Batoul Apps

Guidance for the iPhone has been updated to Version 2.2. With that comes a much requested feature - multiple adhan alerts to choose from. Now, when enabling a prayer notification, you can choose from the Default Adhan, the Makkah Adhan or the Istanbul Adhan (the same great Adhans available in Guidance for Mac). The Adhan alerts are still limited to 30 seconds but unfortunately that is an Apple regulation, so there is no way around it.

We hope you enjoy this update and please feel free to leave any suggestions for future releases in the comments section

You can grab Guidance for the iPhone from the iTunes App Store

In coordination with Zabihah.com, Batoul Apps is proud to announce a new feature - the Masjid Locator. The Masjid Locator works with up-to-date information from Zabihah.com to overlay the five masaajid closest to you, or around any location you request.

To find the five closest masaajid to you, press the Qibla Direction icon. Use the "current location" icon to orient Google Maps to your location. Then, press the Masjid Locator icon in the bottom right corner. Guidance will scale Google Maps to show you the five closest masaajid.

The Masjid Locator works for any location. You can use the search bar to type in a city, or simply drag the map to a location and click the Masjid Locator icon to find the nearest masjid.

Use this feature to help plan where to stop for Salah while traveling, or to find a place to attend Jummah prayers when you are visiting another city. Zabihah.com's database lets Guidance's Masjid Locator work in many international locations, so you can have options for salah away from home. If you find a new masjid while traveling, add it to Zabihah.com so others can find the masjid too.

Once the Masjid Locator has shown you the five nearest masaajid, tap on one of them, and the name and address of the masjid will pop up. Click the address, and Guidance gives you the option to open the location in maps, so you can get directions. Or, click "More Info" to visit the Zabihah.com page for more information about this masjid.

Once you are done using the Masjid Locator feature, just touch the Masjid Locator icon again to toggle off the masaajid and return your green Qibla direction arrow.

Batoul Apps and Zabihah.com hope that Guidance's new Masjid Locator function will help you to find a musallah to pray wherever you are, even while traveling in a new place! Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to always improving our work for your use and for the sake of Allah.

Alhamdulillah, we are very pleased to announce the new version of Guidance for the iPhone. This new version has so many new features and functionality that decided it was definitely worthy of being our official 2.0 release. This release includes Prayer Alerts that uses Apple's new Push Notification to play an adhan alert or a beep when its time to pray, even if the app isn't running. It also has a new prayer compass for the iPhone 3GS that will point the exact direction to pray. We also added in a new Qibla map that you can pan and zoom around in, hijri date, better time zone support and better compatibility with high latitude locations.

One thing you'll notice though is we changed the name to Guidance Pro, this is because we are inshallah planning on releasing a non-pro version of Guidance for the iPhone that is completely free. This version will be the same Guidance you know and love but without prayer alerts.

As always we look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Note: The adhan alert will play for 20 seconds (completing the second Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar) if not interrupted. Unfortunately this is a limitation of any Push Notification sent to the phone. If this ever changes we will be sure to update Guidance to include the full Adhan.

Well it has been a while, and I do admit that I got a bit distracted with releasing version 1.2 of Guidance for Mac OS X and my other iPhone app Medical Spanish, but alhamdulillah the update for Guidance for the iPhone has finally been released. Version 1.1 includes much more accurate lookup for your current location on the Qibla maps, Qibla maps can now be displayed as satellite maps, tap a prayer time and it will flip over and show you a countdown until its time for that prayer, you can also set your time zone as the system time zone so that it automatically applies daylight savings time, and the home screen shows the name of the city and the date that the prayer times are for.

Now the only features still left to implement are a calendar tab that shows you the hijri date for any date you choose, the prayer times for that date and notes special Islamic events (Eid, Ramadan, etc.) and the ability to pan the map to move it (like the Google Maps app does) instead of double tapping. I also hope to be able to implement adhan notifications, but theres no way to do that until Apple allows apps to run in the background or access some kind of notification system (neither of which have any sort of indication of when they might become available).

Inshallah, I hope you enjoy this update and please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments

It has come to my attention that there are a few Gulf countries that do not have iTunes stores of their own which may make it difficult for you to buy Guidance for your iPhone or iPod Touch, one solution that a recent user of Guidance emailed to me is to change your iTunes Store to Saudi Arabia and then buying it from that store, and it should accept the credit cards from your local country. I hope this solution helps anyone that was having difficulty purchasing Guidance.

And if that doesn't work you can always use the free Prayer Times Webapp m.guidanceapp.com

Ok so it has been a month since I first posted about the upcoming update to Guidance for the iPhone. Unfortunately I am only one person and have been extremely busy in the past few weeks, however I believe that when the you see the update you will agree with me that it was well worth the wait. One of the benefits of the update having been delayed is that during this time Google has released some excellent new features to their Maps API that I will be incorporating into Guidance. Specifically the inclusion of a satellite map for the qibla direction and a the ability to lookup the name of your location when using the GPS "find my current location" feature.

I thank all of you for your patience and hope to have this update out to you very very soon inshallah.

So alhamdulillah I think the launch of Guidance on the iPhone has been great, and I've been listening to user comments and have begun work on next update for the iPhone version. It looks like the features that will inshAllah make it into this release are:

• Displaying the date on the prayer times screen
• Tapping a prayer time to get a countdown
• The ability to have Adhan notification while the app is running
• The ability to tap a location on Qibla map to have it move to that point

I will also be trying to squash some small memory leaks and improve the Qibla map lookup for original iPhones when they use the auto-locate button.

Scheduled for the release after this one will be a calendar that will let you see the Islamic Date and prayer times for any date you select. If you guys have any more suggestions or comments please feel free to leave them.

Salam Alaikum, Alhamdulillah Guidance is now available on the App Store giving you prayer times for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Thank you to everyone for your support, please be sure to add your reviews to the App and to contact me with any suggestions you have. This is just the first release, more features will definitely be coming soon!
 
Grab it here

Well this is it, development for Guidance on the iPhone is now complete. I have submitted the application to Apple for review and inshAllah it should be on the app store in a few days (I'm really really hoping they approve it in time for Ramadan, but might be one or two days late).

There are definitely some features that will be included in an update soon. Specifically a calendar feature that will allow you to see the Hijri date of any date on the calendar as well as the prayer times for that date.

Guidance will sell in the app store for only 99 cents. Thats right, only 99 cents for the fully featured prayer times program you already know and love for Mac OS X.

Well now that that is done, time to hurry up and get Guidance 1.1 for Mac OS X done in the next 3 days and have it out in time for Ramadan as well. It has an awesome Suhoor feature where you can set it to wake you up a certain number of minutes before Fajr. I'm sure that will be extremely useful in the coming days and inshallah I am going to work as much as I can to get that to you in time. No rest for the weary, but inshAllah all of you will make duaa for me during Ramadan.

Salam alaikum, just wanted to give everyone an update on the progress of Guidance for the iPhone. The interface for the prayer times is complete and so is the interface and logic behind calculating and displaying the Qibla direction for your location. All thats left is to finish up the preferences screen and it will be ready inshallah. The initial release won't have adhan notifications but will be added very soon.
 
When the adhan features does get added in an update, here is how it will mostly likely work. Basically as long as Guidance is running when you lock your phone it will be able to play the adhan and notify you of the prayer times, even though the phone is locked. The downside of this is of course remembering to turn on Guidance before you lock your phone, but until Apple allows programs to run in the background I think this should be a passable solution until a better alternative presents itself.