July 2011
The Archives
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07.26.11Jack and the Beanstalk gets new iPhone and iPad book-appThe latest fairy tale to get jazzed up in an iOS app is Jack and the Beanstalk. It's been given a modern twist by British developer Mindshapes - the maker of the fun Jellytoons apps that came out earlier this year. The new app sets the story in the modern world, so Jack is "your average video-game playing, chore-avoiding boy". Although he still wanders to the market, meets a stranger and... Well, you probably know the rest, and if you don't, I won't spoil it for you. Beans, innit. The app is aimed at children aged six and up, and includes mini-games ...
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07.24.11Feed-’Em Fred stars in not-so healthy eating iPad appHealthy eating? I wish. My two boys are wary of carrots, view peas with barely-concealed hostility, and laugh in the face of sweetcorn. Sorry, I meant they throw it in my face, rather than eat it. At least they've never been known to refuse a fruit of any kind. For parents trying (in vain or otherwise) to persuade their children on the merits of eating healthy stuff, there's a new iPad book-app that may be worth a try. It's called Feed-'Em Fred (The Chef of Dread), which I grant you sounds slightly scary. It's not, but it's horrible in the best sense ...
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07.24.11Magic Safari offers augmented reality animal-spottingMobile augmented reality technology can be a bit geeky, but a new iPhone app called Magic Safari puts AR to nifty use in an animal-spotting game for children. Actually, augmented reality makes it sound a bit more complicated than it is: this is more about automatic photo manipulation. The idea: walk around your neighborhood (or wherever you happen to be at the time) and take photos. Magic Safari then inserts one of a range of animals for your child to 'spot'. There are horses, elephants, lions, tigers and even some dinosaurs and dragons to be found, with their locations plotted on a ...
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07.24.11The Wizard of Oz gets an Alice-style iPad book-appAlice for the iPad was the first app that really showed the potential tablets have for book-apps aimed at children. Released in the early days of the App Store, it had beautiful interactive illustrations. It's since been followed by a sequel, while its developer collaborated on the innovative Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime. Now a different developer is trying a similar idea for L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. OzBook has just been released for iPad with a £3.99 / $5.99 price, and 60 pages of text, illustrations and interactivity. It's the work of a developer called Slypot Game Studios. The illustration ...
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07.24.11Red Riding Hood goes pop-up for new iOS book-appThe problem with pop-up books, I've generally found, is that toddlers are less excited about watching the pop-up, and more interested in ripping it out and brandishing it aloft in triumph. I still feel guilty about those ten frogs at the end of 10 Tiny Tadpoles... Anyway, the idea of a virtual pop-up book-app on the iPad is thus pretty appealing: these are pictures no child will be able to ruin. One of the best examples recently is Grimm's Red Riding Hood, developed by Irish company Ideal Binary using its own technology called PopIris. It's a Universal iOS app, so also ...
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07.24.11Cars 2 gets a World Grand Prix book-app from DisneyThe new Disney/Pixar movie Cars 2 is actually getting some negative reviews, with many critics thinking it doesn't live up to its predecessor. It'd be a shame if that's true, as Pixar is usually a badge of high quality. At least the official iPhone and iPad book-app looks top-notch as usual. Cars 2 World Grand Prix Read and Race is an all-new story set in the Cars world, which sees Lightning McQueen and friends/foes racing through cities around the world. As ever with Disney's book-apps, there's a choice of voice narration or reading it yourself, as well as an auto-turning pages ...
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07.24.11Toca Robot Lab will have your kids giggling with gleeIf you haven't let your kids loose on any apps by Swedish developer Toca Boca yet, they've got a treat in store. The company is making a name for itself with some beautifully crafted 'digital toys' for children on iPhone and iPad, with Toca Robot Lab the latest to hit the App Store. Designed for kids aged three and older, the app gets them making their own robots from a selection of body parts. Take that age suggestion with a pinch of salt: the drag'n'drop controls have been no problem for my two year-old, who loves this as much as his ...
recent posts
- Jörgits is an iPad sci-fi storybook for kids about global warming
- Dot-to-Dot Adventure on iPad lets kids of all ages get puzzly
- Symmetry School iPad app teaches geometry to kids
- Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom brings Magic School to iOS
- Disney’s Perry gets new Where’s My Summer? mobile game
- Five iPad apps trying to teach programming skills to kids
- Wubbzy’s ABC Learn & Play app gets alphabetical
