Created by Vito Technology Inc., Star Walk is so much more than just a star and planet finder.  It has many more fun extras built in to make your star gazing experience unbeatable.  Sky Live is a feature that gives you a dashboard filled with the latest rise data for popular planets, the sun and the moon, which includes moon phases that let you see the times the moon will be visible and what it looked like yesterday, and what it will look like tonight and tomorrow night.  Using this feature you can also easily view information from the past and can peak ahead into the future.  It’s really cool.

The star spotting function really is the coolest feature of all.  You really don’t need to do anything to get it to work.  Adults and kids of any age can just open the app, position it toward the sky and instantly can make sense of everything above them.  Let me give you an example of how handy this is.  I was at a party just a few weekends ago where there was a debate over whether or not a twinkling object in the sky was a satellite or star.  I was adamant about it being a satellite and went into a lengthy explanation as to how I could tell.  Well, the debate continued on for about 10 minutes before another party goer stepped in to lend his two cents.  Unfortunately for me he was armed with Star Walk.  He whipped out his phone, pointed it toward the object, and proceeded to tell us the exact name of the star.  How can you compete with that?  You can’t!

Look, I can go on and on about more of the features like Time Machine, Picture of the Day, Location finder, and all the customizable settings, but I love the app so much that I think it’s worth you finding out for yourself.  There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about this app, which for me is a rarity.  Star Walk is a great conversation piece that you just can’t go wrong with.  Break it out on a date, with the kids, or pretty much whenever you want.  I can assure you you’ll enjoy it and will never look at constellations the same again.

Pros:

• Very slick, super easy to use
• Astonishes people when they see how accurate it is
• Excellent for all occasions; great for kids
• Very educational; makes stargazing easy and enjoyable

Cons:

• None that I can think of

Version Reviewed: 4.5

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iPhone OS 3.0 or later

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When you open Flashcards there are three rows of icons. Tap one of the eight categories in the top two rows and you get a game for your child to play. It gives a picture and both spells and pronounces the name of the image. Tap the picture and you get a sound associated with that image. In the animals category it makes the sound the animal makes. Tap the speaker icon next to the word and you get the word pronounced again. You can tap it over and over to hear the word or sound. If you wait a few seconds it will automatically advance to the next slide with a new image and word. Or you can swipe the image to the left or right to go forwards or backwards.

The bottom three categories on the Home screen are for Word Match. It shows you an image and audibly asks, “Is this a …” and gives three options. For example, one screen showed a motorbike and asked, “Is this a spider, a motorbike, or a finger. It gave the sound of each of the three choices after it pronounced the word. If you get it right it says, “Yep, well done.” If you get it wrong it says, “Try again.” The second time it says, “Close. Give it another go.”

The Spelling Game shows you the image and has two rows of words. The top row is greyed out a little and shows the actual word. The bottom is the letters of the words mixed up and out of order. Your little guy or gal drags the letter to the upper row. When he or she does it pronounces the sound and makes a ding sound if you get it right. If you get it wrong it pronounces the letter you incorrectly dragged to the upper row and bounces it back down to the lower row.

The final option on the bottom row of the Home screen is Shuffle. It gives you words from any of the upper eight categories, so you are not using only one category at a time.

In the row at the bottom is a tiny toolbar. The first icon looks like a speaker and will mute the music that plays. The lock button locks the icon so your toddler won’t accidentally exit the game he or she is playing or get into the info screen and change the settings. This attention to detail is what makes this is a great app.

If you do open the settings screen, you will see choices for Sound, Record Sounds, Languages, Presentations, Feedback and About INKids. The really interesting features are the Record Sounds and Presentation screens. The first lets you record your own words for the sounds, so that the word will be said in your own voice. First listen to the original sound to know exactly what is being said. Then choose the red record button and record it in your voice. It will take you a long time to go through all of them, so I recommend just choose a category at a time.

The Presentation tab lets you choose how the app behaves. You can have the slides move automatically and advance them as fast or slow as you like. It ranges from 5 to 30 seconds.

I think Flashcards for iPad is a very good app. To help test it I showed it to my little nephew who is turning three. He absolutely loved it and his mother wanted to take my iPad home with her so he could play it. The only reason I am not giving it a full five fingers is the delay from tapping the home screen is a little long. My nephew got frustrated and kept tapping and tapping.

One improvement that would make this app useful for teachers is the ability to export the screen to an external display via the VGA/Dock adapter. I could see a preschool teacher using the app with her entire class hooked up to a projector.

