The Working Mom

Dr. Seuss is one of my all time favorite children’s book authors. I loved the books as a kid, and as an adult, I still love reading the books to my kids. So it should probably come as no surprise that the Dr. Seuss iPhone apps totally thrill me and my kids.

The Cat In the Hat

Love this book. For some reason, I feel like this book relates to my life on so many levels. From the thing one and thing two ransacking the house (=cough= Zach and Rachel =cough=) to suddenly finding yourself in a mess that is “so deep and so tall” you can not pick it up, there is no way at all… except a cat with a magical room cleaning machine never seems to show up at my doorstep. Hmmm… This eBook has it all. The ability to have it read to you or read it yourself. Little animations, little interactions, even a little background sound, music and effects. (There’s settings to turn those off too if you don’t like them) This is the way an eBook should be done.

The Cat in the Hat: $3.99* (NOTE!! See below about a special price on this app for March 2, 2010 only!!)

Dr. Seuss’s ABC

I have to admit – reading this book myself isn’t as much fun as reading The Cat in the Hat – but having the eBook read TO YOU it is actually alot more fun. Somehow the reader on the eBook does a much better job. (Maybe it’s also because I seem to get tongue tied reading this book long before I’m even halfway in) LOL! Either way – this book is great. Sound effects, interaction. If you leave the book in the middle, it will even remember where you left off and give you the option of starting there when you start the book/app again.

Dr. Seuss’s ABC: $3.99* (NOTE!! See below about a special price on this app for March 2, 2010 only!!)

Dr. Seuss Camera – The Cat in the Hat Edition

Ok, this is a lot of fun. My kids LOVE playing with the camera on the phone, so this is a no brainer. You can pick out a “frame” and then take a picture or use one from your photo library or camera roll – usually putting someone’s face inside a cartoon – and then save it, email it. You can add “stickers” to it, etc. My only comment here is that the icons on the bottom are a little ambigous and took a little getting used to understand what they did. But exploring and playing with the app was so much fun, we didn’t mind.

Dr. Seuss Camera – The Cat in the Hat Edition: $2.99* (NOTE!! See below about a special price on this app for March 2, 2010 only!!)

NOTE!: So now here’s something really cool: Oceanhouse Media (the developer of these apps) is celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday and NEA’s Read Across America Day by dropping all Dr. Seuss iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps to $0.99 each for one day only, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. Definitely recommend you scoop these up tomorrow while they’re on sale. That’s a great deal!! You can read more about that here

Click here to learn more, see demos and see more Dr. Seuss apps

*prices at time of this writing.

As a working mom, dinner time is the worst time of the day for me. For some reason, even if I have a plan in place to make a specific dinner, by the end of the day, anything short of microwaving something for a few minutes, seems like more than I want to deal with. For this reason, when MyBlogSpark offered up a free sample of Wanchai Ferry dinner, I definitely wanted in. Wanchai Ferry frozen entrees are now available in the freezer case at Target and many other grocery stores. We tried the Orange Chicken and it was really quite good. It was also very quick and easy to make. The entrees are made for two people, so my daughter and I shared it. Her plate was completely clean when we were done. (And there were even veggies in there too! YAY!)

The MyBlogSpark was a nice package too, it came with a coupon for a free package of any Wanchai Ferry frozen entree, a set of asian-inspired rice bowls, chopsticks, bamboo placemats, a handful of flavored fortune cookies and a $25 Target gift card. Now, the best part? I will be giving away a prize package just like mine.

HOW TO ENTER THE “PERFECT NIGHT IN” PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY

1) Leave a comment on this post. (Required. Value: 1 entry.)

2) Tweet about this post. (and leave a comment here telling me you did). Click here to tweet it now. (Optional. Value: 1 entry.)

3) If you have a blog or website, link to this post. (and leave a comment here telling me you did) (Optional. Value: 2 entries.)

Also – just FYI – there is a $1.50 off coupon available at http://www.wanchaiferry.com/. For meal tips to enhance your Wanchai Ferry frozen entrée check out their website at: http://www.wanchaiferry.com/MealTips.aspx.

Contest ends March 9th, 2010 at 10pm MST. There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest. I will be using random.org to choose the winner. I’ll contact the winner via email, and he/she will have 48 hours to respond. After 48 hours, if I don’t receive a response, another winner will be chosen.

