iPhone Life magazine

A Traditional iPad Christmas

John Painter 12.21.10

It’s hard to give these two apps from XIMAD, The Twelve Days of Christmas ($1.99) and Twas The Night Before Christmas ($1.99), too much praise. 

They are very fine examples of what ebooks can be, media rich with both eye and ear candy for kids of all ages, and inviting of interaction.  Touch an image in one of these books and you can make it move, which I think is a superb way of drawing you into the story. 

The only problem I encountered with either of the apps was the Twelve Days of Christmas chapter menu doesn’t pop up when touched as in Twas The Night Before Christmas, you have to drag it up the screen.   In Twas The Night Before Christmas though the menu pops up smoothly by lightly tapping it, however it seems to want to automatically scroll the chapters to the right making it a little hard to then scroll it to the left and tap on a chapter.  Neither of these issues should stop you from buying these apps.

Indeed, I think the illustration so rich, and the engaging experience especially in Twelve Days of Christmas is so good that it has that family heirloom feel to it.  I know that sounds odd to say about a digital image, but it really is that good.

Because this is something you have to see to understand, I’ve made a short video to illustrate these ebooks.  I also suggest you take a look at XIMAD's website to see their whole collection of ebooks.

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John Painter
http://www.johnlpainter.com

I'm a behavioral health professional living and working in Maine specializing in psychiatric rehabilitation. For years I've utilized mobile technology to improve the delivery of community based mental health services, and embraced the iPhone when it came out in 2007.

I am also a doctoral candidate at Franklin Pierce University where I have been researching the role of the Liberal Arts in American higher education.

I write as a guest for iPhone Life periodically with a special interest in helping other professionals (healthcare, education and government in particular) incorporate iOS devices into their work, and several years ago introduced the first iPhone and eventually iPad classes at Lewiston Adult Education in Lewiston Maine http://laeipad.blogspot.com/ concentrating on helping other professionals interested in using and incorporating iPads into their work.

Old Comments

well ihave been using both

Submitted by DreamBoy on 12/22/10 12:00am

well ihave been using both these apps and never found any problem encountered with either of the apps as the Twelve Days of Christmas chapter menu doesn’t pop up when touched as in Twas The Night

A Traditional iPad Christmas

Submitted by nicoleomega on 12/22/10 8:14am

Hi

I just wanted to say a big thank you for a great blog post.

I always find that I learn great things from you and your work and could never appreciate it enough. You do a wonderful job at opening my eyes and I really feel like I have learnt something from you.

Keep up the fantastic blog posts and I have just tweeted the post on Twitter and will be joining your RSS feed. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Thanks again

Nicole
affiliate marketing
http://www.dsm-publishing.co.uk/affiliates

I'm not certain why the menus

Submitted by John Painter on 12/22/10 9:46am
Dream boy, I'm not certain why the menus on the apps were a bit finicky, but it's something I want readers to take into account. In general it illustrates something I see brewing in the market. I think ebook publishers do need to consider whether the core functions, like menus of their apps should be standardized or not. While I do not have any data on whether people prefer to tap or drag on iOS device screens, I would not be surprised if there are preferences, e.g. most people I speak with prefer the ability to drag/turn an ebook page versus tapping an arrow. I know in a class I teach on using iOS devices at a local Adult Ed program, there are more people than one would think who are not used to the seven core finger movements on iOS touch screens - the people who struggle the most seem to be really stuck with thinking and moving how the traditional computer mouse works - they want to tap everything, etc. Those considerations aside, the apps are gorgeous and very well done.

Hi Nicole, These really are

Submitted by John Painter on 12/22/10 9:52am
Hi Nicole, These really are superb apps. the "old" 1963 night before Christmas book my parents read to all us kids, now all tattered and torn with some of our own illustrations added, generates instant feelings for all of us when we see it. This app has that feel to it.

Hey everybody! Thank you

Submitted by XIMAD on 12/22/10 10:04am

Hey everybody! Thank you everyone for your appreciation. Hope our Xmas ebooks will remind you about this very fairy holiday. John, your video is cool!
Join our Corporate Facebook Fan Page and get up-to-date info about our apps, contests and campaigns . http://bit.ly/d11xS3

I have been using both these

Submitted by Abbigailli on 12/22/10 10:12pm

I have been using both these apps in my Ipad, thank you for your share!

You have a very nice product,

Submitted by John Painter on 12/23/10 10:15am
You have a very nice product, good work.

Abibigialli, I've been using

Submitted by John Painter on 12/23/10 10:20am
Abibigialli, I've been using these two apps for awhile now too, and there have been no crashes or anything like that. I certainly think the illustrations are rich, and the audio well done, and the interactivity - especially the movement of the soldier in Twelve Days, is really very fun to flick around!

Even More Books For Kids!!!

Submitted by XIMAD on 12/28/10 10:22am

Guys, thank you all for the great comments you left, we appreciate it a lot. :)

If you liked these books so much, you'll definitely love our classic fairy tales that we have recently released.

You can find them right here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ximad/id360112684

Enjoy!!! :)