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Vatican uses Telegram to guide Catholics during Lent
When Pope Francis says he sees the internet as a blessing, he's not just talking a big game. As part of a broader "Keep Lent" campaign beginning Wednesday, the Vatican is sending its daily readings of Gospel verses through a Telegram channel, @pgpompei -- last year's choice of messaging service (WhatsApp) just isn't as good, it seems. You don't have to fire up Telegram to listen, but the move shows that the Catholic leadership wants to follow its younger laypeople to the social services they're using at the moment, rather than sticking to "safe" choices like Facebook or Twitter. Just don't expect the Pope to get a Peach account any time soon.
ICANN lists first custom TLDs up for consideration, starts with Chinese word for 'Catholic'
The bidding process for custom top-level domains led to many candidates, but there can only be one that ICANN considers first. Which one gets the honor? Thanks to a semi-random draw, it's .天主教, or "Catholic" in Chinese -- a domain registered by the Catholic church's Pontifical Council for Social Communication. The position could give the church one of the first active custom TLDs in 2013, ahead of Amazon, VeriSign and others that were among the frontrunners in a 1,930-domain pack. There's no guarantees that the church or any of the other early bidders will be accepted when there's substantial dispute over who, if anyone, should own many of the given domains. Knowing who goes through ICANN's scrutiny, due early next year, may still prepare us for a changed internet landscape.
Confession: A Roman Catholic App receives an imprimatur and your sins
I grew up Catholic and remember the nervousness of going to confession each week. Little iApps has created Confession: A Roman Catholic App, which aims to remove some of the trepidation of those visits by logging your sins, tracking your prayers, offering a step-by-step guide to the sacrament and offering some religious guidance by way of an "examination of conscience." If you're worried about people seeing all the bad things you've been up to, there's also password-protection for your profiles. It happens to be the first iOS app to receive an imprimatur, which is essentially a blessing from the church to publish the app. I spoke to one of the developers this afternoon and he informed me that Little iApps is donating a portion of the proceeds to various Catholic charities, so the US$1.99 price is not just a way to get money from the devout iDevice users out there. I must admit it's an interesting approach to a centuries-old practice, and the interface is clean and simple (and tuned for iPhone or iPad, depending). It's designed to be used in and out of the confessional booth. If you are Catholic, it's likely worth a look. If you're Catholic and you sin frequently, well, just be sure you use that password. [Due to the religious nature of this post we've turned off comments. Sorry, some folks can't be civil no matter how nicely we ask. - Ed.] [Via BBC and Engadget]
iTunes salvation: Roman Catholic Church approves Confession app
Are you a sinner? Don't worry, there's an app for that. The Roman Catholic Church has approved a recent iTunes addition called Confession, a $1.99 app that bills itself as "the perfect aid for every penitent." As you can see above, it lets you pick a commandment and tick off all your sins, keeping a running tally to bring into the confessional with you -- a sort of anti-tasklist, if you will. Can't find your particular misstep? No problem! You're able to add your own, custom dastardly deeds, filling in those gaps the app's authors didn't think anyone would fill. Now all it needs is a random sin selector: shake the phone to instantly get a wicked suggestion. That certainly could make boring Thursday nights at the dormitory a little more exciting.
And so it begins... Seton Hill University to give all students an iPad
We were talking about this the other day in the virtual "back room" at TUAW -- when would the first university announce that they were going to give every one of their students an iPad? It didn't take too long. Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania has announced that starting in Fall, 2010, every full-time student will get an iPad as part of the Seton Hill Griffin (that's the school's mascot) Technology Advantage Program. According to TUAW reader Dirk, who tipped us to this announcement, "Students will be able to download their textbooks to their iPads from the iBook Store. In addition, iPads can be used as phones and for air and file sharing, as well as note-taking." This isn't the only piece of Apple technology for Seton Hill students. In the fall, first year undergraduate students at this Catholic liberal arts university also receives a 13" MacBook to use. The school is a haven for Mac users; the IT department can do repairs on equipment and will even give students a loaner MacBook when their own units are in the shop. It's almost enough to make me want to go back to college... Thanks to Dirk for the tip!
Pope Benedict XVI texting out messages of encouragement
Don't act like you didn't know that Pope Benedict XVI was down with modern technology. As part of World Youth Day, the man himself will begin sending out texts of encouragement to pilgrims who have signed up through Telstra to receive them. A total of four gigantic "prayer walls" have been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse in Australia, where folks will actually be able to send their own messages for all to presumably see. The first message sent out? "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI." Hllujh, amn brtha.[Thanks, zedster]
Promotional Consideration: Communion Day
Promotional Consideration is a new weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out. Our christening post takes a look at an Italian ad for the handheld that won Epica's silver award for Press last year. Check past the post break for the full image.
When good toys go bad IV: explicit CD player triggered during mass
While we've seen quite a few toys pulling stunts that they should definitely be ashamed of, the latest edition ups the ante by doing its dirty deed in a Roman Catholic cathedral. Following the "if it blinks, obliterate it" mentality so well exemplified at various Boston transit arteries, a team of Santa Fe bomb squad experts were called onto the scene after three CD players were triggered to start blasting "sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass" at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Reportedly, the players were "duct-taped to the bottoms of the pews," apparently causing the innocent church dwellers to assume the worse -- you know, like C4 explosives camouflaged as a mid-range driver. Nevertheless, the bomb squad removed the devices, took them outside, and probably had a thrilling experience whilst detonating two of the players as a safety measure. Once the crew realized the only explosive tendencies were captured in the inappropriate lyrics, they salvaged the third unit to comb for fingerprints and hopefully arrest the perpetrator(s). Now, which cop is going to cave in and post the fireworks on YouTube?[Via BoingBoing]
