I don’t review iPhone applications very often, but every once in a while I come across something I feel is worthwhile. PocketZoo from the fellow Canuck (and new parents) husband and wife team at Tiny Hearts is one of those apps that really struck a chord around our house.
My wife and kids are suckers for the animal web cams that various zoos and exhibits offer. Our household isn’t alone -many of these “critter cams” attract a significant following. PocketZoo is actually a relatively simple concept, but it’s a great one and quite well executed. Instead of bookmarking animal cams on a computer, the App brings a bunch of the best together in an easy to navigate interface for your iDevice and adds extras like animal facts, animal sounds (assuming the device supports sound output) and the ability to snap photos from the feeds, save them and then share via e-mail or Twitter. It’s great for kids because whether they want to watch tigers, polar bears, orcas, or a number of other creatures, they’re just a click away and by using an iDevice instead of a computer, they can enjoy viewing the animals from virtually anywhere. Collecting the best animal snapshots can become something of a game. Because the zoos where the cameras are hosted are located throughout the world (and in varying time zones) and not all animals are in range of cameras at all times, there are sometimes multiple choices for each animal. We used the App on an iPod Touch on the wireless network at home and several hotels and never ran into any streaming issues (other than the poor frame rate you typically see with web cams); I can’t comment personally on 3G performance, but I haven’t read any complaints about it.
Pocket Zoo™ with Live Animal Cams from tiny hearts on Vimeo.
Navigation is easy and intuitive. When you launch the app, it updates the live cams list, which becomes a menu option. Alternately, you can scroll around a colorfully illustrated map that simulates the printed guide you’d receive at a theme park or zoo. Find an animal you’re interested in, click on it for a photo and stats, and if the animal is currently available via a live web cam, that’s a one click option on the screen. In terms of issues we only ran into a few minor UI frustrations. For example, just because a web cam is live doesn’t mean there’s anything to see (zoo animals aren’t animatronic so they have their own mind about when to appear in frame and whether to nap or do something amusing), so jumping between cameras can be frequent and while you can easily scroll between multiple cams (where available) for a particular animal, it takes several steps to back out to the Animals menu and change to another animal if you run out of options. The other quibble I had was frequent flipping between landscape and portrait mode; menus are present in portrait, while many of the web cams are landscape. No big deal, but it can make for a little more rotating around of the iPhone/iPod than I’m accustomed to.
PocketZoo is available for iDevices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) running iOS OS 3.0 and up -the iPad version currently runs as a iPhone app. A finalist in the 2010 App Star Awards, PocketZoo has had a great run on the App Store since its release at the end of May, having been featured by Apple and recently achieving top Educational App status in both the US and Canadian iTunes App Stores. PocketZoo was already a bargain at $2, but it’s currently on sale for just 99 cents.
Better yet, PocketZoo developer Tiny Hearts has put together a special giveaway exclusively for GeekDad readers. Here’s how it works. The first ten GeekDad readers to review PocketZoo on the App Store and send an e-mail to love@tinyhearts.com (e-mail must include case preference, shipping address and ‘review nickname’ ) will receive a free PocketZoo case for Phone/iPod Touch. In addition, TinyHearts will give two random GeekDad reviewers a pair of Zuny leather bookends -they not only look cool they’re worth $69.95. Have at it!
Tiny Hearts is also a “1% for the Planet” member, meaning one percent of PocketZoo sales go to animal conservation.
The Prizes: PocketZoo Cases and Zuny Bookends (image from Tiny Hearts)
Wired: Live animal cams appeal to kids and adults alike, educational entertainment, ability to snap photos from web cam streams, can’t beat the price, great “replay” value.
Tired: Would be nice if version 2 fully supported iPad resolution and offered a wider range of feeds.
