The Apple News app is part of iOS 9. It can aggregate news feeds from many different publishers.
Universalis is now one of those publishers.
Apple News news
Posted by universalis on 3 February 2016
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Apple, Apple News | Comments Off on Apple News news
New e-books available
Posted by universalis on 10 November 2015
The new season’s ready-made Universalis e-books are now available for the Amazon Kindle. They are:
- Mass Readings 2016, covering every day from Advent 2015 to the end of 2016.
- Liturgy of the Hours 2016 (high seasons), covering every day from Advent 2015 to Pentecost 2016. The Liturgy of the Hours is split in two because the full year is too big for Amazon to handle. The second half, covering Pentecost to Advent 2016, will be published before Pentecost.
The ready-made e-books are available for the UK and Ireland; the USA; and Australia. All the links to the e-books are here.
Amazon also allow you to give e-books as Christmas presents – but, bizarrely, only in the USA.
If you have a Universalis registration code, don’t buy the ready-made e-books (except as presents), because you can create your own e-books for yourself, with your own choice of pages, dates, and calendar, and it won’t cost you anything. The Universalis e-book page will point you to the necessary instructions.
(If you haven’t got a registration code but are thinking of getting one, you can have a free trial of the e-book creation process: the e-book page gives instructions for this).
Posted in e-books | Comments Off on New e-books available
Android Bug
Posted by universalis on 11 August 2015
The Kindle Fire has a bug which makes all pages in the Universalis and Catholic Calendar apps blank. (We have had just two reports of non-Kindle Fire devices being affected, but it is almost always the Kindle Fire).
The apps themselves continue to work normally in every other respect: for instance, the calendar listing is still visible, and you can switch from one page to another. It is just that the content of the pages themselves is blank.
The bug appears intermittently. It appeared in August 2013, and again in August 2014. Both times it went away after a few days. 11 August appears to be the peak day for bug reports.
The bug has appeared again in August 2015. Following previous experience, it should go away by itself in a few days.
Almost all Android devices are unaffected by this bug, and it seems likely that most Kindle Fires are also unaffected. We have no device at all with this problem.
There is nothing we can do until we do have an affected device at a time when it is affected. We have been offered the loan of such a device so if the bug persists for another day or so, we may be able to make progress.
What you can do
Nothing really, except wait. If the bug is triggered at the time the Universalis app starts, then you might occasionally try one of the following:
- Shut down the Universalis app and then restart it.
- Shut down the device completely and then power it up again.
Last year, one user reported that turning wi-fi off and on again cured the problem. This is obviously impossible – but it shows that there is something strange going on deep inside Android.
How you can help us
If you do get the problem, please try the following and let us know the result:
- Ask Universalis to display a page for 29 June 2015. Does text appear, or is the page blank?
- Leaving that page displayed, shut down your device completely and then power it up again and open Universalis. It will still be on 29 June 2015. Does text appear, or is the page blank?
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | Tagged: Android devices, Catholic Calendar, Kindle Fire, Universalis | Comments Off on Android Bug
New release: new calendars
Posted by universalis on 7 July 2015
The latest release of Universalis adds some new local calendars. Each diocese in Scotland is now included, and so are Plymouth and Singapore. As usual, various misprints are also corrected.
Posted in Calendars, Downloadable Universalis | 1 Comment »
Kindle e-books for Ordinary Time
Posted by universalis on 21 May 2015
In a few days’ time it will be Pentecost, and those of you who have “Advent to Pentecost 2015” e-books on your Kindle will be wanting to get a new e-book to take you from Pentecost 2015 to the beginning of Advent.
How you do this depends on how you got the e-book last time.
If you created the e-book on your own computer
Do it again, just as you did before. All you need to change is the period you want the e-book to cover. This page has links to the instructions for Windows and Mac.
If you sent the e-book to yourself using our web site
You started at this page and entered your registration code. So do the same thing again. Remember to open the list under “Which month do you want?” and select “Pentecost to Advent 2015”. And of course, press the Create button at the very bottom of the page!
