childrens books
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Kindle app updates bring children's books, graphic novels and comics to iOS, Android and Cloud Reader
Put down War and Peace for just a second. If you're a Kindle user on iOS, Android or Amazon's Cloud Reader, a new update brings children's books, graphic novels and comics to your virtual library. The children's titles will support Kindle Text Pop-Up to help boost the size of the words and spare your little one's eyes. Comics, however, get the Kindle Panel View treatment -- on supported titles -- that'll keep that analog format's frame-by-frame style. An iOS-only tweak adds title- and author search of your library, plus smaller margins on the iPad. Android tablet owners and Cloud Readers, on the other hand, can now enjoy a two-page view. The updates are available starting today, so fold the corner on the source links, or head straight to the next chapter.
Scholastic enters the e-book fray with Storia and 1,000 children's stories
Between Google Books, iBooks, Nook, Kindle, Kobo, Sony... you'd figure the e-book field was crowded enough, right? Well, if you're specifically in the market for children's stories, things might look a little less packed. We guess that's why Scholastic is attempting to enter the fray with Storia, an e-reading app and store designed for kids. As part of a massive digitization effort, the company has launched Storia in beta for Windows and the iPad, alongside a market of over 1,000 titles. By the time it officially launches in the fall Scholastic hopes to have a fully stocked digital library of over 2,000 books loaded with interactive features. You can download the beta now with five free e-books by hitting up the more coverage link.
Lenovo's rugged ThinkPad X130e targets students, arrives December 20 for $469
When we first spotted leaked photos of Lenovo's ThinkPad X130e, we just kind of assumed it was the next-gen successor to the X120e, which we reviewed almost a year ago. Well, you know what happens when you A-S-S-U-M-E, right? Turns out, there is indeed an X130e, but it's intended specifically for students. The company just made its official announcement, and explained that that rugged design we've been hearing about isn't meant to protect it from careless baggage handlers at the airport so much as freewheeling six year-olds. Though Lenovo's already had a hand in Intel's Classmate project, this is the first time it's released a classroom-ready laptop under the ThinkPad brand, red pointing stick and all. Of all the kid-proof touches, the more obvious ones include a rubber bumper ringing the plastic lid, along with a thicker bezel shielded by 1.2mm of plastic. It also has recessed, reinforced ports, an accelerometer to protect the hard drive and a hinge rated for 30,000 cycles. Of course, the result of all this ruggedizing is that the X130e is fairly heavy for an 11-incher, at 3.9 pounds (1.78kg). Otherwise, though, its specs are pretty much what you'd expect in an 11.6-inch laptop. For starters, it's offered with an Intel Core i3-2367M processor, as well as AMD Fusion E-300 and E-450 APUs. It comes with 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 8GB), up to 500GB in storage, Bluetooth 3.0 and a 6-cell battery rated for 8.5 hours of battery life. Lenovo's also added its RapidBoot technology, promising a sub-20-second startup time. It also has three USB 2.0 sockets, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, a combined headphone / mic port and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. And, because Lenovo is also selling these to schools, it'll customize the laptops by tweaking the BIOS and tricking out the lid in assorted colors. It'll go on sale on Lenovo's site starting December 20th for $469 and up. Until then, we've got some candy-colored press photos below. %Gallery-140929%
Preview of Bartleby Vol. 2 iPad app shows possibility of future AirPlay integration
We covered Monster Costume's interactive children's book Bartleby in 2010, and multiple TUAW reviewers found it to be a charming and well-crafted iPad app. Monster Costume is hard at work on Bartleby Volume 2, and even though I don't have kids of my own and am about 25 years beyond the target age group for this app, it still looks like a lot of fun. As you'll see in the video demo below, Bartleby Vol. 2 is really taking iPad interactivity seriously. Like many other iPad apps, it allows you to plug your iPad into your TV and use the iPad as a sort of oversized controller for the game. The video shows an iPad 2 hooked into an HDTV via an HDMI dongle, which may seem clumsy and possibly a recipe for disaster with smaller kids -- but if you've got an Apple TV 2, there may be a solution to that problem coming this fall. The upcoming iOS 5 update will allow wireless video via AirPlay for any app that supports it, and in fact, it seems the only reason Monster Costume isn't showing off the AirPlay functionality already is because of Apple's NDA for iOS 5 features. AirPlay could turn the Apple TV 2 into a de facto game console for apps like Bartleby. Seeing this demo has now got me thinking about the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics release for the iPad and hoping Square-Enix includes this feature, too. Bartleby Volume 2 looks great so far, and Volume 1 is currently available for free until Volume 2's release. If you've got young kids, definitely check it out. Bartleby Airplay Demo from Monster Costume Inc. on Vimeo.
