Media Macaroni

We spend a lot of time at the American Museum of Natural History. It’s one of our favorites, so it was with great excitement that I heard about their new ANMH Explorer app for iPhone and iPod Touch. Yesterday I got to try it out in the museum.

On a basic level, this app provides an interactive map, showing where you are in the museum in relation to what you want to see. I was very skeptical of this personal GPS feature. My phone often pinpoints my home in the middle of the Hudson river, so how could it tell me exactly where I am in the museum? Hundreds of wireless access points throughout the museum, that’s how. These access points triangulate your position, and I have to say, did a pretty impressive job of tracking my location.

I started by following a preset tour of the dinosaur exhibit. This shows you how to get to some key highlights in the exhibit, and tells you more information about the fossils than what’s on display in the museum. I found while doing this, though, that I was more focused on getting to the fossils in the tour than stopping to browse the exhibits, which made me feel oddly rushed. This could be great for tourists who want to visit the museum highlights, though. There are tours of different lengths for the most famous of the museum’s holdings, tours for individual exhibits, and even tours featuring the highlights from Night at the Museum. These tours remind me of being on a tour at the Louvre, racing around to see the most famous works in about 45 minutes. You can also create your own tour using the master list of highlights.

The Fossil Treasure Hunt had the opposite effect. This is by far my favorite part of the app, and I can’t wait to do it with Olive. You’re given a close-up view of one of the fossils, and you have to find that fossil within the sprawling dinosaur exhibit on the 4th Floor. You can use the map to help you get to the right place if you want, or you can really challenge yourself and try to find it without the map. Once you find the fossil, the app will ask you a question that you can answer after reading the display information about that fossil. No softballs here – these questions are hard! After you’ve answered the question correctly, the fossil is marked as found and then you’re off to the next one. I’m told that more Treasure Hunts are in the works, though no details on when they’ll be available.

The AMNH Explorer app is very thoughtfully put together. The interface is pretty clear, and anything you’re trying to do can begin from your current location. You don’t have to go to any particular starting point. The app will even direct you to the bathrooms, food, and exits. The very last thing I did was have it show me the quickest route to the subway exit. These features are invaluable when you have exhausted kids in tow, or ones who really need to pee!

Props to Bloomberg for footing the bill for this excellent use of technology. They even have a ton of iPod Touches to loan to visitors, though it requires a $250 hold on your credit card. Otherwise, the app is free and the museum experience is awesome. Other museums, please take note. (I’m looking at you, MOMA!)

Thanks to Russell, I’ve found my newest app addiction: Angry Birds. Apparently, some green pigs have stolen some birds’ eggs, and guess what? The birds are angry and coming with a vengeance.

This game is like having Boom Blox for the iPhone, with a similar “throwing things at things” dynamic. You’re trying to destroy the pigs in each round, reaching them through their fortresses of ice, wood, and stone. You launch a series of birds at the structures, trying to bring them down and crush those pigs.

The dynamics change from round to round as you’re presented harder structural challenges and birds with different abilities. Just as you feel bored with the basic bird, suddenly there’s a bird that can split into three birds. When you’re thinking you could use a more high-powered bird, viola! One appears. And yes, there will be explosions.

Not sense Peggle have I found an app so fun for the whole family. For those hard rounds, have fun passing the phone back and forth to see who can conquer it first.

All of this is yours for $0.99. What’s a slick beauty like this doing in the dollar store, you ask? Don’t question it. Just buy it.

OK, this might not win me any parenting awards, but I’ve just discovered something wonderful:

iPad + Koi Pond App = Sleeping Baby.

Now I’m off to fashion a crib mount for the iPad…

I’ve been having a crazy amount of fun with various iPhone apps that mess around with photography in different ways. For example, if you’re keen on cheesy Photoshop filters, but don’t like the hassle of actually bringing your pictures into Photoshop, look no further than Camera Fun ($0.99). Choices include x-ray, thermal, emboss, neon, sepia, etc. There’s even Avatar mode, which basically just throws a blue filter on you. Here’s a look at neon and swirl.

Quadcamera ($1.99) allows for four to eight continuous shutter images, and you can even select the amount of time between exposures. Other options include layout and color. This is a fun one to capture action.

The next one I’m almost reluctant to tell you about, because once you discover it you have to force yourself to take a few normal pictures, too. It’s Hipstamatic ($1.99), which will make your pictures look like they were taken with Polaroid or plastic cameras. If you’ve seen some gorgeous images popping up in a friend’s Facebook status, they’re Hipstamatic (thanks, Megan!)

