Almost 5 Stars! – NASB Bible Holy Audio Version Review

I made the dubious choice of “upgrading” to iOS 14.x. In the process, I hit a button, and next I knew, my former paid-for NASV Bible app had vanished. And since the app is no longer in the App Store, I searched for a new NASV Bible. Along came this version, so I gave it a try (and I most certainly plan on keeping it, by the way). There are so many positives: 1) It’s free; 2) It has a “voice” reading option, which I use, due to ADHD and some vision problems of late; 3) The aforementioned voice option includes numerous English language options and dialects, plus the ability to raise or lower the voice pitch and the reading speed! (I opted for a female voice in the alto range with an Irish-English dialect, just because I could; my second choice would be a male voice with an Asian Indian dialect.); 4) There is the ability to have a black-on-white (black print on bright white scheme), or white-on-black setup (the latter of which I chose); 5) You can also change the font and its variables (I know it’s “bland,” but I chose Times New Roman, because it has serifs, and it’s easier for me to read). Letter thickness can also be changed. I’m sure I’m missing a few other options, but already you get the idea that this is a VERY user-friendly app! Plus, the NASV is about as close to the most-accurate English language version of the Bible out there! BUT, there are a couple of things I wish were done better: 1) When the original Hebrew readings change from narrative to verse form (which is easily and clearly shown in printed forms of the NASV), this app not only doesn’t show that, but the programmers didn’t remove the capitalizations beginning the new verse line, thus showing what looks like typographical errors (which, if the verses were paginated properly, would not be an issue); 2) There are a few punctuation errors (mind you, I got the app, then started where I left off in my straight-through reading, which was in the middle of Ezekiel). Most of the errors involve closing quotes, where there will sometimes be spaces between an italicized word and an exclamation mark, sometimes preceded (or was it followed?) by a forward slash, then the close-quotation mark; 3) I noticed an outright misspelling in Daniel 3, I believe it was. And yes, I forgot which word it was; 4) The voice-reading sometimes botches up both some Hebrew names (somewhat understandable), plus a few English words. But mind you, I am using an Irish-dialect voice. It is also surprisingly accurate on other Hebrew names (I took some Hebrew while in seminary). The reader also blows through exclamation marks. Not a big thing, but it is a deficiency, nonetheless; 5) THE most glaring omission in this app is the in-verse notes, which either translate the Hebrew names or locations (which I also wish the original NASV did more of), or give the literal translation of Hebrew idioms. That’s really sad for me, because these notes further help one to understand how the native language is interpreted into English. While this is not a deal-breaker, this is most unfortunate negative of them all for me; 6) This app also blurs the NASV section headers into the Bible text. My old app used green for the headers and verse numbers, then black words on white background from there on out. This app does not distinguish the headers via font or color. This app’s voice reader does not read the verse numbers, but reads what otherwise would be the section header. It also reads the book and chapter numbers, which is nice; 7) This is a minor gripe, but in the voice reader, the only playback options are “play” and “pause.” One has to either get out of the app entirely, or at the very least swipe left/right to go to an adjacent chapter, then swipe to the chapter you were reading. But then you start the whole chapter all over again. Like I say, this is minor, but I wish one could go backwards or forward at least by verse. The above negatives (minor as most of them are) begrudgingly cause me to give the app only 4 stars (if I could give 4-1/2 stars, I would). But FOR FREE? The NASV is by far my favorite English translation (for its thoroughly-literal translation), and this app rocks, overall! Do not hesitate to get this app! :-) Sorry so long, but I do try to be thorough! :-)
Review by TheOneIronHorse on NASB Bible Holy Audio Version.