I'm a full-time mummy

I received a pitch to review this app at the end of March, few weeks after Ben and my birthday but I thought, I can still try out this app with my boy since he loves birthday, cakes and stuff. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: Biscuit's Birthday
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Mar 21, 2012
* Current Version: 1.0
* Size: 74.6 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: zuuka incorporated
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.2 or later

Description from the product page:

"Biscuit’s Birthday is perfect for encouraging early readers with interactive animations and sound effects on every page. A longtime family favorite with over 16 million copies in print, parents will love inviting their children to Biscuit’s birthday party to celebrate with the little yellow puppy and his friends. Parents and their children can enjoy learning to read with Biscuit together or young readers can explore on their own through independent play. 

Author Alyssa Satin Capucilli and illustrator Pat Schories bring the well-loved Biscuit The Little Yellow Puppy to life in this wonderful and popular book.

Key benefits of the app for early readers include:
• Improve reading comprehension by selecting between two narration options: “Read to Me” or “Read to Myself”.
• Reinforce cause-and-effect with silly animations and humorous sounds throughout.
• Develop early reading skills with text that highlights as the narrator reads
• Enjoy a fun memory game, which encourages young readers to match pairs of characters.
• Promote creative thinking with the fantastic coloring book—the color-in-the-lines mode is perfect for little fingers, and the art can be shared with friends.
• Bonus: There are hidden bones on every page. See how excited Biscuit gets when they are collected."

What's good?

* I love the beautiful illustrations, the soft pastel colors used and the characters in this app is so cute!

* I like the storyline where Biscuit, the doggy in this app celebrates its birthday and all his friends came over to share his joy and celebrate with it. I like it when Biscuit unravels its birthday present as I can reminisce our recent birthdays (mine and Ben's) and how we celebrated ours with presents and all.

* I like the options provided at the drawing activity where you can choose to allow the color-inside-lines mode or free and easy mode. The coloring utensils provided and the different type of colors are also good and easy to select.

* I also enjoy the other activities in this app which is the matching game, puzzle game and the sticker game.

You can purchase the " Biscuit's Birthday" app from the iTunes App Store.

Btw, I'm giving away 2 promo codes for this fun app!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below on one of the best birthday presents you've received!

Winners will be selected randomly!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

I have received a number of emails and comments from my followers asking how I get to review products and apps so I decided to list down my tips and post it (maybe weekly?) to share my experience and tips. Feel free to drop me an email or comment if you want to find out more or anything else.

Last week, I shared my second tip in getting products to review, which is SNOOP AROUND! Here goes my third tip:

TWITTER & FACEBOOK!

Yes, amongst the gazillions Tweets and updates popping every seconds, you can still find treasure (in this case product reviews) in it!

Now what you need to do:

• Make sure you have a Twitter and Facebook accounts (well, you can still see Tweets or Facebook updates if you don't have a Twitter and Facebook accounts but it is better if you have an account so that potential sponsors can contact you back!
  
• For Twitter, look out for keywords like 'product for reviews' or 'looking for bloggers' etc. If you see any Tweets of review pitches, reply the Tweet and let them know you are interested! I have personally received a lot of products to review just by searching via Twitter!
• For Facebook, watch out for reviews posted or pictures tagged etc on other bloggers' fanpages! You'll be surprised I actually get products to review from Facebook too!
• Btw, do you know I sometimes shared out review and/or giveaway opps on my Facebook page too? So yes, don't forget to follow my Facebook page too!
  

There you go, my 3rd blog tips on getting products to review.

Try it yourself and let me know the outcome!

Stay tuned for my next blog tips next week!

** P.S: Please note that it is always better if your blog has good following and good PR rank as these factors help a lot when you request for a product to review.

Seriously people, the moment I saw the words "Little Critter" in the latest Oceanhouse Media's press release in my email inbox, my heart went "Eeeepppp! I gotta have it! It's 2am and I don't care, I've gotta request to review this! And it's a bunch of its story in the first collection! Eeepppp!!" The moment I received the promo code to redeem this app, I quickly download it and then I slept happily... and really excited and can't wait to show it to my boy when he wakes up!

* Title: Little Critter Collection #1
* Price: $11.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Mar 26, 2012
* Current Version: 1.08.3
* Size: 95.3 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1 or later

Description from the product page:

"Little Critter Collection #1 features 10 popular Little Critter stories that lovingly address all the major issues of growing up. Children will easily identify with Little Critter's adventures as he maneuvers through childhood one day at a time.
* All By Myself Little Critter doesn't always do everything perfectly, but he always does the best he can.
* I Just Forgot On rainy days he remembers his raincoat but forgets his boots. At home he takes a bath but forgets to use soap. Poor Little Critter!
* I Was So Mad He wanted to keep frogs in the tub but his mom said he couldn't. He wanted to paint the house but his Grandpa said no. Little Critter was SO mad.
* Just Me and My Mom Little Critter enjoys a special day in the city with his mother. He means well, but gets himself in trouble all along the way.
* Me Too! Little Sister tags along wherever he goes. Whether he's playing football with friends or hiding in his secret tree house, she always finds him. "Me too!," she says.
* The New Potty This light-hearted story of common potty training frustrations encourages children to keep trying, just as Little Sister does.
* Just Grandma and Me Little Critter becomes a good helper when he and grandma decide to spend a day at the beach!
* Just for You Sweet Little Critter wants to do something special for his mom, but he's a little too little and a lot too silly to get anything quite right.
* The New Baby At first, getting along with the new baby seemed like an impossible task, but soon enough Little Critter learns how to be a good big brother.
* When I Get Bigger Little Critter day dreams about all the exciting things he'll do when he gets bigger like having a paper route and staying up late watching movies."

I have some of the Little Critter story apps on my iPad such as "The New Baby", "All By Myself" and "Just Me and My Mom" (Lite version which Ben loves because it has trains, dinosaurs and stuff in the story). I realised my boy likes listening and watching Little Critters so yes, I am definitely happy I get to review this collection! (and I've gotta keep my eyes open for the next collection hahaha!)

What's good?

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* I like "The New Potty" as Ben is off diapers during daytime now and I think he can relate to the idea of using potty well and likes watching how Little Critter tries to help his little sister in her potty training process.

* In "Just Grandma and Me", Ben got excited when he saw the beach as it reminded him of our recent family trip to Penang where our hotel is just right in front of the beach! I took this opportunity to show him how Little Critter enjoys spending time with his grandma.

* The rest of the story in this collection are very good as well as it comes with lessons to learn which we can instill on our children - such as to be helpful, to stay calm, to be more responsible and so on.

You can purchase the " Little Critter Collection #1" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code by the sponsor to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"