The iPhone Mom

I bought Gello Doodle last week based on the sheer absurdity of it’s concept. How could I not be intrigued by an app that’s built around Jell-O? Actually the app is called Gello and I’m sure that’s because there would be legal trouble if they called it Jell-O. But Gello is like Jell-O and it all wiggles and jiggles, which is part of the fun of this quirky app.

Gello Doodle is for everyone who’s ever wanted to play with their food. Seriously. That includes me. You begin by choosing a Gello mold. Right now there are 22 molds to choose from. Molds include a monkey, a basic oval and even a kangaroo. Now you make your Gello by tapping on the Gello box at the top of the screen. The app gives you color levels that you slide and adjust until your Gello is the perfect color. The next step is to pour it into the mold. I’ll admit that it took me a few tries to figure out how to do this. You have to pick up your iPhone and pretend to pour in the Gello. When your phone goes through the pouring motion it will slide out of the beaker, off the screen and into your mold. Make sure you pour it all in so your mold fills completely. You can also fill it part of the way, then change the Gello color and finish off the mold with a new color. When your mold is full  you can add in some doodads. That is the actual Gello Doodle word for it. Doodads are the things that you add into your Gello. In real life it’d be things like pineapple, pears or marshmallows. Here you have fruits, nuts, gummy things (frogs, worms, bears), cookies, candies and crackers. Then you’ve also got wacky things like flowers, bolts and shoes. You can even take a picture from your camera roll, select part of the image and add that to your Gello. Choose which doodad you like and then tap on the Gello mold to add it. You can add as many different doodads as you like.

When you’ve made your Gello you’ll tap on “Demold” and set that Gello free. Your Gello will wiggle around the screen as you move your iPhone. The next step is to play with your food. You can pump the Gello full of air until it explodes or slurp it up with a straw. You can also adjust the gravity and elasticity of the Gello.  If you put your finger on the Gello and move it around the screen it will twist and turn and follow your finger.  What’s included now is fun but I’d like to see a few more things included for playing with the Gello.

Gello Doodle is pure, mindless fun. My kids are getting a big kick out of their molds. As for me, I quite enjoy slurping the Gello off the screen. I’m not sure if it’s the noise or the fact that I get a clean screen when I’m done. Clean counts for a lot right now because thanks to my sweet refluxing baby nothing in my house is clean for long. Whatever the reason, I’m finding Gello Doodle pretty darn  entertaining.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Shoe the Goose

I saw the Wee Mee Avatar Creator in the “What’s Hot” section of the App Store this week and had to give it a trial run. I use the Wee Mee creator to create my Windows Live Messenger avatar. Alright, actually my kids are the ones doing the creating. They love to get on and change up my Mee’s hair and clothes. Not to mention all the accessories that can be added on. Right now she’s wearing a pink cowgirl hat, sparkly shoes and standing by a windmill and daschund.  Random, I know but somehow it works. There is a website for the Wee Mees called Wee World but we don’t use it. It’s more of a social networking type site  so we stick with the Messenger Wee Mees and everyone is happy.

I got off on a bit of a tangent didn’t I?  Back to the Wee Mee iPhone app. You choose a body (and yes, they do wear undies, albeit skimpyish ones) and head shape. You can customize your skin color and then it’s on to facial expressions and hair. That is my daughter’s favorite thing to choose for me. My own brown locks are so boring that having the endless possibilities of long, colorful, beautiful hair is irresistible to her. The app lets you pick clothes, accessories and backgrounds. There aren’t as many choices as you’ve got online but I’m hopeful more will come in updates. (Online there are oodles of choices, so just because I say there aren’t as many in the app doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty. Make sense?) Go through all the avatar options and it’s just a matter of tapping and swiping until you get THE perfect look.

