12 Common Features of Good Learning Apps for Kids

There are more people in the world who own a mobile phone than there are people who own a toothbrush. A two year old knows how to hold an iPhone properly and how to lock/unlock it. Mobile apps became the most successful innovation in the field of mobile technology and creative minds found its implementation in the field of education as well.

As learning app are getting in demand, new ones are flooding all the major digital stores everyday. Any parent or concerned teacher could easily be confused about choosing one. Hence, there is much importance in acquiring the skill needed for selecting the proper learning app for your kid and this skill depends greatly on understanding the common features of good learning apps.

The most important thing that an educational app for kids should have is the fun factor. Kids should be able to accomplish tasks and learning activities without even realizing that they are learning a thing or two! Even when it seems that an app is engaging in nature and your kid wants to use it again, one cannot conclude that the app could be educative. Being attractive and being educative are two totally different concepts.

This infographic lists 12 features every good learning apps for kids should possess.

features of good learning apps

Also Check : Latest Updated Educational Apps Directory List

India is Now the World’s 4th Largest App Economy

App Annie, a mobile app analytics company has reported that India has grown to become the World’s 4th largest app economy. The company has also said that the time spent on apps by Indians have gone up drastically.

The companies that are ahead of India interms of yearly app downloads are China, US and Brazil. India might take a higher position given that a growth of 92% is predicted, making the total downloads to 7.7 billion and by 2020, it would reach 20.1 billion.

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App Annie APAC MD Yunde Yu said that the introduction of affordable smartphones and improved infrastructure support for smartphones combined with India’s population gives huge potential for growth in this area.

He also added that the key aspect that drives app economy now is the amount of time that users spend on mobile apps, rather than revenue or number of downloads.

In the first quarter of 2016, Indians spend more than twice the time on mobile apps than they did during the same period in 2014.

One surprising finding was that above 25% of Android users are using at least one ride-sharing app such as Ola Or Uber. This figure is below 20% in the US, UK and Brazil.

13 Popular iOS Learning Apps For Classrooms

With so many benefits brought to the field of education, adopting learning apps in the classrooms is a smart choice. But one could often be confused about which among the thousands of apps available in the market should be adopted. This blog will help to ease the worry by providing a list of the most popular iOS learning apps for kids.

1. Book Creator

Book Creator helps in creating a personal iBook, through simple steps. It allows users to import information in the form of images, audio, video, and text.

Download : iOS

2. Slideidea

This is a tool for creating presentations. Slideidea allows students and teachers to add audio into their presentations. Other features include attaching annotations to the slides, or embedding polls.

3. iMovie

iMovie is an app that comes preloaded on all Apple devices. It allows users to watch videos and tell stories. The app is a very good tool that could be used in conjunction with other learning apps for kids to permit better understanding of concepts.

Download : iOS

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4. Rover

Rover is an educational browser that provides kid safe content and is free for use. Many sites that doesn’t function well with the Safari browser like BrainPOP will work correctly in Rover.

5. 3D- Brain

3D-Brain will help to get a better insight on the structure, functioning and disorders of the human brain. Teachers can present these topics in a more graspable way with the help of case studies and use website links that connects to modern research.

Download : iOS

6. Edmodo

Edmodo is an app that allows teachers to create and delete groups required for managing the various daily activities in a class. For e.g., groups can be created for conducting discussions, sharing study materials, assignments etc. Edmodo will create an interesting and engaging learning environment. Along with learning, students will also develop various soft skills such as turn taking, helping peers, collaborating, critical thinking etc.

Download : iOS

7. The Elements – A Visual Exploration

The Elements – A Visual Exploration app explains everything about the periodic table elements in a novel and interesting way. The Elements app is based on Theodore Gray’s best selling book with the same name.

Download : iOS

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8. Schoology

With Schoology app, every student can create a personal account and avail a lot of features including an interactive platform for performing class discussions and other collaborative activities. They can also submit assignments, projects, class notes etc. through this app.

Download : iOS

9. History – Maps of the World

History – Maps of the World is an interactive learning app for kids dealing with historical and geographical shifts in the maps, made through the ages. It will make learning important historical events and conquests easier.

