Top 10 Educational Apps for Toddlers and Pre-schoolers

1. iPlay&Sing

 Category: Learning Music
 User Ratings : 4 stars out of 5
 iPhone App, Free
 Developer: Penrillian

Description: App uses an onscreen piano with keys highlighted in sequence for the child to tap out familiar nursery tunes. It is kind of like a really slow-paced Guitar Hero, with a piano, and no scoring.


2. Baa Baa
 Category: Learning about Shapes, Colours and Words
 User Ratings: 4 stars out of 5
 iPhone App, $1.99
 Developer: Duck Duck Moose

Description: Child can drag and drop various shapes into their matching slots. Most of us probably have come across these shape toys, usually made out of wood. Now we don’t have to find them strewn everywhere with this app.


3. SingSing ABC
 Category: Animated Flash Cards
 User Ratings: 3 stars out of 5
 iPhone App, $0.99
 Developer: Ninewheels Co Ltd

This category of apps is the ‘low hanging fruit’ of educational apps for toddlers. Relatively easy to develop because the concept is straightforward – take the traditional flash card-based learning system, add in snazzy graphics (sometimes animated but not in this app), put up on the appstore, repeat.
Again, another useful app that will save parents time and effort from picking up cards strewn all over the floor.


4. Word Magic
 Category: Learning 1st Words
 User Ratings: 4 stars out of 5
 Universal App, $0.99
 Developer: Anusen Inc

Description: This is Hangman for toddlers with only 1 or 2 missing alphabets. And since it is for toddlers, you get the picture clue as well. Toddlers are really excited about this one.

5. Bob Books Reading Magic #2, Bob Books Reading Magic #2 HD
 Category: Learning 1st Words
 User Ratings: 4 stars out of 5
 iPhone, $1.99; iPad, $3.99.
 Developer: Closure Associates

Description: This is tougher than Word Magic. The kid will have to assemble whole words from the jumbled-up alphabets. Parents will be pretty excited when their kids unexpectedly complete their first difficult word, words like 'iphone'.


6. Shape Builder
 Category: Learning about Shapes
 User Ratings: 4 stars out of 5
 iPhone, $0.99.
 Developer: Darren Murtha Design

Description: Drag and drop shapes into matching slots. This is one of the early educational apps that have been in the appstore since 2009. Probably one of the first apps that kids would be interested in.


7. I Write Words
 Category: Tracing Alphabets
 User Ratings: 4 stars out of 5
 Universal App, $2.99.
 Developer: gdiplus

Description: Tracing alphabets and numbers onscreen is another concept that is tailor-made for iPhones and iPads. Also available in Spanish and French.


8. Teach Me 1st Grade or Teach Me Kindergarten or Teach Me Toddler
 Category: Learning about Addition, Subtraction and Spelling.
 User Ratings: 4 stars out of 5
 Universal App, $0.99.
 Developer: 24x7 DigitalLLC

Description: This app allows several kids to create their own accounts within the same app so that they can complete the lessons at their own pace. It is in the Question-Answer learning format and covers Addition, Subtraction and Spelling. For older preschoolers who can read.


9. Fish School
 Category: Animated Flash Cards for Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes and Colours.
 User Ratings: 3.5 stars out of 5
 iPhone or iPad, $1.99
 Developer: Duck Duck Moose

Description: Schools of fish swim in tight formations that look like Alphabets, Numbers, Shapes. Sometimes all of them have the same colour. You get the idea.


10. 123 Kids Fun Games
 Category: Animated Flash Cards for Alphabet, Sounds, Numbers, Animals.
 User Ratings: 3 stars out of 5
 Universal App, $2.99.
 Developer: RosMedia

Description: Another app that uses animated flash cards for learning. Probably needs a better app name rather than one that is made for search engines.

Angry Sperms: For play and not an Angry Birds clone

There must be an Appstore 101 rule somewhere that says: Thou shall not name your apps to resemble a highly successful app, because it will be highly suspect. In the case of Angry Sperms, the tongue in cheek reference to Angry Birds is therefore quite unfortunate, because I actually think that the game play is rather innovative and cute, and the app quality is not bad. At $0.99 without a free lite version, most people would be hard-pressed to justify downloading this game, thinking that it would turn out to be a lemon. So let me tell you more about Angry Sperms.



