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.
For those that haven’t been keeping up with the nifty products to come from the studio: Jackson Fish Market was founded back in late 2006 by a small team of ex-Microsoft employees who set out develop “Handcrafted Software Experiences” (the studio’s name was inspired by co-founder Hillel Cooperman’s grandfather’s fish store). Along with the core principles that drove that fish store, the company also drew inspiration from 37signals. Other Jackson Fish Market products include They’re Beautiful!, Tafiti, and Invitastic.
all games on the iphone are for toddlers, all have basic swipe controls and look like crap, and are boring
Oh come off it. There are some great fun games for the iPhone. Especially when you consider that the iPhone as a gaming platform is not its primary use. The best gaming device is the one in your pocket. Oh look, there’s my phone.
Next.
Perhaps it’s the first device that a toddler can use effectively. The fact that a three year old can actually accomplish something with a UI is pretty extraordinary.
Hopefully these games are boring…
welcome, clones.
Yay, Jackson Fish!
“Washington-based development house” is kind of a weird way of putting it, though – they are Seattle-based.
Would you call Twitter a “California-based web application company”?
You’re right, fixed.
Hey TechCrunch… You might be interested to know that research has proven that so-called interactive multimedia for children inhibits healthy development of babies and children. Of course companies that sell so-called children’s software such as Disney have a fiduciary obligation to disagree.
http://www.cbc....abes/index.html
Nothing of the sort has been “proven by research”. What the research shows is that “educational media” do not do a great job educating and are clearly inferior to direct human interaction. Basically, the effects are “neutral” ( http://www.meds...warticle/589016 ). Which is to say, these kind of things are great to buy you 10 minutes in the car, grocery store, etc, but are in no way a substitute for interacting with your child.
The reason people promote the idea that interactive media is actively harmful is because of some really poorly designed studies. For example, the study which claimed “children lose points of IQ with every hour of screen time!”. These IQ results were based, of course, on averages and nothing more. Averages which included households who had kids watching 8 hours of TV a day — what else is going on there you think? Not much else. What does it tell you about a household with 30 minutes of screen time a day versus 0? Nothing at all. Laughably bad research poorly summarized and reported by the media.
So, yes, Disney et al grossly overstate the value of their educational videos and games, but you are making an equally baseless claim by saying it “inhibits healthy development”.
Hooray for Jackson Fish Market! These games look very, very cute.
Rock on! Congrats to Jackson Fish and my dear friends that worked on this !
Hillel, Jenny and Walter are rock stars, Hippo Hurray is a compelling argument for every little kid having an iPod Touch, instead of some of the stupid junk they get…
yeah, raising kids with television and computer games produces such fantastic results… I’m sure kids can develop just as well by spending time on an iPod.
http://www.cbc....arry-harlow.jpg
this entire blog post is like an episode of South Park where the parents have their heads completely up their asses. Again.
What exactly is wrong with learning games for the iPhone/Touch? If they were physical flash cards would that somehow make it better for you? Do you also have a problem with using computers for learning?
The luddites think that we’re just going to arrive at effective AI and content by considering it in perpetuity. Somehow they imagine children tethered to computers with no play time and applications flashing random words at their frightened faces.
I fail to see the difference between a book and an ebook to a child. Does that mean that the ebook is brain-damaging as well?
Obviously, leaving a kid with these games for prolonged periods would be bad parenting. But when you are on a long drive, educational games like these are great. Physical media, like blocks which plug into a board and produce sounds, had my son identifying letters when he was 15 months, along with flash cards.
Its not like the damn thing is shooting psychologically designed advertisements at the kid every ten seconds like a TV does.
I do understand your worry though. People generally KNOW that TV isn’t good for kids, but these educational software apps and videos pretend like they are, whether or not it is true. The Baby Einstein B.S. comes to mind. However, these apps are good, and they are tactile. They engage a young toddlers mind in an active way that complements, not substitutes for, parental interaction.
I agree with Semantick. Kids playing educational games will leave parents satisfied that they are learning while playing
This thought really made us create iPhone Apps for kids since we have a kid. When we started there were not more educational games around in iPhone. Now we are hitting an year milestone after our launch. We have bunch of Apps in the app store which are all kid Approved! since Kids are QA for our Apps.
Our Apps has real kid’s voice and stickers and candies as appreciation for each level
Please check out our Kid tested Apps at http://www.anusen.com and videos @http://www.youtube.com/kidsiphoneapps
http://www.anusen.com
WE have word magic, math magic, count magic, Math series, Think Big etc around 8+ apps for kids. Enjoy..
I don’t know what i would do without my iphone – the games on it are great for kids! the most awesome new app for kids (or rather their parents) is the kidring app (www.kidring.com). it lets you record a custom ringtone using your child’s voice. just recording the ringtone will keep the kids entertained – let alone the functionality of actually having your child’s voice as your ringtone – i actually hear my phone now.
My kids (2 & 5) love my iPhone – their latest favorite is Farm Friends – kinda like the old See n Say:
http://www.farmfriendsapp.com