A few changes occurred that have enabled us to make the Shabbos App.

We cancelled the Kickstarter campaign as we now moving full-speed ahead working on the app. The app will take about 5 weeks to complete. Originally, we were waiting until the kickstarter campaign completed on Dec 5th to start working on completing the app, hence our Feb 15th delivery date. Now that we are no longer waiting, the app will be out the first of December.

There was a blog-post written by Rabbi Menken, where he tries to show the Shabbos App is a hoax and a farce. We responded to his post point by point. However, while his objective was to harm us, he actually helped us in a very large way. For starters he brought to our attention an important issue that we overlooked – the battery getting hot is a function of the person using the phone. When working with our rabbis we made a list of technical issues that occur when one uses the phone, and our solutions to each one. Our solution to the battery getting hot was to force a consistent load on the battery that was sufficient to make the battery heat up after time, that way a user would not be directly causing the battery to heat.

Rabbi Menken correctly pointed out that the battery getting hot is not a problem on Shabbos at all, as it is considered a “safaik psik raisha d’aino nicah lei” this mean something that (1) will not for sure happen and (2) even if it does happen, a user does not want it to happen, and therefore is totally fine. Thank you Rabbi Menken.

While the programming to force a load is very simple, this caused the battery to drain quicker, necessitating that we provide a way to charge the phone on Shabbos. This programming was extremely difficult and caused the phone to crash as we were manipulation a lot of system code. While many doubted we could do this to begin with, we have two expert programmers who were able to develop code that could manipulate the Android system to think it was not connected to a charger. This entire part of the program is now irrelevant, as the battery will hold up the whole Shabbos without charging – keep in mind the Shabbos App program disables all non-essential programs from running on the phone, helping to conserve battery life.

So, now thanks to Rabbi Menken calling us a hoax and making people possible doubt our app, we are building it first – and being able to deliver the Shabbos App for your enjoyment in time for Chanukah! Even more so, we thank Rabbi Menken for correcting us with regard to the battery issue, enabling us to drop a large and problematic part of the software and deliver the app at a much more reasonable price (something he also bashed us for) of just $18.

Sometimes the best help you get is from those looking to harm you. Read this amazing story for an even better example.