App Shopper: Gems and Minerals by Varietal (Education)

App Activity

Feb 10 '10	New App: $.99, v1.0

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Gems and Minerals by Varietal

iOS iPhone

Pictoral database of common gems and minerals, with high-resolution images. Several hundred minerals are included, covering many varietals. The images in this app are categorized by Varietal.

This app includes some information about the mineral, such as location found, habit, shape, hue, tone, etc. This app is mainly aimed at students, professors, scientists, hobbyists, and those in the field who wish for help identifying minerals, or learn a bit about what they're seeing in the field.

The gem and mineral images and content are derived, in part, from the Vargas Gem and Mineral Collection, Jackson School of Geosciences, which is affiliated with the University of Texas. All images from that source are considered public domain, and may be freely used for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

You do not need an Internet connection to use this app. All images and information are viewable offline.

This is an excellent pocket reference for those who wish to learn more about gems and minerals, and especially if you are in the field. If you need help identifying a mineral, this app may be just for you! This is a photo-based application.

A subset of the overall feature list for this application includes:

- Advanced search for all gems and minerals. The top 150 results are returned by the search engine. If you need a more finely-tuned search, simply add more terms into the search field.

- Add/edit/remove minerals, and access minerals you added using My Minerals. If you find data that needs revision, you can edit it using your on-screen keypad, or add your own interesting data, or perhaps an image that you took while in the field.

- You can rate minerals on a 5-star system. Once rated, the entry is much easier to access later since you can just tap on the "Top Rated" button in the "More" section at the bottom of the screen.

- Mark your favorite minerals, and view them in the Favorites area. This is similar to the "Top Rated" feature, but with more direct access since the button is always-visible at the bottom of the screen.

- E-mail any gem/mineral to a friend, and CC or BCC it, too.

- Rename categories and add/remove categories. We've given you a starting point to help you categorize and organize your minerals, but you can always add more, or change the default categorization. Also, you can put any gem/mineral in up to 2 categories, if desired.

- Shake your mobile device for a random mineral. This is just fun on every level. Your kids will like this one, too.

- "View All" minerals for access to every item in the database. This can take a few seconds to load since there are a LOT of photos in this app.

- Use a simple "finger swipe" gesture to move from one gem/mineral to another, or use the previous/next buttons. Navigating this minerals database has never been easier!

- Insert a textual comment about the gem/mineral. For example, you may want to keep some notes about where you last observed the gem/mineral. Or, perhaps you would like to keep track of where you learned about it, or when the photo was taken.

- The history feature keeps a log of what you've seen, so you can always go back to re-read about that gem/mineral you remembered from days ago.

- A Settings screen allows you to change the relative font sizes and the size of the history table.

This app requires at least OS version 3.0

UPGRADES ARE ALWAYS FREE for applications created by Darren Gates

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COPYRIGHT & LICENSE INFORMATION

To the best of our knowledge, the images and content used in this app can be used in commercial products without license restriction.

If you have questions about our use of this content, or if you believe that some of this content may be copyrighted, please contact Darren Gates (the author) at g8z@yahoo.com immediately. We take claims of copyright infringement very seriously, and will promptly remove any offending content.
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