Physics Toolbox Magnetometer vs Birdathon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Physics Toolbox Magnetometer
This app transforms your iPhone into a precise scientific instrument for measuring, visualizing, and recording magnetic fields. Explore magnetic field vectors, magnitudes, and compass headings with real-time charts and digital readouts. Ideal for educational experiments, lab work, or curious exploration.
- Real-time magnetic field vector and magnitude display
- Chart, digital, and compass viewing modes
- Data recording and CSV export
- Adjustable sample rate (1-100 Hz)
- Signal filters for noise reduction
- Detection of permanent and electromagnetic fields
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Measure, visualize, and record magnetic fields with precision — right from your iPhone. Physics Toolbox Magnetometer displays the magnetic field vector in x, y, and z dimensions along with total magnitude in microteslas (µT) or gauss, giving you the data you need for serious lab work or casual exploration. Three ways to view your data: - Chart — real-time graph with toggleable axes, adjustable line width, and fullscreen mode - Digital — large numeric readout for quick at-a-glance measurements - Compass — live heading with True North and Magnetic North display Built for the lab and the field: - Record and export data as CSV for analysis in other software - Adjustable sample rate from 1 to 100 Hz - Signal filters to reduce noise - Detects permanent magnets, electromagnetic fields, and background geomagnetic field Classroom-ready experiments: The magnetometer is well-suited for determining the inverse-square law for a point-source magnet, measuring the magnetic field produced by a solenoid, or capturing the periodic field variations of audio speakers and magnetic plate stirrers. Whether you are a physics student, teacher, engineer, or curious mind, Physics Toolbox Magnetometer turns your device into a capable scientific instrument.
Birdathon
This app helps birdwatchers create and organize detailed checklists of their observations. It automatically records time and location, allowing for easy editing and customization. Users can visualize their sightings on maps, add field notes, and export data for sharing or further analysis.
- Observation-centric checklists
- Automatic time and location recording
- Customizable maps with boundary overlays
- Field notes for additional observations
- Multiple checklist sorting options
- Data export to CSV and other formats
- Create checklist templates
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Birdathon is an observation-centric tool for creating birding checklists. It helps you organize your checklists and share them with others. Use Birdathon in the field to quickly record whether and where a bird is seen or heard and the number observed. The time and location of each observation is automatically recorded. You can adjust the location, time entries and the count of birds observed at any time to ensure your records are accurate. You can add breeding codes to your observations. Checklist maps display the locations of your observations. You can overlay county boundaries for every US state. You can add a range circle such as a 5MR (5-mile Radius) to your maps. You can import and overlay custom kml/kmz files onto your maps. An Overview feature lets you see your combined observations for any time period, and displays a map showing any boundaries you have selected, so you can utilize the map feature even when you are not actively checklisting. You can export Overview data into a csv text file or create a new checklist template from the Overview. Your checklists can be viewed in taxonomic order, alphabetically, by rarity or as a timeline of species. You can enrich your checklist with field notes and add observations such as mammals, butterflies, wildflowers, etc., to make it a more complete record of your experience. You can organize your checklists into categories such as Day List, Year List, County List, Life List, etc., and assign color themes to your lists. Bird species may be added and deleted from your lists at any time. You can create new checklist templates from your previous lists or import templates created by others. You can change which template is being used. You can import text files into Birdathon, making them into templates or new checklists. Different export options for your checklists allow you to import into eBird or another copy of Birdathon. The bird species source data and other resources used in this app come from the following sources: AviList, a unified global checklist of birds, is the core data set used for Birdathon. https://www.avilist.org. Some data has been integrated from the following sources: The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world (https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/), the American Ornithological Society's (AOS) Checklist of North and Middle American Birds (https://checklist.americanornithology.org), and the American Birding Association's (ABA) checklist of North American Birds (https://www.aba.org/listing-taxonomy/) Alpha codes come from The Institute for Bird Populations’ Standardized 4- and 6-letter Bird Species Codes. https://www.birdpop.org/pages/birdSpeciesCodes.php. County boundary data is from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) TIGER/Line 2019 Shapefiles found on the United States Census Bureau's website at https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.2019.html. Boundaries should be used as general guidelines and not be considered precise. Note especially where county boundaries follow creeks, rivers, ridge lines and other natural features, and so are of much finer resolution than can be shown on Birdathon’s maps. California breeding bird atlas blocks come from the California Bird Atlas, https://www.californiabirdatlas.org. California Bird Atlas logo and breeding code descriptions used with permission.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Physics Toolbox Magnetometer at 5.0 against Birdathon's 4.7. Birdathon's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 80%) and update cadence (every 4 months vs every 13 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Physics Toolbox Magnetometer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Birdathon sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Physics Toolbox Magnetometer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 15 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 80% of Physics Toolbox Magnetometer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Birdathon's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Physics Toolbox Magnetometer ships an update every 13 months, Birdathon every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Physics Toolbox Magnetometer | Birdathon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better | 4.7 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 15 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 13 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.1 | 16.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 192 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chrystian Vieyra | Barry Langdon-Lassagne |
Customer experience
Physics Toolbox Magnetometer
Birdathon
In-app purchases
Physics Toolbox Magnetometer
- Pro Upgrade$2.99
Birdathon
- Good Tip$0.99
- Great Tip$1.99
- Amazing Tip$2.99
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- Incredible Tip$4.99







