An Apple Store in Jerusalem?
Proposed entrance to the city of Jerusalem
My friends and family all know me as the ultimate Apple fan boy. Other than Amir, who still doggedly hangs on to his Windows desktop computer, the rest of the family has migrated to Mac – in the house are, in a variety of stages from “about to die” to “brand new bar mitzvah present from last week,” a clunky, over stuffed 17-inch iMac, a tiny Mac Mini, and three white MacBooks. There are also two iPhones, an iPod Touch and two iPod Nanos. There’s even an old brick of an iPod Mini. The only thing that’s missing is the iPad. and that’s next on the wish list.
So it was with a sense of electronic ecstasy that I read yesterday that the Cupertino behemoth is considering building its first Apple Store in Jerusalem.
Israel already has a few Apple Stores (not really full fledged Apple Stores; they’re run by local Apple franchisee iDigital), but they’re all in the Tel Aviv area. Now, I realize Jerusalem is not as sexy or consistently hi-tech as Ramat Aviv, but I still felt left out of the party. Are we Jerusalemites any less Mac savvy? Visit your local Aroma Café, where you’ll a sea of MacBooks on half the tables.
The new Jerusalem Apple Store is proposed to be part of a massive new hi-tech complex to be built at the entrance of the city. A 15-screen Cinema City was approved last month for the area. Mayor Nir Barkat’s vision is to create an entirely new hub for the city right where the fast train to Jerusalem and the light rail meet, under the Bridge of Strings near the Central Bus Station and Binyanei HaUma. This would appeal to Tel Avivi’s coming up the hill who wouldn’t have to then traipse to the other side of town to reach their workplace in the Malcha hi-tech park, for example.
The plans look pretty cool, even if just conceptual at this point. And the fast train isn’t “scheduled” to be complete until 2017 (note the emphasis on the timeframe – we’re still waiting for the perennially delayed light rail to open). Still, it could significantly spruce up the current, drab portal to the city; the first thing visitors from “the merkaz” see when they make that infrequent pilgrimage to meet with the provincial relatives who never saw the light and bought a villa in Ramat HaSharon.
The Apple Store, according to the articles, will be more than a consumer outlet; there’s also a plan to build a 5000-square foot education center and home to the world’s first Apple Digital Library (though I’m not sure exactly what that’s supposed to be). Apple execs reportedly said they wanted to bring the country’s largest Apple Store to Jerusalem for “symbolic regions.” It’s scheduled to open in 2016.
The only question left is: what will the haredim who live in nearby neighborhoods think? I hear they’re all Windows users.
New iPhone app always points to Jerusalem
Send a note to the Kotel
Got an iPhone? Now you can put Judaism’s holiest site in your pocket. That’s right, the Western Wall in Jerusalem has its own app.
The centerpiece of the app, which launched last week with the somewhat kitschy name of iKotel, is a live streaming video feed from the Wall (known in Hebrew as the “kotel”).
The app also takes advantage of the iPhone’s GPS and built-in gyroscope to point you in the right direction so that you can be sure to correctly face the Wall from wherever you are in the world while praying, as Jewish tradition stipulates. For the observant, that’s the kind of added value that can really come in handy when you’re backpacking in the mountains of Peru and can’t find the local Chabad.
Live from the Old City...it's the Western Wall!
You can also drop a line to the Wall using the app, which has a cute yellow note pad graphic and a send button. The app’s creators, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, claim that they will print out your supplication and place it between the ancient stones by hand. They’re not the first to do this, however. Alon Nir’s Tweet Your Prayers did the same thing but with 140-character “tweets” printed out from Twitter.
There are various other goodies too: you can virtually tour the tunnels under the Western Wall and book a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony. “Feel the spirituality. Revive your soul!” the app proclaims, all for free.
One quirk (or is that a feature?) – you can’t watch the Wall on Shabbat and holidays when the app’s management switches off the stream. But that won’t guarantee that some petitioners won’t accidentally slip into sin. The app would have to sport some sophisticated geo-restriction: after all, while it may be Shabbat afternoon in New York, in Jerusalem the camera will already be back on.
Foto Friday – Dan Haimovich gets Hip(stamatic)
Filed under: Art, Blogging, Food, Foto Friday, General, Life, Pop Culture, Profiles, Travel
Professional photographer Dan Haimovich left the field several years ago and returned recently to find something completely different. Over the past decade, photography had changed radically by going 100% digital and — thanks to mobile devices and the Internet — becoming part of everyday conversation.
