November 1, 2014 (Vol. 34, No. 19)
Rating:
Strong Points: Organizational structure, can access without Internet
Weak Points: Composed of just Wikipedia content pages
Platform:
iPad/iPhone
Cost:
$1.99
Summary:
While this app bills itself as a physics textbook, anyone who is familiar with Wikipedia will immediately recognize that the app is simply comprised of Wikipedia pages for a number of topics in physics. However, that doesn’t render this app useless…it’s just a bit less inspired than one may have hoped. There is definitely something to be said for the convenience of having a large collection of physics-related Wikipedia pages at one’s fingertips, downloaded to one’s phone, and therefore accessible even when one does not have Internet access. There are organizational benefits as well. In this app, content is organized into 10 categories that include topics such as mechanics, magnetism, and theory of relativity—an organizational structure that does not exist on Wikipedia’s site. Thus, while the total content of this app can be found online, it would require many more hours of Wikipedia browsing.
