Did we ever figure out the appeal of spinning globes? Oh, no shit. It’s the spinning part. But how come I don’t ever see them anymore? Is it not cool? I don’t care cause The World by National Geographic turns your iPad into a spinning globe and I LOVE it.
What’s it do?
It’s a ‘maps’ app in the sense that the bulk of what you’re looking at is maps. But it’s also a spinning globe app that allows you to twirl around our little blue planet to your heart’s desire (rich people: pick your next holiday!), a photos app that shows you astonishingly gorgeous pictures of places around the world (hey Algeria, you are booootiful) and a Flag book that shows you all the flags of countries around the world. The idea is to let you poke, prod and yes, spin the world around however you want. It can get a little dizzying but I feel like the curious kid who doesn’t know Algeria from Albania again.
Why do we like it?
We’ve all played around with Google Maps before and The World isn’t anywhere as useful as that but what it does do is offer nostalgia. Remember when you were crawling around as a kid in your dad’s office? No? OK, fine. I do though. I was always entranced by the spinning globe, curious as to how the rest of the world was, wondering how the hell we live on a big circle. But spinning globes only gave you so much detail, you had to reach for the encyclopaedia to learn more about each country or peek at a world map to see more detail. I remember liking countries with the coolest looking flags too. It’s all of those experiences — a touch of childhood, a dash of curiosity — combined in one app.
The Best
Spinnnnn
The Worst
Could be prettier