iPhone Mantis bible study application review

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Mantis Bible Study
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A very well designed bible package for the iPhone, but with only the KJV provided free with the application

Mantis Bible study is a feature rich offline bible study application for the iPhone or iPod Touch. There is a large range of bibles, commentaries and dictionaries available however only the KJV translation is packaged as free. Any others would have to purchased (the ESV for instance costs about $20).

Whilst the software is very well designed if you are looking for a free bible application package on your iPhone the lack of translations available is a stumbling block.

Using the bible software

Using the iPhone Mantis application is easy. On the top menu you can switch between translations (if you have purchased any) and also choose which book or chapter you would like to read. This works pretty well and allows you to quickly navigate the bible.
How does it look?

The design is good with full customisation of the font that you read the text in. There are various other options too to customize the view. The navigation bars and tab bars are well designed and serve their functions very well.

Notes, bookmarks and history

There are a few features which other free bible applications on the iPhone tend not to have at the moment which may make this a tempting choice.

The first of these is notes, which allow you to write your own notes linked to any verse that you may be reading. As you can see from the image to the right these can then be read “in-line” (you can toggle this option off) as you read the text. This is a well implemented feature for anything that may crop into your head as you are reading. You can also browse through all of your notes by clicking on the Notes option on the tab bar.

You can also make bookmarks in the bible to help you remember any key verses you may be reading. On top of this there is also a histories section which shows you the recent verses you have read. Once again this could prove invaluable if you are hopping around the bible quickly.