Tag: Giggleapps »

This week at 148Apps.com, Jeff Scott took a look at the new Dexim iBlueK iPad2 Keyboard Folio Case, saying, "I must admit that I was a little disappointed overall by the iBlueK. Partially because of the 6+ month wait. While it’s a competent keyboard and a good case, it now just feels behind. The 6 months in production, after announcing it at CES, now makes it feel a bit dated. While it was innovative in January, it just feels bulky and a generation behind. Other manufacturers, led by Apple and the Smart Cover, have gone for more sleek and thin cases."

Read the full review at 148Apps.com.

Meanwhile, at sister site GiggleApps, Amy Solomon reviewed part game-turned iPhone app Spot It: Dobble. Amy writes, "This app has made me very curious about the related party game, something I will be on the lookout for when my son shows interest and aptitude for this application. Like books, I find value in both the classic presentation of a game like this as well as its application counterpart. Although far into the future, I see myself buying this card game as a standard gift in grade school if my son allows this. I highly recommend this app!"

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

Android Rundown featured an article this week on Talkbox Voice Messenger, an app that allows sharing of small voice recordings between Android and iOS users. Writer Carter Dotson says, "By holding down on the push to talk button, the user’s voice is recorded and then immediately sent to the other user in the conversation. They can then send messages back, and users can listen to the messages. The app can either play back through the loudspeaker or phone speaker by holding the phone up to the ear. Users can send more than just their voices to their friends and other TalkBox users, as they can also geotag their messages and include pictures. It’s kind of like the best walkie-talkie ever."

Read more about Talkbox Voice Messenger on Android Rundown.

Finally, 148Apps.biz writer Rob LeFebvre shared a quick overview of AppBlade, a new service for devs wishing to test their apps. Rob writes, "Typically, companies trying to deploy applications, for the iPhone especially, have to use a number of complex steps to move developed applications from the developer to testers or other enterprise users. The process can be confusing and involves many steps. AppBlade hopes to help manage this complexity from one simple, easy to use centralized location."

Read the full article on 148Apps.biz.

That's it for this week. Be sure to stop by our 148Apps lists for updates on the latest releases and more, and don't forget to check out our Twitter and Facebook streams too! See you next week.

Fierce Grey Mouse HD is a delightful interactive story about a grey mouse who wants to be fierce like a wild animal. It is simply delightful to watch this mouse practice his fierceness – the roaring, and the pouncing, along with the exercising and healthy eating habits that it takes to grow big and strong. The only pitfall is that all grand, fierce gestures have scared his friends, and now there is nobody to play with. Rest assured; all ends well in this charming story that kids will enjoy, and maybe even relate to. Versions are available for both iPhone as well as iPad.

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

This Too Shall Pass is a very unique and special storybook application with versions available for both iPad as well as iPhone. This tale, based on a traditional proverb of the same name and also part of the “Classic World Tales” series by the developers at Moving Tales, is excellent. Languages include Spanish, French, as well as English, and are great for bilingual families as it is

intriguing how one can select a language mid-story if one chooses, and one can make his own recording as well.

Said to be inspired by Persian, Buddhist, and Jewish sources, this is a story of a kind, yet disillusioned king who searches for words of wisdom that can relieve him of his melancholy, as he worries that his state of mind may dampen the mood of his kingdom.

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

This week, July 25-29, the freemium/free to play revolution continued as Carter Dotson explored the recent decrease in premium game revenue on the App Store. Dotson writes, "Not only are free to play games now becoming the biggest source of revenue for games on the App Store, they’re also potentially more open for competition. The top 10 publishers of free games account for 27% of the total downloads of the top 300 free games, versus the top 10 publishers of the top 300 paid games generating 54% of those downloads, and one of those publishers is one-man developer Andreas Illiger of Tiny Wings fame.

Read the full story here.

Over at 148apps.biz, Sharon L. Cohen explored app developer's needs for solid, substantive analytics, and suggested Chomp as a good source: "The latest Chomp stats...provide continued insights into the way that users are searching for apps. Previously, 148apps.biz reported that fewer and fewer queries are for specific app names: For every one hundred searches, only nine were for the name of an application. This statistic flopped in May. 'Compared to April, the ratio of non-app name versus name queries shifted 9% in favor of name searches.' Ah, the fickleness of users. The moral of this story is continue to place an emphasis on key words and search engine optimization including brand promotion. In other words, cover all your bases."

Read the full story at 148Apps.biz.

