The World Factbook – iPhone App of the Week

The World Factbook 2010 – iPhone App of the Week


This is a regular feature of the blog looking at the various iPhone Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive. Though called iPhone App of the Week, most of these apps will also work on the iPod touch.

This week’s App is The World Factbook.

The World Factbook is the reliable and extremely popular source of information on all the nations of the world.

It provides up-to-date, valuable data for more than 250 countries and territories in a concise, well-organized format whenever and wherever you want.

Topics addressed include natural resources, industries, GDP, religion, ethnic groups, legal system and much more. Key data are grouped under the headings of introduction/background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, transnational issues.

£0.59

So all the information in this App is available online for free…

So why on earth would you spend 59 pence on an App?

Well…

Good question!

The main reason is that the information is “available online for free” and that’s the crunch, you have to be online to be able to access that free information, which means it isn’t free! Going online costs money, okay if you have access to free wifi, less so if you are using expensive 3G data.

But you can download the Factbook….

True, but if you download it to an iPhone (or iPod touch) you won’t be able to access it, as you can’t access the file system on  the iPhone you won’t be able to open the downloaded Factbook.

So for 59p you can have offline access to the Factbook and this in my opinion is 59p well spent.

The key with any App is, is it value for money, and I think the World Factbook is value for money. It provides detailed information and maps on the countries of the world quickly and easily and can do this without needing a 3G or wifi connection.

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