Imagine if you are an Ovum (from the latin word for ‘egg’). Now imagine billions of sperm swimming towards you, trying to penetrate your outer shell in order to fertilise the ovum (aka You). Then imagine that you (as the Ovum) are able to dodge incoming sperm by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch (and in turn moving the Ovum). If you happen to have any sperm latching onto you, you can get rid of them quickly by shaking your iPhone or iPod Touch. The game ends if you do not shake off the sperms in time!



Now that you know how the gameplay is like, can you think of a better app name for Angry Sperms? How about Dodgy Egg?

(Warning: you must be above 17 to download this app!)

The developer of Angry Sperms is based in Seoul, Korea. They seem to be a pretty new set-up, not having had many other apps in the market yet. Their facebook and twitter presence is also very new (Facebook page over here).

The only other game that Sidemaster has developed is Galaxy X, another very unoriginal sounding app name (think "Samsung Galaxy __" )

Gameloft announces surprise sale starting from Feb 24th: 30 apps for $0.99 each.

Gameloft has just blogged about their surprise app sales (grab them while you can!) starting yesterday (Feb 24th). Their blog post is over here.



Now, Gameloft has always produced high quality games and there’s a little rivalry going on between them and EA so this announcement is to be expected given that EA recently had a sale.

The list of Gameloft offers on sale for the iphone is pretty cool and I am sure there is something for everyone. Again, it is for ‘a limited period only’. There’s also quite a few apps for the Ipad that you might want to pick up. My top picks would be: Real Football 2011 (that’s soccer), Star Battalion, NOVA, NOVA 2 HD, Dungeon Hunter HD.

I’ll end this post here so that you can go over to the Itunes store now..:)

iDos Emulator gets pulled a second time from the Appstore

I’ve had wonderful memories when as a kid, I spent several blissful years with my IBM PC XT clone experimenting with Dos programming and played cutting edge games like Ultima IV , Wizardry, Autoduel and Star Control.


(screenshot of Ultima IV taken from abandonia.com)

The iDOS emulator ported by Fast Intelligence was able to deliver an unmatched wave of nostalgia and within a day of installing iDOS on my Ipad, I was trying out some of these classics again – mostly just to see them again in all their glory - 256 VGA colour and adlib sound. There wasn’t even a need to jailbreak to get the programs to work.



iDOS 2.0.1 re-appeared on the Appstore as a free app after first appearing on 26th Oct as iDOS 1 (price $0.99) which got pulled within a day for not meeting App policy requirements. Sad to say, history repeated itself and iDOS 2.0.1 disappeared just as quickly.

To the amazing folks at Fast Intelligence, I just have this to say:

Thank you for creating this emulator. It shall be on my Ipad for a very long time.

To those who decided to pull it:

We are a small and endangered breed, those of us who were fortunate to see the birth of the gaming industry through Dos. You were never there and if you were, you never understood.

Aftermath of Skype-Fring Split: Comparison of Int’l Calling Rates to Mobile lines

(Blogpost also appeared on my Blog for Iphonelife.com)

In the aftermath of the Skype-Fring split in July last year, Skype has finally caught up with Fring’s smartphone video-call capability by introducing its own. Since Skype has a larger user-base given that it also has software for PC and Mac while Fring is only available for smartphones, Skype clearly has the upperhand now and will probably grow its market share at the expense of alternative VoIP providers like Google Voice and Fring, even though some skeptics may say that the video call feature isn't necessarily a key feature at this point in time. (Picture taken from article on connectedphone.com)

Skype has disclosed that it reached 560 million users in June 2010 with a revenue of $406.2 million in the first six months of 2010. Fring on the other hand, has a user base of an order of magnitude smaller, estimated to be in the tens of millions. However, there is clearly room for alternatives to Skype even without considering the importance of video calling to the mass market given that international call rates to mobile lines are still relatively pricey on Skype:



Note: This list was compiled on 5th Jan 2011 based on posted rates on the Skype and Fring sites which may change at short/without notice. Check out the latest Fring rates here and Skype rates here.

*Skype rates are based on the non-subscription Pay-as-you-go rates including VAT, and excludes any connection fee charges that are not listed.

