Today, we released an update for the iPhone Siddur, which Apple has to approve. The changes include:

• Added Mizrach Compass (iPhone 3GS Only)
• Added Luach Calendar Subscriptions & Alerts
• Revised Luach Event Management
• Revised Map Feature using Native Apple Maps
• Setting to Turn Off Nekudot in Siddur (for speed)
• Setting for Turning Off Sleep Mode in Siddur
• Force Portrait Layout for Luach & Mizrach Compass
• Cleaned up Benching in Ashkenaz and Sefard
• Shows Tachnun After Shavous by Default
• Bug Fix for Rosh Chodesh
• Bug Fix for Nusach Ari text in Benching and Al Hamichya

Also, here is a video demo of the 4.0 iPhone Siddur.

Posted at 6:19 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

I thought 189 was a good score. Well, today I played the game and I scored a 561!

This game is more than just a game. I play against clients and colleagues for bragging rights.

Posted at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

One thing we were able to improve on the Siddur due to the 3.0 iPhone software release was the map feature. We added a native Apple Google Map directly into the Siddur and plotted where some of our Siddur users are using it right at the moment that you are looking at the map.

The main difference that you will notice is the speed of the map loading and the responsiveness of the zoom and panning through the maps.

Here are the new maps:

Zooming In:

What did the old version look like?

Posted at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (6)

One of the features we always wanted on the iPhone Siddur, but could not bring to until the release of the iPhone 3GS was a Mizrach compass.

Basically, Mizrach means east and that is the direction most Jews pray, depending on your current location. In America, you point eastward because that is the direction of Jerusalem or the Kodesh Hakodashim. When you are in Israel, you might not pray eastward, depending on your current location. So this compass plots the longitude and latitude of the Kodesh Hakodashim (the most widely accepted opinion) and then based on your current long/lat and direction (based on the digital compass in the 3GS), we point you in that direction.

Here is a preview of how it works on my iPhone 3GS. We hope to release it shortly.

Posted at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

We were incredibly excited for the 3.0 iPhone software to come out, but it was a major let down for us. Yes, Apple now officially "support" Hebrew, but the Hebrew support is a joke. We wanted this update because many of our applications are Jewish focused. In fact, Hebrew rendered fasted on 2.x then it does in 3.x. The vowels (aka Nekudot) are still off, and the speed is horrible.

We built an application that loads a page of Hebrew text in mobile Safari. I put two iPhone 3G devices next to each other, one running 2.x and the other running 3.x and you can see how much slower the 3.x is running. In fact, it is a full 7 seconds slower.

Just how crazy is that? I submitted this bug to Apple time and time again. The bug ID is 6869094 and you can also submit it at this page.

Posted at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (3)

I have been plagued with the wait 48 hours to be activated message, like many of you. So I was reading the Apple forums and they said, you need to speak to an activation person at AT&T. So I did and it worked. Do this, step by step:

(1) Call 800-331-0500

(2) Dial 0 and then 0 again

(3) Ask the customer rep nicely to activate you.

(4) Give them your SIM Card # and IMEI. To find this quickly, go to "Settings" on your iPhone, click on "General," then "About." The "ICCID" is your SIM card and the one above that, IMEI is the other number they need.

(5) They will ask you to shut down your phone, wait 30 seconds and turn it on.

(6) When the phone turns back on, you should be activated.

LAST item is to make sure your voicemail works. Just call your number, with area code and leave yourself a voice. It will then prompt you a minute later to enter your voicemail password and then your voicemail should work.

Enjoy!

Posted at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (10)

So I just got my iPhone 3GS (3.5 hours ago) and still having activation issues but I thought I test out the video camera.

So I captured two videos with this iPhone. One I uploaded directly from the iPhone to YouTube and the other I downloaded to my desktop via USB. The direct to YouTube does not produce as high a quality video, as compared to the desktop downloaded version. In fact, the one I downloaded from my iPhone to my desktop over USB is HQ (high quality) compatible with YouTube. The one I uploaded directly to YouTube via the iPhone was compressed more and not HQ compatible.

Here is the HQ one:

Notice the "HQ" button in the play bar after you hit play.

Here is direct to YouTube via phone:

I am a bit sick, so please excuse my appearance.

Posted at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

I just got my new iPhone and I go through the steps to activate it. Guess what, I am told that AT&T's servers are too busy with activating iPhones. I will have to wait for mine to be activated. Let me take you through the unboxing and then failure of activation message.

Unboxing the iPhone 3GS:

Now I plug it in, to activate:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4: FAILURE!!!

Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (26)

A couple weeks ago, Yoni Glatt, a writer from the Jewish Press spent about an hour interviewing us about our iPhone apps, specifically about our Jewish iPhone Apps.

That article is now live on both the web and print version. If you do get the Jewish Press or want to pick up a copy (only a $1), you can find the write up on page 27. If you have no way of buying a copy, you can see the web version titled How Apple Made Me A Better Jew. It is an extremely nice and positive article about our apps, as well as some of the other Jewish apps available in the iTunes store.

I personally love the introductory paragraph, which I actually hear often from our customers:

Over the past few weeks, I've become an improved Jew. I learn more, say more brachos, bench more, and didn't have a problem remembering the day in the Omer. I haven't been to Israel recently, didn't have a near death experience that reawakened my spiritual side, nor did I feel empty in my life and decided I needed to search for more meaning. So what caused this recent growth spurt in my Judaism? I got an iPod touch.

Thank you Yoni for the write up!

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Category: RustyBrick , iPhone | Comments (1)

We got lucky, Apple approved our iPhone Siddur today, the day of the release of version 3.7 of our Siddur. This version is officially 3.0 tested by Apple. Here is a screen capture:

Version 3.6 runs incredibly slowly in OS 3.0, so make sure to upgrade to version 3.7 immediately. The only issue is that Apple's iTunes Store seems to be having major issues, so hopefully you will be able to get the update soon.

The next version we release will have many more features and we will label it version 4.0 (that is unless we need to sneak out a quick update for bug fixes to 3.7). To suggest changes to the Siddur, please use Google Moderator.

Posted at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

I was completely prepared to pay the $200 premium for the new iPhone 3GS, when I heard rumors that AT&T and Apple would refund people who are eligible (or close to it) the $200 premium).

Just minutes ago, I received an email from Apple telling me they will refund me $200 within 5 days. In fact, this would make a total of $500 in refunds for all my iPhone purchases. With my iPhone 2G, AMEX gave me $200 back and then Apple gave me $100, totally $300. Now, I am getting a $200 credit for the 3GS, totally $500 back in total.

Last year, the phone sold for the discount anyway, so no official refund on those.

Here is the email:

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

On June 17, AT&T announced a change to their upgrade eligibility policy
and ‘best upgrade pricing’ for qualifying iPhone 3G owners.

Based on AT&T’s updated qualification criteria, we are pleased to inform
you that you are eligible to receive a refund on your recent
iPhone 3G S purchase.

Your Order Acknowledgment and Shipment Notification emails will reflect
the original purchase price. However, Apple will issue you a refund in
the amount of $200.00, which is the difference between your original
purchase price and the new qualifying price.

Apple will process your refund in the next 5 days, and will send you an
email when this has been completed. We will process your refund based
on your original payment method. See below for details.

No additional action is needed on your part for you to receive the
refund. These activities will not impact your estimated delivery dates.

You can view the most up-to-date status of your order, including
monitoring the details of your refund, at online Order Status
.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

Posted at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (3)

Now, us developers need to rate our apps in iTunes Connect. We click on the rate this app icon and then are taken to this screen:

The App Rating icon in the screen shot above, top right icon, changes as you select different radio boxes.

Here are the rating grid info:

Posted at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

Yea, I am a sucker. I ordered the new iPhone 3GS, even thought it will cost me more than $299.

I ordered the 16GB black one, which is the same size and color I have now. I currently use only about 10GB anyway. $100 extra for twice the size was appealing, but I couldn't justify it. In fact, I couldn't justify buying a new one, but I did it cause I am an Apple fan boy that is a sucker for new gadgets.

It started with the Treo. I had the Treo 650 and then I had to get the Treo 700p for the ability to talk on the phone and use the internet at the same time (tethering was key then). Then a year later, I caved and bought the original iPhone, then a year later, I line waiting and purchased the iPhone 3G.

Today, I pre-ordered the iPhone 3GS online and Apple promises to deliver it to my office on June 19th, the same day it becomes available in stores.

No one in my office is surprised I bought the new one. None of my friends or family are surprised either. I am so cheap when it comes to certain things, but with gadgets, I am such a sucker.

Posted at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (8)

Our first ad was pretty neat, but we thought we change it up a bit and make a new version. Does this ad format look similar to something you have seen?

Larger version over here.

Posted at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , RustyBrick , iPhone | Comments (1)

There are dozens of Jewish newspapers, so we decided to test an ad in one of them, to see if it helps spike up the sales of our Jewish iPhone Apps.

Most the ads in these magazines are cluttered and very salesly. We went with an Applistic approach (at least we hope). Our ad will be on the back cover of the Front Page (a New York based weekly circulation):

How about this. If you are one of the first five to take a picture of yourself with the ad and email it to me barry at rusty, I will give you a free app of your choice from the RB selection.

Posted at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Remember the other day I shared stats of the Urinal App with you? Well, I checked yesterday and it made it to the number two one spot in the App Store for free apps.

Update: Now number one as of Saturday:

Here is a screen capture:

That number two app was made by us. How cool!

Posted at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Moving on up! For the first time in our iPhone development history, we have an app that hit the top ten spot in the iPhone App Store. The Urinal Test App built under the IntuApps brand for publisher Hachette is now number 9 in the App Store top free apps list. Here is a picture:

To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to share the scores from those who participated in the game. Top score is 25, here is the chart:

Here is some of the breakdown:

• 19% or most people scored a 22
• 18% scored 21
• 15.5% scored a 23
• 13.5% scored a 20
• 9% scored a 24
• 8.75% scored a 19

Those are the top occurrences for scores on this app.

Posted at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

I need a life. I just played Flight Control after learning that my high score was beaten by a client and I scored a 189!

So I was promoted to a captain:

To become a "test pilot" I need to land 280+ planes!?!?!

Someone actually landed 261 planes? Wow, those are fast fingers.

Posted at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Last week, I gave you all a preview of our Swine Flu app and didn't expect much from it.

We built it, because there were tons of desktop and browser based mashups to get information on the Swine Flu. So we thought it would be both useful and cool to create a location-aware version for the iPhone. So we did.

I then blogged about it and decided to tip off TechCrunch about it. TechCrunch was kind enough to write about it minutes after I tipped them off. The title TC used was awesome: Want To Avoid Swine Flu? There's An App For That Too.

After that, the news took on like wild fire - kinda like an epidemic (pun is intended). CNN covered it, Fox News, TG Daily, and so many more magazines and publications. The BBC actually did a phone interview with me, I assume to broadcast on BBC Radio or TV (we did it over Skype). Plus, I have almost 200 comments on the original blog post.

This was not through Digg or Reddit or Twitter, this was through mainstream media.

Honestly, I did not think it would cause so much discussion or press. I am a bit in awe and shock.

I really wanted more press for our iPhone apps and I guess we got it. But seriously, did not think it would come from this.

Update: Here is some (not even close to all) the press about the app:

• An iphone application to track Swine Flu across the country, Tech Innovations
• Swine Flu fever hits iPhone, TG Daily
• Swine flu mania in the App Store: iPhone application coming soon, iPhone Footprint
• Want to avoid Swine Flu? There’s an app for that, too, STLtoday
• Want to avoid Swine Flu? There’s an iPhone app for that, too, MacDailyNews
• Developer hopes to bring home the bacon with swine flu app, Pocket Picks
• Emergency Mapping, dailywireless.org
• geek speak - Swine Flu Apps For iPhone/iPod, collapsemag.com
• iPhone App Tracks Spread of Swine Flu Virus, Fox News
• Swine flu iPhone app awaiting approval, CNN.com
• Swine Flu tracking app for iPhone, TechShout
• Influenza dell'indirizzo IP nella SEO, Seo Point
• Swine Flu Tracker, CouleurGeek
• Suivre la Grippe A sur iPhone, TechnoBlog
• How the Swine Flu is Affecting Search, Maine SEO Blog
• Life in the Digital Age (FYS 100 J), WFU
• SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 30, 2009, Search Engine Land
• Sigue a la gripe porcina desde tu iPhone o iPod, iPodTotal
• Swine Flu Tracker App For iPhone Awaits Approval, iPhone Savior
• Want To Avoid Swine Flu? There's An App For That Too., Washington Post
• Want To Avoid Swine Flu? There’s An App For That Too., TechCrunch
• iPhone app tells you how, where to avoid swine flu, TechRadar UK
• iPhone Swine Flu Map App, Time To Get Panicky, SoftSailor
• SWINE FLUTHERE'S AN APP FOR THAT TOO!, OutNext
• Techmeme: Want To Avoid Swine Flu? There's An App For That Too. (MG Siegler/TechCrunch), Techmeme

Update: Here is the audio interview from the BBC's Newshour on May 4th, 2009 the clip starts at 32:30 or so. Here is the trimmed down version, thanks to @syneryder:

Posted at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Update: I beat this score and I am now at 187 planes landed, yippeee.

