Theodore Gray’s “The Elements” Takes IPhone 4 for a Spin
Champaign, Illinois; London, England – June 24, 2010 – The Elements for iPhone 4 is an essential download released today in the iTunes App Stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Germany. This beautiful electronic book about the periodic table shows off Apple’s new device to perfection. The title, published by Touch Press, is based on the best-selling iPad version by Theodore Gray, recently selected as the number one iPad app by the London Evening Standard. It has been reconceived for the iPhone 4 and recoded to take advantage of the new device’s spectacular features, including retina display and gyroscope. The result is a magical combination of hardware and software that comes to life in your hand.
You start off at a periodic table composed of photographs of real chemical elements that you can explore with your finger. As you move around, the currently active element is shown in the selection area at the top of the page. Tap any element to go to that element’s own page. There you will find an engagingly written account of the element and a wealth of related samples and objects. Each element has multiple objects with controls at the top of the page to browse them.
Unique to the iPhone 4 is that all of these objects rotate on the screen when you physically turn the phone around. The iPhone 4’s gyroscope makes the objects appear to remain stationary even as the phone is rotated, giving you a unique and fun way to explore all sides of an object—especially if you’re sitting on a swivel chair! Or use your finger to turn any object as quickly or as slowly as you like. Each object responds effortlessly to your touch, and objects can be “thrown” to set them spinning. This is possible because every sample was painstakingly photographed from all sides on a precision turntable.
In addition, The Elements for iPhone gives you access to a huge depth of technical information about each element through the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine embedded in this ebook. Touch the Wolfram|Alpha logo and you will be taken to a continuously updated Wolfram|Alpha report on the current element. For example, tap the Wolfram|Alpha entry for gold and find the current market price.
The Elements is already a phenomenal success on the iPad with over 70,000 copies sold. Stephen Fry tweeted “Best App of all… Alone worth iPad”.
Updated 06-24-2010
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