[Entropy666]

Jewberry - Jewish Hebrew texts for Blackberry
Rating 8.5/10
Link: Jewberry - Your Solution for Hebrew Jewish Texts on your Blackberry
Cost: $29.95

This is niche piece of software that targets Jews who want to have their common prayer material always at hand. Personally this was one of the arguments against switching to a Blackberry that I could not previously refute, until now. Pocket PC's and Palm devices have had Hebrew texts on them for over 5 years now all you Blackberry fans can share some of the lovin.

This texts included with the software are all in Hebrew, including:

• Shacharit, Mincha, and Marriv (Including Sepharad, Edot Hamizrach, and Ashkenaz)
  
• Sefirat Haomer
  
• Kriyat Shema
  
• Brocha Achrona (Both Sepharad and Ashkenaz)
  
• Tefilat Haderech
  
• Pidyon Haben
  
• Brit Milah

All the books are free once you purchase the software. I have not had any contact with the actual developer so I am not sure exactly where the software is headed. To my understanding from the forums on his website we will be seeing nekudot soon in all the hebrew texts. You should look below at the screen shots to get an idea of how it would work on your Blackberry.

I have only 2 complaints about this software. First of all it hangs my device sometimes since it checks with the registration server the first time you start up the program every time you reset the device. Secondly with a device like my Blackberry 8800 everything works like a charm except when you scroll down the list of texts all the texts that you pass remain highlighted. I'm not sure if this is a bug or just a lack of an update for the scroll ball.

Pros:

• Major Jewish texts on your Blackberry
  
• Easy to use
  
• Can download new texts from the server
  
• It seems that updates are free

Cons:

• High price
  
• Support forums are scarce
  
• Registration connection to a server when the software is first started every time you reboot
  
• Highlighting of texts is confusing
  
• No easy way to skip passages for holidays (You have to scroll through them)

Conclusion:

The software works as advertised with a few kinks. I think anybody who misses the hebrew text functionality on their palm or pocket pc device will love what this software offers if they can justify the price. I have found that having micha and maariv in my pocket more than pays for the purchase price if you can ignore the minor kinks.

[Nextel User]

i played with it on my friends berry. i think it will be more worth the price when the get the nekudot in.
i know another developer who is working on a hebrew reader that will auto convert all hebrew palm docs for the berry, this way you wont be missing anything at all

;)

[Entropy666]

Originally Posted by Nextel User

i played with it on my friends berry. i think it will be more worth the price when the get the nekudot in.
i know another developer who is working on a hebrew reader that will auto convert all hebrew palm docs for the berry, this way you wont be missing anything at all

;)

I would love to hear about the other developer who is working on another hebrew reader. This is something i always wanted on my blackberry and have finally found a solution for. I am not sure about the status on the nekudot since I have never been in contact with the developer but he has mentioned it back in August of 2006 at this link The Jewberry Community - Nekudot that he would have a premium version with nekudot in a month but I have seen no indication of that.

[slinky]

I'd love the reader. I have a lot of Hebrew docs from Israeli companies and simply use a reader and addon on the Palm. This system is just a graphic unfortunately and the connection to server makes it a no go - especially when you boys may be out of range in the Catskills, lol. My advice - scan in these few items, convert to graphic, store on your SD card and view them in the viewer. I applaud the effort though and hopefully this will get cheaper and not require the persistent connection at startup.

[Entropy666]

Originally Posted by slinky

I'd love the reader. I have a lot of Hebrew docs from Israeli companies and simply use a reader and addon on the Palm. This system is just a graphic unfortunately and the connection to server makes it a no go - especially when you boys may be out of range in the Catskills, lol. My advice - scan in these few items, convert to graphic, store on your SD card and view them in the viewer. I applaud the effort though and hopefully this will get cheaper and not require the persistent connection at startup.

Yes know slinky the connection at every startup is a pain. This really kills me on the subway and in my apartment where I have sporadic reception. We really could use a reader for texts that we find online. I am actually working on something that may help me with hebrew documents but as of now I have only heard of this solution. I tried using images but first of all the images themselves are hard to come by. and having to scroll through images at a readable font is not as easy and just hitting the spacebar button. All I can say is that there is alot of room for improvement and I am really looking for a developer to grab the bull by its horns and produce a better product.

[Avner]

As a person who lives in Washington DC and receive Hebrew documents daily, I have been searching for Hebrew reader for several years, so far unsuccessful. Ideally I would love to read Israeli newspapers directly on their Hebrew sites, as I used to do with other smart phones.

