Space Walk for iPhone a cheaper alternative for stargazers
For many people, stargazing is a hard hobby to follow unless you live in a remote location. The iPhone has had a few apps designed for people who want to stargaze, such as Starmap ($11.99, App Store), but as from today there is a new and cheaper alternative.
Space Walk, by Vito Technology ($4.99, App Store is an iPhone-bound companion for stargazers who need a helping hand.
Star Walk can detect your location using the built-in GPS of the iPhone 3G, recreating the same night-sky that you're standing beneath. You can then drag the sky around, with the familiar pinch-to-zoom functionality built into the app.
The sky interface itself is a mixed affair, with a beautiful, realistic starmap but an unfortunate neon green overlay, with various features labelled with Courier. It's not familiar, and the fact that Star Walk's menus are all well designed makes this odd design choice somewhat of an enigma.
When you zoom into a planet and choose to read some information about it, the presentation is nothing short of one of those Hollywood-style pieces of software where things bleep and zoom around and it's hard to decide whether it's charming or unnecessary.
Star Walk, with some visual polish could do very well. But if you're willing to spend a little more, you may want to try the alternatives.
Space Walk, by Vito Technology ($4.99, App Store is an iPhone-bound companion for stargazers who need a helping hand.
Star Walk can detect your location using the built-in GPS of the iPhone 3G, recreating the same night-sky that you're standing beneath. You can then drag the sky around, with the familiar pinch-to-zoom functionality built into the app.
The sky interface itself is a mixed affair, with a beautiful, realistic starmap but an unfortunate neon green overlay, with various features labelled with Courier. It's not familiar, and the fact that Star Walk's menus are all well designed makes this odd design choice somewhat of an enigma.
When you zoom into a planet and choose to read some information about it, the presentation is nothing short of one of those Hollywood-style pieces of software where things bleep and zoom around and it's hard to decide whether it's charming or unnecessary.
Star Walk, with some visual polish could do very well. But if you're willing to spend a little more, you may want to try the alternatives.
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