10/30/10

Five Interesting Frog Apps for iPhone and iPad

Susan has taken a look at five of the popular froggy apps for iPhone, iPhone touch, and iPad. A few will teach you about frogs, one is for admiring beautiful frogs, and one is for fun only:

1. U.S. State Amphibians app

Want to find out what amphibians live in your backyard? Download the U.S. State Amphibians app by Scott W. Hotaling, which lists the amphibians of each state along with detailed information and a photo. You can zoom in on the photos.

Screenshot from U.S. Amphibians app

2. Frog Flip: Flashcards of Frogs and Salamanders

If you want to test your knowledge of frogs, check out Frog Flip by Proffitt Ink ,which has assorted pictures of frogs and their names, and then a little test section for memorizing them.

3. Frog Dissection

We’ve blogged in the past about alternatives to frog dissection.  One new app that’s been getting a lot of attention is Frog Dissection by Emantras for iPad, which received the Mark Twain Ethical Science Award from PETA. It is available on the iPad app store and features:

  • A virtual specimen
  • Clear instructions
  • Dissection tools like pins, marker, scissors, scalpel, and forceps
  • Touch-operated dissection
  • Dorsal (back) side of the specimen
  • Ability to open the external skin and muscles of the specimen using digital tools
  • Individual organs viewed in large 3D imagery
  • Below is a video introduction to the app. While most kids don’t have iPads, schools might buy a few for this purpose for kids to use for dissection. My college-age son Tim didn’t attend his biology class on dissection because he has ethical objections to dissecting any animals. A tool like this would have been ideal for him.

    4. Frogs!

    If you’re interested in amphibian eye candy, check out Frogs! , a slideshow of one hundred stunning frogs by different photographers. The app doesn’t provide information about the frogs or the photographers, but has lots of interesting photos. All the photos can be used as wallpaper by simply tapping the screen and pressing the “Save” button. This will save the image in your Photos app.

    screenshot from the FROGS! app

    5. Pocket Frogs

    Finally, if you need a break from all that amphibian study, check out Pocket Frogs. For the past two months, our google news alerts about frogs keeps coming up with stories about this new game. After a bit of investigation, it turns out that Pocket Frogs is a widely popular free app for the iPod and iPad.

    Pocket Frogs features lots of cute imaginary frogs and is a Pokemon-type game. You discover, collect, breed, and trade over 10,000 unique frogs. You can connect with other frog fans through Facebook or other online social media sites and it is fun.  We know because we have it!  With background music of the peepers, birds, and the sound of streams, it simulates being among them in nature. We hope it will put people in a froggy state of mind.

    If you know of any other fun,  interesting, or educational amphibian apps, please let us know.