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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?
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.
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.
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 MeterIf 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.
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.
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!
Via CrunchGear, here is the video demo of a hacked in keyboard for the iPhone:
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.
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.
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?
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.
Of course, there are reviews at iTunes (mostly positive) and discussions at the Google Groups.
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.
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.
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:
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...
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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?
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! :)
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.
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:
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. :)