So having the Wee Mee Avatar Creator can be fun, like elaborate paper dolls on your iPhone, but what can you DO with them? Well, once you’ve finished an avatar you can save it to a Wee Mee gallery. And then you can email it out or save it as a photo for one of your contacts. The next time my kids tell me that they are bored I’m going to let them loose with this app and have them create a Wee Mee for every one of my contacts that needs a photo. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: WeeWorld

Any app that has “a-ma-jig” in it’s name is worth a look, isn’t it? Slide-a-ma-jig is an app that gives you creatures and then lets you mix and match their parts. It currently features 30 different characters, each divided up into five body sections. (Hat section, head, mid-section, legs and feet.) Pick a character, touch on one of it’s sections and then swipe to the left or right to switch to a new body part. Each time you swipe you’ll hear a cartoony sound effect. Zoinks! The original Slide-a-ma-jig creatures are something else all on their own but things get pretty wild when you start combining their bits and pieces. You can make some disturbingly wacky combinations if you put your mind to it. And if you’re in more of a random mood you can also shake your iPhone to get a creature that the app creates out of various creature parts. There are also 20 different backgrounds that you can use to really mix things up. My thoughts on Slide-a-ma-jig?  I think it’s silly, icky totally irresistible. My kids agree.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Lucky Radish Amusements

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

I’ve seen coloring book apps that are good and coloring books that are, well, bad. Ones that are so complicated you’d need to be a rocket scientist to color a picture of a rocket (ok, exaggeration) and some that are so simple your kids will be bored from the get go. 123 Color is different. Here, different is good. Very good. It’s filled with fun pictures to color but it also teaches number and letter recognition at the same time. Your children will be learning while they are coloring.

The concept behind 123 Color is to match letters/numbers in the picture with letters/numbers that correspond to different colors. It’s like the color by numbers that I used to do when I was in school.  Just to be clear that’s Elementary school, not college. You can choose to color in uppercase letters, lowercase letters or numbers. There is also a “creative expression” option. Each of these options is assigned a button on the main screen. Tap a button and you’ll have a coloring page that has letters/numbers scattered around it. Now, at the bottom of the screen you’ll see a painter’s palette. Tap here to see your colors. This is important – swipe to the left and the colors will scroll along the bottom. There are more available colors than the ones which show up on the screen. (Unless you’ve selected 7 colors, more about that in a minute.) Now you tap on a color and then tap it’s matching letter/number on the page. If you need some help, tap on the coloring page first and the colors at the bottom will adjust to show you the set that contains the letter/number you’re looking for.  As a grand finale when your picture is fully colored you’ll hear a familiar children’s song.

123 Color was developed by Steve Glinberg who is behind KidCalc. Like KidCalc, this app has some great customization abilities. Within each activity you can adjust the settings. There is no need to visit a separate settings section. You can change the learning activity (lowercase letters, numbers, etc.) no matter what button you selected in the beginning. You can choose to hear things said aloud in English by a man or woman or Spanish. Or you can opt for silence from the app. One of the features that I really like is the ability to adjust the complexity of the coloring pages. This means you can choose between 7 and 30 different colors. If you choose 7 then you will only work with 7 letters/numbers which is great for the younger kids. The last adjustment that I appreciated involved the songs. I’m all for a song but not necessarily every time my child finishes a coloring page. So for those days when there’s just not room for music in my heart I can turn off the songs. Or if I’m having a day where “The Muffin Man” is just right but “Yankee Doodle” is all wrong I can turn on or off certain songs.

Very briefly, here are a few other things to note about the app. You can save finished pictures to the camera roll or email them out. There is a “do over” button. The main page has a link to a demo video that can walk you through using the app. Finally, “creative expression” lets you color the pictures however you want. You don’t do this by coloring with your finger on the screen. Tap a color and then tap on an area on the page. The colors are filled in by blocks. This is my favorite way to do it for the younger kids because who can stay in the lines when you’re coloring with a finger anyway? I know that I can’t.

123 Color is a fantastic coloring app. My only suggestion concerns how you change to a new coloring page. Right now when you want a new picture you tap a frame icon at the bottom of the screen. My first instinct was to shake my iPhone and it took me a minute to realize what I was supposed to do. Kids might get it right away but I’m not sure. That is my only quibble with the app and it’s so very small and it certainly doesn’t affect how much I like it.  Currently there are 32 different coloring pages. Based on what I’ve seen Steve do with KidCalc I think it’s a good guess that he’ll add more in the future.

