Posts Tagged ‘Gene Transcription’

OnScreen DNA Complete: Save 25% With Our New DNA-Learning iPad App Bundle

Thursday, September 18th, 2014

bundle

Apple has just introduced the ability for app developers to bundle multiple apps on the App Store into a single package priced below the cost of the individual apps purchased separately. And if you’ve already purchased one or more of the apps in the bundle, you can apply what you’ve already paid to the cost of completing the bundle. This Complete My Bundle works just the same as the iTunes Complete My Album feature for people that have bought one or more songs off an album and want to download the rest of it without paying what the sum of the individual tracks would amount to. This is a feature I had been wishing for and had even tried to figure out a convoluted ways of implementing myself via in-app-purchases. I’m very glad I didn’t, as it has all been taken care of beautifully now.

I’m delighted to announce OnScreen DNA Complete, which is a bundle of OnScreen DNA Model, OnScreen Gene Transcription, and OnScreen DNA Replication, our three iPad apps that show the structure of DNA and how it works in a cell, all using the same 3D interactive model with animations that are scientifically accurate, within the limits of the molecular model. The model has been chosen to show the essential molecular components and the double helix structure of DNA, unobscured by the atomic details of the molecules. See the following links for some reviews and descriptions of the apps.

Each of the three apps in the OnScreen DNA Complete bundle currently (9/18/14) sells for $4, and the bundle costs $9, which translates to a 25% discount. Purchasing the apps in the bundle is like getting two of them at full price and the third for only $1. Which is exactly what someone that already has bought two of the apps at full price will pay to get the third. Anyone that has bought one at full price, can get the other two for $5 total.

That means you can try one app, see how you like it, and then apply what you’ve already paid to the bundle price that gets you the other two. You don’t have to remember what you paid for an app, as Apple remembers for you. If you have already paid as much or more than the total bundle price, then you can download the rest of the bundle for free, which will be great for people that have bought apps before a big price drop. That won’t apply to the OnScreen DNA Complete bundle at this point, since the apps have not sold at a higher price, but it will for some other bundles. Apple does insure that the bundle price on any day must be less than the price of the component apps total price for that day, so there is no danger of a false bargain.

NOTE: As I write, there is an ugly bug in the iPad App Store app that makes full-screen views of the app screenshots associated with bundles look terrible. Believe me, our screen shots look great. If you want to see how the images look filling the iPad screen, go to the descriptions of the individual apps. Hopefully, Apple will catch this soon. I filed a bug report.

The apps have all been tested to work great under the new iOS 8 system without upgrade. Go get that OnScreen DNA Complete bundle!

We’re Celebrating DNA Day (April 25) Again with a One-Day Sale: All DNA Apps at Half-Price!

Thursday, April 24th, 2014

Sixty-one years since the double helix structure of DNA was discovered! Eleven years since the human genome was mapped!

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website: “National DNA Day is a special day when teachers, students, and the public can learn more about genetics and genomics. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health has sponsored DNA Day for the past ten years, to commemorate the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003 and of Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.”

To celebrate DNA Day, we are reducing our price on all DNA-related apps by $2 for the day on the US App Stores (with comparable price reductions on app stores for every country).

The apps selling for only $1.99 (50% off) on April 25 are:

OnScreen DNA Model for iPad

OnScreen DNA Replication for iPad

OnScreen Gene Transcription for iPad


OnScreen Retrovirus for iPad

OnScreen DNA Model for Mac

And selling for only 99¢ (67% off) is
OnScreen DNA Model for iPhone

The OnScreen DNA Model apps (on iPad, iPhone, and Mac) focus on the details of DNA’s double helix structure, using a 3D, color-coded, virtual model that the user can rotate and zoom. Explanatory text deals with the molecules and chemical bonds of the double helix. Animations show two important lab and biotechnology phenomena of DNA: denaturation, in which the strands separate, and renaturation, in which they reunite.

OnScreen DNA Replication
makes use of the same DNA model to show how, through the action of specific enzymes, a DNA molecule is perfectly duplicated before cell division. The various steps in the process, including the action of telomerase to prevent strand shortening, are shown in 3D animations and described in some detail.

OnScreen Gene Transcription makes use of the same DNA model to show how a genetic recipe stored in the sequence of molecules of DNA is copied by construction of a messenger RNA molecule. The various steps in the process, shown in 3D animations that make it clear that messenger RNA is constructed as part of a hybrid RNA/DNA double helix, not a 2D ladder, are described in some detail, emphasizing the role of certain enzymes.

OnScreen Retrovirus models nucleic acids in the same way as the other apps in the suite. Its simulations show step by step how a retrovirus (such as HIV) copies its single stranded RNA genome into double stranded DNA ready to be inserted into the host cell’s DNA.

The apps show details of structure and processes that are sometimes depicted in erroneous ways in places that should know better. Animations make the processes memorable. Discussion of the chemistry involved is at an introductory level, so the apps are useful for learning about DNA to a wide range of students or anyone interested in the science of Life. There really is nothing comparable on the internet.

Educational purchasers enrolled in Apple’s Volume Purchase Program still get 50% off the sale price when buying twenty or more copies at a time.

Spread the word. This is a one-day-only sale.