1. Monster Physics
Price: 69p.
Phone: Apple.
Tablet: Apple
With its high production values, it’s hard
to believe Monster Physics is a one man creation. A little like the popular
Flash game Fantastic Contraption, Monster Physics begins with simple assembly
tasks feed your monster by creating a swing to roll an apple into his mouth,
for example but quickly progresses into more complex assault courses that
demand thinking about the physics involved. It’s aimed at kids, but it’s
moreish enough that parents will soon be joining in.
Monster
Physics
2. iTunes U
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple.
Tablet: Apple
It’s easy to forget the astonishing amount
of knowledge that’s freely available from Apple’s own educational repository
which may be why it was separated into a standalone app earlier this year. The
courses are growing in number as well as in ambition and creativity as time
goes on, and the service has been embraced by some of the most prestigious educators
in the world.
3. Ted
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple, Android, Window.
Tablet: Apple, Android
Attending the annual TED (Technology,
Entertainment and Design) conference means an hour-long application form and
thousands in membership fees. Thank goodness, then, that the free TED app has
talks by luminaries ranging from Stephen Hawking to Steve Jobs. It isn’t
technically new, but as the app includes TED’s entire back catalogue and is
constantly being updated with new talks, it remains a must have. Talks are available
for offline viewing, and it supports AirPlay on iOS devices.
4. Khan Academy
Price: Free.
Tablet: Apple
Khan Academy is a not for profit
organization that aims to educate the world for free. The iPad app gives access
to its library of more than 3,200 teaching videos, covering branches of maths,
science (including its recent foray into computing), history, and even finance
and economics. It also has a section for talks, similar to the TED app. The
quality of teaching varies, but it’s a free resource designed to engage and
explain rather than simply lecture.
khan
academy ipad
5. Enccyclopaedia Britannica
Price: Free.
Tablet: Window 8
There have been Britannica apps for a
while, but the Windows 8 app stood out from a relatively meagre crowd at
launch. It’s well designed, makes full use of a large monitor to give you
detailed information, lots of images and other interactive elements, and a
search for one topic quickly leads to several more. The bad news? To browse
beyond the top 100 articles, you have to subscribe.
6. Historypin
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple, Android, Window
Locational apps tend to focus on
entertainment, but they can educate too. Developed in partnership with Google,
Historypin uses your phone’s GPS to deliver historical snippets stretching back
to 1840. As well as information, it’s focused on images, and its best trick is
to overlay historical photos on the feed from your camera, so you can compare
life today with how it used to be. It’s also a burgeoning website (www.historypin.com).
7. King of Maths
Price: Free.
Phone: Apple
Tablet: Apple
If you want your kids to speed up their
mental calculations from basic addition to complex equations – then give King
of Maths a try. The free version is limited to addition and subtraction, with
69p unlocking further levels. With a straightforward interface, easy
achievements and multiple-choice answers, it’s a great way to persuade
reluctant children to spend a few minutes honing their maths skills.
8. Little Digits
Price: $2.
Tablet: Apple
YouTube will confirm that toddlers and
touchscreens are a winning combination, and Little Digits takes advantage of
that and the iPad’s ten-point multitouch to great effect. In basic mode the digit
on screen responds to the number of fingers touching it, and the concept is
extended into add and subtract modes. It’s simple, child-safe and wonderfully
intuitive.
Using
the iPad multi-touch screen, Little Digits displays number
9. Famigo Sandbox
Price: $4.9.
Phone: Android
Tablet: Android
It can be a worry handing your phone over
to a young child, so Famigo Sandbox essentially childproofs Android devices.
You can set up a list of approved apps to run within the Sandbox, automatically
hiding the rest, and you can lock the Android home button so it redirects to
the Sandbox. Famigo also curates a list of apps for your child to add to a
built-in wishlist, and it blocks in-app purchases.
10. Worldflex Touch Dictionary
Price: $11.99
Tablet: Apple
Worldflex
Touch Dictionary
This app isn’t cheap, and at the last count
it took up almost 800MB on our iPad. However, Wordflex is an Oxford English
Dictionary like no other, taking words and definitions, and spinning them into
intelligent word trees that have you looking up one then staying on to link to
dozens more. It’s nerdy, uses gesture controls brilliantly and is surprisingly addictive
and that’s on top of doing its basic job of defining words very well.
