Thursday, 25 July 2013

Barefoot World Atlas - App Review



The Barefoot world atlas is not a global guide to walking without footwear. It is an App provided by the eponymous publishers to showcase their wares.

It is probably aimed at a fairly young audience but, don't let that in any way put you off.

If you are looking for a traditional geopolitical atlas, this won't be exactly your cup of tea.

Now for the ACIDS test:

Aesthetics
The home screen contains five basic icons, which are your entry points to the globe:

Globe
Here you are presented with a list of major regions/continents. Pick one and start your voyage of discovery. From here you can touch a flag and get information on any given country (land mass, population, capital city and distance from where you are), currency, highest point, cars per 1,000 population, average CO2 emissions, and temperatures. Picking an icon which is not a flag brings up interesting facts about a place, animal. Some are animated and have high quality photographs to give you an even better feel for the item.

Flag
This gives you access to a list of countries. Picking one then zooms in to that Region and subsequently behaves in the same way as the 'Globe' icon.

Eye
This gives you direct access to all the non-country icons. Explore such diverse topics as Edmund Hillary, Eiffel Tower, or Elks. The narrative can also be spoken to you. Sounds a great idea for long journeys with children who cannot yet read... although the voice is a tad mechanical.

Star
This is for setting your favourites.

Forward arrow
This is no promote the App by email, or offer it as a present, or review, or provide feedback. 

Cost
The App is absolutely free. The advertising contained is discrete and is only to promote other products from the publisher.

Indispensability
This App won't replace a 'real' atlas but, it definitely has a place in a family's digital library,


Dependability
The App works very well, although it is fairly greedy on memory. Those quality pictures, together with the App, will take up 1.2 GB of your iOS device's memory. This is roughly 20 times as much as most run of the mill Apps. 

Security
You are invited to share your current location, so that the distance to you calculation is possible.

ACIDS Test Rating:

Great source of geographical (and more) knowledge for families.

To find out how the ACIDS Test works, click here.


You can get Barefoot World Atlas here and support for the App here.


4 comments:

  1. The developer advises that there has been an update to version 2.2.8 of the App.

    This includes the following enhancements and alterations:

    Optimised for iOS7

    ReplyDelete
  2. The developer advises that there has been an update to version 2.2.9 of the App.

    This includes the following enhancements and alterations:

    - fix bug on iOS5

    ReplyDelete
  3. The developer advises that there has been an update to version 2.2.10 of the App.

    This includes the following enhancements and alterations:

    - Minor bug fixes

    ReplyDelete
  4. The developer advises that there has been an update to version 3.0.1 of the App.

    This includes the following enhancements and alterations:

    - Beautifully brightened colours, enhanced zooming experience, high resolution graphics and additional sound design
    - Three brand new packs: Starter Atlas Puzzles, Great Cities and North America (with puzzles of their own)
    - Starter Atlas updated with new countries, extra photographs and US states (in response to popular demand)

    ReplyDelete

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