MacLife UK – August 2019

60 AUG 2019 maclife.com

App Life

SCIENCE JOURNAL BY GOOGLE

Free Made for iPhone, iPad

For budding amateur scientists, this app

is the ideal combination of scientific

instruments (using your iOS device’s

sensors), plus a journal to record notes.

You can make new entries with written

notes, pictures and more; or you can

record data for noise levels, light, air

pressure and more, on graphs within the

app. A great tool to easily create and test

hypotheses about the environment.

NIGHT SKY

Free Made for iPhone, iPad

See the stars in more detail than ever

with this augmented reality app. Just

point your device at a part of the sky, and

it’ll tell you what you’re looking at: from

constellations, to planets, to human–

made satellites. It will show you the path

that travelling objects will take across the

sky (so you can tell where to look for

the ISS, say), and you can find out more

about what you see, including 3D models.

PICTURETHIS —

PLANT IDENTIFIER

Free Made for iPhone, iPad

When you’re out on a walk and curious

about what an unusual plant is, you can

take a picture in this app and AI will get

to work identifying it, giving you a result

in seconds. It’ll tell you about the flower

itself, and give you care information for

house plants. You can use it free for

seven days on a trial; after that, you need

to pay a yearly or weekly subscription.

ROUNDUP

Image rights from left: Google LLC, iCandi Apps, Glority LLC.

Explore the natural science of the outside world

This time of year is great to head

outdoors, not just for the fresh air,

but also to explore your (or your

kids’) curiosity and scientiĽc acumen.

Maybe that just takes the form of

wanting to know what birds and

plants you’re looking at, or maybe

you actually want to try putting

together some scientiĽc notes over

time and take readings that you can

create a real study from. Our suite

of apps has everything you need to

learn more about the outdoors, from

what you’ll Ľnd on the ground to

what you’ll see in the sky. As long as

you’ve got an interest in the world

around you, these apps will help you

make the most of it.

6 science apps

for summer