Working with the Hipstamatic app for iPhone, which enables users to take pictures that look like those taken by the analog plastic cameras of the past, Haimovich captures small slices of life in Tel Aviv.
“The app reminded me of the age of film. Under certain lighting conditions it works exactly right and it unleashed something in me — a creative force that I haven’t experienced in a long time. ”
One feature of Hipstamatic , in mimicking its analog predecessor, is to create a slight disparity between what is seen through the viewfinder and the resulting “through the lens” image. It’s a retro touch that Haimovich enjoys. “What’s fascinating is that you have to approximate the frame so things come into it that are unplanned, unexpected.”
Haimovich has been posting the new works on his blog and on Facebook, often with short descriptions about how a particular series came into being. “With with these [Hipstamatic] works I found the ability to connect text to images. I give them short titles that are very intuitive and immediate. I find this combination works very well. Plus, you get feedback which is very nice. It’s very interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.”
Another project since returning to the medium is food photography. He most recently completed shooting a vegetarian cookbook with his sister Miki Haimovich, one of Israel’s premier newswomen (who last week announced she will be stepping down from her position co-anchoring the Channel 10 nightly news to pursue other projects).
To honor these and all other new beginnings, we’ll close with a new broom and wish all Israelity readers the very best for 2011!
Il apps
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, design, Food, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness
The rapidly disappearing plate of ihummus
So besides some of the obvious ones, for me that is, such as Epi, the cooking/baking app from Epicurious, or GroceryIQ, which streamlines your grocery list, or the various games that my stepdaughter likes to play when she can wangle it away from me, I decided to take a look for some Israeli-created apps.
iHummus, the name of which is already firmly tongue-in-cheek, gives you a quick laugh. Depicting a plate of hummus being spread and sprinkled with paprika and parsley, with the buzz of a noisy hummousiya in the background, a quick swipe of the screen — another LOL, as lenagev, to wipe, is the term used for ‘wiping’ your plate of hummous with a pita — has you virtually eating your plate of hummous. At the end of which there’s the sound of a satisfied burp, and the option to have another plate or send to a friend. I did both.
But my current lifesaver is Jerubus, which is a fantastic app in Hebrew and English, depicting the Jerusalem bus map, both in the daytime (white screen) and nighttime (black screen), with colored lines for each bus line. It’s clear and easy to use, and also has a handy list of the important sites in the cities and where to find them on the map. You can upgrade to self-positioning for just $1, which I just may do.
Finally, I want to dive into Waze, a social networking GPS for the driving community. Waze lets you play while you’re on the road, finding out from other drivers what are the best roads to take on your journey, and to ‘hit’ landmarks when you’re getting bored on the road. Not so sure about that aspect of it, as in, not great for keeping your eye on the road, but I’ll give it a shot. Probably.
Check ‘em out.
Navigating Israel on the iPhone
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Technology, Travel
Israel’s Tourism Ministry is making great efforts to join the 21st century – the latest attempt being a pretty cool one.
The launch of a new iPhone application finds the user’s location and let them receive fast, updated information on sites, tours and events in the immediate area. According to a press release put out by the ministry, the app – named iSrael – can be downloaded for free from the Apple Appstore.
While currently available in English and Hebrew, there are plans to expand the app to Russian, German and French. In the meantime, there’s a plethora of information available, listed under themes like archeology and history, nature and animals, holy places, national sites and parks and gardens.
Clicking on a site opens a new page, which provides a photo and a description of the site as well as helpful information like contact details, hours of operation, a map of the area, a precise address and a link to the attraction’s website. There’s also a section for hikes and tours called ‘Tracks’ which is divided into hiking tours, bicycle tours, vehicle tours and tours for people with disabilities.
You can also find hotels and other accomodations through the application, including details like kashrut standard, suitability for young children or pets and maps.
And, as an extra attraction, users can upload their own photographs and comments to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter in real time through the application.
Jerusalem Post resident techie David Shamah praised the iSrael application for its nice interface, and offered some tips for the future:
There are a number of blank sections in the database, such as lists of restaurants, recommended tours outside the center of the country and other details, but one can assume they will be filled in over the coming days and sent on to those who downloaded the app.
Currently, you can click on a phone number or e-mail address to make a call or send a message to a hotel, organization or other group featured in the listing you’ve been reading; hopefully the app will provide maps and driving directions to the sites included in the app, taking advantage of the tight integration of the iPhone platform.
Now if we could just get the taxi drivers to start behaving in a civil manner…
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