Pocket Universe

Our Review
If you have the iPhone 3GS then you might look at the pocket universe app. Pocket universe lets you star gaze and use the application to find out what you are looking at.

Below you will find the review over at Tuaw the unofficial apple weblog.

Additional Resources

” Sky Scout is another device which help you navigate the stars ”

” video demonstration ”

The app uses the position sensors and the compass to orient your phone to match the real sky. As you turn or tilt the phone, the sky map changes to give you a very accurate picture of where you are pointing, with lots of labels and links to more information. This is one of the first examples of an augmented reality app to hit the platform since the introduction of the 3GS.

If you have an older iPhone or iPod touch running OS 3.0, you can tilt the phone to match where the real sky is, but youll have to manually set the direction youre facing.

This changes everything for the novice astronomer. I tried the feature and it worked really well, even though I was near a large metal building. As I turned my phone the display of the sky changed very rapidly to keep up with my movement.

Other nice features from the last version are intact. You can tap the locate button to find any object that is above the horizon. Select it and it centers on the map. Tap a pop-up for more info and you get a quick summary of the object. In the new version of the app a further tap gets you a Wikipedia entry.

You also get a list of meteor showers, lunar phases and a very nice tonights sky feature that tells you right away whats up and worth seeing.

Some things Id like to see improved: The app could support finger-pointing to an object to identify it in addition to going to the locate menu, and the Virtual Sky feature is buried in an options menu. Id like to see an onscreen button to turn it on and off.

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