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While you're zoning out with your iPad on the couch, there's an app that can actually teach you a little something, too. When friends of mine are first becoming acquainted with the iPad, I like to show them Couch Traveler, an app that combines Google satellite images with Wikipedia entries to explore different landmarks throughout the world.
From a master list on the left, you can select landmarks by category: bridges, buildings, monuments, mysteries, theme parks and urban. Selecting the mysteries category, for example, you can hone in on a satellite image of Area 51, Stonehedge or the Giant Bunny in Italy. Tap the description button and you can view a Wikipedia entry pertaining to your selection to learn about what the heck you're looking at.
I love this sort of edutainment; it's an example of an app both children and adults can equally enjoy. It's also a step toward more context-aware learning that the iPad is perfect for. I'm hoping more information-based apps will push the envelope a bit further and rethink the idea of the traditional book or newspaper, for instance, combining multimedia with text to be more engaging.
Couch Traveler costs $2 in the App Store.
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