Tag: Holiday »

PBS Kids recently ran a survey on parents and posted results that show that 54% of them plan on purchasing a tech item for their child this holiday season. And that number increases to 59% for the more tech-savvy parents ages 18-34. Tablets are listed as the hot item at the top of the list and they beat-out video game consoles 28% to 18%. The study of over 1,000 surveyed parents with kids between the ages of 2 and 10 also lists that 36% of parents plan to purchase either a tablet or smartphone.

The survey also shows that 77% of parents plan to purchase educational apps for their children as 90% of them stat that educational apps will play an important role in their child's education.

“There’s a vast and ever-growing population of young children who have ready access to mobile media and, as many parents recognize, that presents an important opportunity to utilize tablets and smartphones to advance children’s learning,” said Lesli Rotenberg, GM of Children’s Programming at PBS, in a press release. “It’s essential that parents think through what kind of apps, online games and video content they make available to their kids. This is one important reason why PBS KIDS has been so innovative in making sure our high-quality, research-based educational content is available across digital platforms to provide a deeper learning experience for today’s learners.”

Other Key PBS KIDS Parent Survey Findings
•Six in 10 parents collaborate with their child to select apps, while a third of parents say they make the choice themselves.
•When selecting games and apps for their children, over half of parents (56%) base their decisions on age recommendations.
•In addition to educational content, 56% of parents pointed to price and 45% cited characters their kids know and love as important factors when choosing apps.

Good Grief! The Peanuts gang is back this holiday season with a brand new interactive and remastered 40th Anniversary edition of their classic adventure.

This digital book offers three different modes for readers to enjoy: Autoplay, Read to Me, and Read to Myself. Complete with dialogue, music, and sound effects from the original animated special from 1973. Heck, the story itself is even narrated by Linus van Pelt himself, Stephen Shea! On top of that, every page is interactive in some way and incorporates touch, tilt, or slide functions to pull you into the story.

'Twas the week before Christmas, and as everyone knows, Jeff Scott listed sale apps and watched that list grow: "As another year draws to a close, millions of people will find iOS devices and iTunes gift cards waiting for them under the tree. That means lots of people looking for apps and games to download and that means it’s time for a HUGE sale. This year does not disappoint with tons of apps and games on sale and a ton going free for Christmas week.

If you enjoy this list, feel free to tweet or share this post on Facebook.

Here are our picks from the best of the best apps and games on sale. And as a reminder, you can always find the latest apps and games on sale at our iOS Price Drops page."

Read the full list at 148Apps.com.

Then away to GiggleApps we ran with a dash, and checked in with Amy Solomon, who had this news flash: "The Night Before Christmas presented by One Hundred Robots is a personal favorite retelling of the classic holiday story of the same name.

If one were to check iTunes, one could find multiple apps adapting this traditional Christmas story, and this app is a top choice of mine for a few reasons.

Although I am not always a fan of computer generated animation, especially when it boasts a 3D effect.
I do, however, love the bright, colorful and wonderfully stylized look of this computer-generated app, with interesting photographic elements and textures along with a 3D look for a very interesting visual experience. There is a wonderful use of perspective, and the placement of that would be the camera if one were shooting live action as well, as quick camera movements highlights the benefits of working with computer graphics."

Read Amy's full review at GiggleApps.com.

Then at last we arrived at AndroidRundown, to see what was new in KickStarter-town: "Stands for smartphones are a very usual kickstarted project because they are all generally very simple and relatively cheap to make. We have done a few here for this blog post, and I was trying to stay away from them, but after seeing the crazy look of this week’s KickStarter Spotlight project I had to do it. This week I am showing off Simply Amplified’s Symphony Shells. They are 3-D printed phone stands that are shaped like real-life oceanic shells. They come in three separate forms, the urchin; small and spiked, the murex; arched and pointy, and the nautilus; square and twisting. All can be done in a very colorful and ornate tie-dye pattern or simply come in a solid or di-chromatic color scheme. My initial favorite is the nautilus simply because of its epic size and crazy spiky, square spiral. These really are very beautiful designs and any of them would display a smartphone with style and aplomb."

Read more about Symphony Shells at AndroidRundown.com.

So rest and relax, and don't even flitter - you can always find us on Facebook and Twitter. And when you wake from your drowse and your long Christmas naps, don't forget to check in with 148Apps.

