Migrating updates

Along with the updates I've made to the app, I've changed around a lot of my workflow in the last 6 years, and so I'm going to start posting my updates to the Tanya.app Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tanyaapp

Eventually I'll probably phase this blog out, or replace it with a different site.

New Update! v2.0

Great news to all Tanya.app fans! There's a new version of the app that I just approved. Should be appearing in iTunes momentarily.

The original app was written for the original iPhone. Back then, things were a lot different -- the phone could barely print Hebrew (and would always print it backwards). The updates Apple has made to iOS have been great, but I hadn't had time to keep up... until now.

This v2.0 release is a complete re-write, using the newest iPhone tricks. It basically just replicates the original app, but I have plans to add all sorts of bells and whistles soon. The biggest difference you'll notice at first is a remake of the interface. I tried to make it minimalistic to match the iOS7 motif. There's still some issues with the app, but I wanted to get an update out as soon as I could. More soon!

The other major change is the "price." It's still free, but I added an ad-banner to the bottom of the screen. I'm hoping the ads will be reasonable and appropriate, and that will help give me a steady stream of income to offset the costs of keeping the app up. To give people the option of getting rid of all ads, you can also buy an "ad-free" option within the app that will remove all ads permanently.

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And, for the curious... why can I suddenly put all this effort into this app that has been left neglected for so long? I spent my last year in a neurosurgery residency, which gave me many great experiences, and G-d willing I was able to help a lot of people. But, although it is an amazing career, I decided it wasn't going to give me the focus in life that I'm looking for. Working on Shabbos, even to save a life, was very hard for me, as well as the time away from my family.

So, I quit and moved back home. I'm currently in-between things, but I'm planning on (IY"H) continuing in anesthesiology. In the meantime, I'm trying to catch up on lost projects... including this app.

Hey all,

As always, I'm overwhelmed with everything. I just started my residency, and in the process I had to move to a new city (which I'm still in the middle of). I feel awful that the app is still out there with bugs in the calender, but I'm not able to edit the code right now to fix it. As soon as things quiet down a little (and I have a house, with a computer in it to edit the code on) I'll try to make a simple update to fix any glaring errors.

For now, I renewed my developer license so you guys could download it again. As always, it costs me $100/yr to keep this going, and I appreciate any help you guys can offer with regards to that. Once I get the update in, I may switch to a paid app (maybe 0.99?) to make it a little easier on me.

Long term, I would love to adopt out the program to another loving developer. I've been shopping around, but so far I haven't found anyone who's willing to take it (and I trust). We'll see where we go from here.

Thanks to all those who have been patient with me, and still use the app. I'll try not to let you down.

Back in business?

Hello all

Sorry for the long "leave of absence" there. Life was unfortunately becoming a little overwhelming for a while, and I wasn't able to keep up with all of my responsibilities (including this app). Like we learn in Tanya, G-d desires the "struggle" of us actively working against our yetzer hara. Apparently G-d also desires the struggle of me making this Tanya app. (As I can imagine Rabbi Taub saying, "How do you know G-d wants you to struggle? Because you're struggling!")

There are several issues with the app currently: there is a bug in the luach that makes it misapply the leap year cycle, the app hasn't been updated to iOS 4.x standards, and I haven't been able to keep up with my membership payments to maintain access to the app.

In addition to my time/money problems, those issues were complicated by the fact that I lost the source code when my computer crashed. Without the source code, I would have to rewrite the whole app from scratch. I know, you're telling yourself "didn't he have a backup?" I did... at least, I thought I did. It took me a real long time to find it, though. For a while I thought I was going crazy. But, B"H, I did just recently find my backup

Now that I have the source code again, I'm going to try to make some time to push out a new version with all the updates. I'd love to get it out before Yud-Tes Kislev, but I don't think that's going to happen. Depending on how my current rotation (OB/Gyn) goes, I'll try to finish it in the next couple weeks. If not, I should be able to do it over winter break.

Thanks to everyone for your patience. Sorry it's taken me this long to get my act together.

What I've been up to

Hey all.

In case anyone is wondering, there have been a couple projects I've been working on lately.

First of all, my son, Yossi. He's great, and keeping me busy.

Second, I've been working on developing an awesome new app for a different website. Not sure if he wants me naming names yet, but IY"H it will be released soon (within the month).

