Mars Globe, a new 3D app for iPhone and iPod Touch Options

[mhoward]

I've posted plenty of free stuff on UMSF over the years, so hopefully I get a pass for a little promotion, particularly for something you might like. My new iPhone and iPod Touch app Mars Globe just became available on the iTunes App Store. It's a 3D globe of Mars that you can play with using multi-touch navigation. Check out the YouTube video to get an idea what it's like.

I think this app occupies an interesting middle ground between entertainment and educational outreach. The graphics and 3D touch navigation are slick enough, I hope, to interest some people who normally wouldn't bother with a 'science' app. But there's a lot of good solid information in there as well, which people will find if they explore. My hope is that some new people will download this and learn something that they otherwise might not have, about Mars and the amazing work that scientists and engineers do to study it. I certainly learned a lot about Mars while putting the thing together. But mainly, I hope people just enjoy the app. I wrote it because I wanted one. (Although IIRC, I had to be talked into it a little bit. UMSF Doug was instrumental there.)

I'm keeping the price of the app low, in the hope that it can reach as many people as possible. It's currrently 99 cents in the U.S.

Thanks to the admins here, who put up with a lot of behind-the-scenes griping on my part, and also pushed for a prettier app, in the long process of getting this thing done. And as it says in the credits, special thanks to our own Emily Lakdawalla of The Planetary Society, who reviewed the content and made sure I didn't get my science facts too badly wrong. There's a lot of content, though, and where there are errors, I take full responsibility!