Hands vs Universal Zoom
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hands
This app simulates using virtual cubes to build bar graphs, providing intelligent feedback to help students understand mathematical reasoning and data analysis. It offers an interactive playground for creating and exploring graphs and tables, fostering problem-solving skills.
- Virtual cube manipulation for bar graph creation
- Artificially intelligent feedback
- Interactive Playground for exploration
- Data analysis and interpretation
- Problem formulation and solving
- Graph and table creation
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Hands-On Math Graph Cubes simulates the use of a set of cubes to build bar graphs. While using the cubes students are given feedback so that they can see logical relationships. Visualization is an effective way to help students understand mathematical reasoning and logic. A benefit derived from using the Graph Cubes is that the cubes can be easily manipulated and therefore good problem solving strategies spontaneously evolve. The concepts studied in this curriculum are the foundations of mathematical development especially in areas that are a part of the data analysis, probability and discrete mathematics curriculum strand. The app proivdes an interactive Playground where graphs and tables can be created and explored. Student interaction with the device is augmented by the artificially intelligent feedback provided by the software. The instructional approaches that result from creating an open-ended area for free exloration and discovery are exciting. On the Playground students manipulate a supply of virtual cubes to create graphs representing data collected through surveys. When using Graph Cubes simple gestures are used to drag and drop blocks, placing them in columns to build bar graphs. The author and designer coined the term, “artificially intelligent math manipulative” to describe how using the Hands-On Math apps differs from the concrete manipulative devices traditionally used in classrooms. For example, this appprovides intelligent mathematical feedback as the student manipulates the cubes. Immediately associating feedback with a behavior is an effective way to reinforce behavior and facilitate learning. Hands-On Math Graph Cubes focuses on these curriculum areas: Collecting, Organizing, and Describing Data Based on Real-life Situations Students may be expected to demonstrate such skills as: • Analyze and describe data in terms of absolute or relative frequency of occurrence, range (highest/lowest), etc. • Summarize information and relationships revealed by a graph. • Add new data to a given chart, graph, or set of organized data. • Extrapolate from obvious trends revealed by graphs in order to make predictions. Using Graph Cubes students become involved in constructing, reading, and interpreting data in charts, graphs, tables, etc. What students should know and be able to do includes: • Obtain information from a bar graph by reading a graph to accurately to answer a question. • Analyze, interpret, or draw conclusions based on data given in a bar graph. • Match a graph to a described situation • Match a data set to a graph and a graph to a data set (including matching data presented in a table/chart with a corresponding bar graph) • Plot data onto a bar graph when the axes labels and scales have already been provided • Draw a bar graph showing data given in a chart/, table or words Formulating and solving problems that involve the use of data. What students should know and be able to do includes: • Generate questions that can be answered by collecting and analyzing data. • Collect data to answer survey questions. (i.e., What is your favorite sport?) • Solve problems using data from tables and graphs. • Solve problems involving simple deductive reasoning. (e.g., "How many students chose 'dog' as their favorite pet?)
Universal Zoom
Explore the universe's vastness and intricacy through interactive visual comparisons. Seamlessly zoom from subatomic particles to the observable universe, gaining intuition about scale and size with stunning imagery and clear explanations.
- Seamless zooming across scales
- Visual comparisons of objects
- Jargon-free scientific explanations
- Audio narration
- Over 270 objects presented to scale
- Multi-language support
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The universe is endlessly vast. A single atom is impossibly small. And somewhere between those two extremes lies everything that has ever existed. We believe that feeling — the electric, spine-tingling sense of scale — belongs to everyone. Not just scientists. Not just students. Everyone. That's why we built Universal Zoom. WHAT YOU CAN DO • Zoom seamlessly from the Planck length to the edge of the observable universe — about 300 objects presented to perfect scale. • Compare any two objects side by side: how many Earths fit inside Jupiter? How does a virus measure up against a skyscraper? Instant, visual, intuitive. (No other scale app lets you do this.) • Go deeper with audio narration and short, accessible explanations — the facts that matter, in plain language. WHAT YOU'LL EXPLORE • Elementary particles — quarks, leptons, and bosons. Atomic nuclei, atoms, and DNA. Living cells. Animals and landmarks. Planets, stars, and galaxies. A deep dive into physics, biology, and astronomy — with short, plain-language articles that make even particle physics easy to grasp — in 40 languages, with metric, imperial, or powers-of-ten units. • Real high-resolution photos and electron microscope images, where possible. Original artwork for things that can't be photographed — like elementary particles and DNA structures. • No ads. No in-app purchases. Pure discovery. BUILT WITH YOU We're a team of two (Andrey and Oksana) from Canada who have poured a decade into this app because we genuinely love science. Most objects come from community suggestions — carefully fact-checked and updated with every new discovery. Over 200 more are already in the queue. FOR EDUCATORS Used by teachers worldwide to visualize scale, build measurement intuition, and turn abstract numbers into "aha" moments. Available at 50% off for schools via Apple School Manager (20+ copies). FOLLOW THE JOURNEY Sneak peeks and upcoming additions: @gamifyitapps on X, YouTube, and TikTok. Feedback and ideas: gamifyitapps.com/contact
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Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Universal Zoom at 97% against Hands's 0%. Universal Zoom also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (356 vs 2). Hands's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $5.99) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.5). On ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Hands costs $2.99 and Universal Zoom $5.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Universal Zoom holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Universal Zoom has 356 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Hands's written reviews are positive against 97% of Universal Zoom's.
Hands ships an update every 12 months, Universal Zoom every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hands | Universal Zoom |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 — better | $5.99 |
| Rating | 3.0 (2 ratings) | 4.8 (356 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 96.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 356 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #24 — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 175 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ventura Educational Systems | GamifyIt |
Customer experience
Hands
Universal Zoom
Bugs and requests
Hands
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Universal Zoom
Reported bugs
3 issues- Incorrect information for some objects
- Compatibility issues on older devices
- Typos and minor errors in text
Requested features
5 requests- Add more objects and comparisons
- Customizable object feature
- Support for more languages
- Ability to toggle between metric and imperial units
- Search and filtering options
In-app purchases
Hands
No in-app purchases
Universal Zoom
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Hands free?
Is Universal Zoom free?
Which has better reviews, Hands or Universal Zoom?
Do Hands or Universal Zoom have ads?
Which is updated more often, Hands or Universal Zoom?
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