What an exciting week! We were chosen as one of the lucky ten most promising start ups to present at the TWS Conference 2010.
Here are some pics of our CEO Omer Ginor presenting Touchoo, what we are about and our future plans, that will be posted soon also on the About Us Page.
Omer Ginor CEO of Touchoo presenting at the TWS Conference 2010
And then, to our surprise and honour, we won!!! Here are Omer and KerenB receiving the sought after award.
It’s been a very good week and I can’t wait to see what exciting things are in store for us next week.
Our storybook App Thumbelina is getting great reviews, which is a good feeling. An even better feeling is when parents write us to tell us about their children’s positive reactions to our App. But the coolest feeling ever is when a parent sends us a video showing us their child’s reaction to our App, like India’s mother did.
Check out this video and see what I mean for yourself.
Allright, it’s almost happening. We are soon launching Thumbelina.
Thumbelina is of course a classic story that everybody knows and when I first read it as a consideration for the Touchoo collection I thought to myself: “Was it always this scary?” She gets abducted by all kinds of big animals and almost trapped into marrying a scary mole. That’s when we knew we wanted to take the general idea of the classic story and make it into something new, something that our kids could read without having nightmares. So that is what we did and I am so proud of the result.
Thumbelina is also our first StoryBook App to be released with translations into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Chinese, Dutch and Japanese. I am excited to see how it is received outside of the US.
What makes the launch of Thumbelina even more special is that this is our first StoryBook App to be released on the iPad.
I really like the iPad: I love the design, the contrasts and colors are amazing, the user interface is very intuitive, the videos, the cool apps, games, the battery life that’s very decent… Should I go on? It seems like it really does have the potential to change our habits, and I can’t wait to see how this new technology is accepted by the world.
Of course it could never replace the real thing; could anything beat the smell of an actual book? The feel of it? Not for me! However, reading on the iPad can certainly add to the experience in many ways, and create a rich, exciting experience through a skillful application of interactivity.
Another amazing aspect is the friendliness to kids and to the environment: when walking past the school close to where I live the other day, I saw all those tiny little kids with their huge backpacks filled with books and I thought to myself “Go iPad!”
Let me know what you think of reading on the iPad versus reading a real book. I am very curious what your opinion is on the matter.
Remember, always feel free to spread the word about us and our upcoming release of Thumbelina, by directing your friends, colleagues, family, acquaintances and random relevant strangers to Touchoo, or share with them info about us through Facebook or Twitter.
Such a proud moment! Our new demo for our latest StoryBook App is running on YouTube.
Thumbelina will be released soon with a very special introduction price. So stay closely tuned or just click here to become a friend of Touchoo and you will be one of the first to know when Thumbelina appears on the App Store.
So, what do you think of it? I am excited to hear your response!
Help the kind-hearted flower child reach her ‘happily ever after’ through a series of adventures.
Thumbelina is a modern Touch-screen adaptation to the Andersen classic.
This book-app is available in English, Spanish, Japanese, French and German!
A very fresh fairy tale, based on the captivating and all-time favorite H.C. Andersen classic! Young readers can now take an active part in helping Thumbelina reach her ‘happily ever after’.
Join Thumbelina, a girl the size of a child’s finger, as she steals the hearts of everyone she meets. She experiences an incredible series of adventures and meets a white butterfly, a hospitable mouse, a romantic mole and a gentle swallow. Your child will be an active part of the story, helping Thumbelina diplomatically handle of some sticky situations and make her way to her Happy End!
Originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, this classic fairy tale was especially adapted for touchscreens by Touchoo’s co-founder Keren Essigman and approved by Touchoo’s child development expert as fitting to the intended age group.
We at Touchoo believe that children’s books can bring the world together. To facilitate this, Thumbelina has been carefully translated into Spanish, French, Japanese and German. Each version offers a beautiful, rhyming text and a fully-localized user interface.
Features include:
Various narration options including the most fun: record yourself
Control over sound effects
Dynamic page turning
Original text and illustration
Age-appropriate interactivity
The amazing illustrations for Thumbelina were created by Hagit Hashimshoni. Hagit is a renowned illustrator and designer, who lives and creates in Tel Aviv. She specializes in commercial illustration for advertising, animation and internet. Hagit runs a studio, together with her diligent assistant Pye (a ginger tomcat with a great taste in design).
Social benefits of Thumbelina:
Nurtures the capacity for empathy and for reference to the other
Develops the ability to tell oneself from the other
Encourages the child to identify his own desires, as opposed to the desires of the other
Personality benefits of this book-app:
Increasing the capacity for difficulties and failures