As we mentioned a few days ago, Disney Mobile's Where's My Holiday? has now been released. A free cross over app melding elements and characters from Where's My Water? and Where's My Perry?, Where's My Holiday? brings 12 holiday themed levels to play.

Be warned, it is indeed the end of the calendar year, and as such, you're going to see a metric tonne of "holiday-themed" updates to your favorite games on iOS before the New Year. The latest update is to EA's The Simpsons: Tapped Out.

You can fill your virtual Springfield with new limited-edition characters, quests, buildings, jobs, holidays decorations, buildings, and trees, along with holiday-themed content like Santa Homer, Santa's Village, and (natch) Santa's Little Helper.

NEW FEATURES:
· New Characters – Go on a binge with Barney, blast Sideshow Mel from a cannon, and have Santa Homer endure whiny kids' wishes. And it wouldn't be Christmas without Santa's Little Helper!
· New Buildings – Steal a copy of Bonestorm from the Try-N-Save, roll a strike at the Bowl-a-rama, and feed the reindeer at Santa's Village.
· Put Up Lights & Decorations – Decorate Springfield with a Holiday tree or light adornments for all the homes around town.
· Santa Coins – Players can perform holiday jobs and collect Santa Coins that can be used to unlock unique prizes.

This week at 148Apps.com, we got into the holiday spirit with a review of a gadget that might be on many people's wish lists this year - the iRig Keyboard. Site editor Rob LeFebvre writes, "IK Multimedia might be trying to take over the music peripheral world. The company has a wide range of apps, instruments, and support items that could, in theory, be used to build a band entirely out of iOS instruments. The latest offering from this prolific manufacturer is titled iRig Keys, a super portable iOS keyboard with 37 velocity-sensitive keys, modulation and pitch wheels, low power consumption, and core MIDI compliance. The iRig is aimed at the portable musician, the composer on the go, the backpack virtuoso, and as such, it succeeds brilliantly."

Think you might ask Santa for this? Check out Rob's full review at 148Apps.

The upcoming holidays were also on our minds at GiggleApps.com, as Amy Solomon reviewed Ice is Nice: All About the North and South Poles. Amy says, "As the name may suggest, Ice Is Nice does indeed give a lot of great information about the earth’s North and South Poles, as well as animals found in these areas that children and their adults will enjoy a great deal.

As with the other titles from this series, go on an adventure with The Cat in the Hat, Dick and Sally as well as Thing One and Thing Two, who are all here to learn such topics as the harsh temperatures found at the Poles or why there are six months of darkness or perpetual sun."

Learn more about the poles in Amy's review on GiggleApps.

Finally, 148Apps.biz writer Carter Dotson explored the improvements made in Tapjoy's latest SDK: "Mobile advertising service Tapjoy has announced version 9.0 of their SDK for iOS and Android. The purpose of this update is meant to expand out and improve their current set of features to improve user engagement with their ads, and to integrate daily rewards, a popular feature that developers can now easily implement. These are meant to provide advertisers ways to developer targeted ads in a better way, and for developers to generate revenue even from non-paying users through incentivized ad viewing, service signups, and app installs."

Want more info? Read all about it at 148Apps.biz.

And that sets us up for a week of pre-Thanksgiving hysteria here in the States. Join us on Twitter and Facebook to keep track of holiday app sales, news and reviews across all of our sites...and do yourself a favor and start thawing that turkey now.

While all the little kiddies are out gathering candy - assuming they aren’t out on the East Coast because that would be fairly dangerous given the current circumstances - it can be tough figuring out what the rest of us can do with our time. Sure there might be the odd Halloween party and there’s always sitting around waiting for trick-or-treaters. But what’s a person to do with their downtime? Why not take to the App Store and sample a bunch of new Halloween content that’s just been added to a number of DeNA titles?

Blood Brothers - The most recent “gather creatures and strengthen/evolve them” game to come from Mobage is having a special Grave of Kings event. Players can nab some event-only familiars (complete with jack-o-lantern masks) until November 1st. Or until the special raid boss event ends. Which will also be on November 1st. So yeah.

Deity Wars - Starting now and continuing through October 31st players will be able to participate in a special live event to try and earn both rare cards and the expected Halloween-themed in-game items. Nothing like mixing a few ghosts and goblins with gods, right?