Scott's Submarine adds some new twists to interactive children's books
The field of interactive children's books for iOS has become pretty staid as publishers have gotten used to using engines created for their first book and just plugging in new content. But Scott's Submarine (US$2.99), the first entry from Square Igloo, adds some great interactive touches that I haven't seen, and it adds new levels of interactivity to the genre. The story is a simple one. Scott and his friend Aiko explore the ocean in a small submarine and discover the wonders of undersea life. But the story isn't what makes this book special; it's the host of options and new features that make this universal app really stand out. Among the many options are the ability to turn the voice and word display on or off, adjusting the ambient sound volume, and language choices (English, Spanish, French or Japanese) that appear textually on all screens and can be heard as narration. You can also set the story's complexity level, ranging from a simple abbreviated narrative to a more complex story that offers much more color and detail. %Gallery-123672%
Ultimate Dinopedia brings dinosaurs to life on your iPad
The Ultimate Dinopedia (US$5.99) from National Geographic is a wonderful reference app that will quickly become the go-to source for kids who want to find out everything about dinosaurs. There are other dinosaur apps in the store, but this is by far the most complete and expansive. It started as a hardcover book last year and has since been turned into a terrific iPad app for kids four and older. The app is broken down into three parts: Discovering Dinosaurs, Meat Eaters and Plant Eaters. It's chock full of paintings of many dinosaurs by Franco Tempsesta, and the text was written by "Dino" Don Lessem, just as in the book. (Don even has a dinosaur named after him.) The app covers about 700 dinosaurs. Each dinosaur comes with a button to play a sound of the correct pronunciation of its name, plus much more information. For many dinosaurs, that's all you get, but others have full-page paintings, Dino Stats (which give you info from the overview page) and a paragraph on the story of the dinosaur, which you can either read yourself or have read to you in a slightly sinister sounding narration paired with nice sound effects. Each of these pages have Fun Facts like "Riojasaurus had only five teeth in the front of its top jaw and 24 more behind them. So chances are it gulped down its food and digested plants in its stomach." There's also Picture Info, such as "Riojasaurus fed in the southern forests of Pangea, the single landmark that stretched across the middle of the earth". Along with this, there are 13 very short CGI videos showing a number of dinosaurs in action. The videos certainly aren't up to the quality of Pixar, but they get the job done. The videos are the only part of the app that works in landscape mode. %Gallery-118554%
Jack and Joe: A lovely interactive book for small children
Jack and Joe (US $2.99) is the first of what will surely become a series of interactive storybooks for small children from the Stupid Art Company. This is an independent universal app written and illustrated by Bard Hole Standal and programmed by his brother Odin Hall Standal. It's a 27 page buddy story about the friendship of Jack, a cute blonde haired boy, and his Siberian Husky puppy Joe. The illustrations are appropriately simple and colorful, telling a warm and comforting story that is sure to please the smallest of readers. There's nothing scary here outside of a threatening bee. With the excellent narration of Katie Leigh, the story is read with no words being highlighted. This isn't one of those books where you need to touch everything to start animations. On most pages there is movement, but little to no interactivity. I don't consider this to be a problem since too many similar books make kids go on treasure hunts, touching everything and losing the track of the simple story. The straight reading is mixed up with activities that seem just right. At one point you need to shake the iPad or iOS device to shake Jack and Joe out of a tree. In another, there is a coloring page where five colors of chalk let you color a picture on the sidewalk. The centerpiece is a nicely animated and choreographed dance sequence that I really enjoyed. Check out the video after the break to get the feel of the book. I think that small kids will be delighted. %Gallery-117624%