There’s a delay after taking each picture while it’s “printing”, so you have to wait a bit to see each picture. You can load different kinds of film, lenses, and flashes to get different effects, and shaking your phone will randomize what you get (they brilliantly make you pay extra to get more variety, which you’ll gladly do because you’ll be so addicted to Hipstamatic.)

One of my favorite things about it is the resulting anachronistic images you can take.

Today my sweet little girl turns 5, marking the year she’ll be off to Kindergarten. Last year I started a new tradition, interviewing her about her favorite things on her birthday. Though she still likes some of last year’s favorites, it’s interesting to see what’s changed.

Favorite TV Show?

“Superfriends because it’s funny and all the monsters look weird.”

I created a monster when I introduced her to Superfriends. I don’t know if I can watch the Hydronoids episode one more time. This year also marked the obsession with Dinosaur Train and a love of Phineas and Ferb.

Favorite Website?

“Dinosaur Train because there’s a new game and that game is really fun. The one where you get to learn about dinosaurs, it doesn’t only have dinosaurs. It has frogs, turtles, and birds (because birds ARE dinosaurs). One of them has a dinosaur footprint pattern and I like making patterns.”

I just saw that the Dinosaur Train website won a nice award this week at Prix Jeunesse, a children’s TV festival in Germany. It’s good times from DT fans.

Favorite Toy?

“Bat girl because she is the toy I like to play with and the games I play with her are really funny.”

Hmm. Your guess is as good as mine on this one. 5-year-olds are weird.

Favorite Movie?

“Shrek because it’s funny and Shrek makes candles out of ear wax. I like all the Shreks, but I like Shrek 4 the best. My other favorite is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs because of the spaghetti tornado and the talking monkey.”

OK, I may have prompted her here after she answered Shrek, which is our most recent movie adventure. But it’s Cloudy that’s been watched no fewer than 50 times this year, with no end in sight.

Favorite Book?

“Shrek because the princess is so ugly!”

I can’t argue with this one.

Favorite Music?

“Recess Monkey because I like the space elevator one because it has a little talky part at the beginning and it’s funny.”

The Final Funktier is played every night before going to bed. Funny, they were her favorite band last year, too.

Favorite App?

“The dinosaur game because I like making puzzles and it’s match-up puzzle dinosaurs.”

She’d talking about a great little sliding puzzle called DinoMixer.

Favorite Museum?

“The helicopter museum because I like the color green and the helicopter in it is big and green. And it has a carousel with funny creatures in it, and I like watching the creatures go around.”

MOMA takes this category the second year in a row (named the “Helicopter Museum” for the helicopter hanging in the lobby). The carousel Olive’s talking about was part of this year’s mega show, the Tim Burton exhibit.

Favorite video game?

“Mario. I like the racing one because I sometimes win.”

She’s slowly entering into the world of Mario, with Mario Kart and Super Mario. Hooray!

I can’t wait to see what the next year brings! Happy Birthday, Olive!

Traci Lawson is a children’s game designer and producer who recently launched her own refreshingly original iPhone app, Frogs and Fireflies (see below). I know few people who are keeping an eye on apps for kids like Traci is, so I’m happy to have her guest post with some of her favorite apps. Be sure to stop by and visit Traci’s blog for more goodies.

If you have a kid age 5 or older, it can be hard to find good educational games in the App Store. Preschool apps sell the best, so they tend to most of the spaces in the Top 100 Educational Games category. But what to do when the simplicity of those apps don’t entertain your child anymore? Give some of these a try:

Boomshine (99¢): This game isn’t educational in a rigorous academic sense, but it’s an elegant, simple game you play by making a prediction and acting on it. The screen is full of tiny moving balls, and each level has a minimum number you must pop to pass to the next level. Unlike many apps for younger kids that encourage you to touch repeatedly, in Boomshine, you only get one tap per turn. The balls on screen that touch your ball before it fades away will cause a chain reaction of pops. It’s a fun, simple game that rewards thought and planning on the part of the player. You can play impulsively, but you probably won’t get very far.  That makes this game a good exercise in self-restraint for kids 5 and up.

Arithmaroo ($1.99): Here’s a math game I think I would have enjoyed as a kid. This game shows different visualizations of number, and you play by tapping the correct corresponding digit. Incredibly simple, and great for kids who struggle with math, because it’s a chance to think about numbers as more than just symbols on paper. It starts with numbers 1-5 and gains difficulty up through 100, so it’s good for 5 and up, though probably best for 6 or 7 and up.

