The iPhone Mom

Plenty of apps have come and gone on my iPhone this year but these are a few that my kids and I keep coming back to again and again.

WeetWoo showcases children’s videos from YouTube and it is one of the best kid apps that I have seen. The combination of YouTube and my kids makes me extremely uncomfortable.  The potential for them to stumble upon serious filth is too great for me to give them complete access to it but there’s no denying that YouTube does have some wonderful content for children. This is where WeetWoo! has hit upon a terrific idea. They pull the content from YouTube and give it to you in a kid friendly package on your iPhone. WeetWoo! only features the kid friendly videos and there is nothing even remotely questionable.

The first time you use WeetWoo! you’ll be asked to select an age range, either 3-5, 6-8 or 9+. The age range will determine the videos that show up in the app. You can change this age range at any time by going to the general iTunes settings and finding WeetWoo! on the list of apps. WeetWoo! groups the YouTube videos into the following channels – animals, fun shows, learn, music, people and places. Select a channel and then a list of categories is displayed. Now select a category and a playlist will appear. From here it’s as easy as tapping on the video that you want to watch and off you’ll go. The categories and playlist all feature screenshots from the videos so it’s easy for kids to tell what they are looking at. It’s obvious that WeetWoo! has been designed for use by kids and it’s an app that they will have no trouble navigating by themselves.

So far my son’s favorite channel is fun shows. He has discovered that he can find Tom & Jerry, Spiderman and Phineas & Ferb episodes here. I’ve glanced through the other categories and been very impressed with what I’ve found. These are all videos from the 3-5 age range, the older age ranges will have different content. In the people channel I’ve seen videos about Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Helen Keller and more. The music channel has songs from the Electric Company, Disney songs, Raffi and the Wiggles to name a few. The Learn channel has videos from They Might Be Giants, Schoolhouse Rock and Dr. Seuss videos.

The videos featured in WeetWoo! are hosted on YouTube and it’s recommended that you use a Wi-Fi connection to view them. That’s how we’ve been doing it and we’ve had no problems with the playback. Be prepared though for your battery life to potentially be affected by the Wi-Fi. I did learn the hard way that you must have YouTube enabled on your phone in order for videos to play in WeetWoo!. I had turned it off in my restrictions and am embarrassed to say that at first I thought the app wasn’t working. Turned out to be me who wasn’t working. Once I removed the restriction on YouTube every video worked like a charm.

I highly, highly recommend this app. It’s only $1.99 and you would pay that much to purchase one Phineas & Ferb episode in iTunes. WeetWoo! gives you hours and hours of educational and entertaining videos that your kids will love and is a definite keeper!

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Net Junky Research, LLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Have you heard about Train Conductor yet? It’s a terrific, new app that falls into the “traffic management” game category. The idea is to match numbered trains to their numbered tracks. You do this by tapping and dragging your finger to move the trains from track to track. You’ve got to be quick. If the trains collide you’ll have to begin all over again. You will earn points for successfully delivering trains and you will lose points for sending them to the wrong track. The game has five locations (all in Australia) and as you earn experience points you are able to unlock them. There is also a “Ghost” mode which you takes place at night. The ghost trains do not collide but they also do not stop and they move quickly. I actually enjoy playing the ghost trains more than the regular mode. I think it’s the not crashing thing.

Train Conductor is easy to learn but tough enough to master that you’ll find yourself coming back and back. It’s one of those games that appeals to adults as well as kids. Younger players will probably find it frustrating because the pace is quick but older children will enjoy it. The game is Plus+ enabled which means there are special achievements to unlock and you can keep track of your progress through their service. Visit the Plus+ website to learn more, I know my description isn’t doing it justice.

I love Train Conductor and if you read the reviews in the app store you’ll find I’m not alone. Everything is extremely well done – from the game play, to the graphics to the music. Terrific, terrific app.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 – This is the 50% off price.

Seller: The Voxel Agents

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Are you looking for a noisy app to keep your toddler entertained? Look no further, Baby Drums is here! This app fills your iPhone screen with pictures of drums, cymbals, maracas, pots and more. Pretty much anything that a toddler would love to bang on is here in this app. All they have to do is tap on the picture to hear that banging, clanging and ringing. To see more instruments swipe your finger from left to right (or right to left) and they will scroll across the screen. There are plenty of things that make noise in Baby Drums! and it is perfect toddler entertainment, if your ears can handle it.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: SMHK Funlab

babyCalm is an app that you could use when you are trying to distract and calm a crying, fussy baby. The app uses sounds and images.  When selecting a sound you can choose from a lullaby, Shhh, Shhshh or womb-like noise.  The app will let you adjust the volume of your sound and you can also set your phone to vibrate. If sound alone isn’t enough you can turn on the visuals that come with Baby Calm. These are illustrations of animals that rotate around the screen, like a mobile on your phone.  As I tried out the app I thought that it might be nice if the visuals were in black and white since babies respond to the contrasts. The app also contains information about things to remember when your baby is crying, and crying and crying.

My last two babies suffered from acid reflux which means they cried. A lot. My son was helped by medication and once we got that handled he was a happy little fellow. My six month old daughter has been a whole other ball of wax, so to speak. Let’s just say we’ve had a lifetime of crying at our house since July. Thankfully we’ve finally got a handle on things and she’s been a different baby lately. I didn’t have the babyCalm app when we were in the thick of  her troubles but it would have been nice to have something else that could say “Shhhshh” besides myself. Seems like those were the only words I spoke for awhile.  She responds more to music than visuals but I think the combination of the two could have provided a few minutes of distraction. I don’t think it would have completely stopped her crying but that’s because she had medical issues causing serious discomfort. If you’ve got a normal, fussy baby on your hands babyCalm just might provide enough of a distraction for you to find your sanity again, for a moment anyway! 

