The iPad app of Al Gore’s Our Choice was updated last Thursday (April 26, 2012) and I read it over the weekend to see what Push Pop Press had done with Gore’s 2009 book.  It is not ‘the way books are going to be’ as several reviews gush, at least I hope not for the technical reasons I give below, but it is an outstanding work with many compelling reasons to purchase it (price being high on the list, at $4.99) rather than the hard copy. The Content First, the content.  Our Choice may some day, after the homogenizing brush of history blends the strident climate crisis messages,...

For many, Evernote is an indispensable tool. If you are not yet an Evernote user, here are five reasons that you should consider becoming one: Capture Anything Evernote allows you to capture almost anything and store it for later use. Notes can be text that you type in directly, a voice recording you make with a mobile device, or a photo from your smartphone. If you come across a webpage that you want to save the Evernote Web Clipper makes it as easy as clicking one button. Evernote is also a great place to store important files that you may need quick access to such as user manuals or research...

You know what a coffee table book is:  big, glossy, great pictures accompanied by undemanding text, a thing of beauty meant more for browsing than sustained study.  That exactly describes the iPad app I am reviewing this week called “Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe,” by Prof. Brian Cox, rock star physicist of LHC (Large Hadron Collider) fame, and Andrew Cohen, head of BBC Science.  The work was “created” by Collins, as in Harper Collins Publishers, with the outstanding work of adapting it to the iPad screen credited to a group called theOTHERmedia.  The app sells...

Quick: Explain to a 12 year old (or just about any 52 year old, for that matter) why the moon has phases.  Ok, why does the earth have seasons?  Still too hard?  Why do ocean tides behave the way they do?  What is the significance of the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn (and I don’t mean those Henry Miller novels)?  OK, name the zodiacal constellations.  All too hard for you?  You sort of know, but not real sure about all the details?  Then get Solar Walk for the iPad now.  It’s only $2.99, and this is just a little of what it will teach you (and more to the point, enable...

2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, and the Museum of London is celebrating with a high profile exhibition and iPhone and iPad apps titled “Dickens Dark London.”  Loving Dickens, I had to find out about it. Below is the official museum brochure: View this document on Scribd Click the download button (    ) to get your own PDF copy. The brochure is fine for those who can afford to visit London, but what about the app? In a word, spectacular.  To quote from the Museum’s description: “Beautifully imagined by renowned illustrator David Foldvari,...