SiddurApp

iPhone / Références

SiddurApp is a siddur application, enabling the users to view the Jewish prayer book on their iOS device. It currently contains only the Sephard (not "Edot Ha'mizrach", but the version commonly used by many Ashkenazi Israelis and various chasidim) version of the prayer book.

On activation, the "Smart" panel shows the relevant prayer for that time of day: If you have allowed the app to be know your location, it will use it to determine local prayer times (it may take a few seconds for it to locate your current location), otherwise, it will calculate the day as being between 6am-6pm. The "Smart" view includes several further features:-

• It shows only parts of prayer relevant for that specific day (e.g., no Chanuka prayers in Nissan).
• Short timed additions to prayer ("Aseret ye'mey tshuva", "Rosh chodesh") have partial bold appearance (i.e., some of the new text is bold). 30 days after rain/no-rain change, the changed text appears in bold.
• Uses GPS to determine if in Jerusalem for Purim, to show relevant prayer.

Upon activating the app, the "Times" panel icon (rightmost one) shows a small arrow, showing the direction of prayer ("beit hamikdash"). A counter counts down the time until the disappearance of the compass, which you can set in the app settings (including eliminating it completely). To see the direction again, you can see a compass within the "Times" section. Note that this works only if the user allowed the app to know your location, and if the app has been able to focus on a location and a direction within 10 seconds of activating the app.

To access any random prayer you want, press on the second button ("Prayer select"), and select your option from the list. You can use the choice in the top bar to select if you wish to see a "Smart" version - e.g., today's Shacharit - or a "Full", so you see all the options available for that prayer.

The current day "Birkat Ha'mazon" and "Tfilat Ha'derech" are accessible using the relevant tab bar panels. The "Times" panel contains all day's prayer times and an arrow towards the direction of davening.

Settings allow changing the app's interface to Hebrew, as well as setting whether certain parts of the prayers (e.g., Kadish) should be collapsed or expanded by default. Collapsed parts will show as button that needs to be clicked, and relevant prayer expands inline (this is also the case with "chazarat ha'shats" parts).


WARNING AND DISCLAIMER: This app is offered "as is", and IT DOES NOT MAKE ANY GUARANTEES ON ANY ISSUE. This includes, but not limited to, not making any halchaic or textual exactness claims. DO NOT USE IT TO DETERMINE HALCHAIC QUESTIONS! Due to compass and GPS imprecision (as well as algorithmic limitations), it may show an inexact direction of prayer, as well as deviations in the times of the days. THIS APPLICATION MAKES NO GUARANTEE REGARDING EXACTNESS OF DIRECTION, TIME, OR PRAYER TEXT. As I do not wish users to err, I reiterate - THIS APP MAKES NO GUARANTEES ON THE INFORMATION IT PRESENTS, AND IF YOU CHOOSE TO USE IT, IT IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY ERRORS IN PRAYER TEXT, TIMES OF DAY, DIRECTION OF PRAYER, AND ANY OTHER INFORMATION IT PRESENTS.

Quoi de neuf dans la dernière version ?

This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.

Updated to 64bit (so no error messages on iOS 10).
Added Kriat Shma she'al hamita.
Displays time in 24-hour format (or not) according to user settings.
(This is an interim update, hopefully a more significant one will follow)