100+ Reviews … What I’ve Learned So Far
Have Children’s Apps Lost Their Luster?
I’ve heard grumblings and rumblings that the market for apps (especially those for children) has lost its momentum. Do I think apps are less top-of-mind? I’d say that they were never exactly top-of-mind for the consumer, but yes, I think they are less dominant now. You don’t hear the quip, ‘there’s an app for that’ very […]
Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years – A Textbook for 21st Century Educators
Are you looking for a wealth of thoughtful, educated and tech-savvy resources for teaching the youngest learners? I’ve co-authored a chapter in Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years, out on Monday, August 25, 2014. This extraordinary textbook for 21st century educators includes up-to-date information about new media in many forms, with a focus […]
The Cost of Being Online
This post is simply one to ‘set the record straight’. I have been running, on my own, a review site for nearly four years now that focuses exclusively on book apps for kids ages 2-12. The site is Digital-Storytime.com. Many of you are familiar with it or even regular users. This website, our deal site […]
Blurring the Digital Page: The Difference Between Book Apps and eBooks
This past week brought lots of questions my way, asking for a definition that distinguishes between an “eBook” and “book app”. The flood of interest may have been partly in response to the announcement from Random House, stating that they are bringing Dr. Seuss to ebooks for the first time. Articles with titles like Dr. Seuss Makes […]
Parental Notification, the FTC and Kids Apps: What’s COPPA all about?
COPPA is a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) statute – TITLE XIII – also known as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Law. It was originally written in 1998 and had not been updated to account for the latest wave of digital kid’s content in the form of apps and other mobile media aimed at kids under 13. […]
What is a digital book worth? Reflections on Pricing Book Apps for Kids in 2013
Over two years ago, as one of my very first blog posts I wrote about the prices in the book app market, using my first 100 reviews for analysis. Now that I have reviewed over 700 titles in this new industry, I’d like to share a few of the points I made in 2011, which […]
What’s that #storyappchat? A chat for those who create storybook apps for kids …
Every Sunday night for nearly the past two years, my family will tell you I have that ‘twitter thing’ and possibly roll their eyes. But if you love children’s storybooks and the new apps that have been inspired by them, you might enjoy hearing more about a ‘twitter thing’ called #storyappchat … The #storyappchat […]
My Favorite Sites: A Resource List for Finding the BEST iPad Apps for Your Kids
Since I began my review site, Digital-Storytime, two years ago I have had the privilege to meet many wonderful people in the app industry and develop collaborative relationships with some of the site owners behind the best kids app sites on the web. With 2013 being called (for the 3rd year in a row, perhaps) […]
Two Essential Features for Digital Picture Books (a note to developers from your readers)
Just this week, several Oceanhouse Media titles, from their popular Dr. Seuss collection, including Green Eggs and Ham, have added recordable narration and additional settings that include page guides for easier navigation. This is an exceptional step and not an easy programming effort on the part of a major developer of book apps. It is […]
iPad Best of the Best – 50 Essential Children’s Book Apps (Part 4: Tweens)
Children’s book apps have been around now for over two years and we have seen a lot of wonderful titles at Digital-Storytime.com over this time. What follows is the forth and final post in a four-part series, listing the best 50 iPad books for kids, broken down by age. You can see our first list […]
Technology, Teachers & Our Kids’ Future: Why Funding Training Matters More Than Buying Tablets
I have spent most of my professional life (over 20 years) working for, in support of and in collaboration with programs that functioned to support primary & secondary school-aged kids, parents & teachers. In this capacity, I have seen booms & busts in funding, priorities shifting from one collective program we thought would ‘save our […]
The App Evolution: Tips for Working with Book Review Sites & Blogs
This post was originally published as a guest post in the MOMS WITH APPS blog on JUNE 18, 2012. It’s the story of how I got started in the app world, both as a storybook app resource, and as part of a husband/wife development team … A whole ecosystem has evolved around the world of kids […]
iPad vs Nook vs Kindle vs Nexus? The Tablet Wars Heat Up …
In late 2011, my family took the plunge and began testing the Nook Color, Kindle Fire, new iPad (as well as having an iPad 2 & iPad 1, iPhone, iPod Touch and a few Android smart phones). We spent several months comparing the different devices and compiled a detailed matrix in our post: The new iPad […]
Dear iBooks: Maybe Apple Is Just Not That Into You …
Have you ever recommended an app to a friend? How about an iBook? Last month, while on a field trip for my child’s class, I was talking to another parent about the many great possibilites for iBooks Author. In the process, she wanted to download something I recommended right then, onto her iPhone. However, we […]
Can a book exist without text? Can you be a reader without anything to ‘read’?
