Tag: $5.99 »

Usborne Sticker Dolly Dressing is an iPad app based on the popular Usborne Sticker Dolly Dressing books filled with stickers that one could use to decorate each page, as these books come in a wide range of themes which children enjoy, such as "wedding" or "vacation."

Here, children have the choice of five virtual dolls to dress, and five included themes, such as a wedding, disco, beach, or stable. Enjoy selecting dolls for these scenes, dressing them up with an abundant supply of clothing and shoe choices, as well as a nice selection of animal, objects and foods that one can add to further decorate these themes.

I really enjoy the look of this app as it is colorful and quite pretty visually with a lot of nice details in each of these sections, also including music or ambient sound effects that correspond with the theme in question. I know my son would have liked to interact more with the elements of this app, but I think he was confused by the differently interactive dollhouse apps that he enjoys, and kids who understand what is being offered here will truly enjoy this application.

The gameplay here is intuitive as one can easily first choose a doll to focus on, then an area to decorate with a tap. Once this is done, have fun exploring all the clothing and accessory options available. It is also really fun to see the dolls dressed up in different outfits each time one goes back to this first page to decorate a new theme, giving young sticker stylists cute fashion tips. Both parents as well as children will appreciate the selection of clothing as they are all very fun, wearable clothing ideas, some of which I would wear if they came in my size. They are in good taste and appropriate for girls to imitate, including the use of a bandeau bra for the chest area of these dolls found as one changes tops, which is also seen peeking out of some v neck choices like a tank top or camisole. I do wish, however, that the tops could be layered as a few leave the midriff exposed - not a big deal from my point-of-view, but some parents may prefer to have these pieces used as short jackets or cardigans over other tops instead of having only the option of wearing these tops alone. Also, maybe leggings of some sort could be added to layer with as well as a few of the skirt choices are perhaps a little short for some parents' tastes, but from my prospective still an appropriate length for girls to comfortably wear.

I also wish the accessories, although many fun choices are included, were also more open-ended. For example, one can only place the purses in the right hands of the dolls, to the disappointment of south-pawed players, I am sure, and the sunglasses can only be placed over one's eyes - not on the head as one may choose. Although the dragging and dropping of these clothing pieces and other choices for the most part will be easy for children to do themselves, some of the hat choices are unforgiving in terms of placement, and some kids may need to ask for adult help.

It is nice that ultimately one can have each doll within a theme, but it would be fun to have the option of having twins or other multiples possible. I do like, however, that one can re-use the clothing - good to know as I decorate the wedding theme complete with matching dresses for my bride's attendants, and I have had a lot of fun selecting different patterns and textures for my clothing choices, adding a tremendous amount of variety for children to choose from, but I would love to see these choices be extended to the shoes and hats as well.

Kids will also delight in decorating these scenes with the additional stickers that can nicely be re-used infinitely, as I filled my wedding page with birds and butterflies, but it would be nice if the clothing itself could also be used as sticker accessories to dress the mannequins found in the shopping theme.

The most important inclusion here is that one can alter the skin tone and choose the hair color of each of these dolls, creating a nice multi-ethnic experience, and I like that these dolls' de-fault skin tones also vary in terms of color and include some non-Caucasian doll choices. I do think that the scale used here to darken and lighten the complexion of these dolls could be broader in terms of color selection as there are women and girls who are naturally lighter than what is offered, and there is not a truly dark skin tone available - an option that I would expect to see from an app that is already putting itself out there in terms of providing different skin tone choices. In keeping with this issue, it would also be nice if some hair options were what one may expect for non-Caucasian hair, possibly including naturally textured, curly hair or braid choices, which is not the case as the hair choices here are of straight hair styled differently and with different hue choices.

Having said this, this app is one of the best dress-up apps I have seen, based on the sheer amount of sticker choices and lovely palette of bright colors, fun patterns to mix and match and fashionable clothing choices available. This app will appeal to both fans of these books as well as others new to this series. When I first saw the name of this app, I instantly recognized Usborne as a wonderful, prolific publisher of children's books. I hope to see more of their titles turned into applications.

The built in Voice Memos app does its best to help those who need a voice recording app. It is pretty limited in its execution, however, and frequently lacks functionality that would make it essential for the likes of journalists and voiceover artists in need of recording an audition. This is precisely where iAudition springs into action.

As the name suggests, iAudition enables users to record and edit audio files wherever they are. One of the neatest functions is the ability to send completed files as MP3s directly to anyone via email or FTP site. Such functionality immediately makes iAudition a much faster app than those that rely on a PC connection to convert and send files.

Controls are simple yet effective with the ability to record multiple takes and cut and paste segments together. It all works just right, removing all the effort for the user. There's even the ability to perform background recording sessions so that the user can read something from the iOS device while recording at the same time.

iAudition is out now priced at $5.99.

It seems like more and more people are taking self defense classes these days. It's a practical skill, sadly, but I also think some of them do it because it's a lot of work and can burn off calories and tone muscles like nobody's business. But unless someone's nine, it can be hard to make time for lessons X number of times a week. Sometimes people just can't make it to the dojo.

This is why we have Self Defense for All, courtesy of YawaraJitsu. This "interactive self-defense course" sticks to the basics with a chronicle of many different techniques to learn. Each one also includes 3D video (featuring models with MASSIVE HANDS) that can be viewed from multiple angles to help users to fully understand the motions.

I want to stress that I don't believe this app will truly teach anyone to be a self defense master. Something like that requires a senei with years of experience to point out inconsistencies in forms and other students to toss around so as to get an idea for what the moves actually feel like. But I do think it's a useful tool for students that want to keep practicing off the mat. Self Defense for All is available on the App store right now in English, Spanish and Dutch for $5.99.

American Idol has ruined the country.  Now everyone thinks they are the next Carrie Underwood, despite the fact that they have the pitch and charisma of Ben Stein.  I am guilty of the same misconception, which my fiance is more than happy to inform me of every time I start belting out a tune that far exceeds my range and register.  Thankfully someone decided to help the world learn what terrible vocalists they really are, by introducing the new app Passaggio.

In the simplest terms, the tool is designed to help you visualize the pitches that are being belted out as actual notes.  Drilling down, users will be able to glean details about their pitch and intonation, all from the easy to read interface.  Aspiring musicians should definitely give this a look before their next run by Randy Jackson and crew.  In the end it might just save you from international shame and a lifetime of potential ridicule.

Trust us, you don't want to end up like this poor guy: