Wolfram Alpha – the ‘computational knowledge engine’ that appeared just a little bit too close to the new Terminator film for our liking – now has an iPhone-optimised portal to make it easier to answer tricky questions on the go.
Wolfram Alpha is designed to compute the solutions to questions, rather than simply list a load of search matches like a traditional search engine. Apparently this also includes the question “how can I see Wolfram Alpha results on my iPhone without a lot of extra scrolling?”
The new portal squishes the search page down and presents results in more of an iPhone friendly way. Unlike, say, Google, Wolfram Alpha queries can return graphs, diagrams and mathematical formulae as well as text so careful formatting is a real issue on a small screen.
To use the new portal, just visit http://www.wolframalpha.com/iphone using Safari and bookmark it for later use. If Wolfram Alpha’s blend of deep knowledge surfing and semi-useful ability to calculate the square root of the distance to the Moon divided by the average number of pigeons in Trafalgar Square appeals to you, you can contribute more ideas for how best to optimise WA for the iPhone here.
Available now | £free | Wolfram Alpha (via TUAW)
