TheSky HD for the iPad now available!

[frolinmod]

TheSky HD for the iPad is now available on the iTunes app store:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thes...715615994?mt=8

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by frolinmod

TheSky HD for the iPad is now available on the iTunes app store:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thes...715615994?mt=8

Hmmm - an introductory price. Wonder how it compares with Sky Safari. At 215MB it must be up against the Plus version, but SS runs on the iPhone and iPod touch too.

[frolinmod]

It would also be available for the iPhone right now as well, but they apparently first have to settle a copyright dispute with a Hong Kong company who already has an iPhone app called The Sky. Oops.

Android app coming next.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Hrm, the review doesn't seem so glowing. :S

Although, that is just one. $5 isn't a big hit to the hip pocket. Will check it out tonight.

It would have to be something pretty outstanding to dethrone SkySafari.

H

[rogerg (Roger)]

Very interesting! I would love to try it, just out of curiosity if nothing else. It needs IOS7 so now I need to decide if this is worth upgrading to IOS7.

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by rogerg

It needs IOS7 so now I need to decide if this is worth upgrading to IOS7.

I'd say so, unless you want to get left behind. The adoption rate of the latest version is very high among iOS users (around 90% I think), so many apps will soon move on and require version 7. The ones that don't are probably stale anyway.

Future hardware (starting with last month's iPhones) won't support iOS 6 either.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Roger, iOS 7 takes a little while to get used to. It's actually quite good. Do it.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by Octane

Roger, iOS 7 takes a little while to get used to. It's actually quite good. Do it.

I've been using iOS7 for 4 days now and mostly don't mind it, not fussed either way. But there are some things that really bug me, like:
- only 9 icons shown in a folder now yet lots of spare screen realestate to use?
- music app only shows 5 titles/playlists/artists per screen in a list format?? (used to see 12 or so I think, in a grid)
- background of the photo app is white! ugh! the high contrast to astro photo's makes it harder to see photo's at a glance.

ANYWAY.....

Tried TheSky iOS.

First impression: It's OK, but "meh" compared to others....

Like:
- zoom in and the quatorial grid continues to expand allowing you to closely locate exact SCP.
- lots of types of objects, very easy to turn them all on/off
- easy to configure magnitude limits of what's dispalyed
- auto updating of comet and asteroid data

don't like:
- zoomin in and out is a bit skitzy, a bit uncontrolled and slightly jerky especially if you accidentally zoom large amounts
- rendering of the screen isn't quite so nice as other apps, like the equatorial grid which looks kind of wonky at the pixel scale and is quite bright and dominant. Object Info box is another example which looks a bit text-console-like and bland.
- I find accurately touching an object then holding down and waiting for the info box to appear tedious and slower than how other apps handle this.

$5 is probably about right considering Redshift which costs more and I prefer.

Where TheSky could distinguish themselves is on more advanced features - custom data sets, integration with remote PC installation of TheSkyX for telescope control, etc.

[Logieberra (Logan)]

Software Bisque has an Android version in the works as well... Hopefully not too far behind Apple.

[baileys2611 (Simon Bailey)]

I agree with the 'meh' comment. It's competing IMO against SkySafari Pro & Starmap HP.

SkySafari can control my scope through WiFi if I port TheSkyX through ASCOM, which can be done but is more hassle than it's worth.

[frolinmod]

This is just the "lite" version. The "Pro" version, which they haven't released yet, is what you'd be interested in looking at.