GiggleApps reviewed Creative Genius on the Go, an app designed to stretch kids' imaginations, even as they are trapped in the back seat during long trips: "This app offers 150 different scenarios for everyone to consider: 50 'What Ifs?' that prompt the players to describe how the impossible may be possible; 50 'Imagine That,' which are mind-stretching challenges for boosting brainpower and relieving boredom and screams from the back seat, and 50 'Wack-tivities,' or silly diversions for when everyone is tired and can’t wait to stop at a hotel and get something to eat."

Divert yourself to the GiggleApps review for the full story.

That's it for this week! Be sure to stop by our Top 148 Lists page to view the latest price drops as well as the top free and paid apps and games. See you next Saturday.

Toca Boca Robot Lab is the new and original universal app and “digital toy” that kids of all ages as well as parents will enjoy.

This new Toca Boca app allows players to create their own robot from a series of creative and interesting scrap pieces or metal and other industrial materials. Although many pieces are ultimately available to choose from, kids will have a choice of three head, body, and leg selections each session, as well as left and right arms, mixing or matching, or however the player chooses.

I really enjoy that the robot lab building area takes place in a corrugated box, and that the robot pieces to choose from are recycled bits from other machines that adults will be familiar with, such as old radios, coffee machines, sinks, the electronic eye from a surveillance camera or incandescent bulb, giving the players a way of viewing these bits of scrap in a new way, transforming them into pieces of a new robot.

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

This week, July 18-22, 148Apps took a bold new step by acknowledging the changing landscape of iOS gaming and reviewing so-called "freemium" and ad-supported games. Though these new terms for games are sometimes used interchangeably, Rob LeFebvre writes, "We had to make sure that all of our writers were approaching these games from the same angle. Let’s face it, all free games are not created equal. So we created a short term list for our writers, to help us all get on the same page when talking about them."

Read more about this new glossary-in-progress here.

Over on sister site Giggleapps, reviews included the oddly-named but strangely compelling Presidents Vs. Aliens, where children are rewarded for knowing various facts about America's presidents by being allowed to "fling a president’s head at these invaders, trying to knock as many down as possible." Given the never-ending debate over the debt ceiling that is currently raging in Washington, a game like this sounds like a good stress reliever for politicians and non-politicians alike.

Read the full review on GiggleApps.

148Apps.biz writer Sharon L. Cohen reported on the growing consumer hunger for more apps on Apple's iOS behemoth. She states, "The typical user will download 83 apps this year compared to 51 in 2010. That’s a whopping 61 percent increase in one year." iOS users are also showing a willingness to pay more for apps, a trend developers will surely want to keep a close eye on.

Read Sharon's full report on 148Apps.biz.

Finally, our 148Apps lists showed that Angry Birds continued its unrivaled dominance in both the paid games and paid apps categories of Apple's App Store, while Scrabble was still top of the heap when it came to top all-time iPhone apps.

That's it for this week. Check out our full page of lists and our ongoing community conversations on Twitter and Facebook.

Wee World (weeworld.com) is an online social networking site and virtual world for teens and tweens that utilizes self-created avatars. Players can perform a variety of virtual activities, including finding and chatting with friends, playing games, spending money on products and services related to their avatar, and being marketed to. The site professes to restrict registration to those 13 years and older.

The WeeMee iPhone app is NOT an online companion to the social networking site; it is simply an avatar creator. The avatars can be assigned to contacts, saved, and shared on Facebook and Twitter. The avatars bear a resemblance in size and proportion to South Park figures. Users can start from scratch or can edit pre-fabbed WeeMee’s, tweaking hair, skin color, face shape, eye color, hair style, facial hair, eyeglasses, hatwear, clothing,food, hobby, and environment.

Continue Reading WeeMee Avatar Creator on GiggleApps.com

It's become pretty evident to us that the iPhone / iPod Touch is the next big educational learning tool. If you've ever seen a 2-4 year old pick up one of their parents devices, swipe it to unlock, and then easily navigate to their favorite apps, you understand. Kids just seem to take to the device so quickly and so easily. It's easy touch screen and accelerometer controls just makes perfect sense to them.

It's due to that obvious affinity kids have for the device, and the need to have a site dedicated to both general and education apps for kids and parents that we've partnered with an iPhone obsessed mom to create GiggleApps.

We're going to start out pretty slow with just a few app reviews per week. But along the way we're going to do our best to get our readers input on what they want to see and help point the site in that direction. You can keep track of the new posts via Facebook, Twitter, an RSS feed, or even Email.

Keep an eye out, it's going to be fun.