News
Is the App Store Education market heating up?
Jan 22nd
Over the last month, our rankings in the App Store have plummeted from 154 all the way down to 369 as of yesterday. A weird thing is happening though… our revenue has moved in the opposite direction. Our sales up 27% in the last 30 days.
In the graph below you can the 2 trend lines, our earnings sailing one way, while the opposite seems to be happening . Overall ranking is for grossing and for downloads (they are more or less the same). The data below is for our Futaba Classroom Games app over the last 3-4 weeks – note on the graph below, the earnings data is cut off, but there’s another upward spike that should be to the right of the chart: More >
Futaba Single Player Practice Mode
Jan 22nd
INKids have just released an update to Futaba Classroom Games, including a Single Player Practice Mode - hopefully this means no more fighting between students for an iPad to have a turn at the wheel with their friends… Students who love playing Futaba can now practice by themselves at home or in the classroom.
More >
INKids Teacher Showcase: Deborah Komatsu SLP
Jan 14th
Deborah Komatsu SLP
We often receive feedback from our user base and we appreciate every email we get… when practical we use feedback and suggestions from our users to improve our products. Deborah Komatsu, a Speech Pathologist for Los Angeles Unified School District contacted us with incredibly valuable feedback about our apps, and allowed us to interview her about how she uses iPads for the betterment of her students.
What’s your occupation and how long have you been involved in it?
I am a speech pathologist at an elementary school at Los Angeles Unified School District. This is my first year as a teacher. My first career was as a film editor, which I enjoyed; however, after having my son, I decided to find a more family-friendly career. I studied early education and then speech pathology, getting my Masters in Communication Disorders in May 2012. I enjoy working with children and am always looking for low- and high-tech opportunities for learning!
More >
Over 400 new questions in Futaba 1.5
Nov 29th
If you haven’t updated your copy of Futaba recently, you should grab the latest 1.5 release from the App Store. There are a number enhancements in the 1.5 release including over 400 new questions for older grades (4-6) including Flags of the World (5 new sets), American Presidents, Important Dates in American History, Table of Elements (elements to symbols and vice-versa) and US States (pictured below). More >
Puzzle Land for MAC OS
Nov 27th
Puzzle Land is one of our favourite apps for the iPad – both our boys love playing it and it’s a lot of fun watching their reactions to each level as they come to life at the end of each level. Puzzle Land is now available for MAC OS and is available in the Mac App Store from today.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, it contains jigsaw style puzzle games (with realistic puzzle mechanics). Each game increases in difficulty as you travel through the 5 levels in the land (Critter Corner, Garden Goodies, Big Blue Sea, Woodland Wonders and Intergalactic Adventures). The actual gameplay remains much the same as on the iPad (the only difference being your control the puzzle pieces with the mouse) and all of the same loveable characters are still there…
Futaba gameplay on Youtube (produced by an elementary school in Taiwan)
Nov 21st
The Youtube clip which includes footage of Futaba Classroom Games was posted sometime in August, but we’ve only just come across it. The Chinese title of the video translates as “So Easy-iPad on mathematics teaching math in the middle grades” – and contains demonstrations of other great apps like Educreations.
The clip also demonstrates how you can couple the iPad with an existing whiteboard solution to display gameplay on a larger screen – this can be a great way to get students excited about participating in any sort of game, or collaborative process using the iPad.
Click here, or on the image below to jump to watch Futaba CG in action…
Futaba 1.4 is here, with Audio.
Nov 1st
If you haven’t updated your copy of Futaba yet, then please grab the latest build from the App Store. The 1.4 release features a number of improvements. More >
Flashcards 2.0
Oct 23rd
We’ve just released our latest version of Flashcards for iPad which includes a number of enhancements and changes. The biggest change is that you can now select a default language for the app (previously you had a to purchase a language pack if your first language wasn’t English). We’ve also added Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese to the available languages.
If you include Australian and UK language options, there are now over 60 combinations of 1st and 2nd languages that can be used when learning new words – any language can be used as the primary or secondary language which makes Flashcards a powerful tool for teaching 2nd languages at an early age (the actual application is also now localised in more than 25 languages).
Based on feedback from parents, we’ve also returned to a kid friendly menu layout. This change will make it easier to access the growing number of categories and cards (there are now over 400 flashcards in 13 categories in the premium version), as well the word game and spelling game (great for revision).
Here’s the new menu (the previous design is still available under the settings):
If you haven’t taken a look at Flashcards for iPad yet, it’s free to download and try out - the Animals category is included and is probably the one flashcard set that kids love the most. Flashcards is also available for MAC and Android and is now also available in several other languages including Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi and Arabic. All of the language’s in our app have been professionally translated and recorded by native speakers. There’s a demo available here if you’re not ready to download and would like to check it out. If you feel like making your own Flashcards, we’ve also recently launched a Kid’s Flashcards Maker.
We’d like to thanks NSW Trade & Investment and Screen NSW for their support with this project.
Flashcards now available on Google Play & the Mac App Store
Aug 31st
Flashcards for iPad is one of the most popular early childhood products on the iPad. As of today Android users who are looking for fun way to teach their kids new words (or even a 2nd language) can do so on their Android phones or tablets.
The free version contains the Animals category for free. Users can upgrade to the full version which contains over 400 interactive flashcards in a number of languages (German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese are all available language options!).
How one Inner Mongolian primary school is using iPads to teach ESL
Jun 6th
Every now and then we get some customer feedback from some of our users which is a thousand times better than a “good day in the app store”. Joshua Allen, a teacher from Inner Mongolia at an international school called English First (EF) recently contacted us with exciting feedback about our apps, and graciously agreed to be interviewed about the impact of our applications on his teaching methods and his students. The pictures Josh sent us lit up our day – we’ve never actually seen a classroom full of kids using Futaba Classroom Games… More >
