App Reviews: Evernote Hello, Happi Full Throttle, The Wind In The Willows

This week I show.. oh, um, what’s his name? Y’know… hosts a morning radio show. Says funny things. Moore something. John! Yes, John Moore. I show him an app that makes it easy to remember the names of people you meet. And I have two great apps for kids including a special edition of The Wind in the Willows.

 

Evernote Hello

iPhone/Android

Free

Evernote is a popular service that helps you record and retrieve information from any device. As long as it’s connected to the internet you can open your Evernote account, you can save a copy of what’s on your screen. Now they have a new app designed specifically for remembering people’s faces. When you meet someone new instead of taking their business card you can snap their photo and type in some basic info about them (the app is also designed so you can hand them your phone to add the info themselves). The app then makes an entry recording the three things needed to remember that person – their face, the date, and the context of your meeting. As you build up a collection of entries, it will even create a mosaic of contact photos as a study aid to use before the next conference.

The Android version offers a few extra tools. If you think it’s a bit forward to ask for a photo from someone you’ve just met, the app can also collect information from your calendar and call history or connect online to LinkedIn to see if they have a profile that can supply a photo and basic details.

Either way the value of this app is the way it organizes your contact information into a study guide so you will always have a person’s name right at your fingertips.

 

Happi Full Throttle

iPad 2/iPad 3

$1.99

Happi Full Throttle is a driving experience for kids. They hold the iPad and rotate it like a steering wheel. The screen acts as a windshield, and to help them “see” where they are driving, it connects to the iPad’s built-in video camera. To complete the illusion, the touchscreen controls form a dashboard with fun buttons and levers that trigger cool sounds and animated effects.

Kids can choose between four different vehicles. There’s a car with an FM radio and speeding road markings. The Fire Truck offers swirling lights, sirens, and a water-spraying hose.  The police chopper delivers the illusion of flight using passing clouds while a dispatch radio delivers the chatter of emergency services. Perhaps the best is the submarine with its pinging sonar, rising bubbles, steam vents, and emergency klaxons. Unlike the other vehicles, it has two views to activate with the second being a periscope to help kids see what’s above the surface.

An easy hit for kids, I like that it incorporates their imagination while offering an experience that reacts to their movements.

 

The Wind In The Willows

iPad

$6.99

With its slightly tattered pages and hand-drawn illustrations this iPad version of the classic children’s book The Wind In The Willows has all the charm of a worn and much-loved first-edition, but also hidden inside is the magic and surprise of a touchscreen experience.

As you flip through the pages the characters come alive, as if you had been staring at them too long. They sway if you rock the iPad, produce butterflies from their pockets when you touch them, and in the case of Toad and his precious motorcar, will drive if you’re willing to steer.

The iTunes store now has quite a collection of children’s books that have been enhanced in a similar way, but Kenneth Grahame’s wonderful book stands out for being 190 pages long and it keeps its atmosphere throughout, offer subtle touches from cover to cover, none of them overpowered the magic of the story itself.

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