Download : iOS

10. MathBoard

MathBoard helps with the easy learning of algebra. Various basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, squareroots etc are covered through simple and engaging practices and activities.

Download : iOS

11. LearnEnglish Great Videos

Learn English Great Videos, is an app entirely devoted to teaching English vocabulary, its spelling, and pronunciation. The great thing about this app is that students can learn lessons and refine their speaking skills by watching these videos.

Download : iOS

12. Sushi Monster

Sushi Monster is an educational gaming app for kids. There are a lot of friendly monster characters whom students have to help with completing tasks like getting a target sum or product. Points are rewarded for correct answers, which encourage and motivate students and takes the game forward.

Download : iOS

13. Memrise

Memrise is right for your language class, if you focus on enhancing your student’s memory and vocabulary. There are over 10 languages to choose from and through this app students can explore into an array of activities that simultaneously makes learning quicker and memorizing easier.

Download : iOS

425,000 Apps Vanished from the App Store in Thailand!

Earlier this month, during a routine app monitoring, Sensor Tower, a mobile analytics firm noticed that a huge number of apps were missing from the App Store in Thailand.

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The company first estimated the number to be around 19,000. But it was later found that the number of missing apps were a much higher number, titaling to around 425,290.

Responding to the news, Apple confirmed that a number of apps were accidentally removed from the App Store when they were repricing the apps in local currency. They also revealed that the bug was fixed within 48 hours. But Sensor Tower Data Scientists claimed that they were unavailable for around 6 days.

5 iOS Apps that May Save Your Life

Who said iOS app development is only done for trivial ideas like photo editing or managing your daily mails? There are iOS app development companies who have thought different.

One such thought led to the development of apps that could actually help in saving one’s life when there is a threat or danger. Here are some cool apps that you could use for your safety or to get inspiration for iOS app development.

1. Itriage app

Itriage is a healthcare app that can provide you with medical answers to your health related queries, care options, advices etc. The main features of this app includes:

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  • Description, symptoms, causes, clinical tests, and treatment available for diseases and conditions.
  • It has detailed descriptions, cost, and possible complications along with associated images, and videos for medical procedures like C section and cataract surgery.
  • Detailed information about drugs including side effects, usage instructions, brand names, and overdose first aids.
  • Search for doctors in your location and book appointments from your smartphone.
  • Find the nearest hospital and other healthcare service facilities.

The app also has the option to store your personal healthcare information such as consulted doctors, health conditions, medications, insurance information etc. By this way, you can easily share your medical history with others.

2. Weather-Pro

Weather-Pro is an app that will alert you about severe weather conditions, which are likely to hit your current location. The app comes with easy navigation, worlwide coverage for extreme weather conditions, and an Android wearable support.

The service offers realiable forecasts for weather variables including temperature, precipitation, air pressure, humidity, wind direction and speed, over two weeks in advance. Additional features include weather news and reports of about 2 million locations globally.

3. Around-Me

You will never know when you will be placed in an emergency situation. For e.g., imagine that you took the wrong road and got lost on your way back home from a weekend getaway in the middle of the night. And to make things worse you found out that your car has run out of gas.

Around-Me is just the right kind of app if you wish to be prepared to deal with any such unexpected situation that could freak you out. The app shows you a list of nearby gas stations, hospitals, restaurants, supermarkets and other similar services.

4. Flashlight

Flashlight is a very simple yet useful app, especially when darkness becomes your enemy, as it can serve as a cloak for criminal activities. This common tool added in your iPhone can possibly become your life saving appliance during a number of survival situations.

Even if you are capable of defending yourself normally, darkness can leave you disoriented. So, the first thing you want to do is become aware of your surroundings. Flashlight helps you spot someone who is hiding.

Some other advantages of keeping a flashlight ready and handy includes warding of dangerous animals, finding the way while travelling through rough terrains in the dark, sending emergency signals etc.

