prayer list.
I think Cocco Bill needs to download this app and use it, more than any of us …
It’s a book……… you can find practically any book digitally nowadays, you’re looking way too much into this.
Great review! This app goes on my ‘must download app list’ for when I get a Nokia WP. I LOVE that there are different versions/translations included; I’ve searched the Nokia Store, and there are none that have various versions.
And I am glad that you included the developer ‘blurb’ because my question was going to be do you have to be online to access the content; but they’ve noted that offline access was forthcoming, which is superb! I wish more publishers would make Bible apps – i.e. Zondervan; but I’m glad that there are developers out there filling in the gap.
So when are you reviewing jack and the beanstalk? or Santa Clause? Ooops!
Ooh you win original comment of the millennium.
hahahaha
nice to see that the Bible is still ticking off people.lol.
Thank you for the information.
Does WP7 accept .jar installations?
I have been using KJV Go Bible by Jolon Faichney since my days of S40 (some express music slider) devices. I even use it now on my N8 as I did on my N82.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
nice nice, these apps are pulling me towards wp7, im coming from a feature phone 6680 XD, i only hope it comes fast to the philippines, i want a phone with a bigger screen though, probably a 4.3
Great review Jay! I use this app too and have been for a little while now and I have to say, for what it does and how well it performs, I’d be glad to pay for it! Keep up the good work.
We’ll see what those commenting negatively against the Bible do with their sorry excuse for lives and opinions when push comes to shove and they are left wanting.
‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…’ Hosea 4:6, NKJV.
Haha, As soon as i saw this post i jnew people would go crazy.
Anyway, i found a pretty good debate on NPR about religion if anyone is inclined to listen
Both sides have great points. No need to fight
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/21/142470957/would-the-world-be-better-off-without-religion
Only an American would dare to review a Bible app.
I’m from Europe
Wow, today I learned United Kingdom is American. Thanks.