Two iOS apps meant to teach toddlers valuable lessons
There is a new trend starting in interactive children's media: books that don't really tell a fully formed story, but are meant to teach a lesson. As with many new ideas, the first ones are pretty rough and may not be worth bothering with, but the potential is vast. Loris and the Runaway Ball (US$1.99), the first app from Pointed Stories, is meant to teach toddlers what to do if their ball gets thrown into the street accidentally. This is an important lesson, which drew me to the app, but in testing it out, it left quite a bit to be desired and is hardly worth the price. This universal app relays a very short story told by Lincoln (Loris' older brother) about what happened when the ball wound up in the street. The app is just a handful of pages, it has no sound, and the animation is extremely limited. The graphics may be sweet to some toddlers, but the water-colored pictures looked rough and quickly tossed together to me. With no sound, there is no narration. The app seems to be little more than a strip of pictures that you swipe to get to the next one. The only interaction is a decision point where you can choose who Loris should ask to help get the ball back. You can ask Lincoln, Loris' dad or a neighbor named Mrs. Seal. Each choice branches to three specific pages, then goes right back to the story for the ending. That's about all there is to it, and it's not a lot. The lessons Loris and the reader are meant to learn? Mrs. Seal is glad to help and tosses the ball back. Lincoln, who has crossed the street before, knows to listen, wait and make sure it's clear before he crosses the street. Dad always knows what to do. He holds Loris' hand and tells her to look left, look right, look left again, then they cross together. That's the whole app. You can get through it in less than three minutes, and I would question its worth at even $0.99, much less the $1.99 Pointed Stories is asking for.
Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D: Two gimmicky and unfocused e-book apps
Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D are two US$1.99 interactive children's books from Bacciz Apps. I'm sorry to say that they're also not very good. They are complicated, inconsistent, and neither provides a satisfying story. Both titles use elements often seen before in other interactive children's books, but this time they are used seemingly at random. I don't believe children will enjoy either of these apps; instead, kids will likely become confused and frustrated at the "everything but the kitchen sink" design approach and the total inconsistency of the implementation. The first problem cropped up when I tried to navigate the settings screens. There are seven options: Display Text, Hide Text After Narration, Disable Interaction During Narration, Auto Page Turn, Page Turn Swipe, and volume controls for Narration, Sound FX and Music. Each app lets you choose between three songs to play in the background. I can easily see getting rid of at least half of these options. Tapping on a dog displayed at the top of each page displays even more options. These include Home, 3D mode, Sound, which is a duplication of the settings screen, Share -- which lets you post to email, Twitter, Facebook, send feedback to Bacciz, and a request to rate the app in the iTunes store. There is also an "I Can Read" option, a duplicate of the title page that gives you the option of eliminating the narration until you tap on the text box, but it doesn't give you the option to "Read it Myself" -- that option shows up on the title screen. One positive thing about this mode is you'll see thumbnails that you can swipe to go to any page. However, the text boxes that the app reads to you if you choose "Read to Me" are further complicated by arrows on both sides of the text boxes that make them appear or vanish.
