Disney recently released the classic story of Dumbo as an interactive app for the iPhone and iPad. For children young and old the story of Dumbo is an endearing classic and while this interactive story book to the original story and artwork it also and features such as coloring pages, puzzles and a musical instrument in the form of a Calliope straight from the pages of the book.
The story itself is beautifully recreated in its electronic form and has well delivered audio to so that your child can listen to the story as well as read it. The pages come to life with animated action too which brings the story to life even more.
One if the most impressive features though is the ability to record your own audio of each individual page. You can do this one page at a time and when turned on the narration will be you voice and not the origami voice. This will be awesome if for any reason your going to be away from your child as this can be one way to stay close.
The three additional features are fun too. Playing the Calliope is fun and sounds very authentic. You can either freestyle or follow the tutorial to play along with the tune. The puzzle provides 3 virtual jigsaw puzzles for you to put together and each has 3 difficulty levels which increases the number of pieces in the puzzle.
Also pulling from the pictures in the book are the coloring pages. In these pages you have a paint brush, pencil and a palette of colors to color in the picture. You can save your handiwork if you want to come back to it later or email your completed masterpiece.
A nice added feature is the ability to personalize the splash screen of the app, not only with your child’s photograph but also their name which you can either type in or write in using your finger or stylus.
It’s no surprise that Disney would produce such a great app but it’s good to see it come to fruition.
This universal app cost $1.99 and is available in the App Store now, whether you are wanting to relive the story from your childhood or enjoy it with your child or grand children this app is a great way to do it.
[rating: 5/5]What we like
What to know
On Thursday, Apple announced, at a special education event in New York City that they have updated the iBooks application to iBooks 2 for iPad to accommodate interactive textbooks, something that has remained unchanged for generations. Apple is looking to redefine the usgae and distribution of textbooks and information, and is using its already available iBookStore and bracnhing out.
Introducing iBooks 2 — now with iBooks textbooks.
– Experience gorgeous Multi-Touch textbooks designed for iPad
– iBooks textbooks are filled with interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos
– Tap to dive into images with interactive captions, rotate 3D objects, swipe through image galleries, watch videos in full screen, and more
– Use a finger as a highlighter when swiping over text in a textbook
– Take advantage of Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms
– Tap glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the page
With the addition of textbooks in iBooks 2, Apple is trying to make textbooks into what the App Store is today, by increasing reliance on Apple’s services to get books and materials for students. This is very similiar to how Apple created the iTunes Store, revolutionizing music, and the App Store.
Apple is currently partnering with McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which are responsible for 90% of textbook sales in the United States. McGraw-Hill and Pearson are releasing several titles for the iPad today and will be releasing more as time progresses.
Prices of textbooks range from $14.99 or less and allow authors of the textbooks to add information as they like through their ‘iBooks Author’ app which allows users to create their own textbooks. iBooks, which caused a small stir during its introduction and is slowly picking up as a major part of Apple’s education movement.
iBooks 2 is currently available in the App Store as an update to the current application.
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I grew up with the stories of Peter Rabbit and so to see it being released on the iPad is great especially as I have my own children who I can share it with now and enjoy it vicariously through them.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit was written by Beatrix Potter and it’s been beautifully represented in this edition over 30+ fully illustrated pages with the original drawings from the book.
What is great to see in this edition of the classic tale is that additional features have been added to enhance the enjoyment of both the story and the app as a whole thanks to multiple ways of enjoying the story, a coloring book and a book shelf full of Beatrix Potter goodies that you can buy.
The story option comes in three different flavors, the first option is to simply read the book, stroking the screen from right to left turns the pages and the majority of the pages are interactive allowing you touch the screen to have the items that you touch read back to you, or in the case of birds, sing to you!
You can also have the story narrated to you which works well especially as the text appears as it’s being read aloud. The final option is a combination of both methods and is a real differentiator between this and other books on the iPad.
The ‘Buddy Edition’ in the title refers to this new feature and that can be used when the app is installed on two devices and Apple’s Game Center also installed on both devices which enables the reader to narrate the story remotely to the child. This is supposed to enable a parent to still read to their son or daughter even if they are away from home and will work across both the iPhone and iPad as it’s a universal app.
