Category Archives: Software

Solar System for iPad – Marcus Chown *****

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Up to now, popular science software has been the poor cousin to popular science books, but the world is changing, and leading the charge is Apple’s iPad.

Back in the good old days, when science fiction looked into the future, it portrayed people reading information on portable electronic pads. Reading from the screen of a computer has never worked effectively, whether it’s a laptop or a desktop – but the new breed of tablets, with the iPad at the fore, have brought that science fiction dream alive. This is a book plus – and the ‘plus’ has a lot going for it

The Solar System app by experienced popular science author Marcus Chown is still a book. There is enjoyment to be had by just reading linearly through the text. But there is much more to it than that. Key words in the text are highlighted, and a tap brings up a box on them. Each page is illustrated, and usually those illustrations are interactive. So, for instance, on the page about the Earth that shows our planet, you can rotate the globe with a flick of your finger, switch the clouds on and off, zoom in, or flip over to the orrery, flying with the Earth into its position in the solar system.

What is wonderful about the iPad is that this is all so natural. I didn’t need instructions to tell me I could rotate the objects I was looking at, or zoom in on them, I just assumed it would work and it did. Each of the items on that home screen, from the Sun to the Oort cloud has one or more (often quite a few more) pages about it. And the navigation options are considerable. As well as moving through linearly, you can jump from that home screen, use a spatial navigation bar at the bottom, flip to a gallery, examine data – Solar System is excellent, both in terms of content and as a demonstration of why tablets are going to catch on it a big way.

If I had any criticism it would be that the text is perhaps aimed a little too low – I would have liked a little more meat in it – and the text items are short even by Dorling Kindersley standards (which is probably the best print comparison of an app like this). But that simplicity does mean that it is accessible to a wide range of readers, so that perhaps isn’t such a bad thing. There also should have been lots of external linking, which is easy to do transparently from the iPad. I know it’s a pain for the developer, as they would have to keep the links up to date, but it would have made the app even stronger. Oh, and I found the music track by Bjork irritating – but you can skip that.

If you have an iPad, you need a copy of this application. At £7.99/$13.99 it’s good value as an illustrated book, but is so much more. And if you don’t have an iPad, the Solar System app is a strong plus to add to your pros and cons for buying one. Those who argue that a Kindle is just as good for reading books on as an iPad may have a point for traditional text – but a book like this would be inconceivable even with colour e-ink. It is beautiful… and you know you want it!

Downloadable from iTunes

Review by Brian Clegg

How the Earth was Made (Season One) – The History Channel ****

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This one’s a bit confusing because there’s both a single programme version of How the Earth was Made and a series, all from the History Channel. We looked at the series version, which contains 13 episodes.

I really enjoyed this series, perhaps more than the sister series The Universe. It’s possible this is because it’s rather less abstract – the Earth is right there beneath our feet, and these DVDs give an excellent view of a good range of aspects of the physical reality of our planet. The topics in there are San Andreas Fault, The Deepest Place on Earth, Krakatoa, Loch Ness, New York, Driest Place on Earth, Great Lakes/Yellowstone, Tsunami, Asteroids, Iceland, Hawaii and The Alps. Okay, there are a couple of hokey topics – come on guys, Loch Ness? – though to be fair the loch itself is an interesting structure with a story to tell.

You might also wonder why ‘asteroids’ is a topic in here, rather than in a space documentary. This is because asteroids (or rather their impact) has had a significant effect on the Earth (just ask the dinosaurs) – and let’s face it, it’s a good scary topic. There’s also the chance for some long-range CSI on the increased levels of iridium around the KT event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

I think the reason this worked better for me than The Universe was that more of the video was real rather than computer generated, and there’s some pretty dramatic photography in there. Yes, graphics are fine – and How the Earth was Made makes plenty of use of them – but you can’t beat the real thing for a documentary that grabs your attention.

Well worth looking out for.