I am a bit addicted to the Flight Control game on the iPhone. The point of the game is to land as many planes in a row without crashing them into each other. You set the flight path and have them land on the correct run way.

In any event, my high score is 108 127, how about you?

Update: Someone commented asking for the "fligh traffic" so I decided to play again and I hit 127. Here is the current flight traffic during the time of the crash... Doesn't look that busy during the crash, but I landed like 6 planes within seconds of each other right after the crash...

Beat that!

Posted at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (8)

Under our IntuApps brand, we released a new iPhone app that has data on the Swine Flu outbreak. Let me take you through the app, which has yet to be approved by Apple. Note, if you want to be notified when the app is live, leave a comment below with your email address and I will notify you.

Starter Page, something simple:

Threat Level Page, a web page that takes info from the WHO's threat level page:

Mapping Swine Flu cases through a Google Maps RSS feed:

Clickable Map details, by clicking on a pin, you can read more details:

Swine Flu Facts:

Swine Flu Alerts pulled from WHO, CDC and HealthMap Twitter accounts. We actually used Yahoo Pipes to consolidate the feeds and host the RSS, which you can see over here. Here is a picture:

Again, to be notified when the app is live, leave a comment below with your email address and I will notify you.

Posted at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (191)

We released a new app under the IntuApps brand today named the Urinal Test. It is basically a game that challenges men to pick the right urinal.

The decision on which urinal to use when in a public bathroom is not always clear. This game tells you if your first instinct is in fact correct or not. We place men in various urinals and you pick which urinal you would use, based on where the other men are standing.

Just click on the urinal you would use. There may be more than one correct answer. The test is 25 questions long and it is for Hachette's The Man's Book.

You can download it for free at iTunes. Hope you enjoy it.

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

A Compete report mentioned by the NY Times blog says that 73 percent of iPhone owners used their mobile devices primarily for personal reasons, such as entertainment. I find that incredibly high, but what do I know.

Personally, I would say I use my iPhone for 90% work. I am constantly checking email when using my iPhone. I am constantly reviewing Google Reader, adding topics to RustyBudget to blog about later. I frequently use my phone for calls with clients. Okay, so I check stocks, weather and on occasion use TwitterFon.

I have downloaded many games, but I rarely ever use them. I rarely even use the iPod, except when flying when I download movies. I rarely ever watch movies, so when I do watch them, it tends to be on planes on my iPhone.

I do use my iPhone to pray three times per day on. I use the iPhone Siddur for weekday prayers every day, except on Shabbos (Saturday). So outside of the Email, Safari, Phone and Siddur, I don't use many other apps on the iPhone.

Again, 90% of my usage would be classified as work related.

TechCrunch gives more insight into the study saying:

The Compete survey reportedly found that 73% of iPhone owners used their mobile devices primarily for personal reasons, but what isn’t detailed is how much time in total they are using their phones - which I imagine is a whole lot more than on other smartphones - and how much more efficient it makes them when they actually do use it for work.

How one classifies work usage in the study can be a big difference.

Posted at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

There are lots and lots of iPhone apps out there and many are backed by big brands. Lilly Gold on her new blog named App Store Marketer posted a Branded iPhone Apps Timeline that plots all the apps release into the iTunes App Store since day one.

Here is that timeline:

Posted at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Last night, Apple approved the iPhone Jewish Radio application we built back about 20 days ago.

It was first rejected because it worked over 3G and Edge. Apple made us make it run over Wifi only. I am not sure why. But we do have a loop hole to get it working on 3G and Edge, if you really need it. ;-)

In any event, we had people already submit new radio stations that we will be adding to the next version. Feel free to submit more!

You can get the iPhone Jewish Radio by clicking here, it is only 99 cents.

Hope you like it!

Posted at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Apple held a developer preview of the 3.0 software update coming to the iPhone. I was watching it on the various live blogging platforms, but primarily on Gizmodo. I felt like a kid in the candy store, almost the whole time, minus some of the demos. It won't be available to most people until the summer time, but I am a developer.

The single biggest feature from a user perspective, for me at least, is the Cut, Copy and Paste. I missed this feature so much, since leaving my Treo and getting the iPhone. In fact, I have learned to totally not expect to copy and paste anything, where now, it doesn't bother me when I need to copy and paste anymore. Weird and scary, but true. So, having this missed feature will do wonders for me.

The new home screen, search and push notifications will also be a major change in how I use the iPhone.

On the developer side, the things we can now add to our products seem to be boundless. Push will be huge, we can do notifications for alerts. Our users will love this. We can also likely integrate calendar data with the iPhone's calendar, again, big plus. I know adding the native maps to our apps, including the Kosher Restaurant app and Siddur user map will be a huge plus.

Now, accessories and how they integrate with apps has blown my mind. They showed a blood pressure machine hooked up to an iPhone, so the machine sends the data to the iPhone for data storage, sharing and charting. A plug in Shofar? A real virtual menorah? A compass accessory for the Siddur for which way is east? Ha!

Also, as a developer, we can now sell upgrades within the app itself through Apple. So if I ever do work out a deal to add English or translation to the Siddur, selling it at an extra "upgrade" fee is possible. Plus, selling app data on a monthly subscription is possible.

Anyway, I just covered some of the many features coming to the iPhone. More details can be found at the SDK page.

Posted at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (7)

Our next app is named the iPhone Jewish Radio. It basically streams a dozen or so free Internet radio shows in the Jewish music niche. I have more details over at rustybrick.com/iphone/jewish-radio and you can sign up to be notified of the new app when it is available over here.

Here is a video demo on how it works:

Feel free to use the HQ version to see it in higher resolution.

Posted at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

After well over a month in the Apple review process, Apple has approved Fluke Music. I thought it would not be approved, but I was wrong.

Here is a video from a while back on how it works:

You can download it now, for free over here. I hope you like it and tell your friends!

Posted at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

This morning, I checked my iPhone to see the reviews for my products and I noticed they said, "no reviews" for virtually all of them. Here is a screen capture:

Figured a bug in the system. Then I remember iTunes upgraded last night. So I checked the iTunes Store and I noticed Apple now breaks down reviews by two categories:

(1) Average rating for the current version, and
(2) Average rating for all versions

Here is a screen capture:

You can then see the current version reviews. As a developer, this is great news and I assume consumers like this as well. Version 1.0 is often not as good as version 5.0. ;-)

To see it in action, check out the siddur app on iTunes.

Posted at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Someone informed me this morning that the Jewish radio station here, JM in the AM, talked about the iPhone Siddur for about four minutes.

Meir Weingarten said he finds it to be "amazing" and seems to really love it. I always love hearing unsolicited comments about our products, especially when people love them. In fact, the iPhone Megillah was a huge hit over Purim.

If you are interested, listen to his review below:

Keep in mind, he only touched on a few of the many features in the iPhone Siddur.

We actually released a new version of the iPhone Siddur yesterday with some updates. It should be released within the next several days as a free update.

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

When I went to Israel a couple months ago, I was ecstatic to to have an international data plan for my iPhone. It really let me enjoy my time in Israel, knowing that I can be connected all the time, where ever I went.

But it is not enough to be connected to the Internet on just my iPhone. A couple months ago, I used the hotel's internet, which was pretty expensive (I think $15 per day) to connect my laptop. Then with the international plan at about $10 a day also, it added up.

I will be heading back to Israel via a Blogger Delegation via the NY Israeli Consulate. This time, I can take advantage of renting a wireless data card.

I received an email from TravelCell.com a few weeks after I returned from Israel that they know how internet cards PDF available for Israel at an unlimited data rate. So I just signed up for the weekly plan, which includes a free cell phone rental (minutes are extra but free incoming).

Will the internet card be too slow? I am not sure. I did some speed tests in Israel over my iPhone and it was actually faster then my brothers Israel internet. So I hope it isn't too bad.

I will report back my experience.

The only downside right now is that they charge your credit card for $500 as a security deposit. You got that, they do not just "authorize" the card for the deposit, they actually charge you $500. Then when you return it, they promise to refund the $500. Outside of that, so far so good.

And I have learned to activate my AT&T international plan on the way to the airport, as to not pay for days that I am not overseas.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Travels , iPhone | Comments (0)

Passover is now just around the corner and in preparation for that, we have built a free Sefirat Ha'Omer iPhone application to help you Jews count the omer between Pesach and Shavout.

It is a fairly simple application. You open it, it shows you the blessing, the day to say and the ending brachot, with the day included.

It changes every day at about 3pm (your local time).

Here is a picture:

Sign up to be notified at the Sefirat Ha'Omer iPhone app page.

Posted at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

A couple days ago, I noticed the number of reviews for the iPhone Siddur dropped from 101 reviews to 79 reviews, over night. I scratched my head and forgot about it.

The next day, I saw a comment from my post about anti-semitic comments in iTunes that Apple has removed them because they removed reviews from people who did not pay or download the app.

Apple must have removed tens of thousands of reviews. MacRumors said that SEGA's Super Monkey Ball count dropped from 4197 reviews down to 3710. So logically, if you add up the apps and the possible number of fake reviews, those numbers are probably very high, probably in the tens of thousands or more.

Personally, I am just glad they got rid of the anti-semitic iPhone app review that has been on some of my apps since September 2008.

Posted at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Some of you know about our pretty popular iPhone app named Fluke. It basically find random apps and let's you explore them. It is a fun and useful app to discover new apps, when you have the time.

So we decided to release a new app, just like it, but for music. We named it Fluke Music and it randomly finds music, and allows you to filter by category of music (i.e. Jazz, country, rock, etc.) The cool part of the app is that it streams 20 second samples of the tracks over the Internet. So you open the app and it just plays music and random, which is very fun, imo. The purpose is to help music lovers discover new songs, that they may have not discovered otherwise.

Great concept, right? Well, it seems to me that Apple doesn't think so. It seems to me that Apple might forever keep this app in the "In Review" status. Why do I think that? Well, we released a couple apps after submitting this app and those were either approved or rejected already and this one just remains stuck in this status. No response from Apple. We had a similar issue with a client app and it is still not resolved. Do you think Apple doesn't like this app because it plays music samples?

Here is a video that demonstrates the app in action:

Do you think they don't like it because it links both to iTunes and Amazon (a competitor) to buy the song? I am not sure. Maybe I am thinking up conspiracy theories?

Posted at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Gary Price tipped me off... This is so cool! I can now record shows on my DVR from my iPhone. I was excited when they allowed me to do this via the web with FiOS Remote DVR, but now it even works on my iPhone.

Here are screen by screens from my iPhone:

My Verizon Mobile home page:

FiOS TV Central mobile:

Now, I login with my Verizon account (notice it now says "Sign Out" at the top right):

I can now scan TV listings in my area:

I can view a listing by clicking "more info":

And I can even record a show:

I checked and it is actually scheduled to record on my DVR box!

Other features include:

• Record Shows by searching for the show name
• Bookmark new videos on demand
• Change parental controls
• Browse TV listings, noted above
• Browse top purchased videos on demand
• View status of your set top boxes
• Browse or record prime time shows
• Browse or record top tv shows

Below I will include more screen shots. I am sure these menus will change over time.

What can't you do that you can do on the non-mobile site? One thing I see is the ability to delete DVRed shows but I am sure there are other things.

Posted at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

I am a strong believer or adopter of using technology to increase efficiency and utility. Automation, streamlining, and efficiencies are core to my way of working. In all honesty, I am a bit of an efficiency nut. Even the way I enter or leave my house, is done so with the most efficiency as possible, to not waste a second. I am crazy.

So when I see car concepts from companies like Ringspeed named iChange, I get excited. iPhone-controlled car to demo at Geneva Motor Show via MacWorld explains that Ringspeed is demoing a car that using the iPhone as a way to control certain elements of the car. It replaced your keys, and I already have those smart access keys for my car and I would love to ditch them, and my other keys, in place of my iPhone. Yes, access control can go wrong, as I experienced first hand, but I would much rather put up with those issues on a rare occasion than to have to carry extra keys. Let me do away with all my keys!

Back to the iChange, here is a picture of the inside of the car, take a look at the left top of the picture, the iPhone holder:

The iPhone will also turn on and off your headlines (which I am not impressed with, because that should be automated based on if it is raining or dark outside).

The cool thing is that this care is the "world's first car whose body adapts to the number of passengers on board." Now that is cool!

Posted at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Motor Vehicle , iPhone | Comments (1)

In time, we hope, for the Jewish holiday of Purim, we submitted a new (FREE) app to Apple's iTunes iPhone App Store. The new app is named Megillas Esther. What does it do?

(1) It has the Book of Esther in Hebrew so you can follow along Purim night and morning at Synagogue.

(2) It has five different noise makers, such as a machine gun, firecrackers, air horn, crowd booing and a gragger.

Here are screen captures:

Intro Screen:

The app itself:

To activate the sounds, you click on the related icons at the bottom. For a random sound, you just shake it. :)

Anyway, you can get it now in the iTunes Store.

Happy Purim!

Posted at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

For my Jewish iPhone people out there. The Mikvah iPhone application is now available for purchase in the iPhone.

I guess the best way for me to show how this app works is to do a video. So here it is:

You can buy this app by clicking here.

Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

If you are a web analytics junkie like me and you use Google Analytics for most of your tracking and you have an iPhone (got that). Then you will love this new app from Michael Jensen named Analytics App. I did a 3 minute video demo of the application. This is really worth the $6, if you meet the above criteria. More discussion on the app can be found at Techmeme.

This is a great app for people like me. Thanks Michael!

Posted at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Category: SEO Tips , iPhone | Comments (0)

Apple just approved one of our most annoying iPhone apps. So annoying, I think it will do incredibly well. It is called Feedback and it is available for free on iTunes.

Basically, it produces that feedback sound you get from speakers. You know, the ear piercing, annoying sound, when you put a microphone next to a speaker.

I created a quick video to demonstrate it, here it is:

Posted at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

Based on popular request, we have built a new application for the iPhone that is named the Mikvah iPhone app. But it does a lot more than look up the closest Mikvah. It has Mikva'ot Database, Vestos or Taharas Mishpacha Schedules, Mikvah Zmanim, Family Purity Guidelines, Mikvah Checklist, Contacts and Privacy with Password Protection.

For those of you who are not observant Jews or Jews at all. This is called Taharas HaMishpacha. In short, this tool is to help observant Jews practice the strict laws of the relationship between a man and wife. There are tons and tons of laws around this and I won't get into the details, but if you want to read about it, in pieces at Wikipedia on Niddah, Mikvahs and Jewish Marriage.

Outside of that, I am way too tired to write up the screen by screen again, so just look at what I wrote and the screen captures at rustybrick.com/iphone/mikvah. A ton of work went into this program.

Here are some of those screen captures:

Posted at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (9)

I am in Israel now and I have had time to really test out my iPhone using local ISP speeds but why not post the speed results I get on my iPhone in Israel.

Here is a speed test result set from the Speed Test app for the iPhone:

The first 3G result set is the 3G speeds I am getting in Israel. Max 471 down and 181 up. The WiFi result, directly under that is my brother's wifi connection, which is slower than the 3G at a max of 440 (average of 138) down and 53 up. You can see, I ran it twice and the speed is more like 140 down, which is much less than the 3G network here. The next 3G result is from New York area, which is about the same as in Israel.

Here is a later subset of results that shows speeds much higher. In some locations in the US, the 3G network got as fast as 1120 down. But my FiOS connection is super fast showing 5764 down and 3049 up, which is slower then my previous report of 12664 down and 3149 up.

Posted at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Category: Travels , iPhone | Comments (2)

I just signed up for the Data Global Add-Ons for Smartphones, PDAs and iPhone from AT&T for my iPhone. Yes, I was very excited to learn that this was expanded to Israel recently. Today, I ordered the most expensive option, because I need to assume I will use what I use here in the states, on a high day for my trip to Israel.

Normally, I am on WiFi networks here. But on Sunday's I notice my usage on the data network spikes. So I picked the highest usage, which is about 6MB and went based on that. I signed up today, which gives me 80MB of usage until I get back to the states. Here is a picture of my data usage bar in my account for this international plan:

I will use the data plan probably 10 days, maybe less. Also, 4 of those days, I will be around wifi networks, most of the day. So I should have plenty of data to not go over the plan. If I do, I get hit with a fee of $.005/KB - which can get bad, quickly with the iPhone.

Now my only concern is battery life...

Posted at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Travels , iPhone | Comments (0)

Apple just approved two new apps we released recently. They are virtually the same app, but one is named the iPhone Shabbos Clock and the other is named iPhone Auto Shutoff Alarm Clock. Let me explain how they work.

On Shabbos, religious Jews are not allowed to use the iPhone, amongst hundreds of other things. So we cannot set a normal alarm clock to wake us up for morning services on Saturday. Why? Because we cannot shut the alarm off from beeping. So they make special alarm clocks that turn themselves off after X seconds or minutes.

So we built the same idea, as an iPhone app, and named one for the Jewish crowd (i.e. iPhone Shabbos Clock) and one for the non-Jewish world (i.e. iPhone Auto Shutoff Alarm Clock), if it is helpful for non-Jewish people to have an alarm that turns off by itself.

Now that you understand the need for it and why we have two of the same app, just named for each market, let me show you how it works...

You can set up to three alarms:

You can then set how many seconds the alarm should go off for:

Once you set it, the time will show in landscape mode only:

Important things to note: Touching the screen will not do anything, except for hitting set alarm. We do this on purpose, because we don't want you to do anything by accident to the phone when it is on Shabbos. Turning the phone won't change the orientation, again - a shabbos thing. Also, make sure to keep your phone or iPod Touch plugged in, because it keeps the app open and doesn't shut off the phone or sleep it, while it is on. Also, the App must be open for it to alarm. Finally, make sure your volume is loud enough to wake you. Got all of that?

You can get the Shabbos version over here for 99 cents and the Standard version over here for 99 cents.

Posted at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (1)

It is possible for the iPhone to become a Breathalyzer? Well - not yet, but we can fake it.

We recently built the Breathalyzer Test for the iPhone. It is basically a really life like hoax. This is how it works.

Step 1: Set the hoax on your friend, so set how drunk you want them to be. It has a random setting also... Hit Done.

Step 2: Give the iPhone to your friend and tell him to hit the green blinking button in the middle of the device and then breath a slow, steady blow into the microphone.

Step 3: The results will come back with what you set and your friend will laugh.

If your friend does not breath for a steady 3 seconds, it will return a fail message:

Just press the green button again to start the test again.

This has sound effects, it really detects breathing and it is really convincing.

There is another test like this out there now (launched the same day) but it doesn't detect breathing in the mic, it doesn't have sound effects either.

Get it for 99 cents at iTunes.

Posted at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Software piracy is a huge business, it costs software developers a lot of money, but it also costs software consumers a lot of money, because it is built into the price of the software.

Software piracy is not only an issue with desktop software but with mobile software, like iPhone apps. I read an interesting write up named Game Developer Confronts iPhone Software Cracker. It basically discusses the rational of why software pirates feel they are entitled to steal and distribute the stolen software, for free, to those that do not want to pay for it. It is a must read.

When we found out that our iPhone Siddur was on the torrent list of apps stolen and being distributed, we were actually some what excited. I mean, if your app is good enough to make a list of apps that people want to steal, well - that says something. But the article above doesn't agree with that rational. So now I don't know what to think. I mean, 99% of our users gave us five star reviews, so clearly, the app is worth the $10 to 99% of the folks out there.

Anyway, I keep track of our sales and I also know how many people have the iPhone Siddur on their iPhones. I can tell you that there are about 30% more Siddurs on iPhone than what was paid for. This can happen for two reasons:

(1) They stole it via a torrent site or
(2) They use the same iTunes account as a friend or family member and downloaded it on their iPhone as the same iTunes user.

What I find nice is that several people have either emailed us or called us asking us permission to do #2. I always say yes, and I really appreciate the email. Some have even gone as far as to send us money, not through Apple, because they felt it was the right thing to do. Again, appreciated.

But for iPhone Developers to continue making products and improving them, we need the income. I do believe that stolen releases lead to other people buying it. Overall, I don't think this is a major issue for most of my products but I can see this being an issue for other developers.

Posted at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

Over the weekend, our latest app was released. This app is named fluke - random iPhone app finder. In short, it will show you a random app each time you shake the phone.

I consider this app to be the perfect app for the toilet.

I know, I know, I am very against using your phone in a public bathroom, very against it. But honestly, there are tons of people who do it. So instead of yapping away on your phone and disturbing the guy or gal next to you in the other stall, use this app. It is quiet, easy to use, fun and you can strike gold with it.

You basically shake it, it finds a random app, and you can either click over to the App Store from it, email it, or look at your history of what you saw. In addition, you can filter what you want to see (i.e. free apps in the lifestyle and entertainment categories), if you so please.

You can get the app for free at rustybrick.com/iphone/fluke/get/.

Posted at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

So you know we have been working on what we are calling the "social" version of the iPhone Siddur. You saw the Misheberach lists where you can add and share the names on your Misheberach list with other iPhone Siddur folks. Well, let me show you some of the other features we added to 3.0, but let me say, there are more social features coming in future 3.x versions.

You can now add custom events to the Luach (Jewish Calendar). It was one of our more popular requests. Here is how it works. You go to Siddur, click on "More" and click on "Luach Events". You can then add or delete events. Here is me adding Rav Moshe Feinstein's Yahrzeit, but you can add any event you want.

You can set it by Hebrew date or English date, but it always uses the Hebrew date for going forward (i.e. it converts English date to the matching Hebrew date). It then adds it to the list view and also to the other views. If you view it, it looks like this:

FYI, you can add up to three events and if there are other white bars of information, it will override the bottom three, if it must. This does not support notifications via integration of the iPhone calendar or via email. When Apple allows us to integrate this information, we may do that. We might also release a standalone Luach app that has many more features with email reminders and so on - so stay tuned.

We also added a "Map View," which will show you who is using the iPhone around the globe. Don't worry, this can be turned off in the settings, but even if it is on, we don't share your information. We just plot you as a pin in the Google Map. Yes, you can zoom in and out with the multi-touch gestures.

For all the features in 3.0, see the version history page. We submitted it a couple hours ago, hope it is approved soon!

Posted at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

Remember I was thrilled to see MacWorld mention our app? Well, they did it again.

This time in an article iPhone apps round-up: Wine reviews, Hanukkah apps, and the inauguration where we get a second mention.

Also we got another mention to add to our iPhone Siddur Buzz from the JTA.

We have some cool social features coming down the pipe for the Siddur, so it should be an attention getter.

Posted at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Download the New Year's Blowout Horn in time for the New Years! It is an app we built for a company we co-own named IntuApps. In short, it is a app you can blow into, and it will replicate the sound and action of a new years party horn. It is free and can be downloaded for your iPhone at the iTunes store.

Here is a video of it in action, I hope the glare isn't too bad:

Posted at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

AppVee has reviewed the Little BlackBook iPhone app. He did a fairly thorough review and I am happy with his comments. The video is below.

Posted at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

We are currently at version 2.8 for the iPhone Siddur, that is 12 upgrades in a short period of time. I live on this Siddur, it is incredibly useful and even interactive. The Jewish iPhone community, overwhelming, loves it.

For 3.0 features, we want to make the Siddur more "social." The first step is a much requested feature, called Mishaberachs. A Mishaberach is basically a way to say a prayer for sick people. Now, many folks, unfortunately, have someone they say a Mishaberach for. But at the same time, it is a wonderful thing to say Mishaberachs for people that you don't necessarily know.

So we built a Mishaberach system that not only lets you add your own list, but also:

1. Let's you share the names with the iPhone community
2. Lists your Mishaberach list in the siddur in the relevant places and/or lists the public Mishaberach list in the siddur in the relevant places

Let me show you how it works...

(A) We replaced the "Help" icon on the bottom right navigation with a "More..." button, it opens up and gives you the Mishaberach option, Settings option (which just explains how to access your settings) and the Help info.

(B) Click on Mishaberach and you are taken to pick either "My List" or "Public List." Public list requires internet....

(C) You can then enter a name into your list. First name and Mothers name (currently Hebrew only), person a male or female and if you want the name on the public list or not. If you select public list, you must have internet access to submit the name (if not, you can't submit it to the public list).

(D) Here is the "My List" view, right after you added a new name. See the confirmation prompt. Behind that, you see the list view. You can either delete, change the order or add a new one. You cannot edit right now, instead, just delete the name and add a new one (same thing), just more time for you typing.

(E) Here is the public list view (not much you can do here) and yes, you need Internet to see it:

(F) "My List" names appear directly under the portions of the Siddur text where they come into play. Shemona Estri and Torah Reading:

(G) If you have Internet, it will give you a plus sign and link to open up the public list: Clicking on the plus sign will open up a list of names, the number of names is based on your settings, and the names are random and should never show yours in the public list:

(I) In the Settings area, we added two options for Mishaberachs. The first is if you want to see the public list option (the hyperlink and plus sign) in the Siddur. And the second is, if so, then how many names do you want to show there?

That is the first true "social" feature of the Siddur. We hope to add a bunch more in the 3.x versions including added features to the Luach for Yahrzeits, Birthdays and Anniversaries. More social Minyanim features. And then something really cool that you will think is really cool - but I won't share yet. :)

Once 2.8 is approved, we may release a 2.9 with small revisions or may just release 3.0 with this feature and some small text revisions - it depends on if there are pressing issues with 2.8.

Posted at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (5)

Remember I told you my replace Incase for my iPhone broke? Yea, the case I got to replace my original ripped case, is now in. I got the slider again, they were quick, I am happy again.

Wish I had more time to expand on this, but honestly, what can I say.

Well, I am a blogger, so I can say alot about nothing... But I have like no time and I want to blog a few more things before sundown.

Posted at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

This is the second time in 5 days that I have to restore my iPhone to factory settings. I have no idea why. First time was Thursday night, right before leaving work, I was going to sync my iPhone with iTunes. I plug it in, and iTunes pops open a message that reads, "iTunes cannot read the contents of the iPhone "XXX iPhone". Go to the Summary tab in iPhone preferences and click Restore to restore this iPhone to factory settings."

Here is a picture:

Thursday night, I ended up staying two hours later at work (about 9pm) and wasn't able to do something I needed. It was bad timing.

