charliebrown
Latest
Apple's streaming service will include new 'Peanuts' cartoons
Apple's plans for streaming animated shows won't be limited to completely new properties. The tech firm has struck a deal with DHX Media to produce original shows (including shorts and specials) based on Charles Schultz's classic Peanuts comics and cartoons. While it's not clear exactly what Apple will offer, the arrangement will include Apple-exclusive STEM shorts starring astronaut Snoopy. It's safe to say that you'll see plenty of Charlie Brown and other cast members, too.
Daily iPad App: A Charlie Brown Christmas
Forty-six years after it debuted on prime-time television, the beloved Christmas classic A Charlie Brown Christmas comes to a new medium -- the iPad. But instead of simply releasing it as a downloadable video, the A Charlie Brown Christmas app turns the story of an incredibly depressed child (yeah, you Charlie Brown) into a wonderful animated storybook that is sure to delight a whole new generation of children. The developers at Loud Crow Interactive who designed the app deserve high praise. I'm in my 30s and still the app has managed to keep me enthralled. The A Charlie Brown Christmas app features the original music and voices from the television special, plus read-along narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown. The book itself is made up of twenty beautifully rendered pages, each depicting a scene from the show. But what's really cool about this app is the interactivity. Children both young and old can tap on any word to hear it pronounced. Every page features elements that can be interacted with, whether is changing the sign on Lucy's doctor stand, playing Schroder's piano or popping snowflakes. I showed the app to my one year-old nice this past Thanksgiving and even at her age she had a blast tapping the characters, making them sing, ice skate and dance. A Charlie Brown Christmas is actually a universal app, so its compatible with the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. In my opinion, the smaller screens don't do the app justice. You really need to use it on the iPad to get the full experience. A Charlie Brown Christmas is available in the App Store for US$6.99. %Gallery-140325%
Epson's Peanuts laptop surfaces just in time
Really, what would the week before the new year be without a half-hour of Charlie Brown in all of its grainy glory? Right on cue, Epson has unveiled a Peanuts-themed laptop that should fit the bill if you weren't really feelin' its Hello Kitty variants. The machine checks in with a 15-inch display, a 1.73GHz Intel Celeron M430 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, an 80GB hard drive, four USB ports and a DVD combo drive. As if those partial specs weren't enough to satisfy, you can also count on a number of Snoopy themes being bundled in to clog up your system resources. 'Course, you'll be paying an absolutely insane amount for the privilege of owning one -- and just think, your $2,799.99 still can't get it here any quicker than January.[Via ChipChick]
