iLuach

I have never ever used this space to advertise a product, least of all one designed by a member of my own clan. I am not a salesman. That area of expertise is the exclusive family purview of my father. I am the family creative soul. So, it is with some major trepidation, but an abundance of pride that I relay to you all The Husband's latest commercial enterprise. (This goes above and beyond the booze biz!)

Several months ago, the two of us were enjoying some downtime in the Southern Home. The Husband was looking for a quick hit hobby to keep his mind occupied. Now when most of us think about developing a hobby we think about plunging into cooking lessons or  taking up karate. Not The Husband! Once a computer geek always a computer geek. He decided to see if he could use his somewhat dormant skills to design an iPhone/iPod touch application. After some diligent research, he decided that what was poorly served by iPhone apps was a complete luach or Hebrew/English calendar. I thought the man mad. To be honest, we are progressive Jews who have very little use for the daily times for prayer, the exact times for the lighting of Shabbos candles or Havdalah. He was determined. He decided that if he was going to do this task, he was going to make it user friendly for Jews of all denominations. Did he ever succeed!!

He learned all about the lunar cycles, the differences between various rebbes and their takes on the zmanim, and the differences between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi followings of the Hebrew calendar. He even included a setting for Israeli or Diaspora observance and it uses a built in GPS to determine where you are to calculate the times. The result is an amazing app for the Jewish community or anybody who cares to follow our calendar. It is equipped with all of the above as well as holiday observances, parashiot and haftorot for all Shabbatot  and holidays, and Hebrew and English text of the same, including trope. It toggles neatly between the secular and Hebrew calendars and it works in perpetuity.
In short it is amazing.

A couple of month ago when it was ready to put on the iTunes store, I showed it to a couple of my colleagues at a cantorial concert. They were blown away and immediately loaded it onto their phones. The cantors especially like the Torah with trope feature. At $1.99 a pop, The Husband has no expectations of great riches from the sales, but he would like to make back his initial $100.00 that Apple demands of all of their developers. Nice scam, eh? Design for us and we will charge you for the privilege. I am just so proud and blown away by his abilities that I want to shout it out all who will listen.  You can find out much more about iLuach at http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/iluach/id370066993?mt=8 I urge you all to check it out and tell your friends.