I have had several encounters lately that have made me scratch my head and wonder if my opinion on the whole ebook transition is just a bit too narrow? Up until now, I have been pretty flexible about my definition of a ‘book’ and even defended the right for digital books to be simply considered […]
Children’s Digital Publishing – Popular Posts from “The Digital Media Diet”
After doing more than 500 children’s book app reviews, we’re taking a quick ‘look back’ to see which posts from our blog have been read the most. We are also working on a number of “Top 25” lists to share with you soon … refreshing our lists from last year for topics like best for bedtime, […]
The Dark Side of Unlimited Free App Updates
One of the amazing things about apps is that they are constantly being updated and improved. These updates, for iOS and other platforms, are available to anyone who has previously downloaded the app, free of charge. But like most things, free isn’t really free. The developers of these apps have to take the time to […]
Top enhanced picture books, including Dr. Seuss & more, now available for Android!
Just in time for World Book Day, Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s birthday, the premier website for enhanced digital picture books on iOS is now available for Android! Find three new Digital-Storytime.com sites with dozens of reviews for Nook Color, Kindle Fire and Android Market apps.* Now that enhanced book apps are becoming […]
Marketing Kids Apps – Polishing, Promoting, Pricing … and a Good Dose of Uncertainty
Last year we had a series of posts in this blog about marketing children’s apps. Once it was done, I still wanted to summarize this series and add a few more thoughts (and resources) that have come to me from comments and discussions about this topic with other kids’s digital content creators. Among the most […]
2011 – The Year’s Best Digital Books for Kids – 31 Five-Star iPad Apps Not to be Missed
At Digital-Storytime.com, we are celebrating our first birthday! We’d like to pay tribute to last year’s very best picture book apps for the iPad and the developers who made these reading experiences possible. For the final post in our blog, I want to highlight the 31 books to receive a perfect 5-Star review on our […]
Marketing Kids Apps (Part III) – The logic, logistics & politics of pricing apps
This is the third and final post in my series about marketing kids apps. [See: Part I: Three Things No Amount of Code Can Fix & Part II: How Consumers Decide to Download] We end the series with some of the stickiest questions in the app world: What’s an app worth? What price point will encourage downloads? Should an […]
The Dirty Little Secret About App Review Sites
I began my life with apps as a bystander in the app development process as my husband created his first Android and then iOS apps. But soon I was drawn into the process, helping with ideas, marketing and more. Then I began my own review site, as I realized how important (and influential) the reviewer […]
Marketing Kids Apps (Part II) – How Consumers Decide to Download
There are a lot of apps for kids in the app store, so many that even an exceptional app can get lost (or buried) not long after launch. So how do parents & educators find good apps for elementary school age kids (and younger) to download onto their iPads, iPods & iPhones? Over the course […]
That’s MY book! Innovative Ways to Personalize iPad Book Apps
Remember being little and writing your name inside a favorite book? Children have written their names on bookplates inside children’s picture books for generations and there is no reason the digital revolution needs to get in the way of this tradition. In fact, the new ways that a digital book can be personalized go way […]
Marketing Kids Apps (Part I) – 3 Things No Amount of Code Can Fix
An enormous amount of time, energy and money go into app development these days. And after the programming dust settles, an app is born into the App Store or Android Marketplace. But many developers are unprepared for the really challenging work of marketing their app … so much so that they may overlook some of […]
iPad Best of the Best – 25 Essential Children’s Book Apps
Now that the iPad has been around for over a year, the selection of quality book apps is large enough to justify creating a real library of titles, especially for children’s picture book apps. And any library needs a good foundation. In place of what would have been Digital-Storytime’s 10th ‘Top 10’ list, this week […]
Why the iPad has revolutionized bedtime reading for parents & kids …
There is no getting around it. The iPad has transformed the reading habits of some of the littlest readers. The lines between reading and ‘media’ are even blurred. I knew this to be a fact when my child began to choose iPad books over television & video games, even. But when it comes to reading […]
The Changing Face of Children’s Books – New Challenges, New Opportunities
It is such an honor to write this post for Armchair BEA – An extension of the Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention in New York this May 2011. I’ll admit, a year ago I had not even heard of Armchair BEA. In fact, I had not heard of BEA itself. I was a […]
An Adventure Worth Having: Self-Publishing Your Children’s Book as an App
Do you have a children’s book inside you just waiting to get out into the world? Maybe you’re an artist/illustrator or a budding children’s book author? Or possibly a savvy programmer with a creative itch to scratch? It used to be common to hear people talk about the children’s book they “always wanted […]
Trends – 100+ Reviews – In-App Marketing & Other Features Kids Apps Could Do Without
Reading a picture book on an iPad can be an amazing experience. There is so much that can be added in this new medium. There are also some unique challenges that don’t come up in print books. In addition to books that are too stimulating for bedtime (or too noisy for a quiet waiting room), […]