Greatest Hits: At 13, he got an Apple Watch. At 14, he built a daily prayer app for it

The CJN Daily is on vacation this week, so we're rerunning our favourite episodes. This one originally aired Oct. 13, 2021.

With the Apple Watch, you can monitor your blood oxygen levels, send emails, wear it while swimming—and, thanks to a high school student in Toronto, you can also use it to help recite your daily Jewish prayers.

The new free app, called WatchSiddur, shows you which prayers to read each day and at what times, so you don't have to carry around a physical book all day. It was created by Eitan Steinfeld, a 14-year-old student at CHAT in Thornhill, Ont., who taught himself how to code during the pandemic. Inspired by the Apple Watch his grandmother gave him for his bar mitzvah, Steinfeld set out to create the world's first free daily siddur app for the platform.

Steinfeld joins today to discuss his project and what it took to build.

What we talked about:

• Download WatchSiddur from the Apple App Store

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Production assistance by Gabrielle Nadler and YuZhu Mou. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.