If you are looking for a coloring app and you want it to have a purpose (in addition to entertainment) then you really need to grab this one. It’s very well executed, runs smoothly, is fun for the kids and you’ll know that they’ll be practicing key preschool skills.

**I just got word that I’ve got two promo codes for 123 Color to give away. This app is absolutely worth you leaving a comment.  But that’s not all, I’ve got three codes for KidCalc. Again, another app that’s worth a comment. So here’s how we’ll do it. Leave me a comment that says “123Color” or “KidCalc”. (You can write more if you want but don’t have to.) If you want to enter for both then please leave two comments, that way I don’t have to go through and separate things out. I’ll leave it open through Monday and then randomly choose some lucky winners that evening. Good luck!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Steve Glinberg

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

Version 4 of Mom Maps was released last week. I given it an authentic test run yet because my schedule has been too tight and I’ve had no time for any fun outings. I’m looking forward to breaking out of my drive to school, WalMart, Costco, home and repeat  rut and finding some fun things to do here in Boise.

Jill from Mom Maps wanted me to let you know that they appreciate all the feedback from users regarding location information. When I was writing my original review and requested information on good ol’ Boise, Idaho they were terrific and added it into the app.  The new version now includes more than a dozen metro areas and they’re adding more all the time. Vancouver was just added as well – hooray for the Olympic spirit!

The new maps on version 4 have worked great for me so far. Now you can also enter in your own kid spots as you’re out and about. This means that the locations featured in the app will continue to grow even more. There’s also the ability to add pictures and search within the app. Mom Maps also has several travel bloggers who are adding in reviews of their favorite spots.

Last, but definitely not least in my opinion, Mom Maps is now free. Hopefully more people will grab this app and we can all contribute and help it’s content to grow and grow and grow….

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Family Travel Tools

Last year Oceanhouse Media brought Dr. Seuss’s Grinch to the iPhone. Just last week they released an iPhone version of “The Cat in the Hat” and “Dr. Suess’s ABC”. This weekend I tried out the Dr. Suess’s ABC app because that is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. It’s a fun twist on an alphabet book and as far as Dr. Seuss books go, the words are easy enough to pronounce. The book’s illustrations translate well to the iPhone and I like the way Oceanhouse has kept the story’s text in different sizes, just like it is in the book. You can read the story to yourself or listen to a narration. The narrator does a great job and there are fun sound effects that add to the story.  The app itself is simple to navigate. Swipe the screen to turn pages. Tap on words to hear them said and tap on pictures to learn words from the page. I love having this classic on my phone. Well done Oceanhouse!

Price when Reviewed: $3.99

Seller: Oceanhouse Media

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

Siri Assistant is billed as your new personal assistant, who just happens to be an iPhone app. It combines a smorgasbord of different information into one app that is also very easy to use. You can ask Siri to do all sorts of things for you. Find a restaurant, check the weather, book a taxi, find an ATM and more. It pulls in search information from bing, yelp, Yahoo, Citysearch and movietickets.com just to name a few places. You can type in what you’re looking for or say it out loud to the app. Siri uses dictation software from Nuance and it worked like a charm for me. It even deciphered what my 5 year old was asking for and we can’t even do that much of the time. Tonight I was looking for an alternative to cooking dinner so I told Siri I wanted to find a take out restaurant nearby. It used my location to pull up a list of choices along with their addresses and phone numbers. Some restaurants even had reviews that were pulled from the web. If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for then you can let Siri “guide” you. The main screen provides a list of things that it can help you with. Restaurants, movies, events, local businesses, taxis and weather. You can tap on one of these and then continue to make selections that will narrow down your search results.

Siri keeps a running list of what you’ve used it for. This way you can scroll up and down the screen to look things over again. This list disappears when you shut down the app but the next time you open it the searches will be available via the “Recents” button at the bottom of the screen. Siri also has the ability to send you email reminders about anything you like. You simply set it up, choose when (and how often) you’d like to be reminded and the next thing you know you’ll have a friendly reminder in your inbox.

