Duck Duck Moose was one of the first children’s app developers we noticed when we started Apps Playground several years ago. It has been a reliably excellent producer of inventive apps ever since, notching up more than 10m downloads of its products. If you’ve not tried them, now may be a good time: the company…
Pokémon Go is a bonafide mobile games craze, with more than 75m downloads so far. But a new partnership in Japan between the game and McDonald’s is proving controversial. In Japan, McDonald’s has paid to have thousands of its restaurants classified as Pokémon Go gyms, where people can battle one another. A clever way of…
I’ve always been fascinated – but also slightly terrified – by skyscrapers. For any children who fall into the former category, Skyscrapers by Tinybop is an excellent app. Tinybop is the company behind a series of marvelously crafted ‘Explorers Library’ apps that fuel kids’ curiosity about the world around them. They’ve included apps about plants,…
Music has always been a big part of the appeal of Sesame Street, so it’s no surprise to see its latest app taking a musical turn. The app is called Sesame Street Makes Music, and it aims to get kids exploring the world of music-making with some familiar furry friends. “Join the Sesame Street band,…
The best maths apps for kids are the ones that feel as much like playing as like learning. A new app for iPhone and iPad called Jump! is the latest evidence. “A game of simple addition… or is it?” is how developer Artgig Studio describes the new game, which is aimed at children aged six…
The Ready to Read app, by Danish developer Minitutor, has been a big hit in Scandinavia with children playing it for more than 50,000 hours so far. Now it’s been launched in the UK too. Aimed at 4-8-year-old children, it focuses on early reading comprehension: letter shapes and sounds. The idea is that you use…
Twinmatch? If they’re identical, that isn’t so hard. Oh, but the new app Toonia TwinMatch isn’t about twins. What it is about is Mahjong. You know: the traditional tile-matching game that’s been a staple of casual computer gaming for donkey’s years but – as far as we know – hasn’t been that big a game…
The first children’s app that we’ve got really excited about in 2014 is Blokify, which takes the blocky creation of the popular game Minecraft, and allies it to 3D printing technology. Or, in a nutshell: it gets children (and, indeed, adults) to make virtual things on their iPhone or iPad, and then get them printed…
Got a new Hudl, Galaxy Tab Kids, Nexus 7, or another Android tablet for your children? Our best Android apps for kids roundup from 2013 may be of help this Christmas. As the year went on, we covered more and more Android apps alongside this site’s original focus on iPhone and iPad, and that’s a…
The first How to Train Your Dragon animated film was a big hit with children around the world, and with a sequel due this summer, dragon-fever looks set to spread its wings again. If your kids were big fans of the first film, they may well be interested in the new iPad game School of…