Byte The App: Must See Apps Of The Week 3/29

The app stores are teeming with new releases, but who has time to go through them all? We do, and we’re bringing you a selection of the most interesting, creative, and innovative apps each week. Submit your suggestions for next week in the comments below.

Starry Night Interactive Animation [iPad]
About a month ago, an animated video by Petros Vrellis of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night was impressing many, and notched up over a million views on Vimeo. The animation breathed a soft flow of movement into the classic painting and was also interactive, meaning you could direct the flow of the animated brush strokes while music responded to it. Now it’s been brought out in app form so you can enjoy it from the comfort of your iPad. Android version to follow.

Flixel [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
The upperclass family of GIFs known as cinemagraphs, in which a small movement reoccurs within the frame, is now available on the iDevices. Using your device’s camera, you can take a photo, and then by swiping on the touchscreen you can bring a desired part of the image to life. You can then choose to loop the animation forward or backwards, give a time delay, and share with friends on all the usual places.

Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe [iPad]
If you live in the UK or are familiar with torrent sites, you may have seen the BBC show Wonders of the Universe presented by the poster boy of astrophysics, Brian Cox. It was a great show, revelling in telling its audience about humanity’s pre-history as stardust and the fate of void-ridden emptiness that awaits the cosmos in billions and billions of years’ time. This is the show’s official app, with infographics, interactive articles, photos from NASA, and other space porn.

National Geographic Adventure Presents The Greatest Stories Ever Told [iPad]
No need to go exploring the earth, because everyone’s already done it and they’ve made their stories of adventure and daring-do into an app, with photos, videos, words—all the good stuff. So, from the comfort of your sofa you can discover the Titanic‘s final resting place, watch someone climb Half Dome and El Capitan without ropes, descend inside a volcano, and go cave-diving.

The Fourth Dimension [iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad]
If you’ve always wondered what the fourth dimension is but were put off by the Wikipedia page, then this app aims to explain it to you in a way that won’t have you screaming “MY BRAIN HURTS!!!” after trying to grapple with a theoretical place that only seems to exist for math geniuses. It comes in the form of a 30-page interactive book and lets the visuals do the talking rather than complicating things with words, letting you play around and get to know a tesseract.

@stewart23rd