I think it's a pretty good product. I will be using it to do homework at
home, trying to improve my knowledge of bird calls and songs. I will also
use it in the field, to check whether what I am hearing is what I think it
is.
Having said that I think it was a mistake to bundle it up with a full scale
database/reporting type apparatus. I won't be using this, pen and notebook
is so much less of fiddle, and you can enter observations into whatever
databases you use when you get home. These will have more functionality
that something on an iPhone.
No-one is going to start using the reporting bits of this app because
either they're a luddite like me and use a notebook, or they're not a
luddite, and already have their own system which they won't want to switch
out of.
The database bits have inflated the price of the app to a fairly high
level. I would have thought that an identification/calls apps should have
been able to have been made and sold for around $20, which would have
attracted a larger number of buyers amongst casual birdwatchers. At $70 it
will be confined to dedicated birdos and as such will have much lower sales.
And therefore it won't do much to proselytise for the cause of birds.
Just my thoughts.
John Leonard
On 23 November 2013 07:42, Shirley Cook <> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Just to add to the debate. I confess to "lazy thinking" when it comes to
> the botanical aspects of birding. I have for decades enjoyed the company
> of a botanist who is the fount of knowledge when it comes to tree/plant ID.
> I should have learned by now, but when I have a "walking encyclopaedia
> botanica" there, only a few of the most common plant species names have
> sunk in.
>
> Shirley Cook
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