Many of the children’s e-book applications for iPad today use a combination of animations, video or even games to make books more “interactive” for their young readers. Me Books, a London-based digital e-book app and retailer launching today in the U.S., has a slightly different take. Instead of animation, the app uses audio to add an additional element to stories. The e-books are narrated, and… → Read More
New York-based Hullabalu is launching today with a new take on children’s storytelling – instead of digital books with interactive bits as is now common on iPad, this new tablet app itself is the story where the action progresses as children engage with the magical world Hullabalu introduces. → Read More
Tripshare, an iPad application for travel planning, is joining a crowded space. But its CEO knows a little something about the industry – Bob Dana was the former employee No. 1 and first CFO of Virgin America. He once wrote the business plan and feasibility study for Sir Richard Branson in 2003. And now he’s doing a travel startup. Dana tells us the inspiration for Tripshare was based… → Read More
Timbuktu, an adorably designed educational and entertainment-focused iPad app for kids, has finally revamped its business model – a model which had previously been a terrible example of how children’s apps too often try to grow their revenue by tricking kids into purchasing in-app content. The company now admits that its virtual allowance mechanism was too misleading, and has moved forward… → Read More
PlaySquare, a startup founded by a team of Emmy-winning children’s television producers interested in bringing “touchable TV” to the iPad, has found a new home and partner in their efforts thanks to an investment from Curious Pictures. The NYC-based production company, known for popular children’s programming like Disney’s “Little Einsteins,” Nick Jr.’s “Team Umizoomi,” HBO’s “A Little Curious,”… → Read More
Riding the consumerisation of IT trend that’s blowing the cobwebs off enterprise software, Belgian startup Showpad — which makes iPad software for sales teams — has raised a $2 million Series A funding round from early stage European VC firm, Hummingbird Ventures. Showpad said it plans to use the funding to grow its own sales and marketing team, and to “invest heavily” in platform development. → Read More
BrainNook, a social, educational gaming site for children grades 1 through 5, is today expanding to the iPad with the debut of the first in a series of apps from the company. These apps will focus on teaching children math and language skills, but have the goal of being as entertaining and engaging as other popular kids’ virtual worlds, like Moshi Monsters or Club Penguin. → Read More
TinyTap, an iPad application that lets you or your children create playable books and games using easy DIY tools, announced that it raised a $500,000 round of seed funding from Inimiti, a new $35 million Israeli micro venture capital fund. TinyTap is Inimit’s first investment. The additional funding will be used primarily for continued product development, including the launch of new game engines… → Read More
The Explore Shakespeare iPad apps are interactive versions of Shakespeare plays, made on behalf of venerable British publisher, Cambridge University Press. In addition to the full text of either Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet you get an entire audio performance, plus photos of productions, glossaries and textual notes, plot synopses, academic articles, study activities and more. → Read More
Maily is a new iPad app launching today that aims to be your kids’ first email application. Because, you know, kids these days and their busy schedules. Ha! In all seriousness, Maily is a communications tool that lets kids easily share messages and drawings with family and friends through a simplified interface that even a small child as young as three can manage, at least according to early… → Read More
Jetpac, a gorgeous social travel application for iPad, has just scored $2.4 million in Series A funding from Khosla Ventures, Morado Venture Partners, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and [redacted], a top Facebook exec. (Sorry, they won’t let us say). The company first debuted its iPad app in April of this year, which lets you browse and favorite travel photos taken by your friends on Facebook. → Read More
CloudOn - yes, the company known best for bringing Microsoft Office to the iPad – has just closed a $16 million Series B round led by The Social+Capital Partnership with participation from Translink Capital as well as existing investors Foundation Capital and Rembrandt Venture Partners. Mamoon Hamid, General Partner at Social+Capital, will now join CloudOn’s Board of Directors as a part of the… → Read More
TinyTap is a new iPad application designed for kids which introduces a different angle on the “record-your-own-voice” storybooks craze, by offering a playable book or game you and your kids can customize with your own photos, camera shots, music, narration, and more. The resulting creations can then be shared with family and friends. And, for a little inspiration, the built-in TinyTap store offers… → Read More
Social magazine Flipboard may have to think up a new tagline for itself, as tonight the company is rolling out an update which greatly expands its focus beyond text-based content to also include audio. The rollout features integrations from NPR, PRI (Public Radio International) and social sound platform, SoundCloud.
Also of note, Flipboard is launching its third localized edition with the… → Read More
Imagery has always been important, but it would seem that our obsession with it is growing by the minute. Pinterest is so hot right now, and I honestly don’t even need to talk about Instagram, or that Facebook bought the $0-revenue producing app for a hefty $1 billion. And, of course, Draw Something by OMGPOP enjoyed similar success.
