Hyper Facts for iOS: A powerful and fun database query app
It's amazing what you can find with your iOS device. With the whole internet in your hands, vast databases are yours to explore with a couple of taps.
Hyper Facts is a new way to more easily manage these searches, and overall it works pretty well. You type in a search term, a name, or an event (like a historical event) and off goes the app to do a search. The app searches 4 different databases, although the ones used aren't specified, and there are also links to Wikipedia.
If you click the 'nearby' icon, the app gets your location via GPS and tells you interesting things around you, with links to articles.
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All in all, I liked using Hyper Facts to do searches and drill down through the many links. There are some caveats. I searched for 'Christmas' and got entries for Christmas, Michigan and Christmas Island, but not the holiday. I did better by searching Christmas as a category. I was presented a list with such entries as Christmas Carols, Television Specials, and Christmas Food. Those links went to interesting destinations. I think part of this app is just getting the hang of how to make a query. Some built-in help would be really helpful.
I had a couple of crashes when I invoked the local search. Sometimes it was fine, a couple of times the app just quit. Those things will all be worked out, and I think the developers, who are from the Netherlands, are on to something. At US $0.99 it's worth a look and a play. With a bit more polish, I think this will become a useful and much used app.
The app is universal and runs on all iOS devices. It requires iOS 3.2 or later.
