Bible apps - audio and text based

Learning Exchange recently received a request for an audio bible for a vision impaired student. So in addition to looking for bibles on cd or in mp3 format we also looked at a number of bible apps for the ipad. These are the ones we found:

Catholic Bible

The first is a free app called Catholic Bible. The translation is the public domain catholic bible and is not the most modern. It is searchable by chapter but not verse.

NRSV Bible for BibleReader by Olive Tree

The second app is one I use personally. It is the NRSV Bible for Bible Reader by Olive Tree Bible software. Olive tree have a number of translations of the scriptures available. This bible app is searchable by chapter and verse. It can be book marked and searched for particular terms. It also has highlighting, notes and bookmarking functions so would be useful for study. It costs $12.99 in the app store.

Unfortunately the accessibility functions on the ipad do not work well with either of the above apps so they don’t work as an audio bible.

Bible is

The third app we found is called “Bible Is” which provided audio and text versions of several translations of the scriptures. The app is still under development so I would expect that other translations would become available at a later date. The audio versions are the King James Version and English Standard Version translations. There is an option to hear the “non drama” version of the bible and a “drama” version complete with background music and character voices. The app is searchable by chapter but not by verse and has a bookmarking function. It also provides text and audio bibles in a variety of languages for students from non English speaking backgrounds. And the good news (sorry folks bad pun!) is that it is FREE.

From Bernie Lentern Learning Exchange.