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Subject Matter Experts (SME) were involved in taking this frog dissection app from its conceptualization to its final execution. Their inputs played an important role in designing the app to be scientifically accurate and user friendly. Frog Dissection allows you to dissect a chloroformed specimen complete with virtual dissection instruments – pins, scalpel, marker, and forceps. Step-by-step instructions and 3D views give an extremely real feel. This app uses 3D imaging of anatomy, which gives life like clarity and an exact picture of the specimen’s internal organ system. Each organ can be removed and rotated for a methodical view. This clear dissection sequence gives students the feel of performing a live dissection minus the hassles of a wet lab.

Features:

• A chloroformed virtual specimen
• Clear Instructions
• Dissection tools like pins, marker, scissors, scalpel, and forceps
• Touch operated dissection
• Dorsal side of the specimen
• Opening the external skin and muscles of the specimen using digital tools
• Individual organs viewed in large 3D imagery.

My initial reaction to Frog Dissection was that it is an extremely novel and genius idea. It makes learning fun and interactive and truly brings the most advanced computer technology to the classroom. I remember quite well dissecting a frog in both high school and college. In both cases the dissection was always followed up with a lab quiz which was quite difficult. Having an app like this available at those times would have more then prepared me for this. And the interface and design are so great that it’s not a chore like normal studying can be. It’s both interesting and fun! Also… there are always those that are squeamish with surgical type procedures or morally don’t believe in the need for these dissections in classrooms. This app can allow them a chance to interactively perform the same operations other students are doing without having to cross these boundaries.

The interface and 3D visuals are intuitive and crisp. The concept is great and the execution was wonderful. I could see an entire line of dissection apps opening up with even more advanced options and social media studying groups etc… Great work by Emantras Inc., and this is a must download in my opinion if you own and iPad.

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As mentioned I’m currently studying for the GMAT, so when I saw this app pop up in our request box I just had to review it.  Geometry Stash isn’t a virtual lesson and doesn’t teach you how to solve equations, but it does give you instant access to any theory you can possibly think of.  Everything is laid out in a alphabetized list view.  Just locate the theorem, postulate, or corollary that you’re interested in by scrolling or searching, and then touch it to view the details.  If you don’t want to display the details all you have to do is shake your iPhone/iPod to hide them.

Geometry Stash is truly ideal for anyone needing a quick reference guide for geometric theories.  It’s not filled with sexy bells and whistles, but it’s very comprehensive, easy to use, supports landscape and portrait views, and the shake to hide/show details function is pretty handy.  I’ll certainly be using this bad boy until my GMAT is all wrapped up!

Pros:

• Comprehensive source for geometric theories, postulates, and corollaries
• Easy to use; handy study/quick reference guide for students

Cons:

• None to speak of really, the app is very simple and straight forward

Version Reviewed: 1.1.2

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iPhone OS 3.1.3 or later

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iStart Spanish Features:

1. The Application comes with full audio tutoring in the form of a dialog between a native speaker of English and two native Spanish speakers (from Spain and Colombia), clear explanations on basic Spanish grammar, vocabulary training with examples and native pronunciation, and short and enjoyable interactive quizzes for every lesson. It includes 50 full lessons for learners of Spanish with no previous knowledge of the language.
2. The interface of the program provides you with a innovative, fresh, and enjoyable user experience. While you are listening to the audio of the dialog, the speech bubbles automatically move in synch with the audio! iStart Spanish boasts over 5,000 sound files to make your language learning experience so much more real and enjoyable.
3. This App includes “funware” to motivate you to make progress with the lessons – badges are awarded for completing the lesson quizzes. You can share your progress with others on Facebook, which is integrated right into the app.

After close to 2 weeks of using iStart Spanish I have become MUCH more proficient in speaking Spanish. Though I’m still pretty far from being able to speak conversationally with a fluent spanish speaker, I certainly can see the improvement thus far. In this timeframe I have completed 8 out of the 50 lessons, while doing this randomly during spare time. It truly is like having your own personal Spanish tutors in your pocket, at a fraction of the cost it’s noteworthy to say. Everything is explained in a simple and comprehensive way, so that you have complete confidence in your understanding of what you have learned from the very beginning. The program is structured so that your knowledge of the language builds up gradually, and you will gain good pronunciation habits from the outset with the help of the native Spanish speaking guides. Hearing and seeing the the words at the same time also really helps to soak in the knowledge quicker. The quizzes at the end of each lesson do provide good guidelines on how well you have retained each levels information. One important thing I would recomend users do and something that would be a nice feature in the future would be to set goals and timelines so that you push yourself. Otherwise it’s easy to get sidetracked on other things. Implementing more social features which would enable you to join in classes with others and setup VOIP conversations etc.. would all be great features in the future as well. Once I complete all 50 levels I’ll jump back in with an update, but in the mean time, just from the somewhat brief time I’ve had with iStart Spanish I can comfortable say it’s a nice app and is worth the price tag.

