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 Birds Humour

LOL. I've actually gotten pretty bored of Angry Birds as a game. Cat Physics and Where's my Water are better and more engaging IMHO.

As a phenomena, Angry Birds has been very interesting and certainly proves that first movers have a huge advantage in the app market.

Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)

Thanks to Jonathan Mak from Hong Kong, this is the most befitting logo for the man who is at the core of this blog.

As Jon Stewart puts it aptly: "We won't see the likes of him for quite some time."

When will the iPhone 4S be launched in Singapore?

The iPhone 4S will be launched in Singapore on 28 Oct 2011.

Navfone Singapore by local company AGIS: A competent offline GPS voice navigation iPhone app

Against the better known products by TomTom , Sygic and Papago, comes a fairly well-made GPS voice navigation app for the iPhone. Like its bethren, Navfone is able to operate offline since its map and POI database is included in the app. Initially, I was quite sceptical of Navfone since its user-interface is very utilitarian in its design and does not have any fanciful graphics.



However, since it is a local product, one would expect it to perform better with its search engine in terms of speed and accuracy. In this area, it does not disappoint. Navfone was able to show the correct places and map positions almost immediately after I performed searches of the following: Bird Park, 46 Lor 5 Toa Payoh, Marina Bay Financial Centre, Maju Camp, Iluma.

Searching "46 Toa Payoh Lorong 5"



Searching "Maju Camp"



In terms of features, Navfone was also quite basic but I feel that it has stayed focused on the more practical toggles such as Avoid ERP/Toll, Reroute, and Audio cue intervals of 200m, 500m and 1km. Having used the Garmin 255W previously, I can appreciate this fuss-free approach.



Again, showing off its local pedigree, Navfone is able to toggle between various audio languages such as English, Chinese, Bahasa Malay or Bahasa Indonesia.

Under Planner, besides the usual choice of routing from a start point to a destination, there is also the ability to run a simulation of the route. This is useful if you need to review your route in your office or home (without GPS coverage indoors) before setting off on your journey.



Headquartered in Singapore, AGIS was founded in 2000 and now has over 50 experts in GIS across the region, with subsidiaries in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Besides the Navfone Singapore app, it has also released apps for other areas such as Malaysia, Bali, Luzon, Cebu, Java, Vietnam and, Trindad and Tobago. There is also an App that covers both Singapore and Malaysia at $14.99, whereas the Singapore app alone will cost $9.99.



The Navfone app is fairly usable for those who value an accurate and fast search engine, and it has a basic interface that is intuitive and easily usable (due to the lack of fanciful features). The maps are less colourful and detailed than its competitors but that may not be an issue for those who merely want an accurate and responsive voice navigation aid. In addition, the appsize is at a lean 54.2Mb compared to 100-400 Mb for the other better renowned navigation apps.

Note: Version 2.0.11080 was used for this review which has Mapdata dated 8 Feb 2011. The current appstore version is Mar 24, 2011.

Marco Tempest and his Magic Trick with iPods

Marco Tempest has created a wonderful video on 'Deception' using 3 iPods. It's part magic-show, part snazzy graphics woven into a pretty well-done narrative. A neat and original magic show.

Where’s My Water by Disney Mobile: Finally a worthy successor to Angry Birds and Cut the Rope

The surprise of this September (as all of us wait eagerly for the release of iPhone 5) has to be Disney Mobile’s new Puzzle Arcade “Where’s My Water” or WMW (as I’ll refer to it). Released only recently on Sep 22nd and already topping Appstore charts, this app has managed to combine a familiar premise (Bring A to B) in the puzzle arcade genre, an intuitive interface (swiping the finger), and yet it has also introduced sufficiently new elements into the game in order to stand out from the crowd.



In addition, with its rich and cutesy graphics, immersive levels, $0.99 pricing, WMW is definitely set to become one of the all-time greats, following in the footsteps of Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and World of Goo.

The main idea is to swipe and create a tunnel, usually starting from the top of the screen, leading down to the bottom in order to allow a pool of water from the top to flow correctly into a stationary bath tub where a Crocodile (with the name Swampy) is waiting. Cut The Rope fans will be instantly familiar with the game mechanics (guiding A to reach destination B), while World Of Goo fans sense déjà vu (fluid mechanics!). WMW is slightly better designed and suited for the iPhone/iPod compared to the World Of Goo – a wonderful puzzle arcade that I didn’t find playable on anything with screen-sizes smaller than an iPad.



One of the newer game elements introduced by WMW is to have a slider on the left of the screen that increases the challenge by allowing more interesting puzzles which do not necessarily have to follow linearly from top to bottom of the screen.


Slider on the left increases the challenge!

I consider WMw’s peers to be other recent well-made releases like Feed Me Oil, Tiny Wings and Drop the Chicken. However, WMW’s game design is likely to be more enduring than all of those peers, such as Tiny Wings, which has dropped out of our collective radars very quickly when it could not hold our attention. WMW will prove to be $0.99 better value in this regard. Catch the Disney video trailer for the game below, also available on Youtube here.




Disney Mobile (formerly known as Living Mobile based in Munich as reported here) has previously developed other apps that tap on various franchises like Toystory, Baby Einstein, Thor, Cars 2, and also ones that do not, such as Tap Tap Revenge, Kick Buttowski and Jelly Car.



Disney’s acquisition of Living Mobile in 2005 has paid off and they ‘ve hit pay dirt with this one. As reported by Huffington Post here, we could see more of Swampy the Crocodile paraphernalia and Disney movie tie-ups, if WMW continues to stay Number 1 on the Top Paid list at the Appstore. Link here brings you to the WMW Appstore page.