*Disclsoure note: The VIP coupon, prize pack, and giveaway have all been provided by Wanchai Ferry through MyBlogSpark

I remember sitting at my friend’s kitchen table when I was about 11 and plotting out my life on a little piece of paper: I would be married to some movie star, living in a shack, with 30 kids, driving a jaguar. Hmmm. This of course is from the game “MASH” (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House). Emily’s Girl Talk includes this game plus a few more: a game called “Lemon”, another called “Love”, and the fortune telling classic “Cootie Catcher”. The app is targeted for tweens and teens, and my daughter loved it. The graphics are as cute as can be. This is definitely a game she and her friends will be playing and giggling over. It saves all the results from your games as “stories” in a journal. Also, if you just want to play the games without typing endless names, you can always click an “emily picks” button that will fill the fields in with random names. (I do wish there was an “auto-clear” – once the names are filled in, it’s not easy to remove them).

Emily’s Girl Talk is produced by Broken Thumbs Apps. Read more about them and buy the app on iTunes here.

Also, to celebrate the release of Emily’s Girl Talk, fans can enter a contest to become a sticker inside the game, by (i) posting a screenshot of their favorite story from Emily’s Girl Talk on the new Facebook fan page, (ii) tweeting it to @EmilysGirlTalk on Twitter or (iii) emailing it to EmilysGirlTalk@BrokenThumbsApps.com by April 1st.

Emily’s Girl Talk: $0.99*

*Price at time of this writing.

Since the last time I did a big round up of apps, I’ve downloaded a bunch more on my own. I know previously I’ve only focused on kids apps, the adults have to have some fun too! Here’s the ones that I’m currently enjoying:

Bank of Mom ($1.99*) – I got this to keep track of allowance money that Rachel had been earning. The fact of the matter had been that anytime she wanted something, I was usually with her, and it was easier for me to buy it for her and have her “pay me back” rather than make her lug a purse with money around. Of course, more often than not, I would forget to request the money, and she would end up with a freebie. Keeping track of the money on my phone makes this a lot easier. The app also helps track non-monetary privileges as well.

Boggle ($1.99*) – This is the classic game of Boggle. While I did buy this app, and I do enjoy using it, Word Scramble by Zynga (Free!) has basically the same features, and in some ways I like Word Scamble a little better. Both are pretty good though.

Dropbox (Free!*) – If you don’t already have a Dropbox account – you need to sign up and get one. Seriously. This is a great FREE! service that lets you share and store files. It does require you to install some software on your computer, but then it basically sets up a folder on your machine that remains in sync with others that you’re sharing files with. In any case, they made an iPhone app so you could connect to this folder as well and have access to all those files right on your iPhone. If you or someone you’re sharing the file with makes a change to the file – all devices/computers get the updated version. You can also restore an older version, or access all your files from a web login. You get 2GB of free space, or you can upgrade and pay for more space. Seriously. Just go get it. (Disclosure: By signing up from the link provided here, I get some bonus disk space.)

Falling Balls (Free!*) is just a weird game. It’s hand drawn (I actually really like these types of low-tech graphics). I think I originally downloaded it just out of curiosity but it is pretty funny. You tilt the phone back and forth to make the little guy run away from various sized falling balls. Should you not time things right, and get squashed by the ball, the ball squishes the little dude leaving a nice little gory splat.

Kinetic Balls (Free!*) – Just about as much fun as the real thing, except a lot cheaper (as in free) and doesn’t take up space on your desk. This one comes with a variety of different balls. (For example, you can have kinetic basketballs. There’s also the standard metal balls but in various color shades)

Pocket Universe ($2.99*) and Star Walk ($2.99*) – I actually can’t decide which of these two apps I like most. They both have some great features. If you ever want to find a particular star, planet or constellation, or see something in the sky and wonder what it is, you will love both of these applications. If you have a 3GS (I don’t, WAAA! LOL!) then you will love some of the additional features added for that model: you can hold your phone up and move it around and it will pan the sky as you move. You can do this manually if you don’t have a 3GS. Obviously, it’s not as cool as having the newer model iPhone, but you probably already know that.

Qik Live (Free!*) and Qik Video Camera (for any iPhone!) ($1.99*) – If you don’t have a 3GS and have been envious of its video capability, then I have an end to your envy. Qik can do video on any iPhone. I’m not kidding. I was over the moon when I found this out. Qik Live will upload your videos and store them on the Qik site – or if you can spare the $1.99, then you create videos you keep on your phone too. A very useful feature allows you to download the videos from your phone onto a computer via a browser by accessing a specific IP address when you’re on the same network.

Rock Band Free (obviously free*) and Rock Band ($6.99*) – Kind of like Tap Tap Revenge, but I kind of like this better. I like how the tracks don’t play unless you hit the notes right and you can choose which you want to play: Vocals, Guitar, Drums, Bass. I haven’t coughed up the money for the paid version of the app. I like playing but I kind of suck at the game. LOL! So I’ve just been having fun with the one song on the the free version, but if I get a little better, I can see myself buying the full version so I can get access to the other songs they have available.

