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Civil War to stream for free on iOS and iTunes
History buffs may want to check out the free PBS video app this week. The first episode of the award-winning Civil war documentary, The Civil War by Ken Burns, is available for free for the next 10 days. The documentary can be streamed through the PBS app or downloaded for free from iTunes. Besides The Civil War, the PBS video application includes 250 hours of free videos, PBS TV schedules and an episode reminder that syncs with iCal. Originally aired in 1990, the entire Civil War series will be rebroadcast from April 3 through the 17 on PBS to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War on April 12. All episodes of the series will be available for purchase from iTunes -- if you want to see how the "Ken Burns effect" got its name, be sure to at least watch the first episode.
Civil War: America's Epic Struggle comes to the iPad and iPhone
Civil War: America's Epic Struggle (US$4.99) from MultiEducator Inc. is a full history course in an iPad and iPhone app. It contains at least as much information as most textbooks on the Civil War at a fraction of the cost, while adding elements that no textbook can. There are 24 multimedia presentations, some as long as nine minutes, a nice selection of music popular during the Civil War, and a wonderful navigation system that just makes sense. When starting the app, information can be sorted 18 ways, from a changing Categories bar including Battles (sorted either chronologically or alphabetically), Multimedia Presentations, Statistics and topics like Navy, Economics, Railroads, Music, etc. Depending upon where you are in the app, tapping on Categories brings up a contextual listing of what you can see. For example, tapping on Major Battles Chronologically changes the bar to a listing of battles grouped by year. Tapping on a battle such as Bull Run, brings choices of a text summary of the battle, a five minute multimedia summary, seven text articles on aspects of the battle, 20 photos or drawings, most of them taken from the Matthew Brady Archives, and full color maps. Depending upon the battle there is more or less information available, but this is done for 26 battles in total; clearly, there's a phenomenal amount of information in the app, plenty for even a Civil War buff to peruse. %Gallery-98490%
