Android CalJ — Jerusalem Compass

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בס″ד

Moadim l’Simcha,

I have published an update for CalJ on Androi. Version 2.20 features a new tool that is not yet available in the iPhone edition: a compass to Jerusalem for the direction of the Tefila.

The Sages have fixed that the prayer of Amida must be said when facing towards Jerusalem. The synagogues are generally oriented more or less towards the Kodesh haKodashim, but an individual who prays at home or out in a journey needs to know the direction to turn to.

Heading to the Kotel varies with the location. When opening the screen, and if the GPS sensor is off, the CalJ app considers that your current location is the town that is configured for the Times screen. GPS is not mandatory for the compass to work.

If GPS is on, the heading adjusts automatically.

Instructions of use: turnem around to make the red arrow point straight in front of you.

A word on accuracy

Android devices are equipped with an electronic sensor to guess the direction of the magnetic North pole. The signal is extremely disturbed by the presence of metallic objects or electric devices.

Make sure to keep the phone horizontal away from any magnetic disturbance.

Besides, the geographic North differs from magnetic North reference by a few degrees, depending on time and location. But this still complies with Halacha, which rules only on an approximating direction for the Tefila. The orientation is only symbolic and does not require absolute accuracy — unlike the Zmanim rules (times).

Please feel free to comment and report any feedback.

Chag Samea’ch,

Gabriel

10 thoughts on “Android CalJ — Jerusalem Compass”

    1. Hi,
      Thank you for using my app.
      Can you contact me by email and give me more details?
      (You must keep the phone horizontal, and your phone must be equipped with a magnetic field sensor.)

      1. Hi Meir,

        What is your device? You may contact me by email to provide more details and screenshots.
        Thanks.

  1. Used in in Brooklyn visiting. This compass is nice, but it showed wrong direction. There is an app also called Jerusalem compass, that showed the correct direction.

    1. Hi, thank you for using my app.
      Could you indicate which platform (iOS/Android), which version of the system, which version of the app?
      And also, please note that the app does not constantly “know” where the user is located. The app relies on the currently configured city (in particular for the Zmanim, but also for Compass).
      Did you make sure that you had configured Brooklyn as their current location before using the Compass?

      Thanks,
      Gabriel

  2. Yo también tengo el mismo problema me parece tedioso escribir correo y ademas solicite el idioma español y nada todo es hebreo

    1. Thank you for your message.

      This is wrong: not everything is in Hebrew. Can you please send me a screenshot to show me what you see?
      Did you configure the Spanish language in the app’s Settings?

      Please note that if there are some missing phrases in Spanish, you can just send them to me. I don’t speak Spanish (you can’t blame me for that… I already speak 3 other languages!) and an app does not get magically translated on its own. You need to send me the phrases and I will put them in the app.
      Thanks

    1. Hi, thank you for using my app.
      You are correct, these texts are prayers in Hebrew, I did not put a translation for them in the app.

      It would be a major amount of work for me for no reason (this is primarily a calendar app…), and, there are plenty of other online resources where one can find the translations easily.

      Thanks,
      Col touv,
      Gabriel

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