I rarely talk about my life before Geek Beat in an article, but once upon a time I was a History Education major in college. When a good learning app comes my way, I just can’t say no. That is doubly so when said app is about the history of technology. But that is what Gadgetarium is, a fun, touch-based iPad app for learning about how we got from the wheel to wearables. Let me tell you about it.
Kickstarted Origins
Gutenbergz’s Gadgetarium was originally a Kickstarter project. just over a year ago. It was funded at just over its $10,000 goal and took about a year of development before hitting the market. It was originally supposed to be an AR project with a companion book and that’s still in the cards. They are working with a publisher to make it happen, hopefully sometime in 2015. I frankly don’t think it needs it. This is a text book designed for children of the 21st century. It’ll work with children of all ages, even those born in 1981.
Learning for the Future Geek
Gadgetarium is fully touch-based and interactive. It features 23 technological achievements in human history from the Wheel in 5,000 B.C. to the Google Glass just a couple years back. The menus have an attractive steampunk style to them, and each gadget has its own landing page. Most of these are interactive, allowing you to move things around, balance a scale, et cetera, and it gets even cooler with the more modern gadgets. The calculator is fully functional and the Mac runs a cut down impression of Mac OS Classic you can control with the mouse, letting you experience how these devices work rather just reading or hearing about them. That’s not all the app does though.
There are three other modes for each gadget. Click on the Play button and you get a short narration and demonstration of the device. They are not always the most informative, but they will play to a child’s sense of humor. Up above that is a cube-looking icon. This is a 360° view of the device. Lastly, if you click on the valve icon in the top right, you get a summary of the item. Lastly, there is a Gadget Box mode. It allows you to create new gadgets out of existing ones and then share your creations on social media. It’s overall a very fun and informative app. To keep it fresh, they also plan to add additional gadgets in coming releases.
Pricing and Availability
Gadgetarium is just $1.99 on the App Store. This is very affordable and can basically be an impulse buy. The company is planning on expanding the app to Android sometime in late 2015.
Final Word
Gadgetarium is a fun iPad app for all ages. It can be a bit limited, but it’s great and interactive will bring enjoyment to the user. If that user is in the suggested 6-15 age range, you could be creating the next generation of Geek. It’s cheap, so I would recommend you pick it up if you have an iPad.
