By Graham K. Rogers

I took a break from iBooks, ebooks and iTunes U to examine a couple of apps that also use the best aspects of the iPads. Neither of the apps are new, but they have just appeared in the App Store listings here, bringing them to the attention of users who might not have seen them before. The first of these is in the same Fotopedia series that has already produced some excellent photographic output.

And wouldn't you know it: less than 12 hours after putting this online, the app was updated (see below).

Overview

Also free is Fotopedia Heritage an app whose subject matter is a focus on some of the more exciting sites around the world. A quick idea is gleaned from the screen shots on the iTunes store, which show Machu Pichu in Peru and Haga Sophia in Istanbul.

We tend to become complacent when we live near something that others might find interesting. I worked in Oxford for a while in the late 1960s and the crooked lanes were no more to me than a traffic problem when making deliveries. Likewise, when working as a policeman, I would go to Woburn Abbey or the reputed site of Bunyan's House Beautiful and not give them a second thought. It is only when we visit as a tourist or return to these places years later -- or are able to see them using media like the iPad -- that perhaps a sense of the magnificence is revealed. There is still a place for awe.

A street seller outside Bangkok's Grand Palace has less conception of what it means to a visitor in terms of a work of Art in the same way as a vendor at Machu Pichu might have there; or a delivery driver in Oxford.

I will probably not visit many of the locations shown in the Heritage app here, but access via such an app gives me a sense of what I am missing and thereby a desire to travel to the places.

While this is for both iPad and iPhone, the display is far better on the larger device and I only looked briefly at the installation on the iPhone. There were no major problems, some screen menus and control work a little differently, but the superb content displays well, giving a user a hint of what the larger screen permits.

Fotopedia Heritage

Pressing "Start the Journey" gave me an image of Swayanabhunath in Nepal: 1 of 5635 images available. There are several icons at the side: Shuffle, Start Slideshow, Favourites, Map (location of current image), Information (i) about the selected image, and Search. This is in 6 sections: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Oceania.

Each of these (except Middle East) is subdivided into 4 or 5 areas. The Middle East is split into sections for 13 countries plus Jerusalem. Like the other apps by Fotopedia, we go down the levels until reaching the images. In the case of Middle East > Egypt > Abu Mena there are 5 photographs. The entry for Jerusalem is marked "Site Proposed by Jordan" perhaps as a way through tricky political problems.

While it may be useful as a reference, or as throughput to a larger display using one of the adapters for the iPhone, it is when the app is used on the iPad that the effect is most appreciated, not just for the locations, but for the high quality photography. Sea, mountains and cityscapes are all well represented, as well as a variety of sites representing several religions. While it was clear why China might have its own section in the app with some 466 images available, it was less clear why Bahrain had been featured with just 7. However, once this section was accessed, the home page display changed: first Egypt, then other countries appeared in the icon square.

On the iPhone, "Settings" is above the list of other Foitopedia apps, which now also includes a Facebook link. On the iPad there was a gear wheel icon to the left of the image panels on the Home Page, but with the 4.0 update, this has been moved to the main part of the Home page panel. Space considerations on the iPhone dictate the change where also the links to other apps are less attractive with their narrow displays in contrast to the larger squares that the iPad screen allows.

When an image is viewed, as well as the tool icons on the left (see above), at the top of the screen are two icons to the right of the image title: a human figure icon which takes the user to My Trip (favourites); and an Export arrow. As with the other Fotopedia apps, Export may be to Twitter, Facebook, via email or saving as wallpaper, which puts a copy of the image into the Photo Album for later use.

Comment and Update

Like the rest of the Fotopedia series that I have looked at and downloaded, the experience of being able to view such a variety of high quality photographs in Fotopedia Heritage is a delight.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.