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Created by Emantras Inc, Number Sense is designed specifically for kindergarten aged children.  The app comes with 5 mini games: Booster Balls, Do the Dotty, Numberella, Fishoonka, and Toot Toot Train.  Collectively these games teach kids how to count from 1-10, 10-20, 21-30,etc., how to determine bigger numbers from smaller ones, how to quantify which side of the screen has more objects than the other, how to add or remove objects to show greater than and less than, and to add or subtract objects to create the correct total number (ex. 2+5=7).  When kids generate the correct answer they earn rewards such as trophies, toy trains, and more.  Earned rewards are saved so kids can view their hard earned goodies any time they want.

The 5 included mini games each provide a slightly different challenge and increase in difficulty as you move from one to the next.  The first and most basic of the bunch is Booster Balls.  In this game you’ve got to fill a bowl with the required amount of balls and then shoot them into a cute blue monster’s mouth from a giant PEZ dispenser like object.  Unfortunately aside from feeding the monster, there is no interaction required for this particular game.  The balls fall from the sky and over time they collect one at a time into the bowl.  As they’re collected they’re counted (1, 2, 3, etc.), but you’ve got to wait for them all to collect, which in some cases takes some time.  I’d like this mini game much more if kids were required to touch and drag the balls into the bowl until they reach the correct number.

All the rest of the mini games not only require interaction, but require kids to use logic to solve problems, which I like.  Do the Dotty is essentially connect the dots by touching numbers in order from smallest to largest.  This is a great way to reinforce to kids that 1 comes before 2 and 2 comes before 3, etc.  When they answer correctly a cute image is created that with one touch they can change the color of the image and can save it to the iPhone / iPod touch photo gallery.  Numberella is a great mini game where a handful of numbers are displayed in clouds and kids have to choose either the smallest or the largest number.  This game does a good job of making kids think before they choose.  For example, the largest number will be inside of the smallest cloud, making the larger cloud ever so tempting to touch.

The final two games, Fishoonka and Toot Toot Train, teach kids addition and subtraction.  Fishoonka presents red fish and yellow fish on opposite sides of the screen.  It asks kids to drag fish from one side to the next to get the number of fish to be equal to one another or greater than or less than one or the other.  Toot Toot Train involves having kids add and subtract train cars until they reach the required number.  To remove or add the cars you just touch the train car and tilt the iPhone / iPod touch to the left of right to slide them away or toward the train.  I like both of these games because they require kids to not only think of the solution, but also involve some hand/eye coordination.

Overall Number Sense is a pretty decent app for teaching kindergarteners basic math and how it applies to everyday life.  The sounds, characters, games, and narration are perfect for kids.  There were however a couple of areas that I think could be improved upon.  Namely portions of the interface design/layout, the number of interactive features within the game, and better reenforcement of the math that’s performed.  Regarding the interface, currently the games are laid out as icons and the print describing each game is rather small.  To me, I’d probably like it a little better if each game option took up the majority of the screen and was numbered.  Currently I feel like the little icons and little font may be tough for some little eyes to see.  Regarding more interactive features, I found myself trying to touch and swipe the screen quite a bit only to find it did nothing.  I definitely wish there was much more touch sensitive and responsive features.  With respect to reinforcing the math that’s performed, there are portions of the game where I felt like it should tell kids what they just did.  I’ll use Toot Toot Train as an example.  You may be asked to remove train cars until you have total of 3 connected to the train.  If you start out with 9 cars and remove 6 it counts down the number of cards you removed (1, 2, 3, etc.), but when you’re finished you just know that you ended up with 3 cars, it doesn’t spell out how you got there.  I think it would be better if at the end it explained how you got the correct answer (9 cars – 6 cars = 3 cars).  As it stands today I feel like some of the games could be completed without children truly grasping the math that they performed.  I think they’ll understand the numbers, but they may not fully understand the addition and subtraction that occured.

