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iBlessing and ParveOMeter iPhone Apps Make You a Kosher Keeping Mensch
Posted by Benny Goldman at 7:30 AM on August 18, 2008
Sorry Gentiles, you'll want to step aside for this one.
Listen up bubbelahs, now that the shiksas and sheygets are gone let's kibbitz. Your diet? Not so great. Lucky for you, two new iPhone apps are designed with kosher-keepers in mind. iBlessing tells you the correct brachas for meal time, and ParveOMeter helps your milk and meat stay separate. So wipe that schmutz off your punim, get off your tuchas, and let me show you how they work.
iBlessing, a ported version of the Say-A-Blessing keychain, shows a plate filled with food—no traif, of course. Clicking on the meat, fruit, bread, wine, etc., brings up the blessing you should say over the item in question. The app has additional "bonus blessings" as well, for events like hand washing and the after meal grace. While iBlessing is supposed to recite the blessing out loud, that part hasn't worked for me yet.
The other app, ParveOMeter, counts down the amount of time until you can eat dairy after meat and vice versa. The milk to meat setting is customisable depending on how kosher you are (zero minutes to an hour), but the meat to milk timer keeps ticking for six whole hours. The app keeps you on track too, since there is no easy way to manually stop the timer. However, when the time is up you are rewarded with a large round of applause.
Both of these apps are free and available now, but remember: Don't use them on shabbos! [iBlessing, ParveOMeter]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Marty
Posted August 24, 2008 8:59 PM
As an person, who grew up non observant, this helps me move in the right direction.
Thank you
Parker. A
Posted 7:59 AM 18/8/08
@njb42: While I respect you for the way you live your life I must ask you. Do you have any idea what I would pay for the ability to screw with your Parve-o-Meter?
I'm just saying...
Parker. A
magic_minox
Posted 7:56 AM 18/8/08
A iPhone can say a blessing for you? Seems dubious, but I like the idea. Why not build a massively-parallel supercomputer with this intended purpose, and then measure its performance in peta-mitzvahs? Or infinitely turn the world's biggest Buddhist prayer wheel in a fully GPU accelerated simulation? Has anyone written a program for the App Store that can perform Rosaries and Hail Marys as penance after confession?
magic_minox
DisposableInterloper
Posted 7:55 AM 18/8/08
And here I thought the slew of Bible apps was ridiculous...
DisposableInterloper
njb42
Posted 7:45 AM 18/8/08
I am one of the Chosen People and also one of the few people who bought the original Say-a-Blessing Keychain. With the release of this app, I will have one less gadget to carry!
I am also excited to try out the Parve-o-Meter. How many times have I longingly gazed at the carton of ice cream, wondering whether it had been a full 3 hours since we ate the brisket? Now I shall wonder no more.
njb42
SgtToastie
Posted 7:40 AM 18/8/08
Once again, technology serves an unintended purpose.
SgtToastie
Parker. A
Posted 7:38 AM 18/8/08
This is what I need.
Sincerely,
Eric Cartman
P.s. BWAHAHAHA
Parker. A
Joseph
Posted 8:35 AM 18/8/08
...AAPL, you let all these poopies apps go though and mine is still in Review!
Joseph
njb42
Posted 8:22 AM 18/8/08
@gamecrazychris: Good point, but there's a very good chance that a guy with the name Benny Goldman is Jewish.
njb42
njb42
Posted 8:21 AM 18/8/08
@Parker. A: That whooshing sound was the sarcasm flying right over your head. Although I used to keep kosher, I never worried about a few minutes plus or minus.
njb42
jonny
Posted 8:16 AM 18/8/08
Such nachus!
jonny
gamecrazychris
Posted 8:12 AM 18/8/08
This article probably took a long time to write if he isn't jewish, I didn't understand half of those words.
gamecrazychris
Ariel_Wollinger
Posted 8:47 AM 18/8/08
so they can't eat cheeseburguers??
can't i haz chzburgrz??
Ariel_Wollinger
Ariel_Wollinger
Posted 8:41 AM 18/8/08
OMG.
religion sucks.