So it’s really no surprise that entrepreneurs are trying to… → Read More
iPad guilt? There needs to be a technical term for that feeling in the pit of a parent’s stomach that arises from handing over the iPad to their kids, only to watch them play brain rotting Outfit7 games or level after level of Angry Birds. Fortunately, some startups are focusing on developing more educational content for the iPad to help parents assuage some of their guilt over their kids’… → Read More
“Grumpy Cat! Grumpy Cat! More Grumpy Cat, please!” – That’s basically my two-year-old’s review of FarFaria, a new subscription-based children’s storybook app for the iPad. (To translate: she loves it, and especially that story about the grumpy cat.) The app, to be clear, doesn’t just offer the one story – not that my kid seems to care right now – it’s a collection of nearly one hundred stories… → Read More
It’s funny how the news hits, sometimes. Just this morning, one social travel service (Gtrot) made the decision to shift away from the travel vertical to focus on local discovery, while another, Jetpac, is going all in.
Jetpac’s newly launched iPad application, already sitting at #1 in the “New Travel App” section of the iPad App Store, aims to do what Gtrot once tried to: inspire you to take a… → Read More
Flipboard is rolling out the first major update to its social magazine tonight since its December launch on the iPhone. The new release brings the iPhone app’s most popular feature, “Cover Stories,” to the iPad’s bigger screen. Now, iPad users will see a large, double-tiled pane on the first page of their Flipboard app. There, you’ll find a mix of stories popular among your friends, those that… → Read More
955 Dreams, the startup behind Apple’s iPhone App of the Year Runner Up “Band of the Day,” is today releasing the new tablet-optimized version of the app for the iPad. In addition, the company announced it has closed on a $3.25 million round of seed funding. Investors participating in the round included 500 Startups, m8 Capital, Kapor Capital, Felicis Ventures and CrunchFund (Disclosure… → Read More
Bleacher Report, the popular site for sports fans now boasting 22 million uniques per month, just released its Team Stream app for the iPad. Similar to Team Stream for iPhone and Android smartphones, the new Team Stream HD app features news and analysis and supports push notifications for breaking news.
This is the first tablet-optimized experience from the company, but it’s not the only one… → Read More
Showtime is today joining HBO GO as another premium cable channel that’s bringing its content to mobile devices. Through the new iPad app Showtime Anytime, customers can now watch Showtime’s original programming, including its TV series, movies, sports and documentaries anywhere there’s an Internet connection. → Read More
If you are a big TinTin fan, you probably know that Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of TinTin opens today in theaters. But if you are a really big fan, there is also a companion coffee table book called “The Art of The Adventures of TinTin.” But don’t get the $39.99 print edition. Get the $5.99 iPad app instead. It has all the same art work, plus a whole lot more—3D models of the characters… → Read More
Skitch, the popular photo editing Mac app acquired by Evernote in August, is now available on the iPad. The release follows the launch of the Skitch for Android app earlier this year, and is the first iOS-compatible version available. Using the new app, you can annotate just about anything – a new photo, one from your camera roll, a screenshot, a map or you can just draw on a blank canvas.
And… → Read More
Toronto-based photography community 500px, the Flickr alternative which recently raised $525,000 in Series A, is now available on the iPad in app format. The new app includes all the feeds you would find on the site, including the feeds for Popular, Editor’s Choice, Upcoming and Fresh photos, plus access to your own photos and those belonging to your friends, the ability to like, favorite and… → Read More
Realtime semantic startup Evri is debuting its brand-new iPad application today, where it joins the crowded “iPad news magazine” space filled with the likes of Flipboard, The Daily, Zite, Pulse, NewsMix, AOL Editions, News360 and others. To differentiate itself from the pack, Evri’s app employs a combination of social news and topical streams, allowing readers to follow their interests as opposed… → Read More
Moprise is launching a new iPad application it’s calling a “Flipboard for the Enterprise.” The app is a tablet-optimized version of the company’s currently available Coaxion iPhone application. The Flipboard analogy isn’t quite right, however. Flipboard is about reading news and articles, browsing photos and viewing updates from your social networks in a magazine-like format. Coaxion and Flipboard… → Read More
Taptu, a social media and social search company, announced today its plans to expand beyond its current lineup of mobile apps in order to include a new, white label offering called Tapform. As the name implies, Tapform is a platform for publishers, developers and hardware manufacturers interested in building their own social news aggregator.
The launch will be made possible by way of Taptu’s… → Read More
Shuffler.fm, an online Web application for music discovery, received a major update today. Now users can play mixes of their favorite blogs, browse the Web’s most popular songs and artists, create personalized channels and more.
But what has us even more excited is the upcoming Shuffler.fm iPad application, which provides a visual way to explore new music, optimized for the touchscreen… → Read More
Cross-platform newsreader application News360 launched into version 2.0 today, a significant update that introduces its new personalization features. The news reader now learns from your activity on social Web services, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and Evernote, in order to present you with stories that fit your interests.
But unlike some of its competitors, which there are now… → Read More
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