This morning, well, I just hit restore, let it go and then sync it up again. It can run, I don't have to worry about needing to go somewhere. I do have meetings, but they are all in the office today - so no worries for me.

I am currently up to the resyncing my apps part.

I suspect there is something corrupt on my iPhone and I may have to start from a really old back up, like from my original iPhone backup. But I really don't want to. In all honesty, I use MobileMe for my contacts and calendar, so that data - appears to be safe. I can alway re-download the apps I want. And then reconfigure my preferences, but I rather not go through that. This process of restoring takes a couple hours - but it is more hands off. The process of starting over, well - that can take days and is very hands on.

I am not the only one with this issue, just check Google and see all the complaints.

Posted at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

You don't know how excited I was to see the iPhone Menorah that we built at RustyBrick, included in a review at Macworld named Review: iPhone holiday apps.

Heck, Macworld magazine is one of the few magazines I read offline. And to see one of our apps mentioned, well - it is really nice.

However, yes - there is a but... Our mention is only at the wayyyy bottom of the article in a short two liner under the title of "Not just Christmas." The author, Ben Boychuk, wrote:

I would be remiss to not make note of a handful of Hanukkah-related applications. In addition to Andrew Grant’s Hanukkah Holiday List app, LilBros and RustyBrick sell Menorah lighting applications.

Not only that, we did not even get the privilege of getting a true Macworld review, you know, the ones with those little mice, from one mouse to five little mice. How sad...

But overall, I am happy!

Posted at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (0)

We decided to enable people to translate Hebrew to English or English to Hebrew. There are English to Hebrew dictionaries and translators, but not Hebrew to English. Why? Cause no one made a keyboard that was approved by Apple, until us. So we made it work from Hebrew to English, in addition to English to Hebrew.

We used the Google Translate API to do the translation. That means two things:

(1) You need internet to make the app work.
(2) This app is free, cause the terms says "the service may be used only for services that are accessible to your end users without charge."

Here is one screen shot, more at Hebrew / English Translator iPhone App:

To be notified of when it goes live, go to the Hebrew / English Translator iPhone App and sign up there.

Posted at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

We did it! We made a complete Tanach for your iPhone. You can read all of Tanach, directly on your iPhone. But not only that, you can also search it! I posted the details at rustybrick.com/iphone/tanach, and you can sign up there to be notified of when it goes live (or to download it directly when it does go live).

Here is a screen by screen demo:

Browse through the Tanach, including Torah (Chumash), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (writing or scriptures) and all the books within them:

Search for specific words or phrases of Tanach:

Email or Bookmark verses by clicking on a verse:

Here is the bookmarks page:

Here is a look at the text, this Megillah of Esther:

Here is viewing the book of Bereshit (בראשית) by parsha view:

Here is the same book but by chapter view:

We put the "settings" feature in the app, so you can adjust your font size:

So happy that the Hebrew iPhone Email was approved, cause that gave us the go ahead to build the Tanach iPhone App.

Again, to download it go to rustybrick.com/iphone/tanach.

Posted at 3:36 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (2)

Last night, Apple gave developers the ability to give out promo codes for their apps, so they can give their apps out for free to certain people.

You are limited to 50 promo codes per application, per version. People are complaining that this is too small of a number, but honestly, 50 per version, not per developer and not per app, per version of an application. So as long as you release a new version, you get a new 50.

That being said, I want to give the first five people who comment a free app from the RustyBrick selection. So go find an app you want, comment below with your app preference and make sure you use your email address, so I can email you the code.

The first five comments that are approved get a free RB iPhone app.

To redeem the codes you go to US iTunes Store > Redeem (right) > Enter Code > App Downloads instantly.

Posted at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (18)

Ronnie today is at the iPhone Tech Talk right now in Millennium Broadway Hotel.

From what I hear so far, it seems like he is learning a thing or two. Plus he is meeting important contacts and so on.

Topics being covered there include:

• iPhone Development Overview
• Introduction to Objective-C and Cocoa Touch
• iPhone User Interface Design
• Getting Started with iPhone Web Applications
• Technical Q&A
• iPhone Development Tools Overview
• iPhone Game Development Technologies, part 1: Graphics & Video
• Using Advanced Web Technologies on iPhone
• Developing iPhone Applications with UIKit
• iPhone Game Development Technologies, part 2: Audio, Touch Input, Accelerometer, and Multiplayer
• Integrating iPhone with IT
• Advanced UIKit and Device Features
• Maximizing Your Application's Performance on iPhone
• In-house Application Development for iPhone
• Submitting to the App Store using iTunes Connect

Posted at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

We take a lot of pride in our iPhone Siddur, I mean, really, there is nothing that comes close to it in the app store and we are constantly improving it and adding new features. It shows.

The folks at AppCraver.com reviews our Siddur and gave it a nine out of ten, which is pretty up there for their reviews.

The best part of the review is that he had his wife give it a spin. I'll quote you:

To get an idea of just how intuitive Siddur really is, I handed my iPhone to Lorri and told her to take it for a test spin. To Lorri a phone is something you talk to people on. Apps? She couldn’t care less. Within minutes, she was able to put the app through its paces and declared it a winner.

Building out a logical user interface wasn't easy when it came to building on a new platform. But over time, it really started to click and it shows.

Not only is this Siddur incredibly packed with tons of features, those features (seem) to be easy to use and logical to use.

Thanks for such a wonderful review.

Posted at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

I take my iPhone out of my pocket this morning and I noticed it cracked. Very very upsetting. The bottom piece has a crack in it. What is crazy is that this is not the first time this has happened.

My original Incase ripped and they kindly replaced it with a more sturdy and solid slider case version. But this more solid version cracked also, in a similar position.

Here are some pictures:

Off to contact them to see if they can replace this one also.

Posted at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

One of the top requests is to build a Hebrew keyboard. The Hebrew keyboard is not officially supported by Apple yet, so we built one based on an image. Why is this important?

Now, people can type, email and search in Hebrew. Well, kind of at least.

Our first app that supports the hebrew keyboard is a simple app that basically allows you to type an email subject and an email body, in Hebrew, and then sends that data to the native Apple email client.

Here is how it works:

Gray bar is where you enter in the subject and the white area is the body of the email. There is no spell check or auto complete. :)

When you are ready, you hit "Send to Mail" and it puts that content directly in the Mail application on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

If you want to add English or numbers to the email, here is where you do it.

There are Hebrew keyboards for the iPhone but only through Jailbreaking your iPhone.

Now, if Apple approves this, then this should be the first Hebrew keyboard approved for the iPhone. In addition, it gives us tons of possibilities for other apps. Such as a way to search tanach, and other jewish texts. It also gives us the ability to create more interactive Jewish and Hebrew apps.

Very excited to get this live. We posted this tonight to Apple for 99 cents. Again, this app is more of a test to see if Apple will approve it and if so, we can take it from there.

Posted at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

A lot of people who are interested in the changes we make to the iPhone Siddur also want to see screen captures. So, we just released version 2.7, which will likely be available for download by the end of the week. Changes include:

* Changes Location Manager to Scroll Wheel
* Zmanim & Minyanim use same Location Manager system
* Location is remembers from previous setting
* Location Manager opens automatically when location can't be found
* Clicking on date at top of Zmanim will open up date selector tool
* Upload revised Chabad Krias Shema
* Added in missing portion in Chabad Benching
* Misc text corrections
* Updated Help Documentation

But here are pictures:

Here is what it looks like to scroll through locations:

Adding/Editing/Sorting/Deleting Locations:

Date Selector:

Same features on Minyan screen:

Removed several redundant options from Settings screen:

Posted at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

I played Twinkle Twinkle on the Ocarina on my iPhone, how about on the keyboard on my iPhone.

Here it goes:

Posted at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Category: Music , iPhone | Comments (2)

Saturday night I downloaded and shared the Ocarina instrument for your iPhone. In any event, I have been messing around with it a bit, maybe 30 minutes of time from then until now. I can play music off a sheet.

Here is me playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

And the coolest part is not my music abilities, but the ability to watch others play music on this application around the globe:

How cool!

Posted at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Category: Music , iPhone | Comments (0)

I am in awe. Just downloaded Ocarina for my iPhone, I am in awe. Two videos below show you how it works. Well, kinda - cause it is even cooler than this.

Posted at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (3)

We just pushed version 2.0 of iPhone Kosher app to Apple. Hopefully it will be published soon. The update is pretty significant. Here are the details:

(1) Added hundreds of restaurants from Israel, England and France.
(2) Added a start screen signup/settings
(3) Users can now add reviews
(4) Users can now add/edit/delete restaurants
(5) Users can now read detailed reviews

Now for the screen captures:

(1) Things we ask as start up:

(2) Notice the update button on the top left (it can also run automatically on start up), notice the plus button on the top right. This is what it looks like when it is updating:

(3) Confirmation it has been updated:

(4) Action buttons to add/read review, change data, add/remove from favorites:

(5) Adding a review slides up this first page:

Clicking next slides up the next page:

This is the third and last review page, at top right, you can post the review or hit the back button to cancel that:

Confirmation:

(6) Reading Reviews:

(7) Modifying Restaurant details gives you the details in edit mode. There are three or so pages of details that can be modified. All modifications go through our approval. Yes, you can also try to delete on place.

(8) Adding a new place gives you a blank form to work with. Again, we approve them all manually:

Those are some of the new features that should take this app to the next level. I am very excited to enable the iPhone users to contribute to this app and database.

Posted at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (1)

When I wrote about the Anti Semitism on iTunes App Reviews I know that more than one of you went to iTunes and reported the comment as offensive. In fact, I know at least five people did. I am sure more did, especially after I pointed it out.

Guess what? It is still there!

Here is a screen capture I took last night of the review in iTunes:

Apple, what do I need to do? Call Steve Jobs?

Posted at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

Getting hungry just thinking about it! You can get the new Kosher iPhone App by searching for "rustybrick" or "kosher" in the App Store or by using this link.

The price is only $1.99 now, but the next release will give you the ability to add new kosher institutions, edit them and even review them, as long as you have Internet. You can use the app without internet, but you need Internet to add/edit/review. The next will release will cost more money, so if you download this one now, you will lock yourself into this price.

Posted at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (1)

We uploaded the iPhone Menorah to Apple's App Store today, I assume it will be approved by the end of this week and available for FREE download to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Here is a preview of what it does....

Login screen:

Tells you when Chanukah is:

Has the blessings and prayers in Hebrew:

English:

And Transliterated:

On the night of Chanuak, it tells you how many to light and in which direction (we use our custom for this, sorry):

And you see that "audio" button? Well, if you click it, you hear a beautiful recitation of the blessings. Honestly, it is really nicely done by our friend Moshe Kiss.

To be notified when it is available, fill out your email at iPhone Menorah page.

Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (0)

We have built several iPhone apps over the course of a few months. Some are more useful than others. But to call one of my apps "pointless" or "shameful" to the iPhone, well - that just crosses the line.

TechRadar's 16 totally pointless apps that shame the iPhone, which is on the front page of Digg now, claims that my parking meter app is pointless.

I'll quote you:

11. Parking Meter

If you really can't remember where you parked or when the meter runs out, you've probably forgotten how to drive too. Get off the road!

This guy clearly does not drive or own a car in a city with more than 100 people. I live in NY, when you park your car at a mall or any large parking lot, they label the parking spots in color, numbers and letters for this purpose. How many times have you received a ticket cause you were in a meeting, lost track of time and forgot to fill the meter in time? How many times have you had to walk around a parking lot longer than you wanted to, because you forgot exactly where you parked. Heck, there is even a Seinfeld about this!

Several comments at Digg back my app already. But comeon people, back me up.

This Gary Marshall guy must wake up! NYC makes a ton of money on expired meters, its a business and to say that people who have let the meter expire have "forgotten how to drive too" and "should get off the road," is plain dumb.

Posted at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

We are almost done building out a Kosher application for the iPhone. Here are some screen captures. Note, we get our data from a new site named notjustgefilte.com and they have over 2,000 records in their database. They are constantly adding more and this application should add a ton to their database. Here are the screens:

Start Screen:

Nearest Kosher Restaurants to my current location (uses GPS):

Search for specific locations, like where I am going now:

Kosher Restaurant detail view (we will make it prettier):

Kosher Symbols database:

Kosher Symbols detail page:

Blessings for before and after you eat:

Yes, there are more blessings when you scroll down.

Also, there will be a favorites section, I just didn't show it.

We hope to release it shortly.

Posted at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (6)

Got back from a meeting recently and got pretty excited to see the news on Techmeme that AT&T is working with Apple to bring a tethering option to the iPhone.

What that means is that you will be able to use your iPhone as a wireless modem for your computer to connect to the Internet (over 3G where available). I had this with my Treo, where Verizon Wireless charged me $5 more per month to add the "tethering" package. But now, with the iPhone and AT&T, I was unable to do this (at least legally). So I had to buy a wireless broadband card from Verizon Wireless to make sure I have Internet access on my laptop everywhere I go.

I will "soon" be able to drop the Verizon Wireless service ($60 per month) and just add on a tether option to my AT&T iPhone plan. Can't wait!