5. Circle of 6

Circle of 6 is a personal safety app that is originally designed for college students, yet could be beneficial for everyone. It is designed to be the first step against abuse and violence towards one’s life.

Circle of 6 lets you pick up six of your trusted friends or family members and add them to your circle. If you find yourself in a risky or threatening situation, you can get help with just two taps. The app will send alert SMS to the contacts in your circle that you are in danger and need assistance, along with your exact location.

There are also two pre-programmed national hotlines for safety and information in the app, which is customizable with the local emergency number of your choice.

Circle of 6 U, which is available for download is a school specific version of the same app.

Save Yourselves from Human Trafficking with This Smart App

Human Trafficking is a very serious worldwide issue. Tens of thousands of people get trafficked each year. It is done mainly for prostitution or some form of labor and more recently, human organ trade.

Developed by an organization (Exchange Initiative) that is waging a war against sex trafficking, the TrafficCam app seems to be a very useful app.

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With this app, anyone with a smartphone can fight human trafficking. Just upload the photos of hotel rooms where the trafficked person is being held. As traffickers, especially in the sex trade, post photos in online advertisements, it is easy for investigators to track the victims and find out the perpetrators.

A database of hotel room images are created which makes it easy for investigators to zero down on the posted location

As per UNICEF, every year, 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide. A large percent of these are children between 12-14 years of age.

Smart App ideas such as the TrafficCam mobile app are superb examples of technology helping out to tackle social issues.

11 iPhone App Development Ideas That’s Worth a Try

Apps are developed for almost every industry today. There are apps created in the field of communication, education, food, tourism and much more. Here are some great iPhone app development ideas that’s worth a try.

1. DIRECTORY OF RECIPES APP

 This app is for those people who really like to get experimental in the kitchen. You can just simply enter the main ingredients that you may have with you and the app will show you all the different recipes that you can try out with those key ingredients. For e.g., if you give flour, chicken, egg, butter, and potato as the core ingredients, the app might give you recipe suggestions such as Chicken Kiev with mashed potato or Chicken Frittata.

2. DISTANCE MEASURING APP

This app will help you to measure the distance between two points without having to use a measuring tape. You simply need to hold your iPhone and move it between the two points, and the app will display the distance in the unit of your choice.

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3. SPEED CONTROL APP

This is a very cool idea for iPhone app development. The app will make use of the GPS technology in your phone to calculate the speed at which you are travelling. It will then alert you when the speed crosses the set limits.

4. YOUR DAY OUT GUIDE APP

With this app, you can find out exciting tourist places and attractions that could be fit for your one day trip budget. Searching the app by entering the distance you wish to travel and the budget at hand, will provide you the list and details of local tourist spots.

5. COUNT YOUR CALORIE APP

You can calculate your total calorie intake for a day through this app. Enter the food that you eat throughout the day, and an alarm will be triggered once you’ve exceeded the recommended limit. This is a very beneficial app for people who are on a diet as well as for diabetes and cholesterol patients.

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6. CELEBRITY SINGER APP

This is a fun app. Sing into your iPhone and the app will record it and play back the song to you in the sound of some popular artists that it contains. The app can be distributed as a freemium one with a few voices, and the option for in-app of more artist voices can be included.

7. FIRST AID APP

Medical emergencies happen anytime and anywhere. So, it is important for everyone to have at least some basic first aid knowledge. This necessity could be turned out into a very innovative iPhone app development idea. An iPhone app serving this purpose can guide you in giving all the necessary first aids to a victim of any injury or illness until professional help is accessible.

8. READ ONE’S MIND APP

Get ready for some serious merrymaking and laughter by pointing your iPhone at someone’s head. The app will give you a hilarious read-out of people’s thought at the moment.

9. HEIGHT TELLER APP

Yep! You’ve guessed it right. As the name suggests, this is an app that could be used for measuring someone’s height.

10. SPOT THE ITEM APP

This is a very useful app, especially for someone with serious memory issues. The app can keep track of certain items that you store in your home. The indexed item’s location is found out using the bar-code tracking technology.

