Vito Technology Inc.

By Phillip Levin on January 30th, 2012 Apps in the classroom? Heck yeah. Educators who use new technology in the classroom are awesome. I remember one of my journalism professors regularly using his iPad as a tool in his lectures. I thought doing so was an innovative and creative way of utilizing the at-the-time new device. Vito Technology dropped us a line this week to let us know that its own apps are increasingly being used by educators and students in the pursuit of learning. The studio’s three apps, Star Walk, Solar Walk, and >Geo Walk, are being called excellent educational tools. News of the apps being popular educational tools, though, doesn’t come too surprising. I had played around with Solar Walk in particular and was quite impressed. In particular, it seems the two astronomy apps have been the most useful according to feedback from educators. Star Walk uses the iPhone and augmented reality technology to give users a new way at looking at the solar system – from the perspective here on Earth. Additionally, the app contains an amazing amount of astrology information, including information on stars and constellations. “Students at Hawaii Preparatory Academy are among the many who are working with Star Walk. Seeing and learning about the night sky and the star systems in a highly interactive way creates immediate learning to many in a way that has never been possible. Through the time machine and search function, students can discover constellations in a way that was never possible before. Interactive education is a great way for students to learn, and this app delivers a truly interactive star system. Many educators are now introducing apps such as Star Walk into the classroom to enhance the education experience, and to keep students engaged and interested,” said Dave V of TopEducationalApps.com. Solar Walk, meanwhile, gives users an up-close look at the planets of our solar system, along with other details of the galaxy, including satellites orbiating the planet, moons, solar systems and other phenomenon. “Solar Walk gives your students a realistic look at the Solar System. The time machine feature is excellent and will help students visualize the changes in the Solar System over time. Let your students take a virtual field trip to the planet of their choice to explore and report back to the class about. Students can become astronauts and take a virtual “rocket” ride, flying to Read More

Posted 01/17/2012 at 10:30am | by J Keirn-Swanson Readers in the Pacific Northwest and certain portions of the midwest will understand: You hear of an awesome celestial event, set your alarm, wake at 3am, run outside, and it's all clouds as far as the eye can see. Galileo saw moons orbiting Jupiter with just his crummy telescope, but you can't even make out Orion with all the light pollution. Where the heck do you look when you want to even try to find a constellation? You look in the App Store, silly. Star Walk from Vito Technology Inc. is what immediately comes to mind for most people when you discuss astronomy apps. One of the first to arrive on the scene with this kind of app, Star Walk is still the one to beat whenever the topic comes up in conversation.  Lots in the sky, little on the app's controls With the goal of keeping the interface as clean as possible, Star Walk fires up with four visible buttons and tiny ones at that. The rest of the screen is given over to the black recesses of space with brighter larger and smaller objects. Stars get white captions, satellites and planets get orange. Move your phone about and as you do, Star Walk tracks the stars in the "sky." Tap the screen at any point to freeze it in that view, then to restart the scanning just tilt your phone upwards. If you tap upon an object, a new button appears in the upper left, a lowercase "i." Tap that to be taken to an informational page about that particular object. Today's calendar of events Overlaying the screen, the minuscule green circles hug the corners of your screen. In the lower left, a magnifying glass takes you to a search screen where categories of celestial objects are broken down into five groups: Constellations, Solar system, Deep Space, Stars, and Satellites. Tap any one of these to be taken to back to the sky view. A green arrow will direct you which way to turn and tilt your iPhone until you are taken directly to the object of your search. In the upper right corner, a camera bracket button turns on your camera, overlaying the heavenly view with the world around you. Aim your iPhone to the sky when the stars won't accommodate you, and against the cloudy gray heavens you'll see Read More

To date, I still don’t get 3-D TV. Oh, I get it — I understand it — but I fail to see the appeal. I do think I’ve found an exception though; it’s called Solar Walk, and it’s a $3 astronomy app for iOS devices that can work in concert with 3-D televisions. More on that in a minute. Outer space was a big deal to me when I was growing up. I lived a few blocks from a planetarium. And once I was old enough to head out and do stuff on my own, I pretty much spent my time there (I know — sexy), head pointed ceilingwards as I took in yet another space show. My planetarium got rebuilt years ago and is now way too high-tech and shiny for me to properly enjoy (I like my planetariums like I like my episodes of “Breaking Bad” — as dark as possible). Fortunately, Solar Walk, designed by the same people who created the stargazing app Star Walk, nails this pitch-black aesthetic, right down to the mystical Kitaro/Vangelis-sounding soundtrack that plays in the background while you pinch and swipe your way through the galaxy. Zoom from Mercury to Pluto (which makes the cut in this app), passing each planet’s moons along the way. Because Solar Walk knows what time it is, the planets are in proper orientation to the Sun: Earth is dark where it is currently night and gradually lightens to daytime on the other side. When viewing Earth, you can also check the position of 10 satellites. Zoom in on one and you can pull up more information about the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope or less-famous craft like the Koronas-Foton satellite from Russia. Solar Walk also lets you watch short movies about celestial and terrestrial activity. The commuter train may not be a sky theater, but you can still use that time to learn about things like tidal phenomena and the relative sizes of the planets. O.K, so what does all this have to do with 3-D TVs? Solar Walk supports Apple’s AirPlay mirroring feature, which allows you (if you have an iPad 2 or an iPhone 4S) to stream exactly what you’re looking at on your device to an Apple TV-equipped television. Now you’re not looking at the rings of Saturn on a 3.5- or 10-inch screen, but on serious double-digit real estate. And if Read More

