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Two Jewish entrepreneurs have developed software that can turn an average BlackBerry into a sacred prayer book. They've dubbed their upgrade "The JewBerry," and have sold it to over 10,000 customers for $30 a pop, according to the Post. Co-creator Jonathan Bennett explains the appeal: "Throughout the day, Jews gather in office-building stairwells and conference rooms to pray, and while sometimes you might not remember your prayer book, no one goes anywhere without their BlackBerry."
A review of the software on BerryReview notes that Pocket PCs and Palm devices have had Hebrew texts on them for over 5 years now, but this is the first such software available for BlackBerry users. The reviewer decides that "having micha and maariv in my pocket more than pays for the purchase price if you can ignore the minor kinks." Last month, during the Jewish New Year, the Times spotted the trend of men standing outside synagogues feverishly using their cellphones and BlackBerrys to check in with work.
Yeshiva University President Richard Joel tells the Post, "I love it, because now I can not only look how the market is doing, but I can also say my evening prayers." And using GPS technology, the software will soon enable Jews to create minyans—the 10-member groups necessary for prayer. Bennett elaborates: "Say you're in a place like Shea Stadium. You could post that you are looking for a minyan, pick a location, and other people signed up will be able to respond and meet up at the Carvel stand."
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I thought jews can't touch electricity on some days? I always find it weird that people use science for their religion. It's like "dude, this thing totally contradicts my blind religious faith but let me just ignore that fact". Why do christians go to doctors? they should just pray to god.
That GPS minyan finder is a great idea, much better than my idea for a big spotlight that shines Hebrew prayers into the clouds. (I call it the "Shabbat Signal.")
#1 it's a lot more complicated then that, as per the teachings of Plato and Aristotle Christianity can have a basis of 'rationality.'
However this has been hijacked in the last 50-60 something years by Fundamentalism.
Their next invention is a cell phone attachment that automatically cuts holes into sheets.
Can't use it on shabbos and Yom Kippur, but this seems a good idea for access to text.
iPhone users should check out http://www.rustybrick.com/iphone-siddur.php
It has all weekday prayers, smart siddur features, GPS enabled synagogue and prayer time lookups and more.
#5- how does that work? you can't touch electricity, walk through electricity, be around electricity and yet the human body is a living battery and it also creates static electricity by just wearing clothes and walking around.
The crazy orthodox jews made up all these weird Jewish laws.
Babyhitler - ever "unplug" for a day? No TV, computer, internets, blackberry, iphone, cellphone, etc, etc, etc? It's AMAZING!
@4 That's not true actually, I was curious about that a few years back and asked a good friend who was a former Chasid.
@8 No, it has nothing to do with 'electricity' per se. It's based on the idea, that in order to dedicate yourself to g-d on shabbos, you don't perform any labor, you just spend the day praying. Labor includes cooking, driving, turning on lights etc. People obviously take this to mean different things, but that is generally the way the Chasidic communities here in NYC understand it.
re: babyhitler,
Are people's conceptions of the relationship between faith and religion really so infantile? This notion that religious faith is completely blind is completely contradictory to most major religious faiths. I can only speak for Catholicism, which has always had a deep appreciation and encouragement of science and reason. I can only imagine what sort of comments that will inspire, but the reality of an entire culture is often much more complex than the simplistic notions that people try to understand it with it. After reading the rash of recent popular atheist writing, such as Dawkins and Harris, etc., I was convinced that they were just people with an axe to grind. They're bad philosophers who demonstrate absolutely no understanding of Christianity, at least, even is. They may very well be right in their assertions, that faith is bad, there is no God, etc., but the arguments they make completely ignore reality and only succeed in setting up strawmen. Anyway, I only mention that, because I thought they were isolated examples, but every comment on religion that I read on here betrays the same simplistic understanding. In a culture like ours that supposedly values dialogue and understanding of the other, this has no place. I'm sure I'll be informed shortly of why I'm wrong, and I think all Christians and people of faith have to acknowledge the bad things that people of their faith have done in the past and still perpetuate today, but that's never an excuse for lazy thinking.
#12- Infantile? yes. that's how religions get 99% of their followers. through infants. As I'm not against religion per se like wondering if there is a god or not but I'm against ceremonial and processional religion that's rooted in superstition and such.
A minyan at "the Carvel stand"? Oy Gevelt! Fudgie the Whale is kosher? Who knew?
awww why
How about creating an "AdolfBerry"; a standard Blackberry that dispenses a small dose of ZyklonB every 30 minutes?.
"I thought jews can't touch electricity on some days? I always find it weird that people use science for their religion. It's like "dude, this thing totally contradicts my blind religious faith but let me just ignore that fact"."
Jews are supposed to pray 3 times a day, 7 days a week. On the "some days" you speak of, the "JewBerry" is not allowed.
Further, why is it that this story gets more news than the iPhone Siddur? That one was created by Jewish entrepreneurs as well.