Updating apps and programs

Depending what Universalis app or program you are using, it may update itself automatically when a new version comes out. Here are all the details, with instructions for manual updating.

Advanced Debugging on iOS

Very, very rarely, a problem comes up where we need the Universalis app to report precisely what it is doing at every instant, and also to report every detail of its configuration.

For this purpose, version 3.26 of the Universalis app for iOS will have a new setting: “Advanced Debugging”. This version is being reviewed by Apple, and if they accept it, it should appear in the App Store next week. These instructions will not work until you have updated to the new version.

How to send a Contact Us message

All the Universalis apps and programs now have a command called “Contact Us”. This is a good way of getting in touch with us, because it creates an email which automatically contains a lot of useful information – such as which version you are using, what calendar and language settings you have, and what page you are looking at.

How to record the screen on the iPhone or iPad

Sometimes it is easiest to explain things by sending a video of what you are seeing on your screen.

Apple have instructions, but they are a bit elliptical, so here is a longer version.

October 2019 newsletter

This month there is one major new feature in Universalis: the Spiritual Reading page.

VoiceOver bug

It is very rare for Apple to introduce a bug into their operating systems which causes major trouble for users of the Universalis app, but unfortunately it looks as if this is what has happened in iOS 13.

Apple’s VoiceOver feature reads the contents of an app screen out loud to the user, thus enabling blind people to use the app. Universalis has worked with VoiceOver for many years now, but with iOS 13 there has come a problem.

September 2019 newsletter

The summer is over (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) and it is time to send out newsletters again. Although this period is still called “Ordinary Time”, it is full of extraordinary people. Follow the About Today page each day, and you will see.

Easter 2019 newsletter

Happy Easter!

He is truly risen! May the grace and blessings of Easter be with you all and remain in you.

St George in England

Today is St George’s Day, and some people in England are wondering why it does not appear in Universalis today. The reason is that this year there is a collision with Easter Tuesday.

The Church’s calendar has to deal with collisions. Suppose, for instance, that the Annunciation, on the 25th of March, falls on Good Friday (as it did in 2016). Should we omit Good Friday that year, or omit the Annunciation? Or try to celebrate both at once?

Interview at Pray Tell

The Pray Tell blog describes itself as:

A blog that gives practical wisdom about prayer, sacraments, and the community of the faithful – in short, worship. Created especially for pastors, liturgists, musicians, and scholars, Pray Tell is informal, conversational, even humorous, but also – we hope – always well-informed and intellectually grounded.

It has just published a two-part interview by Father Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, which you may find interesting:

1. An unlikely liturgist.
2. An interview with Martin Kochanski, Founder of Universalis Publishing.

How Google Calendar works

Someone emailed us complaining that we were sending him notifications of events a year in the future, and asking us to stop. Since we do not send email notifications of that kind, this sounded strange, and worrying in that we cannot stop doing something that we weren’t doing in the first place!

The result of the investigation may be useful to someone else, which is why we are posting it here.