Posted at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

Via CrunchGear, here is the video demo of a hacked in keyboard for the iPhone:

Posted at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

I am very excited to announce that today, we posted the first release of the iPhone Little Black Book. The name says it all. It basically is an application to securely keep track of your dates. It is a database application that hooks up the contacts to the places you took them and also to gives you details about each date. So if you went out with Jill 3 times, you can add where you took Jill and write about each of those three dates. As you build up your database, you can rate the contacts, the venues and the dates themselves. The beauty is that you can search this for later and quickly find a hot date or great place to take a date, at any time.

Let me take you through some of the screens of the iPhone Little Black Book:

Cover screen, pretty no?:

Individual contact screen has the ability to take a new picture or use a picture from your photos. You can copy a contact from your contacts or add a new one. You can rate the person, tag the person and add notes, plus more. As you can see, the contact has a link the "dates" you went on with this person and "places" you took this person. Clicking on those buttons will filter the results by this contact for the places or dates.

Venue detail screen: As you can see, this is a record for a venue. You can enter in the venue's location, pictures, web site, rate it, tag it, and so on. Here is a screen shot:

Dates in List View: Here is a screen capture showing the dates you went on in chronological order and by favorites order:

Customized Skins: Right now we offer three different "skins" to choose from:

Secure & Lock Down: You can lock down the app to a secure it with a password:

As you can imagine, there are tons of way to expand this application. This is just the beginning and I am excited for Apple to approve it.

To be notified for when this 99 cent app goes live (introductory price only), sign up at the iPhone Little Black Book page.

Posted at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (6)

I let my home screens, all 8 or so of them, get messy. I am way too lazy to move my iPhone icons around until they are perfect. The way you do it on the iPhone is good for one or two changes, but not for mass app movement.

So, a feature request for Apple would be to be able to organize your iPhone apps on your desktop. Probably part of iTunes or something.

You load up iTunes, click on your iPhone, then click on "Organize" or something like that. Then you are shown all your home screens on one screen. You can then move each app from one location to a different location, all via your mouse.

That would seriously speed things up for me.

I doubt it is on the top of Apple's todo list and I honestly should submit it as a request, but maybe if others agree, we can all submit this as a request to apple.

Posted at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (3)

This morning, a friend of mine, pointed me in the direction of a New York Post article named FAITH GOES WIRELESS. The article praises (no pun intended), a product called JewBerry. It is basically a Jewish prayer book for the BlackBerry.

Why am I a little upset with the NY Post article? Well, to be honest, the iPhone Siddur uses technology that JewBerry hopes to use in the future, according to the article. The iPhone Siddur already uses GPS and localization features to locate the nearest minyan, it already uses GPS to figure out the times to pray (including into that, altitude), it had all the features and more. In fact, we might even add in the feature to find a minyan now (although most people don't request it, it was an idea I had on day one).

So why did JewBerry get the feature and not the iPhone Siddur? Don't get me wrong. Jonathan Bennett, the creator of JewBerry is an awesome guy. In fact, we shared with him our minyan technology, and he hooked us up with some Chabad nusach text. He is a really nice guy and deserve it.

My only question is, how do I get major publications to cover the iPhone Siddur? Almost all of the buzz already created around the iPhone Siddur is either Jewish paper related or blogs. How do I get it into a major publication?

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (8)

Below are some of the articles, blog posts and discussions I found around the iPhone Siddur since we launched it. If you have ways of getting more buzz out to the appropriate market, please do.

• Siddur now available for iPhone, Jerusalem Post
• Siddur available for iPhone, JTA
• Get your prayer on...the iPhone, jew-ish.com
• El Siddur podr leerse en el iPhone, sisoyjudio
• Siddur and Zemanim Now Available for iPhone, Matzav.com
• SIDDUR AVAILABLE FOR IPHONE, Jewish Times of South Jersey
• Siddur software available for iPhone, jewishsf.com
• Phone a Prayer ?, Emanuel Rochester NY
• Barry Schwartz creates a siddur that you can download to your iPhone, Jewish Community Online
• iPhone App Developer Spotlight: Barry Schwartz and Siddur, Intuitive
• iPhone Goes Jewish, Moment Magazine Blog
• Let us pray ... in the App Store, RedEye
• Barry Schwartz creates a siddur that you can download to your iPhone, TheJC.com
• Bargains of the Day: the Kosher iPhone, The Pagan Prattle Online
• iPray: Ancient Prayers , the Jewish Insight.com
• Siddur & Zmanim for iPhone/iPod Touch , Philadelphia Jewish Voice
• Siddur & Zmanim for iPhone/iPod Touch, Chabad Info
• IPhone Siddur Application Weirdness, mosslover.com
• Made In Israel: Kosher iPhone Apps, Venture Capital Cafe
• Some of the iPhone Siddur Buzz, JTA
• iJewish – Software by Rusty Brick

Of course, there are reviews at iTunes (mostly positive) and discussions at the Google Groups.

Posted at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

I cannot wait for when Qik comes out with a legit version for the iPhone. Kevin Rose blogged a video of Qik for the iPhone, which will be available in the iTunes Store for free soon. Here is his video:

Can't Wait!

Posted at 4:04 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

Last night, our iPhone pregnancy tool - Expecting was approved and posted to the iTunes App Store.

It is fairly more advanced than any of the other pregnancy tools. Not only does it a due date calculator, but also walks you through each week of your pregnancy. It gives you week by week tips and what to expect. It allows you to add notes to each week and even take pictures for each week. Helps you remember your next doctor's appointment. It has a checklist tool, a contraction timer and a contacts database with 1-click calling.

For more information on this nifty tool, check out the Expecting page, it has screen captures and so on.

Also, to access it via iTunes and maybe even by it for $4.99, see go here.

Posted at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

Over the weekend, Apple changed their policy in iTunes to only allow those who own the application to review them.

Now, if you try to review an App that you don't own, you get this:

I am very happy about this. Why? Well, it stops people from giving bad reviews to apps solely because they won't pay for them. It also may slow the amount of anti-semitic app reviews.

Glad to see this.

Posted at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

We are working on version 2.2 of iPhone Siddur, you can see all past version information if you like. But here, I wanted to demonstrate some of the new features in 2.2.

(1) We changed the user interface of the Luach a bit, and also added Hebrew dates. As you can see, you can select "English," "Hebrew," or "Upcoming."

Here is the Hebrew view:

New upcoming view drops the shake feature for a button, it was confusing people. Plus, you can click on a date and the top changes to show more detail:

Note, horizontal does not work.

(2) Skip/Jump or Font Controls in the Siddur:

The right or left arrow can either (a) right to left from section to section, (b) left to right from section to section or (c) make the font larger or smaller.

The down arrow will skip you to sub-heading directly in that a section.

Outside of these changes, here are the changes for 2.2:

• Siddur Jump & Skip navigation controls added
• Turn off landscape mode option added to settings
• Luach Modified to allow both "Secular" and "Hebrew" date searches
• Luach removed Shake for List View and added button, which shows more details
• Add וידוי for ashkenaz before תחנון for Mondays and Thursdays (only for in Israel)
• Fixed error in edut hamizrach-shacharit-psukei d'zimra, just before 'Baruch She'amar' in "Lamenatseach"
• Fixed error in edut hamizrach benching, skips last lines of 3rd bracha and first lines of 4th bracha
• Removed more side borders
• Added Candle Lighting and Havdalah times for Yom Tovim
• Settings for "Arrow Behavior" Left-to-Right Sections, Right-to-Left Section, or Font Size
• Setting for KM or Miles
• Add email catcher to see if user wants email updates
• Fix Israeli cities, missing a ton of records
• Replace Hashem's name in Edut Mizrach with the full name
• Upload new GoDaven.com Database

Fun stuff, while this economy and market crashes.

Oh, we just added "Over the internet (air) Minyan Updates." So in version 2.2 and beyond, all GoDaven.com data can be updated without a new version. We check if you have an active Internet connection, then check to see if there is a new Minyan database update, if there is, we push you the new data without you noticing anything...

Posted at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (2)

A couple weeks ago, my Incase iPhone case ripped and I was sad. After I blogged it, Incase commented telling me to call them to replace it for free. They replaced it for free.

In fact, they actually let me try a different case. They recommended I try the Slider Case. I was told it is less "grippy" then the Protective Case, but stronger and has the ability to quickly pull off the bottom to dock on your dock.

So I got the new Slider Case today and I will be giving it a try. Honestly, I am very concerned that I will be missing the grip factor I am used to on my old case. That case simply stayed put. Never slide on my car's arm rest area, never slide on the dashboard, and most importantly, it stayed in my shirt pocket when I flushed the toilet. So we will see.

Here is a video of me demonstrating the case and docking it. The dock feature is something I like, so I have to weigh the pros and cons. Incase is cool enough to let me decide.

Posted at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

I am not sure if you noticed, but when you click on an iTunes link from your iPhone, it doesn't open the App Store anymore. This started happening when Apple posted the 2.1 software update. I noticed it a few times when clicking on a link from an article about an App, and the page not coming up. I brushed it off as a bug with the URL and then forgot to buy those apps.

But it is not a webmaster or App developer issue. It is an Apple issue. I tried this will several links from my iPhone, from several developers, using the LinkShare link or the iTunes Store link, the same issue happens.

When you click on a link, it tries to open it in Safari and send you to the App Store on your iPhone, but it does not. Instead, you get:

If I wasn't lazy, I would check the useragent and tell any iPhone users to search for the app in the App Store, as opposed to clicking on the link. But I am lazy and I hope Apple just fixes it soon.

But many are complaining about this issue at the Apple Discussions forum.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

Last week, I blogged about the Shabbat Shalom app we created for the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Well, now it is live and free at iTunes or App Store. To get it, click here.

Note, we found two minor bugs. So we will wait for feedback to collect over the weekend. And then release a new version some time early next week.

This app is really out there for free to (1) help Jews learn about Shabbos and (2) promote the iPhone Siddur app.

Please post your feedback at this Google Groups thread, please.

Posted at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

Via LaughingSquid Nick Bilton and Danielle Bilton's iPhone cupcakes won the Cupcake Decorating Championships.

How tasty do these looks?

My two favorite things; iPhone and Cupcakes!

Posted at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Category: Food , iPhone | Comments (1)

So cool!!! Arrington blogged that the Earthscape iPhone app is now available for FREE.

So I downloaded it and it is basically Google Earth desktop on your iPhone. The neatest part is you can upload pictures directly to the app, which makes it incredibly easy for folks to picture-up the earth...

Here is a picture of where I work:

I did upload a picture, but since I was indoors, it geotagged it not exactly near my office building...

Here is a demo on how it works (I did not make the demo):

My email woes are getting better, but still things are not 100% right.

Posted at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

This Sunday, I had to leave the TV during the end of the grueling Jets game. I wanted to know if they can make a come back at the end, but I could not watch it. So I opened my iPhone, dialed into the Sportacular app and went to the Jet game.

It gives you great details for the game in progress, here is a screen shot of one of the pages that I frequently refreshed:

I love the simple illustration of where the ball is, who is on offense, what down it is, how many yards to go, the score, etc.

Posted at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Category: Sports , iPhone | Comments (0)

This morning, I was checking out the latest reviews on our iPhone Siddur and I noticed our first anti-semitic review. Here is a picture:

I reported the review as "offensive" this morning, about 3 hours ago. It is still there. I assume it might take a couple days to be taken offline, if it ever does get taken offline.

I have been writing about search stuff, in the public eye, for about six years now. I have written thousands of articles. Most people who have read stuff about SEO or SEM or even Google have seen my name. I have never received a racist or anti-semitic comment before today. I do not keep my religion private, I am very open about it. But I guess Jewish apps are being targeted by some people.

Does it bother me? Honestly, no. The thing that bothers me is that the review may hurt the overall average. :) I know better not to let ignorance bother me. I got touch skin from writing so much. :)

How can you help? Well, go to the Siddur iTunes via this link and report that guys review (sort by most recent) and then if you really want to make me happy, review that app and the rest of our apps. Here is a link to all RustyBrick iTunes apps.

Posted at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Religion , iPhone | Comments (5)

Update: This is now live and can be downloaded for free. More details over here.

שבת or Shabbos or Shabbat is the every Friday night through Saturday night. It is basically the time Jewish people don't do work, we pray, learn, eat and sleep. Shabbos starts and ends at very specific times and it is important that we don't do work related activities on Shabbos, so knowing the time we need to stop working is important.

In addition, knowing not to call someone on Shabbos is important. So if you have your in-laws in St. Louis, like I do, I know that they end Shabbos later than I do, but at what time exactly, would take time to look up.

So, we decided to make an iPhone App, similar to Yahoo's iPhone Weather App, that tells you the time for Shabbos anywhere. This way you can scroll from page to page, to find out what time Shabbos is here, or in St. Louis or in Jerusalem or anywhere.

Here are some screen captures of what we are calling the Shabbat Shalom iPhone App:

Starter Screen:

Times Screen that shows the location, Jewish date in English and Hebrew, the local time, the parsha, candle lighting (configurable), Havdalah (configurable), R' Tam Havdalah, next week's candle lighting and parsha (smaller):

Clicking on the "i" at the bottom will open up the edit screen. Right here you can add, edit, delete and reorder the pages you have on this app:

Adding a location looks like this:

(1) Search for your location and...

(2) It populates the information, which you can override:

Flip away....

I will personally find this very useful and hopefully the Jewish community will also.