Updated Top 10 App List for Ipad & Iphone 4 (Jan 2011)

Updated Top 10 App List (Jan 2011)
My Top 10 Ipad app list:
1. Cut The Ropes HD
2. Kindle HD
3. Stanza (for reading .cbr files, that's comics!)
4. AirAttack
5. AppsFire
6. Scrabble
7. Skype
8. Perfect Browser
9. Pleco (chinese dictionary)
10. Broken Sword: Director's Cut

My Top 10 Iphone 4 app list:
1. Kindle
2. Ibooks
3. ComicGlass
4. Veggie Samurai
5. Soundhound
6. Nightstand
7. Skype
8. Facebook
9. Straitstimes
10. Google Apps

Ipad vs Tab: Asian price wars set to spread to North America and perhaps, Europe

Over here in Asia, the competition posed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab and others have prompted rumors that Apple is considering slashing prices in some countries here in Asia. It therefore would be perfectly logical for Apple to make a similar move in North America where I understand that the Tab could be offered at US$400 with a data contract while the cheapest Ipad is still priced at $499 from the Apple store.

Samsung is aggressively entering the tablet market and in some markets such as Singapore, some telcos are even giving away the Tab for free if it is bundled with a new cable tv + internet subscription.

Given that Apple could soon launch their new iOS4.2, it will make sense for Apple to announce an across the board price drop of US100 in conjunction with the launch, and allow them to keep up the pressure on competitors. This will make up for their recent underwhelming Beatles-Itunes announcement.

Ipad vs Tab: How not to name your Home/Start Button in Romanian

We all know that the closest competitor to the Ipad is the Samsung Galaxy Tab (or just, "Tab"). We also know that to "Start" something in Romanian is to "Porni", so....check out what happens to the Home Button in Romanian when it gets truncated by the Tab. :) I don't know whether this is a photoshop job but it was reported here at huffingtonpost.com and elsewhere too.
Round 1: Ipad 1-0 Tab

Finally an Ipad competitor from Samsung

Finally Samsung has developed an Android based 7" tablet called Galaxy Tab. It's smaller than the Ipad and comes with a USB port and front-rear cameras. Hmmmm i might just get it and pass my Ipad to my kids!


Check out a picture of the Galaxy Tab and the original link here from Slashgear.com.

Attended Ipad workshop at Apple Retail Store

The Apple Store is the one at Cambridgeside Galleria (It's like Woodlands Causeway Point packed with the type of stores you find at VivoCity).

I had made an online reservation to attend an Ipad Business workshop from 0900hrs to 1000hrs. Having little experience with Mac software, I wanted to find out more about whether it was worthwhile to download Pages, Keynote and Numbers for my Ipad. Each of them cost $9.99 at the App Store.




Its storefront is totally dominated by Ipad advertising. They are using a Vulcan (Zachary Quinto of the new Star Trek) to sell the product so I guess the Ipad is out-of-this-world :)

I was quite impressed by Keynote more than the other two apps. I've been using Powerpoint for years and it's refreshing to see new transition effects, templates, layouts and font type. Keynote is way cooler if you want to make your presentation stand out from your windows brethren. I could get these apps once I rejoin the workforce and have a better idea what I'll be doing.

However, what has impressed me for some time and I took the opportunity to explore here was the Credit Card Processing capabilities of the Iphone and Ipad.

The cool credit card swipe system used by Apple retail store staff is proprietary but the viable corporate option for SMEs/SMBs (that's Small & Medium Enterprises or Businesses) is to use Square (Free) or Payware (US150). Both systems sell a small credit card scanner that can be snapped onto the Iphone. There are no leasing fees for the scanner but they charge on a per-transaction basis. These are good solutions that can generate cost-savings for retailers with low to medium volume of transactions. Useful to know alternatives to the traditional point-of-sale registers for any start-ups that I might want to set-up in future :)

Read about Square here.

& Payware's website is here.

How did I get my Ipad?

In the US, it's really between ordering online from apple.com or going down to an apple store to shop for one. In my case, it was the mall because I wanted to be able to return the Ipad to the store if there were any problems with it, and not have to go through with returns over the post.

But I had to call the retail store ahead of time and be put on a wait list.

Your iPad will be here before you know it. Keep an eye out for an email from us letting you know it's ready to pick up. When you come in, we'll have Specialists ready to help you set up your iPad so you can start enjoying it right away. We look forward to seeing you at the store.

Sincerely,
The Apple Retail Store team

Requested Item(s)
1 iPad Wi-Fi 32GB

 $599.00

And I received a notification a few days later:

The iPad you've been waiting for has arrived, and it's ready for you to pick up. When you come in, we'll have Specialists ready to help you set up your iPad so you can start enjoying it right away. We can't wait to see you at the store.
Sincerely,
The Apple Retail Store team
Reservation Expires
Tuesday, May 18
Pickup Location
Apple Store, CambridgeSide

And voila, I joined the elite group of Singaporeans who now own a ginormous Ipod Touch!