cover article excerpt from J., the Jewish news weekly of Northern California
On the road during Chanukah and feel the need to light candles? There’s an app for that.
Lost all your dreidels and want to play a quick game? There’s an app for that.
Need to know how many days you have left to buy Chanukah presents? There’s an app for that, too.
Chanukah-themed applications have been a presence in Apple’s iTunes App Store almost since its inception, and with the holiday beginning Dec. 11, a number of new applications have cropped up to help iPhone and iPod Touch users meld technology with the ancient holiday.
When Apple debuted the App Store in July 2008, it contained 500 applications (known as apps) that could be downloaded and installed on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had just surpassed 100,000 apps and 2 billion downloads.
Jewish developers have pounced on the ability to bring a little Yiddishkeit to the handheld devices, and today there are dozens of Jewish-themed apps available at the store.
Some of them are obvious: Siddur, iTalmud, Hebrew Date. An app called Mikvah shows users the nearest mikvah and provides a checklist of pre-mikvah preparations. The Los Angeles–based Kabbalah Centre International sells the Dialing God app, featuring kabbalistic meditations and blessings.
Then there are the more offbeat apps. ParveOMeter counts down the waiting time between eating dairy and meat; iCharity allows one to deposit virtual coins into a virtual tzedakah box; and if you’re wondering whether mahi-mahi is OK to eat, download Kosher Fish.
And then there are the holiday-based apps: Megillas Esther for Purim, several Omer-counting apps and numerous Passover apps, including haggadahs and a game called Find the Matzah.
But when it comes to Jewish holidays, Chanukah has a clear monopoly on the App Store. From iDreidel to DaysTo Hanukkah to Mobile Menorah, there’s an app for everything you might need for the holiday — except maybe one that makes latkes.
“All the kids in my family are always grabbing at my iPhone, so I figured they should play a Jewish game,” said Jeff Howard, creator of a Chanukah-themed app called Super Dreidel.
Howard, a Los Angeles–based screenwriter who describes himself as an “enthusiastic nerd,” came up with the idea for Super Dreidel shortly after Chanukah last year. He joined forces with another tech-obsessed friend, Richard Barry, and the two hired a programmer in New Hampshire to write the program.
Super Dreidel provides unique variations on the ancient spin-and-win game. Players still spin a dreidel (or virtual dreidel, in this case), but now they can choose between playing “traditional,” “Vegas” or “turbo” style.
For example, in “Vegas,” to make the game go faster, every time a player rolls a shin (put one in), the value of shin increases by one. The ante also increases by one every round.
Users can also set a specific number of rounds or increase the bankroll. Super Dreidel allows for up to eight players.
“A friend of mine and I sat down at his kitchen table with a dreidel and we played and played and played,” Howard said. “The funny thing about the traditional version is that it almost never ends. When you’re playing the electronic version … there’s actually a winner instead of it going on forever.”
The other benefit to the virtual game is that it avoids many of the game’s pitfalls.
“The dreidel never falls off the table,” Howard said. “It never hits gelt and the kids shout, ‘That was no fair. I should respin.’ ”
The application took about three months to complete, and after passing Apple’s strict vetting process, it was released to the App Store earlier this month.
Super Dreidel retails in the App Store for 99 cents. Thirty percent of each purchase goes to Apple, so Howard isn’t expecting to get rich off the app.
“When you do something that’s mainly directed at the Jewish community [rather than at a vast audience], you figure you’re not going to sell millions and millions,” he said. “It was mainly just for fun and to do something Jewish for the iPhone.”
For complete article, visit: http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/40647/eight-nights-of-apps-iphone-programs-put-chanukah-in-the-palm-of-your-hand/
The link to Super Dreidel on the iTunes store is:
