App review of the week: The Civil War Today vs. The History of... Series

The Civil War Today 
(Developed by A&E Television Networks Mobile)

Available for: iPad

Price: $7.99

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at South Carolina's Fort Sumter, signaling the official beginning of the American Civil War--the conflict continued for four long years, ultimately resulting in Confederate defeat and the abolition of slavery as well as the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and an unspecified number of civilians. One hundred fifty years after the first shots were fired, modern technology is bringing us closer to the past than ever before: A&E Television's remarkable new iPad app The Civil War Today promises to redefine how we interpret and interact with our nation's history, leveraging daily content updates, social media integration and the tablet's touchscreen interface to document the battle precisely as it unfolded.

The Civil War Today incorporates thousands of original documents, photos, maps, diary entries, quotes and newspaper stories as well as running casualty counts, all refreshed and expanded daily through April 26, 2015--the app also touts video profiles, daily quizzes and detailed background scenes to further establish the context of American life in the 1860s. The Civil War Today also acknowledges life here in 2011, enabling users to send Morse code telegrams via Twitter and earn Civil War-appropriate achievements for display in a virtual medals case. The Civil War Today doesn't simply revisit and reconsider history--it's bound to make history as well, going down in App Store lore as the gold standard for how tablets can render conventional textbooks irrelevant by illuminating our shared heritage in new and unprecedented ways.

The History of... Series (various applications)
(Developed by Scott W. Hotaling)

Available for: iOS

Price: 99 cents

iPhone owners looking for an all-inclusive historical reference app could do a lot worse than the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation's Wikipedia Mobile, which offers on-the-go access to the millions of collaborative, user-contributed encyclopedia entries that make up the popular Wikipedia website. Although App Store reviews state Wikipedia Mobile suffers from some software stability and performance issues, all indications are that it's improving, and if nothing else, it's available for free--a central tenet of the Wikimedia ethos. So while it's bad enough that developer Scott W. Hotaling's myriad "History of" applications (e.g., History of Elvis Presley, History of Science, History of Boxing, etc.) simply repurpose existing Wikipedia content as a series of standalone apps, further cluttering up the App Store and hampering discoverability efforts. It's far worse that Hotaling charges 99 cents for each app download. That's right: He's billing consumers a buck per app for content available for free in the official Wikipedia app--and it's not even his original research or text.

Say what you will about App Store user reviews, but credit eagle-eyed consumers for recognizing Hotaling's scheme and calling him out on it. "The material in this app is lifted word for word from Wikipedia including photos and illustrations," reads the lone review accompanying the History of Comics app. "This might be excusable if it was presented in an easy to read book format instead of the bothersome to navigate system used here. I would suggest getting one of many free Wiki readers and searching for 'Comics' to read the same material in a more enjoyable manner." A review of Hotaling's History of the Beatles app is far more succinct: "This is a waste of money!!!!" When the history of worthless iPhone apps is written, Hotaling deserves his own chapter.