Also, I'm going back and re-writing the whole Tanya app in a way that will allow me to drop new texts in more easily. G-d willing, I will then be able to release more books. I also might release the source code so that others can also contribute.

Oh yeah... and I'm trying to graduate this year [sigh]. IY"H it will all come together.

Error found in 22nd of Kislev

Oi! If you follow the daily learning, you'll notice that today's portion stops halfway through the section. Please go to another source (like chabad.org) to see the full section.

I'll try to send out an update to fix it as quick as I can... but it's not going to come around again until next year, :).

Sorry about that, everyone. I'll also try to look over the rest of the text to see if I can spot any other errors in the luach while I'm putting this update out.

v1.3 Ready for Sale

Just got the email from Apple that v1.3 is ready. I've been using it for the last week, and I'm very happy with the changes. It feels like it's running pretty stably now.

I'm still working on a bunch of new projects, so hopefully I'll have more fun new releases soon.

v1.3 Submitted to Apple

I just submitted v1.3 to Apple this morning.

The big change was that I added the ability to change font sizes. You could actually do this already (if you knew the secret way to...), but it would mess up the text. This was because the text was highly doctored to get it to display right on v2.x phones. Now that 3.0 fixes all the Hebrew quirks, I've made all of the text "normal" so that it will flow correctly.

As these changes relies on OS 3.0, it shouldn't run on phones/iPods that haven't upgraded to 3.0 yet. I'm not sure how Apple handles that (i.e., if it won't show up in the AppStore, or if you get a warning, or if it just fails).

I also changed the way it saves your place. Previously, the app would save your place whenever you were in the middle of reading something. I kept reading the daily portion to the end, and then exiting the app immediately. Then, the next day, I would open the app, and it would still be on the previous day's portion... annoying. Now, the app won't save your place if you've read all the way to the end.

I've gotten a lot of really good feedback on the app, which I appreciate. If you have any more features you'd really like to see, please email them to me, and I'll see if I can fit them in.

The v1.2 Saga

So... for those of you who are wondering why it took me so long to get v1.2 done, and why it still isn't out yet, here's the background story:

I finished the changes in the code I wanted to make a long time ago. The problem is, a while back Apple stated that all new updates had to compile and run on iPhone OS 3.0.

My computer is a PowerPC Mac. I got it as a broken hand-me-down from the research lab I worked in. I got it running again (sort of), and it's served me well until now. Unfortunately, iPhone OS 3.0 apps won't compile on a PowerPC – Apple changed the SDK to include libraries that won't compile properly on PowerPC machines.

So, I was sort of stuck. I got v1.2 submitted eventually by coming back into the lab I work in after hours and compiling and debugging it there.

But, there were still some bugs in the app, so Apple rejected it. I've had to find times when I can go back into the lab after work (or stay late) to be able to get it done (not good for shalom bayis). As it stands right now, Apple still isn't happy with how it's running.

So that brings us up to now. I just got a new (broken) Intel iMac off of eBay for $250! I've been trying to tweak it the last couple days, and it's actually running pretty well, crashing only occasionally. I think it might work well enough to use, until I can get enough money to actually fix it or buy a working computer.

So, G-d-willing, I'll have v1.2 fixed soon and get it submitted again. I have it running on my phone now, and I love it. It's much faster, and it hasn't crashed once on me yet.

v1.2 Submitted

Just submitted v1.2. It took me a long time to find time to do it, but I'm very happy with the result. This version is much more stable and faster than the previous versions.

The next version is probably going to be "native" iPhoneOS 3.0, which means I'll be able to add a bunch more features. It also means you'll need to upgrade to 3.0 (assuming that it's released).

Bugs Galore

Oi! Just read the comment on iTunes and apparently the last 4 books are all messed up. I never noticed because I've been mostly just staying in the daily portion. v1.1 is also crashing more than it should (i.e., never).

I have to help with a bris today, but maybe tonight I'll be able to fix these things and push the update out. We finish Likutei Amorim just before Shavuos, so IY"H the update will be out before then.

Next update taking a little while

Sorry for those who are waiting for the next update. I got half-way through it, and now I'm getting a little overloaded with personal stuff.

The highlights of the next update are adjustable font sizes, smaller memory footprint (should help prevent crashing), and a huge speedup in loading times.

