iPhone apps – May style

Well here’s that monthly installment everyone’s been waiting for. We’ve got timelines, video and a science apps and more fun for your iDevice. Oh, this month, they’re all free, so no excuses. Remember, your iPhone, just isn’t to impress your students and colleagues. You can also use it as a teaching companion and a source of information for students and yourself, so read on past the break to see what you’ve been missing.

Timeline Eons
I thought it was fitting to throw this one in since Omar and I have been rocking the timelines pretty hard lately. This app is pretty cool, especially if you’re a history teacher. You basically have one giant timeline from the beginning of recorded time to, well today. You can pinch to zoom in, scrolling is OK, and if you want more information, you just tap and hold. Here you can bookmark, search on the web, or delete an event. When it zooms all the way out, it can be a hassle to get to where you were, but they have a search bar, where you can look up your events. It’s OK and since it’s free, that definitely makes it worth while.

Astroapp: Space Shuttle Crew (from NASA)
Having met two astronauts in person and listening to them talk, I was all over this app. This app gives you a run down of all the crews of the space shuttle and their missions. You can even take a picture of yourself in a space helmet. It’s a simple app, but if you’re doing a space unit and focusing on some missions, this app couldn’t hurt and it’s free. On another note, if you ever get the chance to see any astronauts speak-do it!

Molecules
This is for those chemistry and molecular biology students. The app is dead simple. You type in the molecule and it will render the molecule as a 3D model. That’s it, nothing else to do. It’s kind of cool to see as you can zoom in and really take a look at its structure. From the information button you can get some other valuable information such as number of atoms, description, and the scientists involved in discovering itYou can search and download new molecules for free. While this may be a bit out of my league, I’m sure that there are some out there who may find this fascinating.

Shell Silverstein’s Animations
When I saw this app in the featured page on the iTunes store I downloaded it immediately and was left wanting a lot more. The app has four poems or selections from a Shell Silverstein book. It not only animates, but it is read by Shell himself (at least I’m pretty sure it’s him)! Either way, I’m sure that more and more poems will come in future updates. For now, the app and its smallish selection is free and who doesn’t love Shell Silverstein?

Videolicious
Don’t want to shell out $5 for the iMovie app but would like a way to display and piece together your own videos? Well Videolicious may be for you. It’s free and has a myriad of different templates. You don’t really put the movie together yourself, but it has a nice twist. You start the making your video by picking either video clips or pictures from your iPhone 4, iPod Touch (latest generation, or iPad 2) and then you get to “tell your story.” It will record you (using the front facing camera) to help personalize the accompanying videos and pictures. If you’re making a general video you get 50 seconds. If you are making an HD video you get as long as you want-nice huh. When done with this step, you get to chose music. If you don’t have any music, it’s OK, they have 6 preloaded songs for you to use. This is a nice, easy way for students of all ages to produce a really personalized video to share with parents and others.