Oh, the price is free (it is a promo product for the Siddur) and you can sign up to be notified when it is available over at the Shabbat Shalom iPhone App page.

Posted at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

This morning we received emails form Apple that they have issued some of our financial reports for the past month, August 2008. Here is a screen capture of the reports currently available in iTunes Connect:

They issue a report for every currency, I guess. And more are coming in.

I am not sure if this means that I will find a deposit of funds in my bank tomorrow of if it will take an additional X days for the funds to appear. All I know is that these reports state how much Apple will pay us for the month of August.

Posted at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

We just published a QuickTime demo of the iPhone Siddur. You can view the demo within the iPhone look, at this page or on your iPhone or iPod Touch on this page (clicking it will open QuickTime on your iPhone). Just click the iPhone graphic, "launch video."

If you don't have QuickTime, then here is a different video that I put on YouTube. Hopefully, one of the three versions will work for those who want to check it out, but don't have an iPhone or iPodTouch.

Note, if the video says it is not available, refresh the page, it should work. YouTube has a weird annoying bug that does this, way too often.

There is no sound on any versions.

Posted at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

We are now pushing out these applications like wild fire...

Next up, in time for Rosh Hashanah, is a Shofar for your iPhone or iPod Touch. A Shofar is a type of horn used by Jewish people during the month before the Jewish New Year and on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur.

It is a positive commandment to listen to the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah. This iPhone app will not replace it for two reasons. (1) You need to listen to it live and from a real shofar (not a recording) and (2) you can't use your iPhone on Rosh Hashanah.

Here is a video of me using it:

The application will be free and we can notify you when it is live, if you sign up over here. We feel it compliments our other apps:

• iPhone Siddur
• iPhone Tehillim
• iPhone Tefilla Pack

Posted at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Wanted to let you guys know that we release a new iPhone or iPod Touch app named the iPhone Parking Meter.

It has several features, including a timer countdown, camera snap shots, location notes, GPS tracker, vibration alert (only when app is open), SMS Alert (3rd party fees may apply), some neat graphics and, of course, Maps & Directions integration. Let me explain that if the app is not open, it will not vibrate or yell at you, a limitation of the iPhone App SDK (for good reason).

Here is a walk through:

Set the meter by clicking on "set meter." On this page, you set how much time you have on your meter and you can enter a location note. At the same time, if you allow it and if you have location services on, it will locate your location (as best as possible) and mark it.

When you hit "set meter" it will bring you to this page, which shows you the time remaining and blinks green and red (red means your over).

Note, the "View Map" words will link you to the Maps application, with the destination point being set at the coordinate defined when you clicked the set timer.

We did add reminders in, with some limitations. You can set an email reminder or a on phone reminder. If your phone supports SMS to emails, like yournumber@txt.att.net, then you can use that but clearly, text messages may cost money...

We also added an on app alert that will vibrate and play a sound, but it only will work when the application is open. Apple doesn't allow you to trigger alerts when your not in that application. I assume they dont allow it because it can cause issues with other applications and give a hacker a way into your phone - somehow.

Finally, what I mostly always do is snap a picture of where I parked or jot it down. Snapping a picture of a street sign or a parking garage sign, always helps me locate my car, especially if I go away for a few days.

The application is not yet on the iTunes App store, but we submitted it a few days ago. So if you want to be notified when it goes live, go to iPhone Parking Meter page and fill in your email address.

Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (9)

I am a bit sad. My trusty iPhone Case, the Incase iPhone 3G Protective Cover ripped this morning. Here is a picture:

Here is a picture from the back:

I love this case, I had a similar one for my original iPhone. It basically sticks, sticks to my dashboard, stays put in my breast pocket when I bend over, it doesn't slip out of my hand, it is a great case. But now it ripped!

I spent $30 on this puppy and I had it for only a couple months. Do I go out an buy a new one or contact Incase and see if they will replace it?

Posted at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (5)

Thousands of people like me, with an iPhone in the Northeast, were without our mobile connectivity this morning, due to an AT&T Wireless outage.

There is tons and tons of coverage on the news. What happened? DSL Reports has a statement from AT&T:

There was a routing issue affecting some wireless data use in the Northeast region. AT&T technicians determined the cause and restored service at 11:56 a.m. EDT. Voice calling, text messaging and BlackBerry email were unaffected.

I noticed it this morning before I got to work. I was not on a wifi network and I wanted to check email. It just said "connecting..." but nothing happened. I closed it out and figured it was another small outage or 3G overage issue. Soon after, I got to work and downloaded my emails on my computer. So I forgot about it.

But now I am seeing all the reports surface. It should have been resolved by now, which is good. AT&T still has a lot of work to do. Why did so many people buy the iPhone! :)

Posted at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

It has been a while since I shared some of the new features we have been working on for the iPhone Siddur. Again, you can see the full feature request list over here. We have not yet released a new version, we are hoping to fine tune this version to a solid 2.0 version. So here are some of the more visible things, besides for a lot of code cleaning and minor bug fixes.

(1) Gave the user the ability to specify their Candle Lighting (when Shabbat starts) times and Havdalah (when Shabbat ends) time. Go to settings and you'll see this:

Tap your finger on the time to change the "default" to anything you hold.

My congregation does 45 minutes after sundown:

(2) You can also change the font style in preferences. Note, only two fonts work with nekudot, so here they are:

(3) Finally, you can now see upcoming holidays on the Luach. How? Well, open the Luach:

Now, shake the iPhone or iPod Touch. Yea, give it a little shake and presto, it flips to this list view:

Can't see all the info? Just rotate it horizontally and you can view more.

Those are some, not all, of the new features coming to iPhone Siddur 2.0.

Posted at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

Last year, I took my iPhone to Israel, but turned off all data services, while only using WiFi. I was bummed that a year ago, AT&T didn't support Israel for just the iPhone when traveling. Meaning, they didn't have a plan you can buy for when you travel to Israel, like they did for the BlackBerry.

A couple days ago, AT&T announced that they expanded the international data offerings for iPhone users to more countries. One of those countries includes Israel. Not only that, because of the manner the iPhone downloads stuff, they added more packages with higher download capacities.

You can see the new international packages at the AT&T site, they include:

• $24.99/month: 20MB Data Global Add-On gives you 20MB of usage within over 65 countries
• $59.99/month: 50MB Data Global Add-On gives you 50MB of usage within over 65 countries
• $119.99/month: 100 MB Data Global Add-On1 gives you 100MB of usage within over 65 countries
• $199.99/month: 200 MB Data Global Add-On1 gives you 200MB of usage within over 65 countries

The best part is, that you can only buy the plan for your stay, so before I leave, I activate it and then when I get home, I deactivate it and only pay for the time I was in Israel. I don't think this means I get voice, just a discounted data plan. I would probably opt for the highest plan:

200MB Data Global Add-On Overage rate is $.005/KB within the over 65 discounted countries. Rate outside these discounted countries is $.010/KB.2 Does not include data usage within the U.S. Qualified domestic plan required.

The AT&T Travel Guide wizard confirmed that the iPhone 3G is compatible with these new discounted roaming rates.

In any event, I seriously need to get planning SMX Israel. :)

Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

One of the biggest points of confusion in the iPhone Siddur was editing your location manually. Beforehand, we asked the user to provide their zip code and GMT offset, if they were based in the US. If not, they needed to provide their GMT offset and their longitude and latitude. Besides for this causing confusion over daylight savings time, no one really knew their longitude or latitude, let alone their altitude.

Hence, version 2.0 of the location discovery tool. To access this tool, you go to Zmanim, Click on the location at the top and it opens up this "edit" screen:

You flip the auto-location feature to the off position and type in the new location. You can be very specific, like a whole address, or just a city name, it will try to find the best match:

I am heading to Boston soon, so I plugged that in and clicked on "done".

It then uses your Internet connection, yes this is the only piece of the software that absolutely requires Internet, to get the data. It calls the Yahoo Maps API to get the longitude and latitude of your search. Then, we need to get your time zone and altitude, so we use the GeoNames WebService to get that data. In short, we make three quick API calls, to two different provides, to get this data into the application, for you.

Here are the results the APIs returned for Boston, MA:

Then I clicked on "Save" and it took me back to Zmanim with the times for that location, plus it put "Boston, MA" at the top:

At the same time, it updated the Settings section, to use this location. Clicking on "About" will show you the Zmanim data points:

Pretty cool?! Yes, the times are accurate.

Not done, it also changes the Minyanim data to be based off this location.

Of course, you an always change it back to any location easily.

That is version 2.0, location manager.

Comments and question also at Google Groups.

Posted at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (18)

Why not, we just released a fairly comprehensive iPhone Tefilla Pack for the iPhone and/or iPod Touch. It basically has a collection of popular prayers (tefillas) and 'segulos' that Jews say. Yes, we have three version; Nusach Ashkenaz, Sefard, or Edut Mizrach. How much? Only $1.99.

Here is what is included:

• Perek Shira (פרק שירה)
• Shir HaShirim (שיר השירים)
• Nishmas (נשמת כל חי)
• Iggeres HaRamban (אגרת הרמב"ן)
• Tefilas HaShlah (תפילת השל"ה)
• Parshas HaMann (פרשת המן)
• Parshas HaKetores (פרשת הקטורת)
• Tefila for Parnasa (תפילת על הפרנסה)
• Segula for Finding Lost Object (סגולה למציאת אבידה)
• Birkas HaMazon (ברכת המזון)
• Birkas Me'ayn Shalosh (ברכה מעין שלוש)
• Borei Nefashos (בורא נפשות)
• Tefilas Haderech (תפילת הדרך)

Here are two pictures:

More information at http://www.rustybrick.com/iphone-tefilla.php and feel free to sign up for notification.

Posted at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (1)

I know they have VNC, SSH, etc, and those are all incredibly useful, but they just released Remote Desktop Lite for the iPhone. I use a PC for very limited tasks, so Remote Desktop for those purposes are great. In fact, I blogged about switching from Parallels back to Remote Desktop, due to speed.

But now I can do the same thing, just smaller, on my iPhone. Here are screen captures of the program and me using my PC on my iPhone:

The Start Screen for the Program:

My PC's desktop, I zoomed out by pinching:

Zooming in on IE on my PC:

Typing with the keyboard on my PC:

This phone can really do everything, it is just amazing.

Posted at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (10)

We have tested and submitted version 1.8 of the iPhone Siddur. I have updated the version history to reflect the changes, but let me demonstrate them here, with pictures. First, let me explain that many of the features came via the discussion groups and emails we received, so keep sending them and we will add them to the list and try to knock them off as often as possible.

iPhone Siddur 1.8, what is new?

(1) Major updates to the Siddur for Edut Mizrach (Sephardic) version. We not only fixed a ton of mistakes, we also added a lot of Brachot. I am sure there are still issues, so keep them coming. We do hope to add Nusach Ari/Chabad, but we have no ETA for that yet.

(2) Altitude always worked with the Zmanim, if you had a GPS mode, but we never showed you the actual elevation, now we do, if you click on "About these times."

Note, I tested this a lot, and often it comes up with zero. I think it is a limitation on the GPS device. It does work, but not all the time.

(3) Rotating the phone to landscape mode, no longer looses your place. So if you are at this point:

And now you want to rotate it, it will keep you at the same point:

(3) We added two more times to the Zmanim, the most popular version of Magen Avrohom. If you want more, for now, go to a web version. We may add more, but later on.

(4) Greatly improved the Minyan database, thanks to working hand in hand with GoDaven.com. So check this out:

(A) Ranks minyanim nearest to your location:

(B) Cleaned up the detail view, added functionality and added a lot more data. So, it looks nicer, loads faster, no web access is needed to view the data. The address hyperlinks to the iPhone Maps application, so you can get directions. Email and URL, if available, work respectively with a tap of the finger.

Scrolling down, you see the times of the various prayer services. Yes, I know it says "zman" but it is hard to dynamically replace those words with a real time, because the words are used differently by different shuls and locations.

Scrolling down, more times (it only shows you times that are available, to not waste scroll time). It also has the Nusach, the long/lat (clickable) and the source of the data, which is hyperlinked to Safari.

(5) Added more settings options:

"Smart Siddur" is default on, but only really works in Ashkenaz now. We will add it to other Nusachs for version 2.0. "Hebrew Systems" is a switch for those who installed a hebrew keyword on their phones, which reverses some of the texts.

Added an elevation override, more overrides, including the "Limit to Miles" for the Minyan database:

Other changes include:

• Added Torah portions added to all Nusachs
• Remember last location when you close Siddur (might have some bugs)
• Changed hebrew date format in Luach
• Add kidduah livana
• And more minor things

Released this now and will continue to fix up things and hopefully release another version as soon as the end of the week. Obviously pending how quickly Apple approves this version.

Posted at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Just in case you missed it, version 1.5 of the Siddur for the iPhone is now live. All those fancy features you wanted, is now up.

So, if you have not got yourself a copy, go get it now! Who cares if you can't read Hebrew, okay - well, that might be an issue. But if you can read Hebrew and you do pray during the week, oh, and you are Jewish and observant, then... maybe, oh wait, you need an iPhone also... then... maybe, you might want to pay the 10 bucks for this.

Are we done? Far from it.

Our active feature list is over here. We make changes as we go.