I've got a small list of features that I want to add, but if there are any that people are waiting for, let me know and I'll move them up on my priority list.

Updates: Discussion Forum and Optimizations

Well, I made some good progress over Chol HaMoed and last Friday. I prototyped the discussion forum feature, and it's working great. I think it will be very cool.

I noticed someone commented on iTunes that the program crashes a lot. I haven't experienced any crashes personally, but I would bet that any crashes are due to memory issues. The iPhone seems to be pretty tight on memory, and my app sucks up a lot of it. I wrote in some optimizations that will reduce the memory footprint a little bit on Friday.

My plan right now is to try to get v1.2 done tomorrow, or next weekend. That will have some speed optimizations and some extra small features. I think I'll wait until 2.0 to include the discussion forum. That will give me time to implement it well, and work out all the bugs. I plan on releasing that with iPhone OS 3.0.

v1.1 Ready for Sale

Just before Pesach...

New discussion forum idea

First of all, thank you to everyone for the great feedback I'm receiving through email.

Someone recently suggested something that reminded me of a feature that I've been planning for a while, but I didn't know how strong the interest would be. They mentioned how they hoped that the app and this blog could start a community discussion about Tanya. I would love to facilitate such a thing, so here's the solution I was thinking of:

Create what is effectively an online message board for Tanya discussion. Anyone would be able to ask questions on the text and discuss with the community. I would hopefully be able to recruit Rabbis to be moderators and correct any misinformation or ill-posed answers. There would also be a way to directly link to citations in the text somehow (maybe taking you to Chabad.org or something)

That's all pretty easy, just an online message board. The twist to it is that I would make an interface to browse these questions, and ask new ones within the Tanya app itself. So you could be reading through a passage on your phone, think of a question, and then instantly post it to this message board. The message board would identify you by your phone, so you could then subsequently be notified when you get a response.

Anyway, it sounds cool to me. I hope it would be useful to people. Please comment if you have any thoughts. With Pesach coming up, I was thinking I might be able to get a Beta version running over chol hamoed.

v1.1 Posted to Apple

I pulled an all-nighter and finally finished v1.1. I polished up some bugs and added some necessary features. The most major being the remaining four volumes of Tanya, and a fully implemented perpetual calendar. Making that calendar took pretty long and taught me way more than I ever expected about how the Hebrew calendar works.

I also added a "Reverse" button which will reverse the direction of the Hebrew text for those people who are experiencing reversed text (or are using iPhone Beta 3.0).

Features on the horizon:

Adjustable font-size (and other saved preferences)

Place-saving (e.g., when you get a call)

Footnotes in text

Better date browser for daily portion

Swipe to go to next chapter

Streaming audio lectures

Personal notes

If you have any other ideas, please let me know.

Update is taking a while

Sorry to all those people who I told that an update was coming out soon. It still is; it's 99% ready right now... I'm just getting bogged down in school work. I'll try to push it out whenever I get a free moment.

Reversed Hebrew

A very weird new bug just popped up on my radar. Two people just emailed me from Israel saying that the Hebrew was reversed. I intentionally reverse the text in the app because the iPhone doesn't flow text properly from right-to-left (this is fixed in 3.0). Do phones in Israel display Hebrew correctly?

Alternatively, I think they were both jailbroken, because I don't think the iPhone is officially available in Israel. Maybe the jailbreaking (correctly) fixed Hebrew support.

Either way, I'm adding an option to reverse Hebrew into the next update.

[Update]: Just tried it on my friend's jailbroken phone, and it worked fine. Must be something specific about international phones. Maybe the unlocking procedure? Very weird...

Bugs...

Well, the first bug was spotted today – and this one was pretty embarrassing: I misspelled Tanya. I spelled it with a Hey instead of an Aleph.

I've made that mistake a lot in the past. Maybe I transcended my nature for a second there and attached to Reb Meir. In Bereishis, our Torah has written that G-d made "coats of skin (עור)", but in Reb Meir's Torah, they found "coats of light (אור)." You say it's Tanya (תניא), "it was learned." I say it's Ten-Y-a (תני-ה), "G-d, give."

G-d, give me the knowledge and presence of mind to stop making typos...

Please keep those bug reports coming! I'll send out an update as soon as I'm able.

Released!

Tanya.app just showed up in the AppStore. I added the link to the top of the page