You’re a quick study. But you’re not inclined towards actually enrolling in a class — expending that much effort, time and an outrageous amount of money. So, what do you do? Why, you read on, of course!
Duolingo Picking up a foreign language can always come in handy. Your company’s new clients may be German or you may be holidaying in Italy and want to impress your date with your impeccable knowledge of the language. Instead of rushing around trying to hunt for a tutor, just download the app. It teaches you Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish (and even English, if you think yours isn’t good enough) through gamification. The lessons are short and include a mix of speech, pictorial assistance and audio to help you learn. If you need a further incentive, the app was declared Google Play’s ‘Best of the Best’ in 2013 and 2014.
Star Walk – Astronomy Guide Star Walk is a little like Google Sky Map on steroids. While Google Sky Map simulates a star chart pertinent to your location at a specific time, it doesn’t provide you with any further information than just the names and positions of the stars, planets and constellations. Star Walk allows you to study more than 200000 celestial bodies. You can use the Augmented Reality feature to include camera images to the app’s sky view or even use the Time Machine feature to “explore the map of the night sky of tomorrow or years ago”. Star Walk also helps you locate and view meteor showers. However, for the Star Spotter feature to work accurately, you must have a gyroscope and compass on.
Udemy What sets Udemy apart in a play store chock full of video tutorial apps is that it focuses on skill-based learning. So, you can take courses or watch tutorials on anything from learning yoga to starting your own enterprise. Browse for courses and buy whichever ones you think are relevant to what you want to learn. Each course is available on demand 24/7 and can be saved offline, so time or unavailability of the Internet while you are on the MRTS isn’t a factor in your pursuit of knowledge. A typical course contains video lectures, audio lectures, presentations and articles, and there are several courses available free on the app.
Art Authority The app is a great virtual museum that offers insight into the Early, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Impressionist, Modern, Contemporary and American forms of art. The app contains “rooms” that house each of these art categories, containing “dozens of artists per room, listed by movement or nationality”. There is plenty of in-depth information available regarding the movements, artist, artwork and so forth. You can also save an artwork as a wallpaper or share the image. A brilliant app for art aficionados and novices alike.
Zara Khan is a staff writer for Metro Plus Melange.
