Daily App Review: Building Titanic (iPad)

National Geographic's latest iPad app is a brilliant showcase of the book-as-app concept. And comes for free.
When it comes to books in digital form, there are two schools of thought--one says that digital books should be exactly the same as their paper counterparts (the e-book school), while the other says that they should have similar content as paper books, but should make the most of the computing power available on the devices on which they are being viewed (the book-as-app school). And one of the most powerful proponents of the latter is National Geographic, which has been transforming a number of its titles, and even its iconic monthly publication, for the iPad by throwing in a number of interactive elements and multimedia.

And the latest book concept to be "appified" in this manner is an app to commemorate a hundred years since the sinking of the Titanic. Called Building Titanic, the app is in the form of a timeline and traces how the massive ship was built. That might sound like an engineering exercise on paper, but the magic, as always lies in the presentation. Once the app loads, you are presented with a timeline stretching from 1909 (when work on the Titanic started) to 1912 (when the ship sank). You can move to seven points on the timeline and – here comes the magic--every time you move to a new point, you will actually see (in accelerated motion) of how the ship was taking shape in the background as the image at the previous morphs to an image at the new one. 

So, for instance, if you move from April 1910 to October 1910, a rapid animation based on archived photographs will actually show you how the ship moved from being just a hull frame to getting its hull plating. What's more, on every point of the timeline, the image will also show a number of key points of interest, clicking on which will provide you with information about that particular section of the ship or those associated with it. And it works with buttery smoothness--you will find yourself glued to the app for almost an hour looking at different aspects of perhaps the most famous passenger ship in human history.

There is a treasure of information out there, ranging from the original drawing charts of the ship to photographs of different parts of the ship to even archival footage of the ship setting sail for its final journey. It is mostly in black and white but the sheer wealth of detail and the style in which it is presented makes this app utterly irresistible, even if you have no interest whatsoever in ship building or even the Titanic. We even loved the subtle violin music that plays in the background.  Even though the pictures and video used in the app are old, a lot of care has been taken in their presentation to ensure that you do not feel that you are looking at something that is ancient and was created at a time when computers did not even exist.  Ironically,  the only sore points in the app are interviews with James Cameron and Robert Ballard (the man who discovered the wreck of the ship), which are of shockingly poor video quality--we would recommend listening to them rather than watching them.

All said and done, Building Titanic shows just what can be done on a mobile computing device by blending text, images, infographics and film. And quite amazingly, it comes at no cost whatsoever, and at less than 100 MB, is a relatively light download for an application of this sort. Our recommendation: download it. For, this is what books and presentations are likely to become in the coming years.