Ruler Deluxe – Measure objects larger than your screen!

Available In: App Store

Price: $0.99

RulerDeluxe I’ve always liked pocket measuring tapes. You know, the ones that would retract at the push of a button. So, could an iPhone app successfully recreate the experience of a pocket measuring tape? And more importantly, can you accurately measure something with an iPhone? Ruler Deluxe aims to do just that.

Overview
The application essentially works in 2 modes: sliding and rotating. When measuring an object in slide mode, you can use your finger as a bookmark and slide the ruler on the iPhone to increase the amount of inches or centimeters to “lengthen” your iPhone ruler. In rotation mode, you turn your iPhone counter clockwise to lengthen your ruler as you measure an object. A nice YouTube video (see below) posted by the developers has a helpful demonstration of the app in use.

Accuracy vs. Precision
The rotation method for measuring items is quite intuitive, as I would not have thought to implement such a technique. The interface for Ruler Deluxe is straightforward and buttons are few in number and simple in function. An options menu is easily identifiable and takes you to menus for you to adjust your settings. The app has a nice skinning option to change the look of your ruler to metal, paper, plastic, and wood. Also, you can make modifications to the measurements in order to compensate for the edge of the iPhone/iPod. Tips included on the options screen illustrate in a simple manner how to use this app.

High percent error
With the above strengths come a few obvious weaknesses. For starters, you’re not going to want to rely on Ruler Deluxe to make any critical measurements. There’s just too much room for error. Next, the sliding method and even the rotation method take some time to get used to, and are still not as comfortable as simply using a meterstick or measuring tape. Lastly, the program would unexpectedly quit whenever I visited the options menu, but a hard reset seemed to solve this problem.

Conclusion
If I’m in a pinch to get an estimate of the length or width of something, I think Ruler Deluxe will do the trick. If I’m measuring something for physics class, I’d best be sticking with the old fashioned meterstick. Ruler Deluxe is a solid attempt towards using your iPhone/iPod Touch as a ruler when you need one. Its rotation method separates this app from other measuring apps, including those offered for free. Thus, if you feel like this could be of use to you, I’d recommend watching the video demo, and then I’d feel safe saying that this would be worth the price of $0.99.