Sims3 ($6.99*) – I actually downloaded this one a few months ago when they had a special deal on it (I think it was on sale for $4.99 at the time and knowing it originally had a higher price and would probably go back up, I went ahead and bought it). I’m not really into playing the Sims – at least I haven’t played it in years, but this game was fun. From what I can tell, it’s not as elaborate as the “real” Sims games, but if you need a quick fix on you phone, it’s fun. I was playing it a lot when I first got it, but haven’t really played with it since then.

Ski Utah (Free) – Well now that I’m into skiing of course I had to go ahead and download an app like this. Just a nice easy way to see how all the local (to me) resorts are doing. I do wish that the app also had direct links to trail maps.

Sudoku ($1.99*) – I’m pretty sure I paid more for this app, but I think it’s really well done so I don’t regret buying it. There are a lot of Sudoku type apps on the app store and I swear I’ve downloaded at least half of them. I think this one has the best, simplest, easiest to use interface. I really like that you can even enter in a puzzle you found in a newspaper so you can use it’s interface to work on it. Still, it’s not perfect – I REALLY wish there was an undo button. Sometimes, by accident, I’ll bump a number and it will add or remove a candidate from a square, and I won’t know what I did. I also wish that the “newspaper puzzle” mode – would hold the finished puzzle a little longer. Sometimes just solving the puzzle isn’t enough. I may want to actually write out my answer on the newspaper and show someone the proof that I did the whole thing. Still, this is the app that I’ve been playing the most the last few months. Completely addicted. I’m only doing their “insane” level puzzles, and it inspired me to learn some new strategies. (Learned with the help of this website – the nice thing about that puzzle solver website is that it walks through step by step HOW to solve the puzzle – not just giving you the answers. So when I’ve gotten stuck, I can enter what I’ve done in the puzzle solver and just have it explain to me how I get to the next step of the puzzle and what strategy it used to get there.) It would be kind of cool if the app had that built in too, but I know I’d be pushing my luck. LOL!

Twittelator Pro ($4.99) – This is my twitter app of choice. I’ve download and bought a few, but this is the one I like the best. There is a free version too. It works with your lists, and I just really like it’s interface.

*Price(s) at time of this writing.

PicPocket Books has taken a number of picture books and brought them into digital media. Here is a selection of books from this publisher:

My Friend Isabelle ($1.99*) is a story about two friends, one of which has Downs Syndrome. It compares how they are alike and how they are different and helps teach tolerance and acceptance.

In Racers ($0.99*) kids talk about formula race cars and trucks and would be perfect for a kid who is fascinated by fast cars. Pictures of kids with funny expressions accompany the colorful pictures.

Sleeping Beauty ($1.99*) is the classic fairy tale with beautiful watercolor illustrations that go along with the story. A page is read and then the illustrations are displayed.

Round Is A Mooncake ($2.99*) has the most interactivity in the series of books. The story goes through various shapes a little girl finds in her world. Many of the shapes are Asian oriented. Throughout the story are a few animals that when you touch them, they make noise.

In all the books, you have the ability to pause, skip ahead or go back, but beyond that the interactivity in the books is limited. They are basically animations that play on their own without requiring the reader to take part in the story. In some respects, this may be a good thing. If you have a kid that likes to have a story read to them without their needing to constantly click “next” to see the next page, then these would definitely work out well. However, in that case, I almost wish they were simple animations/videos, rather than an app. With an application, if you don’t interact with it, the screen will dim and the phone will auto-lock. (Yes you can adjust the length of time before it does this in the settings, however, for battery preservation I keep this to 1 minute and wouldn’t really want to change it, especially when the kids are playing with the phone as they have a tendency to not manually turn it off when they’re done using it. Perhaps relying on that 1 minute auto-lock). To make these more useful as an application, however, would be to make use of the interactivity available with this medium. Websites sometimes fall prey to this as well – “brochureware” is typically the type of site that has just been given the most minimal interactivity and is otherwise an exact duplicate of printed material or lives instead of printed material. There’s nothing wrong with “brochureware” type websites or applications. They certainly have their place – but they do miss the opportunity to become something even more engaging when passing up the interactivity features that could really help capture their audience.

*price(s) at time of this writing.

Update: Just wanted to include this response by the publisher:

I wanted to let you know that we are adding animations to some titles that are currently in production. The animations are subtle, like snow falling or stars twinkling, because we publish previously published books rather than made-for-iPhone stories – so the artwork is already drawn, and we strive to remain faithful to the original book. Our intent is to encourage curiosity by adding elements of interactive discovery to each title which the hot spots and subtle animations provide. We are consciously NOT creating video games, but hope that PicPocket Books can offer a gentle alternative to games for parents who want to offer their children mobile digital books.