While I wasn’t able to test this out from a 1,000 miles away I was able to test it out between different rooms in our house and after the initial setup, which they do recommend that you do before you want to read for the first time, it worked flawlessly and makes this app truly unique.
The coloring book part of the app consists of 10 different images picked directly from the pages of the book and allows you to choose from a range of colored crayons and an eraser to add your own look to the pictures. You can even save or email your works of art too.
Peter Rabbit Buddy Edition for the iPhone and iPad is a great addition to your electronic library and at just $1.99 for a universal app it’s an absolute bargain.
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A Beautiful Representation of the Lewis Carroll Classic Novel!
One of the selling points of the iPad was it’s ability to act as an eReader and the iBook Store was released to sell books to be read on the iPad. While the iBook Store is packed to the virtual ceiling with books they are all static text and pictures and with the additional features that the iPad offers it’s nice when an eBook adds value to it’s pages by adding additional features.
To do this the eBook must be made available as an app and that’s exactly what Atomic Antelope has done in it’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland called ‘Alice for the iPad’ a beautifully illustrated abridged version of the Lewis Carroll classic.
The eBook starts as it means to go own with a full page illustration in it’s own unique style. Navigating from this point onwards is via arrows placed at the bottom of the screen. It would have been nice if it was possible to swipe between pages in standard eBooks but that is not the case.
Where additional life is added to this adaptation is the 20 animated pages that act like a virtual pop-up book bringing the pages to life. These pages also make use of the accelerometer too so you find yourself able to swing around the White Rabbit’s pocket watch or make Alice grow and shrink which really adds to the enjoyment of the app. It would be nice if you could also move the pictures about using gestures but that’s not the case.
Because this is an abridged version of the book it’s going to appeal more to the younger reader rather than those who know the full book already.
Despite the few flaws this is a great read for the younger reader and for those looking for an eBook that takes advantage of the iPads additional features
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $8.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Apr 12, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.0.1
Size: 26.0 MB
Language: English
Seller: Atomic Antelope
© 2010 Atomic Antelope
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.
The Duck In The Truck [rating: 5/5]
Turn your iPhone into an interactive story book!
If you are always looking for a way to entertain your kids whilst on the go, in the doctors waiting room or just something for them to do while you do your chores this is the app for you. The Duck In The Truck is a beautifully illustrated storybook by Kidztory featuring the voice of Harry Enfield and illustrated by Jez Alborough.
The interactive story is about a duck, in a truck, that gets stuck! With the help of all his other animal friends it finally gets his truck out with a few amusing situations along the way. It is a great rhyming story with some fantastic animations.
You can choose to read along yourself or let the UK comedian Harry Enfield read it for you. You tap to start the story and straight away you are greeted with a clip of upbeat bouncy music, you tap on read me and away you go to listen to the story. To turn a page you swipe the screen and it turns over. As it turns it makes the actual sound a book would when turning. Before you turn over though you might want to tap the screen a few times in different places. Each page makes different noises, quacks, ribbits, squeaks and squelches. I read my children this story and they giggled lots to these great sound effects.
The application itself is very easy to use. You just swipe each page. If you come out of the app when you launch it back up it asks you if you would like to carry on where you left off or start again. The only thing it didn’t do which I feel would benefit it was once you had started the story there was no way of going back to the main screen. You had to either flick the page back or go out of the app and then back in. It would be ideal if there was an option to stop it and start it again on what ever page you were on.
With the option to read along yourself it gives your child a chance to have a go as well. The animation is lovely to look at and proved very popular with all my children who are of different age group. So with that in mind I would recommend it for most children up to the age of around eight. Not to say that any older child wouldn’t enjoy it as I am sure they would have fun getting involved and reading it to younger brothers or sisters. It is a great story to encourage and help your children to read.
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $1.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Apr 02, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.1
Size: 23.8 MB
Language: English
Seller: Stepworks Company Limited
© 2010 by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, All rights reserved
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
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