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Review by Brian Clegg

The Universe (Seasons 1-4) – The History Channel ****

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It’s hard to ignore the attractiveness of the Universe as a topic for a documentary series – and it’s certainly hard to find a bigger one. In this History Channel box set you will certainly get your money’s worth of vistas of the universe, running for about 9 hours in total, the 12 programmes take us on a tour of some of the most obvious, but still most interesting features out there.

Starting with the Sun, the series works out through the solar system (the Moon gets its own show on the way), then throws in other galaxies, the life and death of a star, the threats that the Earth faces from outer space and the dangerous places out there in the universe.

On the whole the programmes are enjoyable with a good mix of flashy graphics and awestruck voiceover and talking heads, mostly astronomers and cosmologists. To the British taste, the voiceover might be just a bit too “gee whiz, wow,” and there is a tendency to come up with the occasional platitude, but if you can’t get awe inspired when talking about the universe, when can you?

I was a touch disappointed by some of the graphics, which didn’t seem quite up to the quality of the computer graphics we’ve come to expect as normal these days. Most are great, but some were just a bit too obviously computer generated.

Perhaps the biggest selling point is that this series is great value for money – at the time this review was written you can get the whole nine hours for under £8 on DVD (it’s quite a lot more on Blu-Ray, though you do get the full impact of the better graphics). If you’ve read a lot about astronomy, you aren’t going to learn much that’s new, but the beginner will get a lot out of this, and anyone with wider experience will have the opportunity to see familiar concepts put across in a dramatic fashion.

UPDATE:

We’ve now had a chance to have a look at Season 4 as well. Inevitably when you get to this stage in a non-fiction series’ development they have picked off a lot of the low-lying fruit and you are left with a need to slightly stretch the format. In this case, they have resorted for quite a few of the programmes being based on dramatic scenarios, including Death Stars, the Day the Moon was Gone, It fell from Space, Biggest Blasts, 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth and Space Wars. If I’m honest I personally rather more enjoyed some of the less ‘Whoa, let’s have a big explosion’ type episodes, such as Hunt for Ringed Planets, Pulsars & Quasars and The Search for Cosmic Clusters. There was also the near obligatory look at the borderline between fact and science fiction.

Overall, though, the series has managed to keep up the quality and this is another excellent nine hours of programming that will build if you for all four into a very impressive library of DVDs or Blu-Rays.

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Review by Brian Clegg

Bumps – Focus Multimedia ***

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We wouldn’t usually review a straight game here, but this is a little bit different. It describes itself as a puzzle game, and one where the player has to make use of their understanding of physics to play – perhaps even getting a better idea of the physics of mechanics and gravitation along the way.

It’s a simple, fun game involving placing spherical creatures on various ramps, wheels and bouncy bits. Once started it’s down to gravity (and one or two strange power-ups that reverse gravity and change size) to send the creatures around the screen, collecting keys to release their trapped compatriots.

In some ways there are similarities to that classic game Lemmings – it’s a matter of getting the initial setup right so it will then run to provide the effect you want.

I’m not entirely convinced how much science you will really learn – apart from anything else, it’s very difficult to follow everything that’s happening and take in the sequence in detail. But there’s no doubt there’s a lot of fun to be had here, and it certainly doesn’t do any harm on the science front. There is a certain application of logic, thinking things through (if I do this, then that will follow, making this possible, and so on…)

My biggest concern about the game is a mismatch between styling and age appeal. The big, colourful graphics seems designed to particularly appeal to primary school players, but the logic required is probably beyond many of this age group. Teenagers might be reluctant to play. It would help a lot for younger players if there was a hint facility – you can’t proceed to the next level (99 in all) until you have solved the current one, and this could result in a lot of frustration with no opportunity to get help.

This is a budget game that doesn’t set out to be anything to sophisticated, and it certainly has the addiction factor – it’s very easy to think ‘I’ll just do one more’. If you like a combination of logical puzzle and cunning mechanics, this could be for you.

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Review by Brian Clegg