Peer Into The Land of Oz With the New Interactive App, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for iPad

We have been working on a beautiful interactive book application for over a year now, before we ever knew of Disney’s new Oz the Great and Powerful. You can imagine what a terrific coincidence this was for us when we did learn of the new movie’s release though.

Developed by our brilliant, Ben Roberts, who brought you the interactive book apps Alice for the iPad, Jungle Book and Pat the Bunny, and beautifully illustrated by artist ShaunPendergast, we are excited to share the new The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for iPad app.

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Introducing the Smashing Lab & Makers Club

For us, it’s important to push the envelope in the digital space. It’s sometimes challenging to keep up with the always-evolving technology. To help with this, we’ve formulated our own Smashing Lab where we test different technologies and keep our clients up to date on what’s new and hot to assist them in making some ground breaking stuff. Within our Smashing Lab is a new group we’ve started, the Makers Club.

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We’re Famous!

Well, not really. But one of our favorite apps we worked on with Discovery Communications is, Ultimate Sharks. The app was highlighted in a recent commercial for Apple’s iPad.

Creating a definitive application on sharks was no easy feat, but when MyDiscovery asks you to be their partner on the endeavor, you know it will be a very deep dive into treacherous waters to bring these creatures to life on the iPad, and that’s exactly what we did, right in time for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

Gamification and Children’s Publishing: Finding the Balance

Last month I had the opportunity to join a panel at this year’s Digital Book World Conference & Expo that focused on “Gamifying” children’s reading experiences in digital. It’s a heated subject and one that has vocal proponents and opponents, each with valid opinions and questions. I shared the stage with a very smart group of executives from Penguin, Disney, and Nosy Crow that are in the trenches creating interactive storybook experiences that include light-to-medium gamification elements. It was a good conversation that probably warranted a longer session time, which is why I’ve extended it into this blog post.

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