App Friday: “Game ON” with Star Walk, iReward, ESL Dictionary, & Time Traveler Tours

Welcome to App Friday, our weekly link exchange of family-friendly apps. This week we have apps for stargazing, behavioral incentives, reference, and travel. I was so excited at last week’s progress from our featured apps on the iTunes store, that today I’d like to pay more attention to their movement over the course of the promotion. As we notice the apps gain momentum on the iTunes store – shout out with a tweet or a post – so we can keep rooting for them. App Friday is a chance for developers to gain exposure in the deep sea of apps. Game ON!

What are your apps about?

Star Walk is a handy astronomy guide that shows celestial objects (stars, constellations, satellites, etc.) in the exact positions on the sky above you, providing comprehensive information about them. It helps anyone even remotely interested in astronomy find their way across the sky, determine where to look for any chosen object, rewind or fast-forward time to see how celestial bodies move. It inspires curiosity about the Universe and helps to understand basic cosmic phenomena. Star Walk is available for iPhone/iPod Touch and for iPad.

Solar Walk is a 3D Solar System model application. Take your seat in Solar Walk spaceship that will take you on a grand tour around our cosmic backyard. The features like Fly to a planet, Fast-forward time, check temperature on the surface will make your flight both adventurous and comfortable. In-flight entertainment includes an explanatory movie collection about essential phenomena of the Earth and two modes for observing the Solar system during your lengthy flight. On your demand educational movies will explain what changes day to night and summer to autumn, when a Solar eclipse happens and why the Moon looks different every night. Capture beautiful views of the Universe and share them with friends via Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. Show them what you see out of your window! The Solar Walk app is a universal app that will work on iPhone/iPod Touch as well as iPad.

With GeoWalk you can learn about the most amazing facts of our planet, its people, plants, landmarks and more. It’s easy, just sit on the sofa and make a a family trip around the world showing beautiful pictures and reading the history of places of interest to your kids! They can then enjoy taking the educational quizzes aimed at memorizing facts in a game-like manner. No Internet connection required so you can use Geo Walk wherever you are! Geo Walk is available for iPhone/iPod Touch and for iPad.

iReward was chosen by Apple as an “app for special education.”  You can create a star chart or token board to help reinforce wanted behaviors using visual rewards.  It comes with support for multiple users and loads of customization options, making this app ideal for the home and classroom.

ESL American Wordspeller & Phonetic Dictionary – A Resource Tool like no other for ESL (English as a Second Language). Don’t know how to spell English? No worries. Simply type in 2-3 letters how the word “sounds” to you and the phonetic dictionary will provide the correct spelling for you. Spell the word how you would spell it. NO English SPELLING RULES required.  EXAMPLES:  If you type in ais or aiz = ice / eye(s). If you type in llaquet or yaket or yaquet or llaket = jacket. If you type in leit = late. Vowels and consonants are transposed from your language to American English. The “American Wordspeller & Phonetic Dictionary” original version, designed for anyone who is challenged with spelling American English, has been expanded to include this new ESL edition. FOUR RESOURCE TOOLS IN ONE: 1) Very brief definitions; 2) Cross Reference: If your word sounds or is spelled similar to another word it will be cross-referenced.  Examples, did you mean * petal/ pedal/ peddle; 3) Suffix Speller – root word spelled out with all suffix endings attached. Example: ‘mad’ = madder, maddest, madden, maddening, maddeningly, madly, madness; 4) Prefixes listed along with their definition. Example: satisfied =  dis (dissatisfied) / un (unsatisfied). This app does not require internet connection! This app will receive constant updates resultant of user feedback. Please submit requests for changes to our support team or if you have questions or problems to: support@wordspeller.us | www.wordspeller.us.

Beware Madame La Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris – “Drama of historical proportions, an awesome guide, interactive games and challenges“…what more could teens and ‘tweens on vacation ask for? Put Paris in the palm of your hand – time-travel on your iPhone or iPod Touch to the French Revolution with Charlotte Corday, 24-year-old convent-school girl turned murderess. Join Charlotte, the heroes and villains of the Revolution on an unforgettable historical treasure hunt with Beware Madame La Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris. The debut StoryApp Tour by Time Traveler Tours, LLC, revolutionizes tourism, marrying storytelling with mobile technology to bring history to life for family travelers, educational tour groups, homeschoolers, etc. Discover history with those who made it!

What’s in it for me this App Friday, August 19th?

• Starwalk – $1.99 (from $2.99)
• Starwalk for iPad –  $3.99 (from $4.99)
• Geowalk – FREE (from $.99)
• Geowalk for iPad – $1.99 (from $2.99)
• Solarwalk – $1.99 (from $2.99)
• iReward – $.99 (from $4.99)
• ESL Dictionary – FREE (from $4.99)
• Beware Madame La Guillotine, A Revolutionary Tour of Paris – $1.99 (from $7.99)
• NEWSFLASH UPDATE: Baby Med Basics for iPad – $.99 (from $2.99)

To Keep in Mind