A new Windows 8.1 and Windows phone app brings Wolfram Alpha to users in a packaged form. Well worth having if you do math - if you can find them!

Microsoft is chronically short of good apps for its Store and so you might imagine that something of a fuss would be made over the launch of the Alpha universal app. At the time of writing, however, it is difficult to find the new app in the store unless you know exactly what you are looking for. 

Lots of programmers have to get involved in math and so having Alpha in a nicely packaged form is a good idea. It isn't that much different from using it via the web page, but you do get a special custom keyboard that makes entering equations easier and the ability to pin queries to the start menu. 

The intro to the app in the Store page is a bit over the top:

"Remember the Star Trek computer? It's finally happening--with Wolfram|Alpha. Building on 25 years of development led by Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram|Alpha has rapidly become the world's definitive source for instant expert knowledge and computation."

What is clear is that if you do any sort of math this is probably worth getting, even though it costs all of $2.99. 

In addition Wolfram has released several Course Assistant Apps on Windows 8.1: 

• Algebra
• Calculus
• Multivariable Calculus
• Linear Algebra
• Pre-Algebra
• Precalculus
• Statistics

These also feature custom keyboards and come complete with solutions to problems and the ability to explore the material.

Let's hope that Microsoft notices that Wolfram has done the right thing and actually produced some good Windows 8.1/Windows phone apps and follows up by at least making them easy to find. A bit of publicity would also be welcome.

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