Fantasica - Guard your dreams! A bunch of Halloween nightmares have been let loose and players must band together to fight them off. The special event runs through the 31st and will give us all the chance to win some special loot and cards. I feel like I should reinstall this just so I can ogle the new characters because I love the artwork so much.

Kingdom Wars! - Get your hands on some limited time Halloween Edition Dungeon card packs and hopefully bring a ghost, witch, or other nightmarish monstrosity into the ranks. “Mwahahahahaha!!!” and all that.

My Monster Rancher - Rather than focusing on special event monsters (although there are those, too), My Monster Rancher is tossing lots of special prizes and costume items into the pot cauldron. Witch hats, pumpkin heads, and more await!

Ninja Royale - This Halloween a bunch of vampires chose the wrong ninja to try and snack on. In addition to the special themed drops a special jack-o-lantern clan, CARVER, has been added. Seriously though, of all the human prey to hunt why would vampires want to go after a ninja?

Pocket Planes - We’re all familiar with ferrying bitizens back and forth to earn some cash. We’re also accustomed to hauling a bunch of the little pixel people and their gear to special destinations for specific purposes. Now we can fly lots of ghouls, candy, and whatnot around until the 31st. Let’s make sure these bitizens have a Halloween they’ll never forget!

Rage of Bahamut - Granted I’m used to special events in this CCG but I’ve yet to take part in any that were holiday themed. This time it’s going to be the Manor of Illusions, complete with plenty of special items and cards to earn. I suppose it’s time to start stockpiling more cure waters.

Tiny Tower - Not even Tiny Tower is safe from the horrible spirits roaming the App Store. Granted the ghostly costumes have been available for bitizens to wear for quite some time but now there’s a special Halloweed-themed mission to complete. And you can dress them up and start haunting your tower’s floors now through the end of the month.

This week at 148Apps.com, we celebrated the coming Memorial Day holiday with a closer look and an ever-growing list of apps on sale. Site editor Rob LeFebvre writes, "So, it’s that time of year again! BBQs, lawn chairs, beer, and the ability to finally wear shorts with sandals without fear of frostbite. Tan those legs and check out all the huge sales that are going on across the App Store below. We’ll try and keep it updated as we go this weekend, so be sure to let us know of any good sales on iOS apps..."

Read the full list at 148Apps.com.

At GiggleApps, writer Amy Solomon reviewed The First Million-Teach Your Child to Read. Solomon says, "The First Million is a lovely universal “mix and match” book application that adults and children will find interesting as well as intuitive as here, as the pages of this book are split into three sections – each being able to be flipped back and forth to create new and intriguing illustrations and word combinations. Unlike other “mix and match” books where one can look for the corresponding thirds of the same image to make a match, this app is completely open-ended with no right or wrong matches to be made, giving children free range to produce any and all combinations they may fancy."

Read Amy's full review on GiggleApps.com.

Finally, 148Apps.biz writer Kevin Stout reported on Disney's push into Angry Birds territory. Stout writes, "Intensely popular Disney game, Where’s My Water?, will be receiving its first line of merchandise based on the game. The physics-based puzzler by Disney has been popular on both iOS and Android. Fans of the popular game can now buy all kinds of merchandise featuring the story’s character, Swampy the Alligator."

Read more about Swampy's foray into stores at 148Apps.biz.

That's it for us - and we're one week closer to summer! Remember to follow us on Facebook or Twitter to get all of the latest updates all during the week. See you next time, Marvel Zombies!

Cinco de Mayo, the celebration of the Mexican victory over the French in the 1860s, has increasingly become a celebration in America as well as Mexico. Check out our favorite four for celebrating Cinco de Mayo including apps on food, dancing, and history.

Rick Bayless: Mexican Essentials
Good Mexican food is the first thing that comes to mind for Cinco de Mayo. I remember sneaking into Spanish class one year in high school on May 5th to steal some food (I was in French). Rick Bayless: Mexican Essentials is a cookbook app that also contains instructional videos by award-winning chef and Mexican cuisine master, Rick Bayless. The app not only contains Rick’s 35 essential Mexican recipes, but also 40 videos on his tricks and techniques, 32 key ingredients with advice on how to buy and use them, a shopping list aggregator, and social media sharing. I think I’m going to give the Tortilla Soup a try this year.

