Civil War in Color

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This app cries out: the people who built this app just don't care. The frequent misspellings - commonly so basic and obvious they would have been caught in a casual read through by any fourth grader - distract and make plain that the material can't be trusted. Bad that this was released with so many mistakes, worse that the mistakes haven't been fixed. If you care about accuracy, or integrity of historical materials, or if you don't like spending money on shoddy, third-rate workmanship, this is one to pass on.

A good overview, with plenty of images. However, it feels like a not-quite-final product. Some multimedia presentations in particular are frustrating. Audio drops out at times while the video continues. I can only guess that the silence is deliberate, but it is not golden! Also, the narrator sometimes trips over a word. The tone of voice is very pleasant, if perhaps a bit over-enunciated. In general images are very good, but maps are lower quality, and the quality of the caption text over maps could be improved. I recommend the app. While it's true that you can find the same information on the internet, it's been gathered for you, and $4.99 is not too much for what is offered. I hope that future updates provide some cleanup of audio and perhaps some better typography as well.

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The concept is a good one, but the execution is quite amature-ish. The content is not well laid out, and the multi-media presentations contain music that plays over top of the narration, making it impossible to understand what is being said. The animations are jerky, not well choreographed, and have photos inexplicably interspersed at the oddest moments, making the flow of presentations hard to follow. Some text is large enough to read easily. Other text is extremely small and very difficult to read with no option to zoom. Obvious that the app author cut and paste content from other sources in a hodge-podge presentation. Overally, content appears completely plagiarized for quick completion / quick sale. Seriously, appears as though a group of high school kids put this app together. Quite disappointing for the price.

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A disappointing app for the price. A lot of information is provided, but it is basically in the form of a long book report that could just as easily be grabbed off of an online encyclopedia. I assume that much of the text is original writing for copyright issues, but some parts are amateurish... Battlefield maps are static and low resolution, and the pictures and limited videos look like publicly available snippets from an old PBS special. It's as if they took their 'Programming for Apple Devices 101' class, built the app, inserted some free content, and tried to fill-in the blanks. The app is not interactive and does not harness the power of the iPad. App would be okay as a not-so-quick reference substitute, or you could buy and actual eBook from a publisher.

As someone who has always been fascinated with the War Between the State, I found this app to be very rich in content. It's multimedia offerings not only give breadth of information but also depth. This is a must have app for all who are interested in this dark period of US history.