Pros:

• 5 mini games with uniquely different lessons
• Games are nicely designed to successfully teach young kids how to count, add, and subtract
• Games are interactive and fun; likely to keep children entertained while they learn

Cons:

• Some games could be more interactive (i.e. Booster Balls)
• Could do a better job reenforcing that math that’s performed (9-6=3)

Version Reviewed: 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iPhone OS version 3.0 or later

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Grades ~ roadmap to an A is really easy to use.  The moment you open it you just start adding classes.  Name the class, enter in the syllabus items, and by default it sets your target grade to 90% and tells you what you need to achieve on each assignment to get there.  As the semester progresses and you get your actual grades, just input them into the app, and it recalculates the required grades for remaining assignments.  At any time you can change your overall target grade, and when you do so the app will automatically recalculate the required grades for all of your assignments.  It couldn’t be easier to use and it certainly paint a clear picture for students and parents early on in a semester as to what’s required to “make the grade”.

Overall I really liked this app.  It’s an easy to use tool that provides students and parents with the roadmap they need to understand whether they’re on track to meet their GPA goals.  It’s definitely 100% worth the price and worth the purchase.  There are a couple of tweaks that I think could make this app even more useful.  Currently it only calculates grades on a class level.  I’d love to see the ability to calculate cummulative GPA added as well.  From the Classes page it’d be great to be able to view your grades for each class and the cummulative GPA at the bottom.  Aside from that one addition I think this app is excellent.

Pros:

• Very easy to use and definitely encourages students to set goals and be accountable
• Well worth the $0.99 price

Cons:

• Doesn’t provide a dashboard style view were you can see grades for all classes in a single view

Version Reviewed: 1.0

Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad; iPhone OS 3.0 or later

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The premise of the app is to create fun, entertaining exercises and games for your children. There are three main sections within the app: Read Stuff, Do Stuff, and Play Stuff. Read Stuff has seven different stories showcased in a neat cover-flow graphic presentation where you can easily flip from story cover to cover. Clicking the read button takes you into the story mode. Each story is filled with supplementary images and graphics as well as music, sound effects, and at times narration.  Read Stuff has a good selection of stories to choose from and should keep your child engaged.

Do Stuff has four exercises: Do Colouring!, Do Follow Me!, Do Drawing! and Do Word Search!. Do Colouring! has a variety of black and white sketches to select from. Select a picture then color within the lines just as you would with a regular coloring book. There are 10 different shades of color to choose from.  Within this mode, there appears to be a mild bug where you can color outside the picture’s border. This is by no means a large issue as kids will likely be haphazardly coloring all over the canvas, but something we thought should be mentioned.

Do Follow Me! is a neat game that’s sure to be a hit with the children. Follow the blue line of characters though a maze by dragging your finger over the path. Any slip outside the blue path and you lose, bringing you back to the starting point. Do Drawing! brings up the drawing board, just like Do Colouring!, though the difference is you have an empty canvas to create with. The developers added in a word so you have some direction, for example, it says “draw something cold” or “draw something that makes this sound: BZZZ”. This additional direction helps kids use their imagination while drawing.  Finally, Do Word Search! requires you to spell out ANORAK within a word puzzle board. You can move in any direction and use the same letter twice to accomplish the puzzle.

The last category, Play Stuff has two games: Cycling and Whack-Anorak. In Cycling, you must tilt the phone in the direction you want the bike to go. Ride over mountains and see how far you can get before you fall off your bike. Whack-Anorak’s object is to touch as many blue Anoraks in a row as possible. Avoid touching the pink light man. This game test’s your speed and reflex skills. We have seen many similar type speed games, though this one adds its own Anorak theme into the mix.

Anorak Magazine’s creative visuals and fun sound effects are the perfect way to entertain your little rascals for hours on end. The artwork is unique and the game-play is bound to appeal to your kid. The child voice-over is a cute touch that seemed to work well for certain sections in the app, though the developers applied a strange echo filter to the voice, giving it somewhat of a creepy vibe, especially during the introduction screen. But all in all the app is put together quite well and has plenty of value for the price-point of $0.99. You are basically getting three different apps in one so the replay appeal is high. Children are bound to get a kick out of the quirky characters, the music, and sound effects, as well as the occasional voice-over performed by a fellow youngster. The developers have noted updates like additional stories and games that are soon to follow. Oksar LTD’s Anorak Magazine will be a sure hit with the kids.  Its cheery, vibrant, welcoming screen and original characters will be an inviting and safe environment for kids to develop their creativity and curiosity.

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