Drop7 ($2.99): I hesitate to include Drop7 in this list because it’s consistently in the Top 100 Educational Games list, and my intention was to write about the rarer gems. I decided to include it though, because it’s one of the best games on the App Store. It plays a bit like Plinko. You drop numbered chips straight down into one of seven columns. The
chips are numbered 1 thru 7, and when a row or column fills with say, six chips in a row, all of the chips numbered ‘6’ in that line disappear. When they do, the ones seated above fall into their place, which can set off a chain reaction that rewards you with a greater number of points for each progression you set off in one turn. It’s fun to play when you’re just puttering around, and even more fun when your mind starts to develop strategies. A really fun logic puzzle. You should enjoy this one as much as your kids aged 7 and up.

Frogs and Fireflies ($1.99): I’d be a poor businesswoman if I didn’t take this opportunity to give a shoutout to my own app, a color-mixing game for kids 5 and up. It’s set in a swamp at night. Frogs in secondary colors (orange, green and purple) hop on and off.  Frogs will only eat flies that match their own color, so it’s the player’s job is to feed them by mixing red, yellow and blue flies together. Just as you get the hang of it, trickier colored frogs enter (like blue-violet and yellow-orange), and they want to be fed, too. The challenge is to figure out how to mix all of the different shades of color before time runs out on the clock. We just added a new practice mode that gives helpful hints, if you’re new to color mixing theory, or if you just need some reminding. Great for ages 5 and up!

I’ve recently found a harmonic yin and yang in the world of iPhone apps. The yang comes courtesy of an app that my mom introduced on her recent visit to the city, Fall Down. A series of platforms is rising towards the top of the screen, and you have to tilt the phone to roll a ball to the hole in each platform. The idea is to keep the ball falling down, preventing it from getting squished at the top of the screen. (Free!)

If your preference is to work against gravity, then Doodle Jump provides the opposite gameplay. Tilt the phone to jump the character from platform to platform without falling. Springs, propeller hats, trampolines,breakaway platforms, and more fun surprises keep things interesting during your ascension. ($0.99)

Both of these games can be learned immediately by any age player, yet are hard enough that any age player can come back to play again and again.

Today we celebrate a great day, the birth of Dr. Seuss. I mean, where would we be without him? While I’d mostly like to celebrate with one of these phenomenal Dr. Seuss-themed cakes, I’ll settle for a sugar-free Seuss on my iPhone.

Yes, just in time for the big birthday, Oceanhouse Media has launched a line of Dr. Seuss eBooks for the iPhone, including Dr. Seuss’s ABC, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the one that I looked at, The Cat in the Hat. This app is another interesting entry into the unknown world of eBooks for kids, and there are a few things worth noting. First, the book looks great. The close-ups, zooms and pans work really well, both for this particular book and on this particular platform. The text is clear, and they’ve done a nice job highlighting the text as the story is read. The voice-over could be more dynamic, but that’s a pretty minor quibble.

This app runs $3.99, which simultaneously seems high for a kids’ app and low for a book. While $3.99 seems a fair price to pay for one of the great classic kids’ books (and I paid it), for that price app I’d love to see some additional activity after the book is read. Now, you can tap on the picture and see words appear, and there is a mode where you can read to yourself, but I’m talking about some bonus gameplay here.

The interesting thing I’ve found since downloading this book is that even though The Cat in the Hat is a household favorite that’s read often, I can’t get Olive interested in looking at it on my phone. I think it’s because it has to compete with the likes of Peggle and Slide-a-ma-jig. We’ll see. I’m curious, with polished apps like this and toy readers like the VTech Flip, how eBooks take off for kids. Something is going to hit the mark, I’m just not sure we’ve seen it yet.

Note that March 2 ONLY, in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, all of these apps will be on sale for $0.99. At that price, they’re definitely worth owning, and I’m downloading ABC and Grinch as I write this. I willing to bet that Olive will come around.

Toy Fair doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but Hasbro kicked things off a day early with a lovely blogger preview of their showroom. Another blogger I was talking to said the same thing I was thinking – I had no idea just how many Hasbro toys we owned. Two of Olive’s favorites right now are Hasbro staples, Littlest Pet Shop and Tinker Toys. Check out her dinosaur playground.