The Smart Siddur for Ashkenaz text is done and being tested. We even added an "easter egg," or in Jewish terms, a "Mazah Ball" to the program. I won't tell you what it is, and it will only come up every 28 years or so.

Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

We promised to keep developing the iPhone Siddur despite the slow post dates to the iTunes App Store. So let me show off the new "Smart Siddur" feature for the iPhone.

The Smart Siddur basically will show you the texts or prayers you need to see for that day, and skip the rest. So if it is Rosh Chodesh (new month), you will see those prayers. If it is Monday or Thursday, we will show you the torah reading prayers plus the actual parsha (torah text). Let me take you through it step by step.

(1) Smart Siddur by default is set to on, in the settings:

(2) If you open up Shemona Esri, you will see it automatically knows it is the summer months and shows me the summer portion:

This is done throughout the whole siddur.

(3) Also, we put in the actual torah reading selection for the weekday. Here is a picture, as if it was tomorrow (Thursday):

(4) As a side note, we also added Parsha info to the Luach:

Now what? Well, we test it. There are tons of locations that require testing and tons of scenarios. So we made a trick to change the date and test it that way. Once we are okay with it (I am sure there will be mistakes) we will lock it down to the real date, test it again and then release it to Apple.

So, version info time... 1.0 is on the Apple Store, 1.5 was submitted already and it should be approved soon (I hope by tomorrow). We will likely release a bug fix release, call it 1.6, before releasing the Smart Siddur version. Let's call Smart Siddur, version 2.0.

I am personally excited to use this tomorrow.

Posted at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (11)

I told you it was coming and now it is here!

To buy it in iTunes, go to http://www.rustybrick.com/iphone/tehilim/get or search for "Tehilim" in the iPhone App Store.

The first release has the following features:

• By Chapter/Perek, By Day of Month, By Day of Week
• English and Hebrew Texts
• Easy to make up for previous days portion
• No need to flip through pages, you get what you need
• No Internet Access needed

What's Coming?

• By Occassion
• Extra Prayers

How much is it? Only $0.99

Posted at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

Scroll down to the bottom, if you do not want to read this, I have a request for you at the end.

As many of you know, we have been busy building out a version 1.5 for Apple's approval. Version 1.5 had added features, including an added version of text, Minyainim database, Jewish Calendar and more.

So when we submitted version 1.5 to Apple, we had to update our meta description in the iTunes store to reflect that version. The problem is, Apple showed that description on the version 1.0 download. The problem is, Apple doesn't have a way to say, show this description for version 1.5 and this description for 1.0. So, what I did was put a note in the description that certain features are coming soon in the next version. Here is a screen capture:

Not only that, we have placed a version info page on the RB site, showing feature by feature, with date submitted, approved and published to Apple. The way people can find this page is by either going into the Siddur in their iPhone and clicking on the "More" tab. Or they can click from the iTunes Store on the Support button, as shown here:

When uploading a new version to iTunes Connect, Apple does not give you a way to submit a new description for just that app. At least, not currently. Maybe they will soon. So when we submitted the new app description, we did so based on the version we just uploaded to Apple, stating that some features are FREE in the next version. So almost a week later, it still sits in review:

So, that leaves some consumers angry. They say, I paid for all the features and I only got X. Not fair!!! I don't blame them for being upset. All I can do is do what I have done before, be as detailed as possible about what the versions have and do not have.

Here is one of the first bad reviews we got. Not that he didn't like the product, but more like he thought I was lying to him.

What can I do? If he emailed me or called me or read the description fully, or even clicked on the support link, he would have learned right away that version 1.5 is being reviewed by Apple and should be available any day. But he did not, and we got a bad review.

Can you help me? Yes. :) If you like, go to the iTunes Store and rate the Siddur app for us. :) You do not need to buy it, which is another limitation. Why? Because people are reviewing the price and not the product, saying it is too expensive, it should be free and then giving us a bad rating. I won't argue with that, but it shows you can review the app without buying it. If that is the case, feel free to go to rustybrick.com/iphone/siddur/get, it will open up iTunes, to the Siddur and you can create your own five star review for us. If you want. :)

Posted at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0) | Speak

Update: Steve, the CEO of Hottrix called me. He is confused by all of this. Like I said, I am sure this was just an oversight. Things happen. It just gave me something to blog about.

I get tons of spam in my YouTube inbox. I never look at it, really, virtually never. But today, I decided to scan through it. What do I find? I a letter from the people at Hottrix about my iPhone Popcorn video that I blogged about a year ago. Here is the letter:

We would really appreciate it if you could remove any comments or references on how to get our video for free. Also, on your website as well (I think you only had one link posting it for free and our lawyer will take care of removing the download from his site.) It is copywritten material we created and should only be for sale on our website. We do not mind performance videos, just not the "freebie" comments. Heck, you should sign up as an affiliate and link to it from your site and make some money, it looks like you have a good following. Typically we just flag these videos, but you do have a lot of viewers so I really don't want to do that to you.

Thanks in advance.
The sleepless crew at Hottrix.

Then I got this the same day:

Sorry, I just noticed someone else in our office already flagged your video. Others in our copyright watch are asked to flag copyright violations.

Two things:

(1) If you want to threaten me with a lawsuit, do not send me a message via YouTube.
(2) I have never said it was free, in fact, your CEO gave me at least one video for free (not the one above) so I would blog about how I got it. Which I did, at The Truth Behind my iPhone Popcorn. I guess someone in the comments talked about freebies, but I am not going through the 1,247 comments on my video to weed them out.

Is it that you are upset that my video outranks your promotional video for iphone popcorn? Is it because you are upset my video has 1,365,034 views and yours only has 741,179? What is it?

I am sure it was an oversight, so I won't continue giving you a hard time, Hottrix. I am sure you just had one of your people, go through YouTube and send this letter, via copy and paste, to every mention of videos related to your product.

This legal email has been sitting in my YouTube inbox for over a month. Good going.

Posted at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Update: This is now available at the iTunes Store, more details can be found over here.

We just submitted the iPhone Tehilim (aka Psalms or תהילים) (Wikipedia definition) application to the iTunes store. Note, Apple needs to approve it. So if you want notification of when it is available, make sure to go to the iPhone Tehilim or Psalms page and give us your email address. Everyone will ask, how much? We are charging $0.99, so enjoy!

Here are some screen captures:

By Chapter

English & Hebrew

You can pick defaults, i.e. default view (by chapter, by day of month or by day of week) and select language (english, hebrew or both english and hebrew).

Now, I have something to do while waiting for the elevator in the morning and when I need it. ;-)

Posted at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (3)

I wanted to illustrate the changes we have posted to the Apple Store, as of yesterday, for version 1.5 of the iPhone Siddur. Note, we already started working on the next version. Adding some features, fixing bugs and fixing texts in the Sefardic Edut Mizrach, where I messed up big time (I am sorry!). I am documenting a list of changes at the version history page also, but a picture is always helpful.

(1) We added a starter screen, since it takes a sec or two to open, why not look at something pretty:

(2) We added a lot more text to the Siddur. Including adding Edut Mizrach (with mistakes, sorry), and a bunch of brachos and other prayers. Note, version 1.5 will have mistakes in Edut Mizrach and will have mistakes in the brachos for Edut Mizrach. Besides for fixing many (not all, yet) of those mistakes in the version after 1.5, we have added a few more brachos.

Here is a favorite, one of the hardest blessings to say. Bedtime Shema. Now it is easy, just pull out your iPhone and do it in bed. No light required cause we are backlit.

(3) Zmanim looks the same, but it has a few more features. You can override your location by zip code or long/lat. Also, you can easily change the date. In the version after 1.5, we added an "elevation" setting, just in case you do not have the GPS model. Elevation can make the times off by over 5 minutes, so this is important.

(4) We have the minyain database in version 1.5. But I am excited to announced that GoDaven.com has agreed to work with us to provide us with structured data. So version 1.5 has a lot of data, but once we plug into the source data, the database will be expanded from 2,000+ minyainim to over 3,000. In addition, we might be able to say, "I am looking for a minyain, within X feet, that starts within X minutes." This is coming, but right now, in version 1.5, you do get local minyanim (just not all the extra flare).

(5) Here is the Jewish Calendar, Luach. The next version will have the date as a Hebrew character and not a number. Plus, this version (1.5) will have a rotating bug. The next version, after 1.5, will fix that bug.

(6) In version 1.5, you can now control the overall "settings" of the application. To do so, click on the "settings" icon on the iPhone's home screen and then select "Siddur" from the list:

You can set the default Nusach, if you are in Israel, font size (with a slider), turn on/off auto-discover location:

When you change auto-location off, you can enter in the zip code, latitude, longitude, GMT offset and give it a name. We forgot to include "Elevation" or altitude, and that can make a huge difference. That will be included in the version after 1.5, it is already coded in, we just need to submit it to Apple.

Also, I did email the Shmash.org kosher database team to see if they want to work something out. So who knows, maybe a kosher database will be added soon, as well.

So that is a recap of the features in 1.5 and some of the features and bug fixes coming in version 1.6 and beyond.

Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (4)

Not to complain, but just to point something out... My app went live officially last night, on August 6th. But the application was actually approved on the 4th. So when the contracts were approved on the 6th, the application was marked as "Released" on August 4th.

Since it was officially posted to the iTunes App Store on the 6th, if you were watching "new releases," in the store in via the unofficial RSS feed, then you would not have know the iPhone Siddur went live. Why? Because my app was on page 7 or so when it was posted to the iTunes Store, not at the top of page 1. Why? Because it was officially approved on the 4th but not legally approved until the 6th.

We submitted the next release of the iPhone Siddur today. So when it is approved, it should make it to the top of the list. The new features can be found in the version history page, it will be worth the wait.

Posted at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (1)

Yipee! The iPhone Siddur is now live on the Apple iTunes App Store. To get it, via the iTunes App Store go here.

This release has:

- Siddur for Ashkenaz and Sefard for weekday
- Zmanim based on location, with a location override

The text needs to be cleaned up for Sefard.

The next version release, which will be very soon (like tonight or tomorrow), will have:

- Siddur text for Sefarad Mizrachi
- Minyanim database, finds nearest shul to your location
- Luach for Jewish Calendar
- Cleaned up Ashkenaz and Sefard siddur text
- And more.

Then version three will have bug fixes and a Jewish Calendar, Luach. We are also going to try to add automatic prayers, so you will only see the prayers you need to see based on the date.

Hope you like it, we are charging $9.99 - but the next few updates will all be free.

We have so much we want to still add and we will keep pushing out updates. Any feedback, for now, go to The Google Group.

Posted at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (9)



I just received an email from an Apple "iTunes Finance" representative in response to the ETA of contract approval. He said:

We are in the process of setting you up as a vendor in our financial systems globally (SAP) to accept the sales postings to your account. Due to volume, we can only setup about 2,500 per week in five regions. The normal turnaround time for this process is about 21 days, but we are trying to get this down to 10-14 days.

Unfortunately, it takes time to establish your retail presence in more than 70 countries, but I can assure you this is a one time wait. After your contract(s) are activated, the process becomes more automated.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

So does that mean, Apple is setting me up right now? "We are in the process of setting you up as a vendor." Or in general, your in the queue, and it takes "about 21 days." If it is 21 days, then that would be as long as August 14th (a week from tomorrow). That is, if that is not business days.

As you can see, the wait is killing me.

So from the wording in the email, you think sooner or later?



Posted at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (6)

I have a tab open in my browser, I refresh it like a hundred times a day. The tab is the page that shows the status of the iPhone Application we submitted, the iPhone Siddur, Zmanim, Minyain app and soon to have "Luach" (Jewish calendar).

As you can see, we submitted it on July 25th. On August 1st, it was rejected for a feature being missing. We then resubmitted it, with a batch of new features. The application was then approved on the 4th, but it is still pending the legal team to approve my contracts.

Now the contracts are all digitally signed documents, with EFT for banking. It is mostly automated. But it seems like an Apple legal rep needs to manually review each before the account is allowed to sell apps on the Apple Store.

So now, we wait for Apple to give us legal approval. I keep refreshing the page, over and over again. Why? Cause we want to push this version out so we can release the next version, which is awesome!

If you know anyone at Apple, please see if they can expedite it for me. Please? :)

Posted at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (5)

We added some more features to the iPhone Siddur. The new feature is a way to find the closest minyan (prayer group) to your current location.

Here is how it works. We uploaded a database of minyainim (shuls and locations of Jewish prayer groups). Then using the iPhone or iPod Touch's localization feature, we find the Minyain that is nearest to you.

Here is a picture of the closest minyainim to my current location, that are found in our database:

Clicking on a result will bring up more information:

If a phone number is available, it will hyperlink the number so you can initiate a call:

Notice also the "View Map" button at the bottom left. Clicking it, will open up the native Google Maps program, plotting the points for this minyan, so you can use Google Maps directions to get there:

The "More Info" button will link you to the GoDaven web site, for this result, it takes you over here. GoDaven will likely have more information on the result, in case you need it.

Also, for those Sefardic / Edut Mizrach Jews, we finished adding the text for your prayers. Here is a preview of the available "Nusachs."

Note, everything mentioned here will be a free release to all those who purchase the iPhone Siddur. Note, we are currently waiting for contract approval, although the application itself was approved. Was we get legal approval, then the application will go live. We will then release a new version that must be approved by Apple again, and when it is live, you will automatically be notified of the update.

