Tuesday, March 8, 2011
ITalmud for Ipad
Having Shas at one's fingertips used to be an expression. Now it is reality.
The fine folks at crowdedroad.com have released a beautiful app which enables remote learning of the Gemara. I am wondering how soon it will be until these devices make their way to the Beis HaMedrash.
From their website:
✔ HD GRAPHICS - Use the power of the iPad to touch browse, pan and zoom through full, high-definition pages of the Talmud in both the original "Tzuras Hadaf" and in English or Hebrew text view mode.
✔ ENGLISH TRANSLATION - Fully integrated English translation for the entire Talmud, with thousands of footnotes, references and insights.
✔ AUDIO LECTURES - Daf Yomi lectures are integrated and free. You can listen to a English shiur/lecture on any daf and simultaneously follow along inside with the text or image page view. Lectures are given by Rabbi Dovid Grossman of Los Angeles, a founder of the Yeshiva Gedola of Los Angeles.
✔ COMMENTARIES - The classic "Daf View" includes all the classic commentaries on the Daf. In addition, the Hebrew text view includes, one-touch, hyperlinked commentaries of Rashi, Tosfos and other medieval commentators.
✔ KEYWORD SEARCH - iTalmud features a text search for the entire Talmud. You can then view the page in either a text or image-based format.
✔ CONTENT DOWNLOAD MANGER - Due to the large size of the Talmud images and audio lectures, all pages are downloadable on-demand and then stored locally your device. You can download by daf/page or by masechta. Please note that the update engine will work even if the phone goes into sleep mode. (Please also note that Daf View images are made available according to the “Daf Yomi” schedule.)
✔ BOOKMARKS - Create bookmarks so that you can easily return to the page you were studying at a later time.
✔ “DAF YOMI” CALCULATOR – Integrated “Daf Yomi” calculator allows you to jump to the day’s “Daf” with a single touch.
✔ NAVIGATION – Browse by Seder (Order), Masechta (Tractate) and/or jump to any page (daf) in the entire Talmud in an instant. You can jump from one page to the next within a Masechta with the tap of an arrow. The app will even remember the last page you were studying and load that by by default when you next launch the app.
> ENGLISH TRANSLATION - Fully integrated English translation for the entire Talmud, with thousands of footnotes, references and insights.
ReplyDeleteSince they presumably didn't do this themselves, and presumably Artscroll did not license it, that probably leaves Soncino. I'm wondering if they did it above board or just took it from halakhah.com (which, admittedly, probably did not get any permission either, but at least they're not turning a profit or trying to be an alternative to come-and-hear).