Signs all over the showroom indicated the anniversaries of some beloved toys, and this list probably highlights what you own as well. Warning: if you’re like me, this may make you feel old:

• Tinker Toys – 95 years old
• Monopoly – 75 years old
• Play-doh Fun Factory – 50 years old
• Life – 50 years old
• Dressie Bessie – 40 years old
• Strawberry Shortcake – 30 years old
• Trivial Pursuit – 25 years old

They’ve returned some toys to their classic form. I can’t tell you how great it was for me to see Weebles returned to the classic 70s egg shape.

In other cases, they’ve made big changes that aren’t always for the better. Because people were feeling like Trivial Pursuit made them feel stupid, they made the questions easier by adding more information in the questions. And Monopoly. OK, I can get past the major shift to a circular board, but I don’t love all this business of electronic scoring and digital banking. There was always something so nice about seeing your pile of money and fighting over who got to be banker.

A reaction I kept having in the showroom (and I’m sure I’ll be experiencing this tomorrow as I walk the floor of Toy Fair) is that I constantly wanted to start ripping the batteries out of toys. I’m sorry, but Mr. Potato Head should not talk. Nor should anything having to do with Play-Doh. Sorry, Elmo.

These toys are designed so perfectly for creative pretend play that any electronic talking diminishes the experience. I’m all for a Mr. Potato Head that looks like Iron Man, though. Tony Starch – get it? Har har.

But then there were cases where technology plus a classic brand yielded something interesting, as was the case with Scrabble Flash. There are five tiles, each with digital letters. As you put them together to form words, the word is scored and you can keep scrambling to find words until time runs out. With 5 tiles, this is great practice for junior word builders. As a Scrabble player myself, I’d really like to see a version with 7 tiles.

Also, a bunch of games are on or are coming to the iPhone, including Scrabble, Life, Connect 4, and Risk. Some of those may be worth checking out.

The geeks among us will likely enjoy the RC Millennium Falcon, but I was particularly taken with the Ricochet, an RC car that could flip over on itself and prop itself up and other cool stunts. The prototype wasn’t working so well, but hopefully this one will live up to its promise by launch.

And what was Olive’s favorite toy from the swag bag? A couple of these little Superhero Squad action figures. Look at little Tony Stark. Isn’t he adorable?

I’m already on toy overload and the week is just beginning. I’ll have posts from Toy Fair all week here as well as on the awesome blog Z Recommends. Happy playing!

It’s impossible for me to show you a screenshot of Tickle Tap Apps’s lovely Sound Shaker and fully convey how innovative this app is. It makes perfect use of the iPhone platform. First, you choose a sound type, such as chimes, drums, or farm animals. Then you’re taken to a blank screen. Tap the screen and a ball will appear, which is set to a particular note (or animal noise, as the case may be.) Hold your finger longer, and you can get a bigger ball with a different sound. Then, as you rotate the phone, the balls collide with one another to make their sounds. You can really experiment to get a wide variety of sound combinations.

What’s more is there’s a lovely Easter Egg surprise. If you hold your finger down long enough, your ball will hatch and a sweet little bird will come out. This is the perfect app for the very youngest of kids, yet anyone older will have fun experimenting with the different sounds. ($1.99. Promotional code was provided to me.)

According to Gizmodo, “If you don’t know what Peggle is by now, you must have spent the past few years on Mars with your eyes closed and fingers in your ears.” So, if you’re like me and just returning from your Martian voyage, get thee to the App Store immediately. I couldn’t put this game down until I’d played through every level, and nearly missed my subway stop on more than one occasion. What’s better? Olive likes the game as much as I do. The gameplay is simple – try to clear all of the orange pegs – and the fun will appeal to everyone in your family. ($2.99)

I’ve found a bunch of character slide apps for the iPhone – you know the kind, where you can swamp heads, bodies, and feet to create different characters – but none so good as Slide-a-ma-jig. There are six different variables from the hat down to the feet. Even the backgrounds can change. Couple that with some truly funny and monstrous characters designs and this app is a winner. Olive always switches over to this one after she’s had her fill of Peggle. ($0.99. Found via Geekdad.)

And while we’re on the subject of Apple, how about that iPad, huh? I’ll admit, that it’s not the dream machine I was hoping it to be (I’d really like it to support Flash and have more of a traditional operating system), but I’m hugely interested to see where it takes gaming. Right now, the iPhone is one of the best platforms around for the littlest kids (cost aside), with no mouse or other controller to get in the way. The interaction is so direct and intuitive. With the larger iPad, I think games for kids can only get better, and I look forward to interfaces like that becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous in the coming years.