If you bought a pre-packaged e-book from Amazon
We also make a few standard Liturgy of the Hours e-books which can be bought directly from Amazon. The e-books are half a year long and (just like a printed book) once an e-book is obsolete you have to throw it away and get a new one. All the same, some people find this more convenient than buying a registration code and creating the e-book themselves.
The e-books we offer are:
-
Liturgy of the Hours 2015 (UK & Ireland, Ordinary Time), available from amazon.co.uk for £5.99, from amazon.com.mx for 34.99 pesos (about £1.50), amazon.in for 69 rupees (£0.70) and amazon.br for 3.99 reais (£0.85).
-
Liturgy of the Hours 2015 (USA, Ordinary Time), available from amazon.com for $9.99.
- Liturgy of the Hours 2015 (Australia, Ordinary Time), available from amazon.com.au for AU$9.99.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis, e-books | 1 Comment »
Our Lady, Help of Christians in 2015
Posted by universalis on 10 May 2015
Australia celebrates the solemnity of Our Lady, Help of Christians on 24 May each year.
When a solemnity falls on a Sunday, it depends on the importance of the Sunday. Sundays in Ordinary Time are obliterated and replaced by the solemnity. An ordinary Sunday of the Year is obliterated, but if we are in Advent, Lent or Easter then the Sunday is kept and the solemnity is postponed to the Monday. This is laid down in the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, §5 and §60.
Accordingly Our Lady, Help of Christians will be on Monday 25 May in 2015.
The reason I am mentioning this specially is that the otherwise excellent St Paul’s Missals for Australia state that in years when 24 May falls on a Sunday, Our Lady, Help of Christians is to be celebrated on Saturday 23 May. The St Paul’s Missal is wrong. I have specifically confirmed with the liturgical authorities in Australia that there has been no change of the standard rule and that Our Lady, Help of Christians is on Monday 25 May, just as the rules say. Here is the official Australian calendar for 2015.
Note: If the Australian bishops revert to celebrating Corpus Christi on its proper day (Thursday), then Sunday 24 May 2285 will be the solemnity of Our Lady, Help of Christians, replacing the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time. If they keep celebrating Corpus Christi on the Sunday after, as they do now, then Sunday 24 May 2285 will be Corpus Christi and Monday 25 May will be Our Lady, Help of Christians.
Posted in Calendars, The Universalis site | Comments Off on Our Lady, Help of Christians in 2015
Apple Watch: the Gospel on your wrist
Posted by universalis on 16 April 2015
Apple have accepted our Apple Watch apps, and they are in the App Store now!
Universalis
Universalis is approximately £10.49 / $13.99 / €13.99 from the App Store.
Catholic Calendar
Catholic Calendar is free. So there is no excuse not to have it – and you should tell all your watch-loving friends about it as well.
What the apps do
As far as the Apple Watch is concerned, both Universalis and Catholic Calendar behave in the same way. (The differences come in what the apps do on your iPhone or iPad).
Glances
There is a Glance to tell you what the feast or saint of the day is. Tap it to see the Gospel.
The app itself
When you open the app, you’ll see the calendar for the next few days. You can turn the crown to scroll through the list.
If you tap on a day, you will see the Gospel for the day. Use the crown to scroll through the whole text of the Gospel.
As well as the Gospel, you can see the First and Second Readings for the Mass of the day. To get these, press firmly on the Gospel screen, and a menu will pop up. Simply choose the reading you want.
All these pictures are for the bigger, 42mm Apple Watch. If you have the smaller, 38mm, model, then here is what you will see:
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | Tagged: Apple Watch, Catholic, Gospel, Prayer, Universalis | 1 Comment »
The Apple Watch
Posted by universalis on 28 February 2015
We have completed the development of our Apple Watch apps, and they work beautifully. As soon as Apple start accepting submissions to the App Store, we will submit these apps, and with any luck they will be available from the very first day of the Apple Watch – just as Universalis was on the very first day of the iPhone App Store.