Salsa Fresca HD
Keeping up with the food theme, what’s Cinco de Mayo without some good salsa? Salsa Fresca HD is an iPad cookbook with various recipes for salsa. There are all kinds of salsa types included in the app like tomato, corn, bean, and more. Each salsa recipe is accompanied by a picture and suggested “good with” ideas. It even contains tips and tricks on how to perform various salsa-related tasks like roasting tomatoes and rehydrating chiles.

Pocket Salsa
Another salsa app? Not quite. We’re still on salsa, but this time we’re talking about dancing. There are Cinco de Mayo celebrations all over the world and most consist of dancing as well as food. Pocket Salsa is a portable salsa instructor. For partiers looking to learn to salsa dance before their favorite Cinco de Mayo celebration, this app includes 150 video salsa lessons, salsa rhythms, a salsa podcast, and even more videos through in-app purchases. The app even has AirPlay support to watch the lessons right on a TV.

Cinco de Mayo: The Battle of Puebla
It can’t hurt to brush up on the history of Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo: The Battle of Puebla provides users with a detailed video on both the Battle of Puebla, the military victory that led to the traditional celebration on May 5th, and the history of the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The videos include accompanying text for users impatient users that want to read ahead. The app also includes two games, a quiz and a paint game, that can be unlocked for an in-app purchase of $0.99. But the app is free and so are both videos.

The top gift on most holiday lists this year is undoubtedly a new iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. To celebrate, Disney Mobile's very popular rhythm music game Tap Tap Revenge is running its biggest holiday deal yet. Leading up to New Year’s Eve, Tap Tap Revenge is giving away a song a day, including a few holiday favorites, Grammy nominations, and hit singles from the world’s biggest music acts, including Cold Play, who's hit new song "Hurts Like Heaven" is Sunday's free track. Lady Gaga's “Marry The Night” was Thursday's free track.

As for holiday cheer, they're also giving away Bootsy Collins & Snoop Dogg’s “Happy Holidaze 2012” on December 26. Other hit songs being given away for free in the holiday promotion include, “Feel So Close” from Calvin Harris, “Body Work” from Morgan Page (ft. Tegan & Sara) and The Band Perry’s smash hit “If I Die Young.” Other bands include Alkaline Trio, She Wants Revenge, Coleman & Chris, Ivy, Chancellor Warhol and The Outfield.

This weekend we celebrate Independence day here in the US. And as app developers tend to do, they have put a whole bunch of games and apps on sale this holiday weekend. We'll update this post regularly with the latest, so please check back.

Included below are just about every game that EA makes, a few great ones from Gameloft, a bunch more great ones from Chillingo, Com2US, Nickelodeon and many many more.

And as a reminder, you can always find the latest iOS app and game price drops at our interactive page here, via Twitter price drops, and RSS. Whew!

Update 2 - 7/4 1:30pm: Lots of great stuff including lots of free games. And a huge sale from Firemint.
Update 1 - 7/2 11:00am: Lots of stuff from Konami and a bunch of great free games added. Grab them before the prices go back up!

[appsale: 423593206,0.00,July 4th]
[appsale: 398348506,0.00,July 4th]
[appsale: 318366258,0.99,July 5th]
[appsale: 386568787,4.99,July 5th]
[appsale: 363998989,1.99,July 5th]
[appsale: 414566922,6.99,July 5th]
[appsale: 363727129,0.99,July 5th]
[appsale: 445291985,0.00]
[appsale: 438651813,0.00]
[appsale: 432878907,0.00]
[appsale: 432290484,0.00]
[appsale: 407947726,0.99]
[appsale: 406902586,0.00]

Luckily for us, developers use any excuse to put their apps on sale if they think there will be a higher than average number of people looking at the App Store. Such is the case now with the impending release of the iPhone 4 on Verizon and also with Valentine's Day rapidly approaching.

So we have a bunch of developers putting their apps and games on sale, and we get to benefit from that! Take a look below at the cream of the sale crop. There's no real defined end point for this sale, so grab them now as they could go up anytime.