It didn’t take me much time to learn how to use Siri but I’m still discovering all the things it can do.  I’m impressed with how quickly it pulls up information and how relevant that information is. There’s no need to visit Safari and click through search results anymore. Throw in the app’s solid dictation ability and I’m sold.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Siri

Preschool Connect the Dots is a HUGE collection of connect the dot puzzles for your preschooler. The app has more than 200 puzzles to complete and features a ton of customization. This app is perfect for preschoolers and it’s easy to connect the dots. Tap on the beginning dot and then draw a line with your finger to the next one and so on. As you touch the dots the number or letter on it is said out loud. When the dots are all connected the outline turns into a picture. The graphics are very well done.

In the settings you can really make this app your own. You can decide if you want to see connect the dots with numbers, upper or lower case letters. You can also turn on or off the ability to draw your own line from dot to dot. There is an autoplay feature that will start a new puzzle right after you finish one. Turn this off and you’ll need to tap an arrow to advance through the puzzles. The puzzles are grouped into five categories. In the settings you can turn off the categories that you don’t want to see in puzzles. Finally the app features three hint modes. Easy mode will automatically show you the next dot that needs to be tapped. Normal mode doesn’t show the next dot until you’ve tapped the wrong dot. Hard mode shows no hints at all.

Preschool Connect the Dots is very polished and put together. This app will provide plenty of entertainment for preschoolers and peace for mom. 

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: Darren Murtha Design

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

I found Playscape Matching to be an absolutely adorable matching game. The screen is covered with rows of clouds. Hiding behind the clouds are numbers, colors, shapes or letters. To play you tap on the different clouds, looking for matches. When you find a match a little bear named Ben will pop up and say “Yay!” or “Wow!” or something else encouraging. I don’t know why but the way he talks cracked us all up.

If you tap the small “i” in the bottom left of the screen you’re taken to the “Play Settings” screen. This is where you can choose the game’s difficulty level. The names of these levels made me smile. Here is what you choose from -  some clouds, cloudy or overcast. The names refer to the number of clouds you’ll be trying to match. Some clouds is the easiest level and overcast will fill your screen with them. Clever names and just like real weather. This play settings screen is where you choose what you want to match – colors, shapes, letters or numbers. You’re also able to choose the background that appears behind the clouds. Choose from sunny, rainbow, night or surprise. Lastly, you can see your high scores here too.

As I mentioned earlier I think Playscape Matching is adorable. It’s graphics are simple, colorful and appealing. Ben Bear provides just the right amount of humor and I really like having several choices of what to match. This is a great matching game for preschoolers!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

 Seller: Steven Romej

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

Elmo’s Monster Maker wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I knew that it had something to do with creating Sesame Street monsters but I was expecting the monsters to be cartoons. Instead, I found “real” Sesame Street Monsters. The developers have taken video of the different puppets and used it in the app. The monsters move and talk just like they do on T.V. It makes for a very cool app.

Elmo introduces the monsters and explains how you play. First you’ve got to choose a monster as they walk across the screen and say hello. Each one has a different look and personality but they are all missing their eyes and noses. Once you tap on a monster then you’re taken to a screen where you can choose a hat, eyes and a nose. You do this by tapping on the monster’s face where his eyes would be. Each time you tap a new set of eyes will appear. The same is true for the noses and hats. When you’ve got your monster just right then you’ll tap on the triangle/play button at the bottom right of the screen.

Now Elmo asks you to play with your monster. There are three buttons on the bottom of the screen to choose from.  When you tap the camera button Elmo comes out and takes a picture of your monster. I didn’t realize what this meant until I looked in my camera roll and discovered pictures of monsters. When Elmo takes the picture it’s placed in a frame and actually saved to your iPhone. When you tap the button with Elmo on it then he’ll come play with your monster. When he’s done you can tap the button again and Elmo comes back to play something different. Finally, if you tap the music notes the background on the screen changes, music plays and your monster begins to dance. Each time you tap the screen the background and music change. Your monster will dance differently depending on what he’s listening to. You can also not tap any buttons and watch your monster do silly things. He’ll also react when you tap on his body

We’ve had a great time playing with Elmo’s Monster Maker. I love how the monsters interact with you, it’s like being part of a Sesame Street episode. The app is on the more expensive side but if you have an Elmo (or a monster) fan in your house you’re definitely going to want this one.

Price when Reviewed: $3.99

Seller: Sesame Workshop Apps

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