Grimm's Rapunzel is an interactive pop-up book done right
Although a number of interactive children's books have billed themselves as being pop-up (or pop-out) books, like The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas (both from Loudcrow), nothing really popped up and constructed the 3D scenes that I remember from my childhood. Grimm's Rapunzel - Interactive Pop-up Book from Ideal Binary (US$1.99 for now) does just that, and beautifully. It's a universal app that makes full use of the Retina Display of the iPhone and iPod touch, and it looks and plays gorgeously on an iPad. When you start the book, you are presented with a profusely illustrated book similar to the one used at the start and ending of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The book opens, and a text and picture page is displayed where nothing moves, ... but turn the page and the book shifts horizontally as the scene springs to life. Using physics that feel just right, objects bounce up and form a scene where you are given a clearly described task to perform. Each of the pop-up pages contains an activity ranging from sowing and watering seeds to helping Rapunzel find her sheet music and harp. When completed, each activity pays off with a character thanking you or providing reinforcement, like Rapunzel playing a little tune on her harp. Touching objects on the pop-up pages causes things to bounce a bit, which is common, or add a few surprises; for example, when you touch a candelabra, it lights up.
Teddy's Day for iPad brings something new to interactive children's books
Teddy's Day (US$3.99) from Auryn Inc. is a lovely and gentle book for very small children, appropriate for ages one and up. It tells the story of a little girl who is on a quest to find out what her teddy bear does all day when she isn't home. She sets up all sorts of traps to catch Teddy, and in doing so, this book brings something new to the exploding world of interactive children's books -- variety. In most books of this type, touching something triggers a short movement, sound or animation, but Teddy's Day is different. Using a childlike graphic style and bright colors, you never know what you're going to get when you touch an object that, after the page is read by a little girl, is highlighted by colored lines. One really nice and involving part is when the girl says she will stay at home and spy on him. Tapping on the right space changes the page to an interactive coloring book containing a color palette, four sizes of crayons and some other tools. When you draw a picture and tap on a check mark the page reverts, and the newly created picture appears in a previously empty frame in the background. This can be repeated twice, since there are two frames. In another section where the girl is in a tree, tapping on a bird makes it caw, which is pretty standard stuff, but then tapping on any branch of the tree makes the bird fly right to it.
TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Interactive books for children
Welcome to the TUAW Holiday Gift Guide! We've sorted the treasure from the junk and are serving up suggestions to make your holiday gift-giving a little easier. Looking for an inexpensive gift for that special child in a home with an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch? You really can't do better than an interactive children's book or two (or three or four -- maybe a series of them!). Over the past year or so, the market for these new and exciting books has blown wide open. A quick check of the iTunes store shows hundreds of such books, and last April it was reported that a full 81 percent of top selling book apps on the iPad store were for kids. In this quickly emerging market, you'll find many of your old favorites, as well as a huge number of new books especially made for iOS devices. Interactive books allow children to jump into the story by interacting with the pages. Not only do they give you the option of having the book read by a professional narrator, but objects seem to come alive when touched, providing animations, sounds and many other surprises, including the ability to touch a word and have it spoken, highlighted or both. In a real sense, these books seem to come alive. This guide is far from comprehensive, since there are new books hitting the App Store every day, and I have only seen a small fraction of them. I will only recommend ones that I've read. With series like Dr. Seuss, I haven't read them all, but since they mostly work the same way, I feel comfortable recommending them as a series. Read on to find some great books for kids this holiday season.
