The iPhone is quickly establishing itself as one of the hottest gaming platforms around, and that doesn’t just extend to games for teens and adults — it’s also a great device for toddlers, provided you have someone around to make sure they don’t start throwing the iPhone or dipping it in apple juice. One company that’s proving this is Jackson Fish Market, a small Seattle-based development house with a knack for building charming products and sites. The company has just launched a new suite of iPhone apps under the banner Hippo Hooray!, with new apps available to teach kids about Shapes, Colors, and Letters.
Be warned: if you’re over the age of seven, these probably won’t have much appeal. But for their target age range they’re sure to be a hit. Gameplay is very basic, consisting primarily of a child’s voice commanding you to “touch red” or “touch the letter ‘R’” depending on which game you’re playing. If you choose the right answer, you’re rewarded with the announcer saying things like “Super cool!” and “Great Job!” Get enough right, and you’re treated to a Hippo Hooray fireworks show. The apps are all well done, with very nice original artwork and an intuitive design. → Read More
Forget the printed books and cluttered sites like this one, you can now pick your new baby’s name in style. Two year old Jackson Fish Market’s newest site is What A Lovely Name. Peruse and click on descriptive tags and see names that reflect those traits.
For example, English, Elegant, Intelligent and Wise yields twenty-six boy names: → Read More
I have no idea what these guys actually do to pull in revenue, but God love ‘em. Jackson Fish Market, the ex-Microsoft team that brought us They’re Beautiful and Tafiti, launched Elmore City Dance Club earlier today. The application, which was conceived, designed and built by the company’s summer interns (Tyler, Luke and Alex) lets anyone create and share a new dance. The TechCrunch! (TM) is embedded below (and I believe it is physically impossible to actually do). (Quick Note: Their actual business model is to generate sponsorship revenue from sites and site design/creation for clients, just kidding about the first sentence above) http://www.elmoreclub.com/widget.swf?id=3404477f77c4b8ac CrunchBase Information Jackson Fish Market Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
We’re pretty big fans of Microsoft’s new Silverlight platform. And just about everyone will agree that Tafiti, a new Microsoft search site built on Silverlight, is pretty darn easy on the eyes. They even got the Jackson Fish Market team (they are creating new visually stunning products) to help out on the project. But will many people use it? It still uses Microsoft search, which in my opinion is not as relevant as Google or Yahoo. And the site, while pretty, runs very slow. I think people want fast results served on a clean white page with as little clutter as possible (example). Bells, whistles and pretty graphics are fine, but functionality rules. That being said, Microsoft isn’t out there claiming that this is their new search paradigm. It’s an experiment to show the power of Silverlight, and at that it succeeds. → Read More
var jfmtb_gh=”bd889eba90922349″; A team of ex-Microsofties left to create Jackson Fish Market, with the tagline “Handcrafted Software Experiences,” in November 2006. In their introductory blog post, co-founder Hillel Cooperman talks about his grandfather’s fish store, Jackson Fish, a “small businesses was run by family, with everyone pitching in as best they could” and which sold “handcrafted products” that “that both address a core customer need, but also make them feel emotionally satisfied, content, and… happy.” They credit 37 Signals with much of the inspiration behind the company. They’re working on a number of projects, and “They’re Beautiful” is the first to launch. It’s a free virtual flowers site. Users can send a virtual bouquet to any email address (even without registering). The recipient sees the bouquet and can choose to put it in their Greenhouse on the site by registering. They then must return every few days to “water” the flowers and keep them from wilting. The coolest feature is the ability to embed the virtual gifts in another website, as I’ve done above. The “products” are visually stunning, and if they can get significant enough distribution through the widgets it would be a simple step to add premium, limited edition items in the future for a fee. The timing of the launch is perfect, as Facebook and others are testing virtual goods (HotOrNot has sold virtual flowers for years) and the market seems set to explode. I’m going to refrain from watering my flowers. I’m hoping the wilting process is as visually interesting as the flowers themselves. Can’t wait to see if they actually show dead flowers in the widget. CrunchBase Information Jackson Fish Market Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
