I came across the press release of this app and wrote in to request for an opportunity to review it. To my delight, the developer of the app reverted with "I really liked your website, the clarity of the reviews plus the cute site design and illustrations." (awwww... thank you!) and that he is honored to have his app reviewed by me (the pleasure is mine!!) Anyway, my review as below...
* Title: Koto Go Silence
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Released: 11 November 2011
* Version: 1.0
* Size: 107 MB
* Language: English
* Developer: Daniel Shneor & April Peter
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later.
Description from the product page:
"Koto Go Silence” is an animated storybook about Koto - a faithful young dog, who deals with mysterious noises during his night watch.
Have fun reading this book, at playtime or bedtime. Tap on the sentences to hear them read out loud, and then enjoy the colorful and funny animations. This App has been carefully designed, so that children of all ages can easily navigate through it and have a great experience on both iPhone and iPad.
Key features:
* CG character animation with exciting segments.
* Relatable day-to-day experiences for young children.
* Interactive texts with English read-along functions.
* Once installed, the App can be played even when offline. "
Ben loves loves loves loves this app so much! So much that it is a MUST before his daytime nap and bedtime. We will at least go through this app twice a day and without fail, this app will definitely make him laugh, say out loud and ask me questions!
What's good?
* It is such a fun app! We totally love Koto, especially the computer graphics animation part!
* I like how some of the narration goes nicely in rhymes and the narrator's voice is very good as well.
* There are some pages which got Ben laughing, such as when Koto pops out of the doggy door (screenshot below).
Ben laughing when Koto pops out of the doggy door!
* I also used the opportunity to teach Ben some new words, such as ninjas, shovels, wind chimes and so on.
* The app comes automatically with the Read Out Loud feature but requires us to tap each pages (except the animation part) to move through the story, so I used this opportunity to teach Ben to tap the text himself, so that he can learn that tapping the text will enable us to know what is going to happen next and I also want him to be more in-charge when we are going through this app.
Ben listening in full concentration...
What's not so good?
* I would love to have an option for the story to auto play by itself instead of us having to tap the text to move through the story.
* I would prefer if the 'monsters' sounds played a little bit longer (or play until we tap to the next page perhaps?) so as to keep the suspense going.
You can purchase the "Koto Go Silence" app from the iTunes App Store. The Android version of the app can be found here.
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"