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Synthetic Bits

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

iUmmm is meant to be used as a tool for helping you improve your ability to communicate with others. It helps you keep track of how many times you say those distracting things like “like” or “ummm”. The idea is to keep track of how often they’re creeping into your speech and then work on saying them less. You can choose one of the app’s preset words or add in a new word of your own. In our house that would be the word “So”. It’s too much a part of our conversations so we need to work on not saying it so we don’t sound like we just want the conversation to go on and on so that no one else can talk. Phew.

Once you’ve set up the words that you’d like to work on you simply tap on the number shown beside the word. This keeps a score of how often the word has been spoken. You can track several different people and view reports on how everyone is doing. iUmmm also includes a timer that you can use to keep track of how long a speech or presentation has gone on. And on.

As a mom, I find that there are plenty of words my kids pick up at school that I’d rather they not say at all. iUmmm could be very useful at the dinner table if I wanted to keep track of what words they were using. We could set goals for ourselves and use the app to track our progress towards perfectly eloquent speech. Personally, I’d want to know when someone was tracking my speech so I think that for us, openess would be key. No secretly counting how many times Daddy voices his opinions with “uhhh” because he’s got an iPhone too and I don’t want him counting up all of my “ya knows”.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Scott Singer

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

The Game Center app brings you loads of information about video games that are available for all the big gaming platforms. By using the app you can view lists of video games sorted into the categories of most popular, new releases and coming soon. You can also search the app for a specific video game title. When you’ve found a game you’d like to learn more about you’ll tap on it’s title and be taken to a screen full of information. Here you can view images from the game or it’s trailer. You will see user ratings and a general description of the game. You can view cheats and codes, the game controls and specifications. There are also excerpts from actual users as well as critics. These reviews come from the GameFly website. GameFly is a service similar to Netflix except instead of providing movies to your mailbox they provide video games. If you are a member of Gamefly you can log in through the Game Center app and rent games. I didn’t try this feature out because we’re not members. I’m afraid if we joined my kids and I would be in a constant battle over video game rights.

I was impressed by all of the information in the Game Center app but as a mom, why would I consider reviewing? I’m a self proclaimed non-video gamer, with the exception of the Lego games that I enjoy playing with my son. However, I control what video games come into my kids’ hands. There are a ton out there and the only way to know which are appropriate for my kids is to do research. I’ve looked up video games on the internet before and it’s tricky to wade through all the hard core review sites trying to figure out what’s appropriate. I just want a glimpse, a rating, some pictures and comments by real users.  The Game Center app gives me that information and I don’t have to go hunting around Google. The app is free and if you’re interested in knowing what your children are playing it’s worth a download onto your phone.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: GameFly

Toy Kit is a puzzle game that will have your child building “helper vehicles” – a fire truck, police car and helicopter. To begin they’ll see an outline of the vehicle and the various parts lined up neatly next to it. They must tap on a part and drag it where it belongs, one piece at a time. After they finish each piece a new outline will appear showing them where the next piece should go. When they’ve completed the vehicle it will become animated for a moment and it’s name will be displayed on the screen. After that it falls apart and the pieces are scattered. There are no outlines this time, your child must now assemble the vehicle without help.

I love the simplicity of the vehicles in Toy Kit and the puzzles are very cute. The app runs smoothly and will be good for young preschoolers. My only complaint is that there are only three vehicles to build. Hopefully more will be included in future updates.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Integral

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Payload is a free game that puts you into the drivers seat of a dump truck. Your job is to collect items that keep falling out of the sky. Collect them in the back of your truck and earn points. If you miss and let them hit the ground you’ll lose points. You move your dump truck from left to right by tilting your iPhone. It’s a simple idea but Payload uses 2D physics so depending where your truck moves it may bounce off things on the screen and the things falling from the sky can bounce off the dump truck and each other. This adds to the difficulty of collecting all that darn rubbish that keeps raining down. At the beginning of each level you are given a set amount of dynamite. You can use this to blow up the things that you’re not going to be able to catch, or the things that are so big they’ll crush your truck. There are several different levels in Payload – Artic Tundra, City, Quarry and Forest. Each level features different terrain and different items to catch. The App Store description says that more landscapes and trucks will be coming soon.

Payload is a fantastic app for a fabulous price – Free! If you’re looking for something simple to use as a time waster, this is a great app. It doesn’t require you to think strategy or plot out multiple moves but the physics involved keep things just tricky enough. The simplicity (not to mention the trucks and destruction) also makes this an appealing app for little boys.

Price: Free

Seller: Prop Group, LLC

Shake the animals will help your child learn animal names in three different languages: English, Spanish and German. Begin by selecting a language. Next a cute illustration of an animal appears on your screen. Shake your iPhone and you’ll hear a rattle noise and then the name of the animal. Shake the phone again to see a new animal.

I think that it would be helpful to see the animal names written on the screen as well in addition to hearing them spoken. I also think it would be nice if there were a way to see the animal and then choose which language you’d like to hear so you could compare the three languages. The illustrations in Shake the Animals are charming and the animal names are pronounced by native speakers, which is a big help if you’re trying to learn the language.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Rosa Barranco de Helfrich

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.