We are also going to be introducing a new feature in our next releases wherein the page turns are controlled by a simple swipe of the finger. That way, if a child wants to just flip through and see the pictures of the book without waiting for all the words, they can do that easily.

I was given the opportunity to review a new book that will be coming out, and I thought I’d break from the standard here and ask a friend of mine to help me out and write the review for me:

The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey: How to Be Happy and Successful at Work and in Life by Simply Changing Your Mind.  By Barbara Burke.  Northfield, MN: Front Wheel Learning, 2006; pp. 1+138.  $16.99 softcover.

Reviewed by Katherine Weinstein, Ph.D.

It’s no secret that customer service work poses its own special challenges on a very personal level.  Assisting disgruntled customers on a nearly daily basis can test and even dishearten the most positive and stalwart employee.  Barbara Burke’s The Napkin, the Melon and the Monkey provides both helpful advice to lift the emotional burdens of stressed employees and guidelines for better communication in the workplace.

Burke’s sage advice is packaged in the story of Olivia, a struggling customer service rep at a power company, and Isabel, the wise co-worker who takes her under her wing. Under Isabel’s guidance, Olivia learns to emotionally step back from stressful situations and have a SODA—Stop, Observe, Decide and Act. She begins by taking time every day to mentally “unplug,” and finds that the daily breaks help her to find calm in the middle of workplace turmoil.  Once Olivia is able to stop taking her customers’ angry outbursts personally and actually helps them, her life at work and at home takes a positive turn.

The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey is jam-packed with Olivia’s 22 “aha!” moments which are repeated over and over throughout the book.  These include nuggets of wisdom such as “A simple apology works wonders” and “Winners don’t just point out problems.  They fix them.”  According to the book’s cover, the author has a customer service training program that incorporates the lessons of the book.  You can almost see the Powerpoint presentation in your mind as you read along!

Burke’s book clearly has value as a tool to help employees communicate better with difficult customers and deal with the emotional stress of their jobs.  However, some of the books “aha!” revelations are of the pat variety you might find printed on an “inspirational” poster next to a picture of a waterfall—ie. “Real freedom comes from letting go of the outcome.”  The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey gives us a laundry list of such platitudes, but doesn’t always show how to apply these concepts in everyday life in a meaningful way.

Mandy and Andy Renovating is a interactive children’s book for the iPhone that feature two cats. In this particular story, they go about trying to help a friend renovate a house that is apparently filled with hidden forest animals throughout.

I really like how these books made for the iPhone take advantage of the ability to engage the viewer by encouraging them to click/touch on various parts of the picture on the “page.” In this book, you click on parts of the picture to find these hidden animals. Also, this book comes in a few different languages: English, French, and Chinese and there are apparently plans to add more languages in the future. There is also the option to have the book read aloud, or the child can read and/or explore the book themselves.

Mandy and Andy Renovating is created by Beiz. You can learn more about them here: http://www.beiz.com/games.html

Mandy and Andy Renovating: $1.99*

*price at time of this writing.

Find Bruce is a very simple and fun game for little kids of varying degrees of ability with the iPhone. Bruce (the moose) goes to hide in the scenery. To look around, just swipe the screen. You can click on the trees, bushes, mushrooms and rocks in the picture. If Bruce isn’t there, the item jumps up to show you. Once you spot Bruce’s antlers peeking out from behind where he is hiding, Bruce appears on the screen. The graphics are cute, as well as the background music that plays. There’s no way to “lose” playing, as you can look around in the garden for as long as you like.

To learn more about Find Bruce and see a video demo, go to www.findbruce.com

Find Bruce: $0.99*

*price at time of this writing.

FrootDrop is a purely for-fun game for kids – at the start of the app you’ll see a picture of a tree with funny-faced fruit hanging from it. The whole point of the game is to click on the fruit and they’ll spring free from the tree with giggling sound effects that had my son giggling too while he played. When you clear the tree, a new one appears with more fruit to make you laugh.

FrootDrop is created by GooseRhymes Designs.

FrootDrop: $0.99*

*price at time of this writing.

The Fuzzy Fierce Peach tells a cute story about a peach who’s sure that he’ll be the first peach picked this season. But things don’t go according to plan and he learns that being first isn’t what’s important. There are options to have the text displayed along with the pictures (or not), as well as have a narrator tell the story (or not). The thing your child will really get a kick out of with this particular iPhone storybook, is that you can interact with the pictures and move the characters around in each frame. In fact, you can turn the “story” portion off and just play with the pictures by themselves.

The Fuzzy Fierce Peach is created by GooseRhymes Designs. You can see a video about the storybook here.

The Fuzzy Fierce Peach: $1.99*

*price at time of this writing.