Update: 2/12 10:00am, Update: 2/11 4:00pm - A few more interesting ones picked up.
Update: 2/10 1:00pm - Imangi, Snappy Touch, and DK Publications get in the giving mood and make some their apps free for a while. Grab them all, they are all great.
Update: 2/10 12:00pm - Navigon gets generous with their great GPS apps. Reducing the price by 50% for North America!
Update: 2/10 10:00am - Namco, Sega, and Disney go $0.99 crazy with a load of their games. It must be catching.
Update: 2/9, 2:00pm - Capcom jumps in as well with a whole slew of their games going for $0.99 including the just released Devil May Cry 4 Refrain.
Update: 2/8, 10:00am - And Gameloft joins in the party as well. Putting 14 of their games on sale for $0.99 until February 14th!
Update: 2/7, 2:30pm - EA is at it again. They have put the majority of their iPhone/iPod touch and a few of their iPad games on sale. We've added the best of them below. The descriptions say they are on sale for 48 hours only, I think it might be a bit longer than that, but grab them now if you missed the sale last time.
Update: 2/5, 3:00pm - Added a dozen or so more. Many football related apps on sale for the big game on Sunday (no, not Liverpool v. Chelsea).

[appsale: 415942619,0.99,?]
[appsale: 414917272,0.99,?]
[appsale: 414386092,0.99,?]
[appsale: 413423472,0.99,?]
[appsale: 413313931,0.99,?]
[appsale: 410229362,0.99,?]
[appsale: 409981427,0.99,?]
[appsale: 409361324,0.99,?]
[appsale: 409223431,FREE,?]

Hit the jump for a bunch more apps and games on sale!

148Apps is proud to announce the 2011 New User Guides, written for new users of the iOS devices that we use and love every day. The iPhone 4, the iPad, and the iPod touch each have their own slick new guide for those who may be considering getting one, who may have gotten one for the winter holidays, or who have a device and wonder just what apps to get.

These guides are chock full of information, from model and device specifications to tips, tricks, and links to manuals, videos and web-based guides. They include just tons of recommendations for apps, games, educational apps, you name it - we've written about it. Quick descriptions and pictures of each app and game are followed by links to make it easy to go grab the app you're reading about. In addition, the guides include two special sections from network sites ThePortableGamer and GiggleApps, to help you figure out which games or educational apps to get for your device.

If you have a new iPhone 4, iPod touch, or iPad this holiday season, be sure to download the guide that matches your holiday treasure. Or, better yet, tell all your friends about it and be entered to win a $50 iTunes Gift Card to help you fill up that pretty little device with apps and games. How's THAT for holiday cheer, eh? For more information about the contest, head on over to the user guide page for details.

We're proud of our guides, and we're glad to be able to get them to you. Feel free to pass along the links to the guides to all your iOS loving Facebook friends and Twitter buddies and new owners as well, since sharing is caring.

[ Download the 2011 iOS New User Guides ]

November 26 is a dangerous yet thrilling day to be an American shopper, as it marks Black Friday. As US consumers know, the day after Thanksgiving is typically when retailers offer their biggest sales and best incentives in the hope of kicking the holiday shopping season off with a bang. Further complicating an already hectic day is the fact that if you're looking to buy an iPad or iPhone for a loved one then you'd best make the Apple Store or another electronics retailer your first stop, as they're poised to go fast.

According to a survey conducted by BlackFriday.com, the iPad is the most sought after holiday gift this year, and the iPhone comes in third. That means that if you're looking to buy either item then you might want to go ahead and get in line at your local Best Buy right now, because both are likely to be sold out about ten minutes after the store opens on November 26 and then remain MIA through New Year's. The upside to all this is that the iPod Touch isn't in the top 10 list of most-wanted items (it lands at number 11), so while all the other crazed shoppers are fighting over the other iOS devices you should be able to snap up an iPod with minimal fuss.

What's most surprising about the Black Friday predictions in general is just how tech-centric they are. Every item in the top 15 is some sort of gadget or gizmo, and nearly 60 percent of survey respondents said they wanted some form of electronics as a holiday gift. In fact, tech dominates the list, with most folks saying that they want things with microchips inside them under the Christmas tree this year. And remember, this isn't some tech site running the survey, but rather a general interest website which is devoted solely to helping people find good sales. In other words, its target market is the average American consumer, and it seems that such consumers really want iPads and iPhones. Looks like Apple is shaping up to have a very happy holiday season.

[via BlackFriday.com]