Posted at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (11)

I woke up this morning and look at my phone and I see the 3G icon at the top left of my iPhone. I rub my eyes and look again, and it is still there. I never ever had 3G in this area, ever. Here is a picture:

So I leave my home and drive to my next stop and yes, I still have 3G showing up. Email, web browsing, etc seems faster. By this time, it is late enough to text my brother to see if he sees the 3G icon. So I do so.

At first, I thought this had to do with the iPhone 2.0.1 update that I installed last night, but when I asked my brother - he said he didn't upgrade his phone yet. And yes, he saw the 3G network also.

So now, from my home to my office and probably beyond, I have 3G. That means, I can surf and download faster, but more importantly I can be on the phone and still use the Internet!

Here is a Google Maps view of where I am, technically, I was in the building so the GPS did not work. Also, I am at the lower left corner of this map, not even in the circle (but the 3G does work in this whole map area):

I then brought up the AT&T 3G coverage map and it still shows my area as EDGE only, not 3G. Here is a picture:

As a point of reference, the Route 87 in the middle of the AT&T map (going from left to right) coordinates with the two roads (one is green) at the bottom of my Google Maps screen shot. I.e. the roads between Tallman and Monsey is Route 87.

So as you can imagine, I am a very happy camper to have 3G enabled in my area only a few weeks after getting my iPhone. So happy.

Posted at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (6)

The iPhone Siddur / Zmanim application is now officially approved by Apple. We got an email last night from Apple saying:

The status for the following application has changed to Ready for Sale.

But when I checked the iPhone App Store, it was no where to be found. So I logged into iTunes Connect and noticed that Apple said we are now "pending contract." Here is a screen capture:

But I submitted the contracts on day one, over a week ago, on July 25th. They were all marked as a checkbox and green. Here is a screen capture:

Everything looks good from that side. So I called Apple, they said I need to email the legal team. So I did that this AM.

There is an Apple support thread that has many others complaining that they are in the same status we are in. Pending Contract... One said that they spoke to Apple who said:

I contacted Apple, and yes, it is normal for the state to stay at "in process" for some time.

I am paraphrasing here: because part 2 of the contract setup and the App review are done manually, they can take several days/weeks depending on the volume of items in their queue.

Please bear in mind that I am answering this to the best of my knowledge as an external person and that I have no authority whatsoever on the subject. I'm just reporting what I was told.

So I hope it is not too much longer until it is pushed out to the Apple store. In fact, I hope to finish up the Sefarad Mizrachi text for prayers and we are also almost done adding a "Minyainim" database, which finds the closest Minyain (or shul).

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (5)

The iPhone Siddur is coming out incredibly well. The iPhone Zmanim is all native to the application, so it does not need to call the Internet to get accurate times. In fact, currently, none of the features require Internet. This is a key feature because we did not want to compete with the iPhone web based applications that run in Safari.

The Zmanim does utilize GPS or location services but it is not required. We made a zip code and time zone offset, with a data changer, if you need to change that. I.e. your flying to a different location and you want to know the zmanim there before you get there. Otherwise, it defaults to your current location and date.

Okay, first the bad news. Last night Apple said we had to remove the "Mizrach" tab because it was a "feature-limited version." So we got rid of it and resubmitted within the hour. I am not sure if Apple will review the application right away or if it will take an extra week. So I am sorry.

But there is good news to this. The previous version we uploaded was very limited. The zmamin were not 100% complete, the siddur text as not so clean, the zmanim date picker and changers were not available and the explanations were missing. The new version (binary) we resubmitted to Apple last night contains all these additions. Keep in mind, the Ashkenaz version looks awesome, but the Sfrard is not 100% cleaned up yet and Mizrachi Sfrard has yet to be added (we are working on that now).

In any event, we have added some more screen captures and details to the official iPhone Siddur page. Make sure to check it out and sign up there if you want notification of the release. We hope it is released soon and we have a lot of interest already (a lot, I am not kidding).

Posted at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (2)

Update: To be notified when the iPhone Siddur is available, please go here and fill out your email address in the box at the top right of the page.

The siddur texts are still being cleaned up and that is going well. But while we do that, we are also working on improving the iPhone Siddur, what we have done so far.

Now the Zmanim (Jewish times) are complete and accurate, up to +/- a minute based on sea-level elevation.

Here is how it works.

(1) Click on Zmanim at the bottom and you will see the program use the GPS or Cell towers or Wireless routers to detect your location and give you a longitude and latitude:

When those are obtained, the Zmanim come up. If they are not found (i.e. your in a bomb shelter or airplane mode on), you will be able to manually add your zip code and specify the date.

(2) Here are the correct times for my area, here is the top of the page:

Bottom of the page:

(3) Clicking on any of those times will give you more detail. For example, here is the explanation for Alos:

yes, we will fix that typo

(4) On the bottom, we added an "About These Times" button, when clicked, it will give you the date for these times and it currently gives you the longitude and latitude, plus the required disclaimer:

List of To Dos:

(1) Continue cleaning up texts for the siddur
(2) Enable the edit button to change your date and location
(3) Add a settings feature for the siddur, so it remembers if you are Ashkenazic or Sephardi

After this is all complete, then we can work on some really cool features.

Posted at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Category: iPhone | Comments (0)

The one thing I really hated about the email client in the iPhone was that it did not let you listen to WAV formatted attachments. So, my office voicemail system and home voicemail, which both emailed me my voicemails could only be heard on a computer or via calling into the voicemail.

With the new iPhone 2.0 OS, that has changed. I noticed this soon after I first got the iPhone but I decided to blog it now...

When I get a voicemail, it shows the attachment. I then click, download and once it downloads, I see the file below the email, like in this screen capture:

(Oh, that was Dice calling trying to sell me some programmers. Listing their phone number, I assume, is not a big deal. I am sure if you need coders or IT staff, calling that number will be welcomed.)

Now, click on the file and it will open up QuickTime audio/video player and play the voicemail via the speakers on the iPhone:

This feature alone is awesome!

Posted at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (0)

Update: To be notified when the iPhone Siddur is available, please go here and fill out your email address in the box at the top right of the page. Friday afternoon, we launched version 1.0 of the iPhone Siddur. We did so, so we can get it out there and get it approved by Apple, so we can work now on cleaning things up and adding features.

My brother, in Israel, has been working on cleaning up the texts, to make them look more readable. He has been doing an awesome job. Here is a screen capture of Shemona Esrei (or the Amidah) within Mincha, after he cleaned it up.

We got the header color going, we got small text for certain text, we got small italics for instructional text, we shade the background of holiday/special texts that aren't used daily. This makes it much easier to read and follow. So we are almost done going through all the texts to make them all clean. We still have a few more on the Ashekenaz side and then the Sephardi to go. It just takes time to go through all of it. If you want to contribute to the texts and add more, do contact us and let us know.

We also will be working on more features, immediately:

1. More zmanim including alos, tzais, earliest teffilin, and more...
2. Add explanations (on click event) for the zmanim
3. Add calendar feature to zmanim (so it just doesn't show today)
4. Add ability to change your location (so it just isn't based on your GPS location)
5. Add more texts
6. Add a settings feature for the siddur, so it remembers if you are Ashkenazic or Sephardi.

So we will continue to develop the application out. We do hope Apple approves us quickly. In fact, I do not want to change the application (i.e. add these improvements) until Apple does approve version 1.0. Once they approve 1.0, we will release a 1.x version.

Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (6)

Update: To be notified when the iPhone Siddur is available, please go here and fill out your email address in the box at the top right of the page.

We have uploaded the first release of the iPhone Siddur to the iTunes Connect system. As you can see in the screen shot below, Apple now needs to review it. When Apple approves it, it will then be available in the iTunes Store for download.

I told you it was coming, and now it is here. We were able to get most the weekday texts in, they do need some cleaning up. We have someone working to clean up all the texts over the weekend. We were able to get most prayer times, but we are still working on "Alos Hashachar" and "Tzais." We cannot get Mizrach (which way is east) working until the rumored iPhone 2.1 software comes out, which is expected very soon. So we will work on that also.

We got the barebones up, including:

(A) Texts - Prayers

• Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv and Brachos
• Both Ashkenaz and Sfarad

• Location Lookup for long/lat
• Sunrise
• Latest Shema
• Latest Tefilla
• Chatoz
• Mincha Gedola
• Mincha Ketana
• Plag HaMincha
• Sunset

We tested all the times in our local area, so we hope it works well elsewhere. If it doesn't, I am sure we will hear about it. Here is the official iPhone Siddur page.

Very excited about this and can't wait to show you more. Here are some screen captures:

Posted at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (4)

T3 reports that Creative Coffins has created an iPhone coffin! Here is a picture:

Okay, I am an Apple Fan boy, I admit it. But I am not this crazy to put myself in one of these when I die.

In fact, I don't think it is in accordance with Jewish law to be buried in one of these. In any event...

I guess people say, who cares what people say about you once you die. Or is it the opposite? ;-)

Posted at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (4)

Update: To be notified when the iPhone Siddur is available, please go here and fill out your email address in the box at the top right of the page.

Update: We submitted this to Apple for review, more details at this page.

As promised, I wanted to give you a preview of the iPhone Siddur application. I got it running on my phone, to test it. The icon was designed by our design and looks like this:

We need to make the "S" capital.

When you load it up by clicking on the icon, it defaults to the actual prayers. You can select the sect (only two right now):

Clicking deeper will then give you the actual options, morning, afternoon, evening, generic brachot, etc and then this is what an actual text looks like:

Yes, you can expand it by using the touch expand feature and you can change to landscape view.

That is all pretty standard stuff. The cool stuff I demo later, but here is a hint:

Siddur is what I showed above. Clicking on "Zmanim" will automatically figure out your location using the GPS tools. It will then figure out the various times you are allowed to say the specific prayers (earliest tallis, earliest teffila, mincha, etc.), automatically. And the "Mizrach" option is basically a compass, it will tell you which way is Jerusalem, so you know which way you should pray. That will come in handy when I go to conferences and I have no idea which way to stand.

I'll be showing off more previews soon, I hope.

Oh, I have a few more features in mind - that I won't be telling you just yet. But they will make this application a must have for all Jewish orthodox iPhone users.

Posted at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (17)

Update: To be notified when the iPhone Siddur is available, please go here and fill out your email address in the box at the top right of the page. We, RustyBrick, is now an iPhone developer, and the first thing we plan on releasing is a Siddur with a lot of cool features. A siddur is a Jewish prayer book. It is mostly built, but we have a few neat feature we want to add. I'll blog about that when it is live.

But we are having an issue. The computer that is running the code is bugging out when we try to connect the iPhone to it to load the app directly on the test iPhones. We get an error that reads, "XCRemoteIPhone isBigBear" - yea, descriptive.

Here is a picture:

We are not the only ones with this exact error, another developer posted this issue at Apple's Discussion Forums. I hope we get a response soon.

In the mean time, we keep developing. This Siddur is going to seriously rock.

Posted at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (5)

One thing I miss is the ability to tether my phone's internet connection to my laptop and use that as a way to connect to the Internet. I was legally able to do with with my Treo, Verizon and my MacBook Pro, without having to spend an additional $60 (it cost about $10 extra a month legally).

The Apple iPhone does not have a way for you to tether your phone to your laptop to use it as an Internet connection. Since I got the Apple iPhone, over a year ago, I also tacked on a Verizon Broadband card for $60, so I can fire up the Internet on my laptop. If the iPhone and AT&T allowed you to tether for even $45 more per month, that would make sense for me.

But there is now a way to do it, at least, illegally. Cre.ations.net has posted the details and the process includes:

- Jailbreak your iPhone 3G
- Install 3Proxy and Terminal
- Create an ad-hoc Wi-fi network using your laptop
- Join the network with your iPhone
- Find the iPhone's IP address
- Open Terminal and run the proxy program
- Open Safari on your iPhone and open a web page
- Configure your browser to use the proxy

Visit Cre.ations.net for more information but beware - I am personally not going this route.

Posted at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , iPhone | Comments (2)

Today is the day that I say goodbye to my original iPhone. I am shipping it out to my brother, who lives in Israel.

I had my original iPhone 376 days. I had my new iPhone for only 10 days. In fact, I got my old iPhone on July 11th and my new one on July 11th - just realized that now.

In any event, I don't think Israel is a supported country for the iPhone. So what he does with it there, is up to him.

I know people in Israel have the iPhone and use many of its features. I do hope Israel begins to support the iPhone officially, soon. I hope I can get AT&T at a normal data rate when I travel there sometime in January 2009 - for SMX Israel. ;-)

Goodbye original iPhone. I am sending you to a better place now and I am sure you will be treated well. ;-)

Posted at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Family , iPhone | Comments (5)

Ugh, AT&T Told Us they would be giving us free Wifi to all iPhone users. Well, that was a mistake.

AT&T mistakenly announces free Wi-Fi for iPhone users...again from News.com reports that they made a mistake.

But Wes Warnock, an AT&T spokesman, told CNET News that the notice was published in error.

"We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone," he said in an e-mail. "The Web page was posted in error and is being removed."

Crazy thing, this is the second time they did this. And the second time I was fooled this week.

Posted at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , iPhone | Comments (1)