MyState vs Orbit Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MyState
This app serves as a comprehensive student toolkit, offering essential information and features for navigating university life. It provides real-time updates on campus transportation, dining options, class schedules, and campus events. Students can also access a directory, library services, and campus maps to enhance their academic and social experience.
- Customizable dashboard
- Class schedule and GPA calculator
- Real-time bus arrival predictions
- Dining hall hours and menus
- Campus directory and map
- Student organization discovery
- Library catalog and account management
Read full descriptionHide full description
Cyclone Nation, meet MyState. MyState is the ultimate student toolkit to help you get the most out of your adventure at Iowa State. Use MyState to catch the next bus, locate your next class, see what's to eat, quickly find your instructor's office, and much more! + Dashboard - Quickly see information to start your adventure. Weather, CyRide, Classes, Dining, and more! Customize the Dashboard just for you. + Classes - View your class schedule, including locations and instructors. Calculate your GPA or check the line at testing centers and see their hours. + CyRide - Check to see when busses are scheduled to arrive at any of the bus stops in Ames, with arrival predictions from MyRide. + Dining - Find operating hours and menus for any dining location on campus. + Directory - Easily find individuals and offices on campus. + Events - See which exciting official ISU events are going on in the area. + Fairs - Prepare for and navigate career and other fairs by marking booths as favorites and seeing them on a map of the fair locations. + Library - View your checked-out items, holds, and fines; find locations and hours; search the main library catalog. + Map - Find buildings, dining locations, art on campus, testing centers, recreation centers, and more! + News - Read and share the latest updates from across campus. + Photostream - Check out user-submitted photos of the Iowa State campus. + StuOrgs - Discover, join, and subscribe to student orgs. Manage existing org memberships and subscriptions. + Testing Centers - View Testing Center locations and availability. + More - Stream KURE 88.5 along with other fun extras! MyState. Built by students, for students!
Orbit Lab
Read full descriptionHide full description
Orbital Lab teaches orbital mechanics by making you fly it: set a launch speed and angle, and a real two-body Kepler solver draws the exact orbit that results — not a canned animation standing in for physics. Every one of the app's 31 lessons ends on a live 3D workbench. Drag the speed slider and watch the path bulge, open into a wide ellipse, or dive into the star; nudge the launch angle and the shape changes again. The same solver computes eccentricity, periapsis, apoapsis, and orbital period from scratch on every frame — nothing is pre-rendered behind the numbers. A lesson only marks complete when you've actually done what it asked — raised the launch speed past the true escape boundary and recovered an orbit just under it, or hunted down the exact speed that avoids a crash — not for pressing Play. Curriculum, unit by unit: • Unit 1 – Orbits from scratch: what an ellipse, periapsis, and escape velocity actually mean • Unit 2 – Solar System missions: fly from Mercury and Venus out past Mars to Jupiter and beyond • Unit 3 – Space engineering: Hohmann transfers, delta-v budgets, gravity-assist flybys • Unit 4 – Deep Space (Pro): the workbench switches engines to a hand-written Verlet n-body integrator, where Kepler's one-body assumption starts to break down Deep Space runs six curated three-body scenes — a figure-eight choreography, a Sun–planet–Trojan system locked at a genuinely stable Lagrange point, and a three-body pass that turns authentically chaotic. Each scene is checked to hold its total energy over the run, so what plays out is real gravity working, not an animation dressed up to look unstable. Explore is a second sandbox: no lesson, no lock, no limit. Set any launch speed and angle and watch the trajectory resolve in real time on the same solver, wide open. Tight circular orbits, wild eccentric ellipses that graze the surface, hyperbolic escapes — try as many launches as you want. Two hand-written physics engines sit behind every screen: a closed-form Kepler solver for two-body mechanics — the exact analytic solution for that problem — and a symplectic Verlet integrator for the n-body cases where Kepler's math stops applying. Neither is a physics library wrapped in a UI. The first Deep Space lesson runs both engines on the same star-and-planet setup side by side, so you can watch them agree. What's free: • Unit 1 in full, plus Mercury through Mars in Unit 2 — 11 of 31 lessons with their live workbenches • The Explore sandbox, unlimited and always available • Progress tracking across all four units • Full light and dark themes, 10 languages What Pro adds: • The rest of the curriculum — outer-planet missions, space engineering, and all of Deep Space — 20 more lessons and their workbenches • Deep Mode: six real three-body simulations • An AI tutor that explains the orbit currently on your screen • No ads Built for the space-curious adult, the physics or astronomy student who wants "orbital velocity" to mean more than a line in a textbook, and anyone who's flown a space sim and wants the actual laws behind it. No science background required — the lessons build the vocabulary as you go. Orbital Lab starts as a guest — no account to create, no sign-in wall. Explore, the first eleven lessons, and your progress are all there the moment you open the app. Sign in later only if you want to. Monthly and annual subscriptions unlock the rest of the curriculum and all of Deep Space, and both plans start with a 3-day free trial. Payment is charged to your account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel anytime in your device's Account Settings. Full terms and our privacy practices are linked below. Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy https://coddykit.com/terms/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: MyState at none against Orbit Lab's 2. MyState also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price and device support 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. Orbit Lab sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. MyState asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | MyState | Orbit Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (80 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 27.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 80 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | — |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Iowa State University of Science and Technology | MEHMET CANKER (TR) |
Bugs and requests
MyState
Reported bugs
43 issues- Bus tracker estimates off by 10-15 minutes
- Bus tracker states no buses when there are
- App crashes when opening
- Class schedule issues persist
- Bus tracker not showing buses
Show 38 moreShow fewer
- Dining hall hours inaccurate
- Bus tracker times inaccurate
- App crashes when pressing bus stop on map
- App crashes immediately without opening
- App opens to main page then shuts down
- App crashes after new update
- App won't open after update
- App crashes when loading
- App shows blank white screen on login
- App endlessly tries to sign in then crashes
- App crashes whenever
- App won't load anything
- App crashes when trying to view schedule
- App freezes on installation
- Map randomly zooms out
- Map doesn't stay in hybrid/satellite mode
- CyRide section crashes if no other bus predicted
- CyRide section crashes if bus not running
- CyRide section shows wrong bus times
- CyRide section arrival times not available for all stops
- Class schedule messed up
- Calendar sync adds classes at wrong time
- Calendar upload button doesn't work
- Cannot log in to email
- App crashes when trying to enter system privacy settings
- Anonymous usage statistics option resets
- Map doesn't load
- Dining section doesn't work
- Login screen freezes
- App crashes on splash screen
- App crashes on welcome page
- App crashes when opening after update
- Bus routes annoying to figure out
- New bus schedule doesn't show bus type or arrival time
- Bus stops in alphabetical order
- Laundry availability not functioning correctly
- App crashes when opening on older devices
- App crashes when opening on iPhone 2nd gen iPod touch
Requested features
20 requests- Add support for alumni
- Third-party access for Ubill
- More accurate bus times
- Show all bus stops on map
- Add parking information
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Add date, time, and weather to dashboard
- Add computer lab availability
- Restore dining center hours and menus
- Add iPad version
- Link to night/final exam schedules
- Offline bus schedule option
- Campus map with buildings
- Restore Cyride functionality from old app
- Add 'My Bus Stops' tab
- Option to change bus stop order
- Support for summer Cyride schedules
- Fix time zone issues for class schedule
- Improve bus route navigation
- Add dark mode
- More practical Cyride interface
Orbit Lab
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
MyState
No in-app purchases
Orbit Lab
- Orbital Lab Pro monthly$5.991 Month
- Orbital Lab Pro annual3 Days trial$29.991 Year









