Price shouldn't always be the decision factor! Go for the ''cheap'' Pocket Universe or better Star Walk....??Am I the only one thinking so? I know Appstore is the place of $0.99 but some factors sometime are more important especially in this kind of app. Do you agree? Did you have a similar experience either with the same app or others?
this is my personal experience that I would like to share with you. Once I was looking at the sky and thought it looked great but I couldn't even name one of the stars I was looking at....well then...I thought there should be an app for it. Sure enough I looked for it and found quite a few. The two that caught my interest the most were Pocket Universe and Star Walk. Pocket Universe was cheaper and I went for it.
It didn't exactly impress me. Ok lets start from the Planetarium function...what is that? The graphic is really quite bad! It is showing me the direction towards which I am looking and I can see the name of the stars and some constellations lines...but to me it doesn't resemble reality. I would like to touch the screen or the names of the stars but nothing happens. When I try to locate something the list given it is kind of limited but still probably enough for me as a very beginner or may be not. The system locates whatever I selected but again I would like to see how it looks better and touch it but nothing more happens.
On tonight's sky function I get a lot of info, which is kind of cool even if it doesn't look pretty. The table with Lunar Phase is also ok even if again it doesn't strike me. The Motion tracking obviously works and it is kind of cool even if I don't have a 3GS but I can see how it would work on it. As conclusion this could be the only good point I have found so far in here.
So what am I supposed to do now? Simply forget about it! I decide to try something different as I am not satisfied. So this was my decision and switched to Star Walk, of course had to do a bit of thinking because it was more expensive and overall I would pay triple what I thought I would but I am curious and want to try.
Guys, this is a different planet....a different level. First of all it looks better, graphic is so beautiful and it is so smooth! Now I really feel like I want to touch the sky and if I touch something happens. I can select any object I am looking at, display it on the whole screen, get main info immediately about it and if I even want to know more link to Wikipedia.
The constellations images are awsome and you can create your own bookmarks list. This app is very dynamic and it really is faultless. With the Time Machine function you can see how the sky objects move and select even a different date of the year in case you want to watch a replay of an event or see how it is going to appear tomorrow. With a couple of gestures you can select the moon (or any other planet) get it move smoothly sliding your fingers onto the time machine and here you have live moon phases that change in front of you.
Now this is what I meant to sparkle my little initial interest in the sky! They say it is soon going to be with Digital Compass, not that it changes much for me considering my ''old'' iPhone but even for the simple up and down movement Star Walk could still impress me. So yes, I spent more but the difference is huge.
Some screenshots to make things clear, enjoy the ride )
this is my personal experience that I would like to share with you. Once I was looking at the sky and thought it looked great but I couldn't even name one of the stars I was looking at....well then...I thought there should be an app for it. Sure enough I looked for it and found quite a few. The two that caught my interest the most were Pocket Universe and Star Walk. Pocket Universe was cheaper and I went for it.
It didn't exactly impress me. Ok lets start from the Planetarium function...what is that? The graphic is really quite bad! It is showing me the direction towards which I am looking and I can see the name of the stars and some constellations lines...but to me it doesn't resemble reality. I would like to touch the screen or the names of the stars but nothing happens. When I try to locate something the list given it is kind of limited but still probably enough for me as a very beginner or may be not. The system locates whatever I selected but again I would like to see how it looks better and touch it but nothing more happens.
On tonight's sky function I get a lot of info, which is kind of cool even if it doesn't look pretty. The table with Lunar Phase is also ok even if again it doesn't strike me. The Motion tracking obviously works and it is kind of cool even if I don't have a 3GS but I can see how it would work on it. As conclusion this could be the only good point I have found so far in here.
So what am I supposed to do now? Simply forget about it! I decide to try something different as I am not satisfied. So this was my decision and switched to Star Walk, of course had to do a bit of thinking because it was more expensive and overall I would pay triple what I thought I would but I am curious and want to try.
Guys, this is a different planet....a different level. First of all it looks better, graphic is so beautiful and it is so smooth! Now I really feel like I want to touch the sky and if I touch something happens. I can select any object I am looking at, display it on the whole screen, get main info immediately about it and if I even want to know more link to Wikipedia.
The constellations images are awsome and you can create your own bookmarks list. This app is very dynamic and it really is faultless. With the Time Machine function you can see how the sky objects move and select even a different date of the year in case you want to watch a replay of an event or see how it is going to appear tomorrow. With a couple of gestures you can select the moon (or any other planet) get it move smoothly sliding your fingers onto the time machine and here you have live moon phases that change in front of you.
Now this is what I meant to sparkle my little initial interest in the sky! They say it is soon going to be with Digital Compass, not that it changes much for me considering my ''old'' iPhone but even for the simple up and down movement Star Walk could still impress me. So yes, I spent more but the difference is huge.
Some screenshots to make things clear, enjoy the ride )
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