This week's App Smart column was about curious little apps that will help you happily while away an otherwise boring moment while you're stuck somewhere and have to wait. These time-waster apps are invaluable if your brain craves input and you can't tolerate boredom, but they're not exactly going to add quality to your life.
If you want to learn something interesting or amazing as well as waste time, though, there is a solution. NASA has a bunch of apps that are ideal for helping you pass an idle moment. And while you're doing so, you'll be learning about the universe and NASA's spacecraft.
The main NASA app is free on phones with either Apple's iOS or Google's Android operating system, and is packed with data in different categories, from active missions to how to spot spacecraft like the International Space Station flying over your head at night. There are links to NASA's social media feeds, videos, mind-bogglingly beau tiful astrophotography and NASA news. NASA keeps it frequently updated, and if you're an iPad owner, there is a special HD edition that makes the most of its bigger screen.
Since NASA's newest rover, Curiosity, successfully survived its risky trip to the surface of Mars, you should check out the new Spacecraft 3D app. It is designed to teach you all about NASA's amazing technology, and Curiosity features among the short list of craft in the app - all of which are featured as detailed 3-D models. But the app's real trick is that the spacecraft can be viewed as augmented reality images, rendered on the view of the world through your phone's camera. So you can bring science alive by seeing Curiosity crawl across your kitchen table, should you wish. NASA says it will add more vehicles to the app in time, and is reported to be working on an Android version.
Definitely a brain-filling way to pass the time, and the 3-D app will even amuse older kids if they're waiting w ith you.
