Praying with your iPod

Slowly, the iPod is turning into a true multi-media powerhouse. Not only can it play and synchronize your tunes, it plays video, games and syncs with Outlook address book and calendar. Now, just when you thought it couldn’t do anything else, someone has figured out how to make the iPod a prayer powerhouse.

One thing missing from the ipod is native language support for several different languages. When you set up your iPod, most likely you chose English (for our readers here) and therefore all you can read is your native language. What if your language of prayer is Hebrew or Arabic? Until now, you were out of luck. However, thanks to the brilliant people at Davka Software, they have come up with a solution for those who pray in Hebrew. I would imagine that other languages could be created based on this design. The software is called iDaven – daven is a Hebrew word describing the act of praying.

Sound interesting? Read on for more info. How it works:

Here is how it works. The software is in super-high resolution picture format – each frame is another ‘slide’ in the group of pictures. You simply copy the ‘pictures’ in the various folders into folders in itunes and then sync them to your ipod. The program ships with five folders of different prayers. Just open the appropriate folder and the thumbnails of the various frames appear. Select the first one and then just hit the ‘next’ button on the ipod to make your way through the appropriate prayer. It is like having a complete Hebrew prayerbook with you at all times.

Ease of Use:

This program was incredibly simple to set up and use. If you can find pictures on your ipod, you can use idaven. Just open the folder (prayer) you want to use and advance through it. There is no sound (that is a different program to be reviewed at a later date.)

Overall Conclusions:

This is a great idea and a wonderful piece of software. Sure, there have been options for different language prayer on PDA’s for years. This, however, is a brilliant work around for the ipod – utilizing the photo viewer for the text. The images were clear and crisp and the convenience was great. Let’s hope someone else picks up on this idea for Latin, Arabic, Greek and other languages of prayer.

Final Grade: A

Pros: Easy to set up and use, very convenient

Cons: None to speak of

Idaven is available at www.davka.com for $19.95

Written by Gary