Hope you had a great holiday yesterday! As expected, the App Sales are continuing through the weekend, and in addition to what we've already spotlighted, here are a few more. Whew! The App Sales will all continue through the weekend, so we'll likely have even more posts with dropped prices in them to come. Next week on Cyber Monday there will be yet another round of deals, but you can expect the sales waves to continue through the holidays until all those new iPhones and iPads get unwrapped. Stay tuned! Read More

Now that the weather is cooling down here in the States, it's time to spend some time outdoors. I love a good hike, and they're made even more enjoyable with a good app by my side. Track distance, brag about your workout or even find a hidden "treasure" during your excursion with these apps. Have fun (all prices are USD). iMapMyHIKE (Free lite version, $1.99 pro) I used iMapMyHIKE all summer. When you start out, launch the app and note your location. As you move, the app tracks your course. It's fun to see where you've traveled as well as build a real-time map back to your starting point, should you get confused. Of course, that's just the beginning. You can share your hiking stats with friends (like distance travelled, pace and so on), spot hiking companions running the app on a map and log your data to keep track of your outdoor workouts. It's a lot of fun and was a good companion this summer. Here's a two-for-one deal. BoxFinder and Geocaching are apps for letterboxing and geocaching, two similar hunt-and-find games that can enhance any hike. Geocaching is the practice of finding small boxes (often Tupperware containers) that have been hidden at specific geographic coordinates around the world. Each typically contains a log book and other goodies. Letterboxing is similar, but directed at kids. Upon finding a letterbox, the "hunter" marks its logbook with his signature "stamp," while placing the box's stamp in her own log book. Both apps make the adventures much easier and enjoyable. Since the iPhone 4 is a GPS receiver, finding that box is quite easy. Use the coordinates, description and virtual logs left by other "players" to find just what you're looking for. Both apps offer to find boxes within your area and, in my experience, excel at directing you right to them. If you're interested in either of these pastimes, grab these apps. They truly enhance the experience. When I was a Boy Scout, I loved making casts of animal tracks we found in the woods. Today my own kids like finding them, too, but I'm out of practice and can't identify them as reliably as I used to. Fortunately, MyNature Animal Tracks is here to help. This great little app features a huge database of animal tracks, both hind and forepaws. When you come across a track, perform a quick search to Read More

Apple’s recent iPad 2 commercial displays many great uses for the iPad other than games and web browsing. The iPad can be a great learning tool for both kids and adults. With my oldest son just beginning homeschooling, we plan to use the iPad along with other teaching tools. There are many apps other than the ones shown in this commercial that can be used for learning. Do you have a favorite that’s not listed here? Please share in the comments! Apps from the commercial: TED: TED presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus and music legends. Find more than 900 TEDTalk videos (with more added each week) on the official TED app — now for both iPad and iPhone. Chinagram – Chinese Writing: The iPad application that tells the story of Chinese writing, explaining its rationale and showing its beauty, sign after sign. Try your hand at ideograms and learn more about one of the great cultures of the Orient. – (NOVA Series) is a cutting edge app built on our NOVA technology. It is a completely new app, but in recognition of our loyal customers we are providing this application as a free update to the previous original Skeleton System Pro. Every detail has been re-designed from the photo-realistic 3D model to the quick navigation. There are thousands of changes – including the most in depth 3D skeleton ever developed, the ability to rotate, cut and get superior/inferior views all with the simple stroke of the finger. is a “universal binary” and is designed for the iPhone AND iPad, so you don’t have to buy two different apps. It now supports Game Center! Play chess with your friends in real time! tChess Pro is the high-quality, critically acclaimed chess game with the richest features for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It’s perfect for every player. is a fantastic math learning tool for your iPad. MathBoard is appropriate for all ages from kindergarten (with simple addition and subtraction problems) to elementary school where learning multiplication and division can be a challenge. You can control the range of numbers you want to work with, the amount of questions you want to answer and even assign a time limit per quiz. MathBoard will make learning math fun. Read More