These apps are not a separate product. They come as part of the Universalis and Catholic Calendar apps which are already in the App Store. If you haven’t got either app, Universalis is approximately £9.99 / $13.99 / €12.99 and Catholic Calendar is free. So you have no excuse not to try it out!
What the app does
When you open it, you see the calendar for the next few days. You can turn the crown to scroll through the list. (Universalis gives you yesterday, today and the week ahead; Catholic Calendar gives you yesterday, today and tomorrow).
If you tap on a day, you will see the Gospel for the day. Again, the crown will let you scroll through the whole text.
As well as the Gospel, you can see the First and Second Readings for the Mass of the day. To get these, press firmly on the Gospel screen, and a menu will pop up for you to choose the reading you want.
And that’s all.
All the pictures are for the bigger, 42mm Apple Watch. If you are getting the smaller, 38mm, model, then here is what you will see:
One more thing…
The Apple Watch has things called Glances. A Glance is a single screen of information. You can jump from one Glance to the next with a flick of your finger.
Our Apple Watch apps provide a Glance which tells you what the feast of the day is. Instant, and simple. And if you tap on the Glance, it opens the app.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | Tagged: Apple Watch, Catholic, Gospel, Prayer, Universalis | 1 Comment »
The Eastern General calendar
Posted by universalis on 23 February 2015
When you are looking through the list of available local calendars in Universalis, you may be puzzled by the mysterious “Eastern General” calendar which appears just before “Europe” in the list. Here is an explanation.
Posted in Calendars | Comments Off on The Eastern General calendar
Amazon bug in Kindle Fire
Posted by universalis on 11 February 2015
On 10 February 2014 a bug was reported to us on the Kindle Fire, which caused the Universalis app to stop working. The bug only affected certain models of the Kindle Fire, and possibly only certain users of those models. Amazon are incapable of providing technical support.
Everybody’s Universalis apps started working again, eventually. The full details are below, copied from the original article.
On 10 February 2015 the same thing has happened. The symptoms are the same, and again the problem seems to cure itself spontaneously in the end. Because it is an intermittent problem, it is not possible to tell what is causing it, or what actions will make it go away, or whether it is just necessary to wait a day or two for the problem to go away by itself.
The Universalis app for Android exists in only one version, for all Android devices, so there must be something special about the Kindle Fire.
Symptoms
The Universalis application works perfectly in every respect except the following:
- All the text pages (the Hours, the Order of Mass, Readings at Mass) are completely blank.
- In the “Font size” setting screen, the sample text is blank.
Circumstances
For some people, this happens all the time. Others have found that it sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t: they try, and they see blank page; they try a little later, and they see text.
One user reports that deleting and re-installing the Universalis application cures the problem (for a short while). Others report that it doesn’t.
Some people report that shutting down their device and starting it up again cures the problem (for a short while). Others report that is doesn’t.
One user reports: “I switched my wifi off and on again and I got to Vespers. Setting it up for Compline failed. Switching wifi off and then on again brought up Compline.” We would be very interested to know if other people have the same experience. But that user then wrote back and said that the next day everything was working perfectly!
Versions affected
| Amazon’s name | Software version |
|---|---|
| Kindle Fire HD (Previous Generation) | System Version 7.4.6 user 4620220 |
| Kindle Fire HD (Previous Generation) | System Version 7.4.7 user 4730120 |
| Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ | System Version 8.4.6 user 4620220 |
| Kindle Fire | System Version 10.4.6 user 4620220 |
No report received
Please let us know if you have any of the following Kindle Fires:
| Amazon’s name | Software version |
|---|---|
| Kindle Fire HD | 11.3.1 |
| Kindle Fire HDX | 13.3.1 |
| Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ | 14.3.1 |
| More models have been added since this article was originally written. | |
Please help us to make these lists complete. Here are instructions for finding out the version of your Kindle system software. Here are instructions for finding out what model of Kindle Fire you have.
Posted in Downloadable Universalis | Tagged: Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HD System Version | Comments Off on Amazon bug in Kindle Fire