Ariel_Wollinger
eismcsquare2
Posted 9:14 AM 18/8/08
Hey Gizmodo, how is your iphone orgy going? I see less participants nowadays - that's so bad!
eismcsquare2
frigg
Posted 9:11 AM 18/8/08
As an Amish person (Mennonite, actually), where are all the iPhone apps catering to our community, damnit?
still waiting...
waiting...
*crickets*
frigg
Parker. A
Posted 10:08 AM 18/8/08
@frigg: You are Amish with an Iphone?!?
How do you charge it? a windmill?
Parker. A
Kymeira
Posted 9:44 AM 18/8/08
I have an iPhone, and I enjoyed the iPhone App articles... But this is getting ridiculous. Are you guys just going to post every iPhone app you find?
Kymeira
zincrox
Posted 10:42 AM 18/8/08
Hey,, look... In the iblessings app there is a mention of gizmodo
zincrox
infmom
Posted 12:27 PM 18/8/08
@frigg: They're only available for the iHorse.
infmom
ALT
Posted 1:04 PM 18/8/08
The Say A Blessing is hilarious. My father will shit a brick made of giggles when I pull this out. If you are a good enough jew to actually say blessings before you eat different types of food, you damn sure are going to know the prayers by HEART.
ALT
ps61318
Posted 2:12 PM 18/8/08
@ALT: I agree, these are great - funny if you like, but really useful. The latter - the parve-o-meter - well, I have a clock, so that's not so special.
But the Say a Blessing app - It's not always so easy to remember the right blessing, especially for Baalei Teshuvah - people new to Jewish observance. I can't remember the number of times I had to look up the blessing for Fruit Loops. No lie!
Kudos to you, Benny (those are "boray minay mezonos", by the way).
ps61318
zingbot
Posted 3:25 PM 18/8/08
I'm not myself a religious person, but am very impressed with the religion-based applications showing themselves so quickly in the app store. Those are some under-appreciated and quick-moving developers.
zingbot
johnthevulcan
Posted 5:14 PM 18/8/08
jews get their own iphone app... what about us trekkies?? someone, somewhere.... get on it...(i in no way mean to offend jews of any kind or creed, just a tad jealous)
johnthevulcan
jewsrock
Posted 6:13 PM 18/8/08
@gamecrazychris: have you seen his name?
jewsrock
lightningrob
Posted 3:20 AM 19/8/08
Oy vey, I wonder which Hebrew curse this thing will shout at me when the camera recognizes me eating lobster!
lightningrob
s8ist
Posted 6:33 AM 19/8/08
This is a great app. I discovered the cheat code to eating non-Kosher foods and bypassing the blessing requirements without consequence. All you have to do is repeat "Religion is manufactured nonsense" into the iPhone's microphone until your brain processes reality. Then you can enjoy all the cheeseburgers, pork chops, and shellfish you want!
Next on my wishlist of religious purpose apps is the D.I.Y. Bris for procrastinators and new converts.
s8ist
Valicious
Posted 1:06 AM 20/8/08
@ps61318: batel-be-shishim
Valicious
werthog
Posted 10:37 PM 18/8/08
@johnthevulcan: Did you seriously just compared a religion that's millenia-old religion to a campy scifi television show. Do you realize why this is wrong.
@frigg: I can actually sort of believe you, since I've known some Mennonites not to be such Luddites. But if you want apps, you've got to make your demand known. No developer's going to be sitting around thinking "hmm, you know what would sell like hotcakes? A Mennonite iPhone app." If you think differently, do something about it.
werthog
davidturetsky
Posted 10:44 AM 18/8/08
@Joseph: I hate to break it to you, but there are still people in this World who care about our religions' traditions. Being Kosher is very important for many people and provides us with a serious comfort in the quality of what we put in our bodies. Also, it is hardly cool to say such a thing. Do you realize that you are insulting people?
Not trying to say that your app is unimportant, but don't diss my traditions nor my religion!
davidturetsky