New App Delivers National Geographic News To The iPad

by Kraig Becker on

For decades the National Geographic Society has been on the cutting edge of exploration and science, and its iconic yellow-bordered magazine has delivered news from those fronts into American homes for nearly 125 years. With the advent of the Internet age, the organization brought that wealth of knowledge online at NationalGeographic.com and has delivered daily updates on topics that included everything from space travel and the environment to scientific expeditions and beyond. Yesterday, the Society launched a new app for the iPad that delivers that same award winning content in a new and beautiful way.

The new app is called National Geographic Today and it is designed from the ground up to deliver daily news, videos, articles and more directly from the Nat Geo site. It does an excellent job of formatting all of that content for the iPad’s screen and includes support for the Retina Display on the New iPad. That means the text is crisp and easy to read and the high-resolution photos – a trade mark of National Geographic – simply pop off the screen.

Launching the app brings up a dynamic columnar view that lists dates for the past week and provides a brief glimpse of a photo from each of those days. Tapping one of the columns causes the others to smoothly slide out of the way, revealing the full image underneath. A pop-up window provides information on the photo itself including when and where it was taken. That image is just the cover shot for the day, however, and readers can access all the daily news, videos and other interactive content through an unobtrusive and intuitive interface that falls along the right side of the screen.

Of course, this is the age of social media and the app has its bases well covered there as well. All of the articles, photos, videos and various other content can be shared via Facebook, Twitter and email, and readers can also “Like” stories and post comments quickly and easily.

If you’re a fan of National Geographic and own an iPad you’ll definitely want to add this app to your tablet. It is absolutely free and will likely provide you with hours of education and entertainment. Download it now by clicking here.

National Geographic iPad app offers 50 Places of a Lifetime

by Kraig Becker on

There is no doubt about it, the iPad has changed the way we consume media and altered how we define what a magazine is. Those of us who use Apple’s insanely popular gadget have gotten use to the idea that our “magazine’s” now include audio, video, and interactive elements that just aren’t possible in the print versions. This is demonstrated perfectly in a new app from National Geographic, which highlights their list of the 50 Places of a Lifetime compiled by Nat Geo Traveler.

As the name implies, this new app spotlights some of the greatest destinations on the planet, which are broken down into five categories. Those categories include “Urban Spaces”, “Wild Places”, “Paradise Found”, “Country Unbound”, and “World Wonders”. Selecting any one of those items will present you with a list of 10 places, which stylishly appear on the screen complete with animation and music. From there, you simply navigate through the individual destinations by swiping left and right. Scrolling up and down presents the full article on the location, offering insights to that place, and why it deserves a spot on the list. It is all very intuitive, and easy to use, with gestures that are second nature to any iPad owner.

The individual articles that accompany the various locations are typical Nat Geo fare. That is to say, they are well written, insightful, and will likely inspire you to want to visit the places being described. The stories are penned by the likes of Bill Bryson, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and George Plimpton, amongst others, who share their personal thoughts on what makes these places so magical. Places like the Serengeti, the Seychelles, and Venice, Italy.
The trademark National Geographic photography makes an appearance as well, of course. Stunning images accompany the travel essays, bringing each destination to life and offering tantalizing glimpses of what travelers can expect at these places of a lifetime. As you would expect, the photos are one of the highlights of this app, and many of them will have you drooling all over your screen.

Other features of the app include videos, interactive “fast facts,” expanded photo galleries, and the always popular Nat Geo maps. I was particularly fond of the 360-degree panoramic images which take full advantage of the iPad touch screen, and built-in checklists that allow you to highlight the destinations that you’ve already visited, while adding others to your own personal bucket list.

The app weighs in at a whopping 464 MB in size, which means it takes awhile to download. If you intend to read it while on your next vacation, be sure to download it well ahead of time. Once installed, everything is self contained however, which means you won’t need an Internet connection to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

The best part of this great app? It costs just $1.99! Where else can you get this kind of interactive content for so little money? Even a print magazine cost more than that! You can find it on iTunes by clicking here.

[Image courtesy of Victor R. Boswell, National Geographic]