[slinky]

The problem is that the Blackberry is still not a document reader. Nobody cares to develop for the OS... well... not yet. As BB seems to consumerize the phones perhaps an offline client will surface just to read MS Office docs. If that happens perhaps someone will create a Hebrew reader to match the group of other offline readers that may appear.

[Nextel User]

below is the email i got from him a while back

| -----Original Message-----
| From: Ulrich Greve [mailto:ulrichgreve@tichnut.de]
| Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2007 10:11 AM
| To:
| Subject: Reading Hebrew Palm DOC files on BlackBerry
|
| Dear Sir or Madam,
|
| I want to inform you that I am ready to develop a software
| Hebrew Reader for Palm DOC text files for the BlackBerry.
| It needs a BlackBerry with a file system where also any files,
| e.g. pictures, documents, from the desktop PC can be transferred
| to the BlackBerry device.
| According to my information, the BlackBerry models 8100 or
| higher supports a file system with transferring data files from the
| desktop PC to the device.
| However, I only have an old device (7230) which I only used
| for developing the Luach for BlackBerry 7200 series and 7510
| and not for other purposes.
|
| My idea is, if somebody can send me a DEFECTIVE 8100 or higher
| device (I do not need telephone functions) which can be, however,
| still used for developing software, I would be willing to develop
| such a Hebrew Reader.
| The costs for developing the software, e.g. for the code signing
| at the company for the BlackBerry, are paid by me.
|
| The person who sends me the device will get a free license of
| the Hebrew Reader when it is completed.
|
| If you have such a device and want to send it to me, you can
| do that to the address
|
| Ulrich Greve
| Birkenfelder Str. 12
| 75180 Pforzheim
| - Germany -
|
| Yours sincerely,
|
| Ulrich Greve
|
| P.S.: According to my information, there is, up to now, no
| possibility to read Hebrew text on the BlackBerry, but e.g.
| the Koran in Arabic letters.

his website Jewish software with many unique features

[Entropy666]

Nextel User ,
That is the same developer that created the jewish calendar for the 7000 series devices. I am not sure if there will be much else coming out since I do not see any new updates even for that piece of software.

Have either of you guys tried using the semetic font support on the 8800 and 8700 devices. I have a small setup that i created for myself where I create an RSS feed with a new post for each hebrew document. Then with the RSS feature of the BlackBerry Browser i can view each document. I am still working on refining it. It is kind of hit and miss for now but it seems to work with utf-8 encoding. If you are interested i can try to do a little writeup of it later

[Nextel User]

did better

http://www.blackberryforums.com/rim-...88-hebrew.html

[Dr. Jerry]

Only in New York....

[Entropy666]

Yeah I actually thought more people would be interested.

Does anybody know where I can get my hands on some of the basic Jewish texts in unicode. For example Birkat hamazon, or shacharit/mincha/maariv? I have been looking around for any that are free to the public but have found nothing.

[Nextel User]

i too found nothing

i found some sites in israel,BUT with the nekudot it creates extra boxes on the berry

[Entropy666]

Could you share those sites you found?

[Nextel User]

Bible and Mishneh Torah for All - Jews and Gentiles / Mechon Mamre is one has a lot of stuff with and without nekudot

search for xxx1502;xxx1504;xxx1495;xxx1492; xxx1493;xxx1506;xxx1512;xxx1489;xxx1497;xxx1514; and lots of hebrew sites come up


do you have any of the tefilos?

what hebrew texts do you have?

[slinky]

Got a lot of stuff for the Palm. Not sure if it can be converted or if it is truly unicode.

[amintz]

Jewberry does not include a Hebrew/Jewish calendar. Is there a Hebrew calendar available for the BB8830?

[Nextel User]

There is a hebrew calendar for the 8800/8830 and 8300 at www.tichnut.de

[Entropy666]

Yeah its actually quite useful. I will be running a review of it today or tomorrow. Its completely free and very customizable. My only gripe was I could not find an OTA link for the software.

[Mir]

There is in fact a company who provides Hebrew support for American Blackberries.
It enables reading and writing in Hebrew (with the help of a convenient virtual keyboard).
Does not support vowels (texts with vowels, such as Mechon Mamre's Tanakh, get a lot of black boxes in them instead).
I've been using them for a while, but lately decided it is not worth the expensive monthly subscription.
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