Want to tour the Solar System? Solar Walk is a just-updated universal iOS app that allows you to do just that. The new version has support for 3D, so you get some rather stunning renditions of planets and satellites that are more realistic than what's available in a 2D presentation. I reviewed the app in 2010 and found it to be very educational. Solar Walk would be very nice for teachers, who could plug it into external monitors in the classroom. As near as I can tell, the app doesn't support the high end 3D method that uses shutter glasses or polarizing filters, but instead uses the tried and true red/blue anaglyphic glasses that became popular in the fifties. They are cheap, and easily available from suppliers like Amazon. Note: A late email from the developer says you can use the app with a 3D TV although it is not noted in the app help. Here's how to do it if you have a 3D TV.: 1. Connect your iPad with an HDMI adapter to the 3d TV 2. Switch on 3D function in Solar Walk Menu. 3. There will appear a question what type of 3D you want to use anaglyph glasses or 3D TV. Choose 3D TV. 4. On you 3D TV screen there will appear two pictures on a screen. 5. Switch 3D mode on a TV. 6. Put on 3D glasses and enjoy. You can also see the 3D images just fine on the iPad. Solar Walk includes very detailed graphics and information about our solar system, and this new version adds some movies (in 2D) on tides, circles of latitude, and the zodiacal constellations. My favorite 3D view was of Saturn and its moons. With 3D glasses on, the planets and artificial satellites come alive. It was interesting to watch things like the Hubble Space Telescope in its proper real time position slowly gliding over the earth far below. You can navigate to any view that you like, using finger gestures, and you can zoom in and out as well. There is an option to listen to music while you use the app, but I found the music forgettable and distracting. Screen captures are supported and background stars are rendered in their proper positions. Solar Walk is very educational, but as before, the textual information is still a bit thin. I always found myself wanting to Read More

In den Bildungsbereich investierte Apple schon immer gerne. In der gestrigen Nacht bekam das iPad zu diesem Thema seinen expliziten 30-Sekunden-Spot. Diesmal im Rampenlicht: TED (kostenlos; Universal; App Store-Link), Skeleton System Pro II (15.99 €; App Store-Link), Star Walk (3.99 €; App Store-Link), GarageBand (3.99 €; App Store-Link) und iBooks (kostenlos; Universal; App Store-Link). Bislang konnte mir niemand sagen, wie das gezeigte Sprachprogramm (00:05), die gespielte Schach-App (00:18) und die Mathe-Rechentafel (00:24) heißen… 11:26 Uhr: Kommentare sind toll! Die mir unbekannten Apps lauten: Chinagram (3.99 €; App Store-Link), t Chess Pro (5.99 €; Universal; App Store-Link) und MathBoard (3.99 €; App Store-Link). Read More

By Leanna Lofte, Friday, Aug 26, 2011 | Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you! HeyCrowd: Poll the crowd, vote on an endless stream of questions and discover what people think. [Free for iPhone - App Store link] Angry Birds: It’s the epic conclusion to Mine and Dine with 15 new levels! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link] Facebook Messenger: Now with links to phone numbers and addresses and an improved ability to copy and paste text. [Free for iPhone - App Store link] PhotoGrid: Browse pictures from your Facebook friends in a timeline based grid layout. Add a comment or like a photograph if you want! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link] Star Walk – 5 Stars Astronomy Guide: Now with a multi-wavelength view of the Sky: lets you explore our Galaxy and the distant Universe in a range of wavelengths from X-rays to the longest radio waves. [$2.99 for iPhone - App Store link] Any other big app or game releases or updates today? Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look. Read More

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch Gadgets. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com. → Learn More Star Walk, an Astronomy guide, just released an update that includes over 8,000 manmade objects including navigation, weather, and “special interest” satellites. That means for $2.99 ($4.99 for iPad) I can finally follow the FBI satellites as they track my every move while beaming messages directly into my skull. The app creates an AR interface that allows you to spin 360 degrees while pointing your phone at the sky. You can then identify stars, planets, and, obviously, one of these man-made objects. Altogether there are about 24,500 man made objects on the orbit of the Earth. 8000 of them are functioning satellites, all of which are available in Star Walk database. The list of satellites is broken down into categories: Special-Interest, Weather & Earth Resources, Communications, Navigation, Scientific, etc. Not only can you spot the ISS flying over your head, you can also locate any satellite, be it a military or a low-earth-orbit satellite used by most popular satellite phones. The app maker, Vito Technology, is also holding the Stat Walk Month of Astronomy featuring guides and contest for the wee astronomers in your life. Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads Sponsored Ads Read More