food fight! A pre-release view of the most beautiful iOS children's book yet
Note 11/6/10: food fight! has now been released and is available as Food Fight! - An Interactive Book by Glenn Melenhorst. It is on sale for US$1.99 during its introductory first week. food fight! is the most beautiful interactive children's book I've seen to date. It's currently going through the App Store review process and isn't yet available, but when it hits the iTunes store, it will sell for US$3.99 and be released as a universal app playable on any iOS device. There are a number of things that make this book special, but the most obvious is the amazing 3D graphics found on every page. The book was written and rendered by Glenn Melenhorst, a visual effects artist at the Iloura studio in Melbourne, Australia. Glenn has been instrumental in such projects as The Pacific, Where the Wild Things Are, and Charlotte's Web. food fight! started as a print book called Little Boys which I couldn't find anywhere, and perhaps never made it out of Australia. The book tells the story of Tim, who would eat nothing but sausages no matter how much his parents tried to fool and cajole him into eating something else. It's also the story of Sammy, from somewhere else altogether, who happens to be a sausage who eats nothing but little boys. Sammy reads about Tim and takes a rocket to earth where they confront each other and come to a workable compromise. It's a very cute story, whimsically told and I'm sure will entertain children four and above. The app is beautifully designed and has more play value than most of what I've seen in the burgeoning market of interactive children's fiction. There is no musical soundtrack, but it's not necessary, since over 80 interactive elements found in its pages all come with their own sounds, voices, and effects. Tapping on most anything kicks off nicely done animations, some of them, in keeping with the 3D look, spill right off the page. The pages can be turned by a quick swipe as is usually the case, or in a manner similar to iBooks, by slowly swiping which displays a nicely dimensional page-turning effect at the speed of your fingers. %Gallery-106847%
The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule comes to iOS for kids
Oceanhouse Media has done it again with The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule by Stan and Jan Berenstain with Mike Berenstain (US$2.99). It's another in their line of popular storybooks for children, and it tells the tale of Sister Bear being given a locket containing the Golden Rule. The story goes on to explain the Golden Rule through Sister Bear's meeting with a new kid at school, Lizzie McGrizzie. I used to read the Berenstain Bears books to my (now-grown) children countless times, so I look at them quite nostalgically now. As in all the Berenstain books, The Golden Rule teaches a moral and explains it through the narrative in a way that even the smallest of children can understand and take to heart. Oceanhouse Media has done something brilliant and can capitalize on it forever. In April, they released The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, which I reviewed quite highly. It introduced an e-book engine that any picture-oriented book can be plugged into. Currently they sell 12 Dr. Seuss books, with two soon to be released, and three Berenstain Bear books, with three more upcoming.
Violet for the iPad: an interactive children's book
Violet for the iPad (US$2.99) from My Black Dog Books is the latest entry in the emerging field of interactive books for children. Geared at children ages 4 and up, Violet is the first of a series of stories about a charming little girl with a big secret. The 20 page book tells a nice little tale, along with a moral, and it introduces elements that will be continued in future books. Allison Keeme's illustrations are beautifully drawn, and they take full advantage of the graphic capabilities of the iPad. If you like, you can take a look Allison's process of building the graphics. I'm positive that small children will enjoy reading about Violet and her secret identity. The world of Violet has a consistent look and a great attention to detail. When the family gathers around the breakfast table after one of Violet's exploits, they look absolutely exhausted, but you'll have to read the book to see why. There are two specific tasks to perform in the book, and I think it was a good design choice to have the book do it if the child doesn't. Unfortunately, I found a number of problems with the execution of the app, which may frustrate small children. There is scant interactivity to be found. With many possibilities for interaction, only a small number of things that you can tap on actually do anything. There are quite a few pages that are static. In fact, outside of credits on the first page, the first bit that does anything appears on page five, and you might easily miss it. There is a spider that swings when touched. If the accelerometer was used, as in Alice, it would be much more apparent. I can imagine small kids getting frustrated by tapping on everything and not getting paid off very often. A real design problem is that you need to tap on a page in order to display an arrow that, when tapped on again, gets you to the next page. I think the arrow should be persistent and eliminate an unneeded tap on every page.
Elmo and Nokia join forces, meld kids' books with teleconferencing for Storyplay (video)
Whether you love Elmo for his ability to make your kids sit quietly or hate him for his voice that's about two steps away from fingernails on chalkboards, there's no denying his popularity. His latest appearance is in this maple-stained electronic reader from Nokia called Storyplay. In these days of electronic ink and Kindle competitors, Espoo has taken something of a different tact here, designed to help kids and adults read together even when far apart. It has room in the middle for a removable paper book with magnets on each page to identify which is being shown, then on the top are two screens. One is continual footage of that most ticklish of Sesame Street characters, the other a live video stream from a remote parent, grandparent, or other floating head who can read along. The video below shows it all in action and, while the tech is compelling, it's hard to see much of a market outside of parents with a wallet full of platinum frequent flier cards. Then again, we didn't think the Booklet 3G would find success, so this will probably be the best selling thing ever.
