Contact: Chad Sandhas

 

 

Celebrate the Season of Advent with a New Devotional Tool Designed Exclusively for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch

 

Advent08 Application Blends Technology and Tradition to Help On-the-Go Christians Reflect and Prepare for the Christmas Holiday

 

 

 

Advent08 features include:

•    A fully interactive Advent calendar, complete with virtual ‘doors’ that unlock daily as Advent progresses.

•    Twenty-five daily devotions, centered in Scripture, to guide reflection and prayer.

•    Stunning religious imagery, classic hymns and supplemental prayers that reflect themes from the daily Scripture selection and the Advent journey.

 

 

The Advent08 application was developed by software engineer Brant DeBow and theologian Rev. Scott Daniel Ryll, MDiv.  DeBow and Ryll initially met in undergraduate school at Concordia University in Irvine, California during the mid-nineties.  The two friends maintained contact throughout the years and often talked of collaborating.  Says Ryll, “Brant and I have talked non-stop for more than a decade now about projects that we could work on together.  Finally, we have one.”

 

DeBow, an Irvine native, originally came up with the idea for the application after saying a nightly devotional with his daughter.  “I thought of getting her an Advent calendar this year and I also thought of how much she loves playing with the iPhone,” recalls DeBow.  “It dawned on me that marrying those ideas could serve two purposes – giving individuals something they can use to really focus on the season of Advent, and giving parents a new way of teaching and sharing Advent with their kids.”  DeBow plans on using the Advent08 application this year with his daughter as a devotional tool they can share.

 

Building off of the initial concept, DeBow and Ryll set out to create an application that would have broad appeal for a wide variety of Christians.  Ryll, who works during the day as a sales consultant for Home Depot in Illinois, was especially interested in developing an application for Christians with busy lives.  “For those that go to church, the greatest challenge is often taking their faith out onto the street daily; finding continuity between life in their congregation and life in their other vocations.”  Ryll cites his own day job at Home Depot as a prime example.  “So while I'm running sales calls I can now sit down for a moment and take in part or whole of an Advent devotional anywhere I happen to be.”

 

DeBow and Ryll founded iHabitus in 2008 along with co-collaborator Joseph Farrell, the company’s director of program management.  The three worked diligently to create and launch the company’s first application in time for the 2008 Advent season.  “We had never developed an iPhone application before,” says Farrell.  “We had a very small budget, a fixed deadline, and no previous experience developing any Apple applications.  The three of us spent a lot of late nights working after our day jobs were over, and through trial and error we finally produced a product we were proud to release.”  

 

DeBow, Ryll and Farrell want Advent08 to be the first of many applications they develop together.  The company’s next launch will coincide with the Lenten season in advance of Easter Sunday 2009.

 

 

About iHabitus

iHabitus was founded to foster the daily practice of faith through the use of modern technology.  iHabitus develops software that delivers Christianity's rich cultural traditions using the latest technological advances in a way that is careful, reverent and deliberate.  The company’s process is careful, because technology can too often lead to distraction over devotion; it is reverent, so to act as ambassadors of Christ; and it is deliberate, so not to let the medium define the Message.  

 

 

 

# # #