11. GET FATSO APP

This app is used to create funny fatso pictures of yourself. The app is linked to your iPhone’s camera, and the pictures taken will show you as someone who has gained a few extra pounds.

Get Your Apps Ready! Android N API’s are Now Final

The 4th and final developer preview of the next version of Android, named Android N has been released. Devices which has been enrolled to the Android beta program will be notified of an update to the Developer Preview Version.

You can download the final SDK from the SDK Manager in Android Studio. With this, you will be able to test your app against the official Android N APIs. You can test for new features such as Multi-window, direct reply and more.

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The Android support library has been updated to 24.0.0, allowing you to use multi-window, picture in picture callbacks, new notification features, new MediaBrowser APIs and methods for supporting Direct Boot.

The N Developer Preview is now available for Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices, as well as General Mobile 4G [Android One] devices and the Sony Xperia Z3.

6 Common Mistakes in Mobile Game Localization

Localization is an important step in mobile game development if you are aiming for a global market. Here are the most common mistakes made during game localization.

1. Hard-coding of text inside source code

Hard-coding text into the game’s source code is a common shortcut used by developers to save their time. But, translators often get into trouble due to this, since altering or updating content means locating it from the source code every time. This is a very time consuming process and increases the overall cost of localization.

2. Not taking context seriously

Meaning of the words that we utter and the sentences that we write mainly depends on the context. Hence the importance of providing adequate contextual information for translators. For e.g., the word “date” denotes a day of a month and also a fruit. And when we say “I gave her dog food” it could mean either her dog was given food by me or that she was given dog food by me.

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Translators often become confused when there is ambiguity in the content. This also leads to a lot of time wastage for its clarification. Sending concerned images and other contextual information in advance can add up to the translation’s quality.

A good contextual information must include character descriptions, screenshots, translation style samples and other helpful details.

3. Not hiring the right people

When hiring game translators, go for native speakers who have a good gaming background. Though it’s easier said than done, following this step could give you wonderful results.

Games need special translation skills because they have a unique form of content. For e.g., translaters need knowledge of gaming slangs and other such terminologies and have to understand new gaming concepts that requires a considerable amount of content creation as well.

It is also recommended that you hire translators who are familiar with the particular genre of game that you are developing.

4. Testing localized games

Most mobile game development companies are lazy when it comes to play testing their localized games. The reason why localized games need to be tested is that there will be a lot of UI problems among the others once localization is done.

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For e.g., Russian and Ukranian translations of the sentence “The sweetest game just keeps getting sweeter!” from Candy Crush Saga are given in the below image. Obviously the sentence structure changes and the length of string varies creating UI deformities. So, actual device testing must be done after localization.

Mobile game development

5. Ignoring the importance of culturalization

Earth is home to thousands of unique cultures. Around the globe, common practices of some places is considered offensive in some other parts. For e.g., using one’s hands to eat is against a good dining etiquette in most of the western countries, but it is the preferred and respected method of eating food in countries like India.

Similarly, each country has its own content regulations according to its state value systems. Translators must have a clear knowledge of location-wise cultural differences in order to avoid input of content that can be seen as indecent by the players of a game.

6. Treating localization as an option

Many developers think of localization as an option that could be introduced if the game gets hugely successful in the main markets. As a result, they fail to keep necessary translation records during mobile game development and thus faces many difficulties at a time when they are trying to establish a grip in the overseas markets. So, it is important to build translation materials right from the start.

App Store has Generated $50 billion in Revenue for Developers: Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook has claimed that they have paid $50 million in revenue to developers. This is a 20% increase from the $40 million in January. Last year, the number was $30 million. He was talking at the Wordwide Developers Conference yesterday.

Also the number of apps in the App Store has seen a significant increase to 2 million apps from 1.5 million apps same time last year. The total downloads has reached 130 billion.

Apple also overhauled the App Store revenue sharing model last week, now offering a developer friendly 85-15 split that are at least a year old and have subscriptions. This model replaced an 8 year old 70-30 revenue split model.

Another major development announced was that Apple would allow app creators to advertise search-related apps in the app store, thus giving users a chance to re-engage with apps.