In fact, they wish you would! The International Space Apps Challenge is looking for folks to create Apps for smartphones and tablets based on any aspect of space research and exploration. In fact it goes beyond that, they are looking for practical applications that will take data from space agencies around the planet and use it to resolve real world problems. Early warning of dangerous weather events as seen from satellites, air and noise pollution mapping, using networks of cell phone as a large aperture telescope are just a few of the recommended ideas. The challenge has not kicked off yet but you can sign up and start submitting ideas now.
One of the best NASA Apps is simply called the NASA App, and besides the iPhone version they also made one for Android, and rolled out an HD version for the iPad. It is a monster with a ton of functions, including launch info with countdown clocks, current mission status, a huge library of images and videos, the latest news and feature stories, the Tweet feed from the various agency sources (in fact an entire Facebook and Twitter client interface to make it easy to interact with them), a live stream from NASA TV, and so much more. This was NASA’s very first official App, and while I hail its completeness, the kitchen sink approach has its drawbacks. They did end up breaking out most of the more popular functions into their own stand alone Apps, so you didn’t have to wait for everything to load or wade through a large menu when you just wanted to check the tweets or watch the live stream for example. More on those individual Apps in the next NASA Apps entry.
The NASA Visualization Explorer is a free app that allows you to explore a lot of the science NASA is doing on space-based Earth research. Topics covered include climate change, wildfires, glaciers, hurricanes, volcanoes and more. If it can be observed from an orbital platform, they will cover it sooner or later. This is a great way to get a comprehensive overview on how the planet is doing, and it is not just raw data dumps from the satellites. There are a lot of comprehensive yet concise presentations here, including narrated slide shows and full video presentations. They claim it is for the iPad only, but I am going to see if it will run on my iTouch; it looks like they have some data-dense screens you wouldn’t be able to read the text from but most of the presentations should play just fine on the small screen. You can grab it on iTunes.
The folks at Production IG have released yet another sci-fi app in the form of the Ghost in the Shell: Optical Camouflage Camera. This one allows you to snap pictures or capture video that turns transparent against the background, as the characters did in the original GITS movie. To make it even tastier, they are throwing in free backgrounds from the GITS: SSS movie for you to position your people and objects in front of, to maximize the fun. It is currently on sale for $1.99 during the roll-out period, but expect the price to go up after a bit. While you are in there, you might want to grab their previous two apps which are running at 99 cents each. The first is the Character Music Player from Ghost In The Shell: S.A.C. Section9, the second is the 3D Cyber Clock. While I like all of these apps, only the first allows you to create your own original video.
The other app worth mentioning is FiLMiC Pro, which gives you a bunch of functionality for enhancing your HD video capture. It is a bit pricy at $2.99 compared to most other apps (or at least most I find interesting), so check out the new stuff it gives you before making your decision. *grin*
The new online portal JManga was launched today by the Japan’s Digital Comic Association, a coalition of 39 Japanese publishers. This site is a place for The companies to generate excitement for their products, which they predominately do by allowing fans to read many of the titles online, having creators interviews, and hosting a forum where your question about a given manga might be answered by the person who wrote or drew it. This site has been in closed Beta for a month or three now while they worked the bugs out, and tweaked they layout and features. With that many digital publishers signed on I expect this site will be the go-to place for all things Manga. Many of these groups already have their own Manga sites and apps, such as VIZ Manga, while others do not, but by banding together they will have the best chance of reaching their target market.
Haruhi Suzumiya has had an assortment of Manga and two seasons of Anime created for and about her, and now she finally has her own Apps. They are simple Apps that allow you some dialog access, a clock, and an alarm function, at least as far as I can tell. While I currently have a small Nihongo (Japanese) vocabulary, I haven’t learned how to read Kanji yet, so I may be missing some functions because I can’t read the instructions. At the moment Haruhi’s AniPoke is free, and until the end of August Mikuru’s AniPoke and Nagato’s AniPoke will each run at $0.99. Once we hit September the other two go back up to their normal $3.99 each. I could not find any difference between the paid and free variations, beyond who the character you were poking was (and no, this series isn’t ANYTHING like Pokeman; shame on you for not knowing that!). The alarm function gives you the voice of the character telling you to pay attention, over and over; it doesn’t stop until you tell it to. Thanks to the folks at Crunchyroll for the heads up on this one.