Talking Car App To brighten up your child's day

Talking Car App: Talking Car Zippy

The Appstore has no shortage of Talking Friends Apps, so to stand out as a talking character app you have to have something unique and special.
Talking Car Zippy
The cute talking character app is the only talking car app that we have been able to find on the Appstore. When we were pointed in Zippy's direction and told that he's probably  unique as being the sole app of his type on Itunes , we were prepared to be disappointed if "Talking Car Zippy" didn't live up to expectations.
He does! (and the talking app is free at this time which is also a bonus!)


Why your child will love this Talking Character App
When my little boy went into hospital with pneumonia a few months ago one of the only toys he had with him was his little Roary the racing Car. Roary and Lighntning McQueen and other famous cars have always touched a heart string with kids and adults alike. Zippy immediately reminded me of my son's love of cars and it's pleasing to see that the animations and cute drawings used to bring this app to life are very appealing to him too. Of course, as nice as the animations of Zippy are, if you couldn't do anything with him it would be a waste. Well there's plenty to do in this car app and it's all executed at just the right loveable level for a child and easily amused adult!


Talking Car Zippy is very interactive and can be played with in a variety of ways. The car responds in different ways to voice and gestures-such as when you talk to him and he  will talk back in his own hilarious voice. Zippy can be touched , poked and prodded with a variety of different reactions occuring. Don't be too obnoxious to the little car though as he'll soon let you know!


The well animated and entertaining app is a delight for young and old. Naturally youngsters will get the most out of the talking car app, but young at heart adults will also be amused by the level of Zippy's interactivity.
Download TALKING CAR ZIPPY from the Appstore. The Talking Car app is free!

iPad Kids Interactive book brings the Magic back into Reading

A Brave and Bold art style
perfectly suited to the Storybooks
target age group

An iPad is made to amaze and astound, kids love the tactile nature and the play contained in the iPad, but kids also love stories and other types of old fashioned fun. So naturally by combining stories and games our kids should get the most out of their touchscreen interactions. Many developers have taken this on with interactive books which are dull and lifeless, or worse,just cheap imitations of classic stories. Urki ,beyond the Forest. Is not one of these.

Rather Urki is what every story strives to be , original, inventive and fun. The characters really come alive on Ipad with pop up characters making the kids laugh in delight. Every good story has a twist in the tale and Urki, Beyond the Forest has its own clever twist with the child being able to choose their own storyline halfway through.

Kids fascinated with Magic andAdventure
will love Urki

A maze game that is just perfect for the iPad's large screen adds to the fun of the game. Developers Pixel Moon have really excelled in bringing some beautiful illustrations to iPad. The art style is very unique and really adds to the ambience of the story book app. Interactivity is carried out very well and not overdone, bringing an altogether classy touch to the app.

A story-book app for kids 7 and above, with a large chunk of fun and delightful reading to get through.With all it's clever touches Urki will delight kids for hours.
A great way to get a child who is interested in magic and adventure to enjoy reading.
Find Urki, Beyond the Forest Here

A Red Riding Hood Story for iPad : Beware very dark and Gothic!

Dark and Gothic Story for iPad: A Red Riding Hood Tale

Alice:Madness Returns came from the fevered mind of American McGee who now makes his mark on iPad with the lengthily titled : American McGee presents Akaniero: A Red Riding Hood Tale. This strange re-imagining for iPad twists the traditional story of the eponymous Hood and makes it into what else but a feudal Japanese Tale for your iPad!

The developer Spicy Pony has always been known for its clear and vivid visual style and this retina display marvel is no exception with a very Gothic/ watery ink art style provided by the celebrated artist Joey Zeng. The gothic style app is a highly interactive picture book with dark fairy tale music and some diverting games. While not one for the kids it's not as bloodthirsty as you might imagine and makes for some quirky iPad diversionary fun. Definitely an iPad app to consider if you like American McGee's work

Free iPhone TV Magic!

Be on iPhone TV with REAL MAGIC TV

For a Free TV app or any app for that matter to be featured by Apple is phenomenal. Real Magic TV has an immense pedigree and was one of the original apps featured by Apple, way back in 2007. The Real Magic TV App has come a long way since then, with numerous updates and even more popularity.

We were lucky enough to be pointed in the direction of this free TV app for iPhone and iPad and have certainly fallen in love with it. For those who don't know about Real Magic TV it's a phenomenally popular TV show that features the magic of Jonathan Real and has various megastars featured in the show. Through a combination of Jonathan's magic and charm the interviews take a turn from the normal and the stars show a totally different side of themselves to their fans. A really fun Magic/Celebrity show that has grown in popularity since its inception and featured Superstars like Lady Gaga and Maroon Five.

Top iTunes Music and Celebrities
with RMTV

What makes the Real Magic TV app especially good is that it is not a single television channel for your Apple device but gives you access to many archived RMTV episodes  and star profile. What is a brilliant piece of entertainment is the fact that the TV app is so interactive. Aside from having access to all the RMTV episodes , viewers/users can now get access to fan photos and submit their own photos. iPhone TV interaction is taken to even greater heights as app users can submit their own questions for their favourite celebrities to be featured on the show and even unbelievably submit their own videos. These are then shown on the app itself , in the fan gallery.

Real Magic TV is a media phenomena that has grown in leaps and bounds from the Real Magic New York award-winning film. Now being distributed on many popular websites , most notably Hulu TV , the show is a definite favourite for Magic Lovers and anybody interested in musicians and celebrities being interviewed in a unique way and performing at their best. The fact that the television app is free and highly interactive should make it a must have for any fans or potential fans of a massively popular show.

Cartoonise yourself App : Caricature Maker

Share your iPhone caricatures
on Facebook

Go to any amusement arcade or local market and you can find machines or artists making a fortune from caricature portraits. And what better way to capture a fun moment or a holiday of a lifetime than by celebrating it with a cartoon photo of yourself? Well there are better options, get with the times people, in your pockets is the ultimate caricature making device, your iPhone. Even if you have not gone to art colleges, you can have fun with this.

Combined with a slick and easy to use camera your phone is possibly the best thing for photography since the invention of the SLR. Of course without a good photo app it's pretty much useless for this purpose. But here at Gametrender we think we've stumbled upon one of the funkiest caricature makers for your iOS powered device:              CARICATURE MAKER PRO

Now what we've seen time and time again with all the dozens of portrait apps, caricature apps and cartoon yourself apps is a distinct lack of personality. That's where Caricature Maker Pro really comes into itself with with its strongest and most unique feature being the ability to not only ,as expected, transform a picture from your photo album or a picture taken from within the app. But also tweak, transform and exaggerate the photo to give it a unique sense of personality and character. After all isn't that what the proper caricature artists working the Holiday Resorts do?

A few other unique features make this funny portrait app a must have: The ability to share your funny photos on Facebook and Twitter makes this an app that will bring hilarity to friends and family and another great feature that will definitely appeal to it's target market is the unique caricature store where we see this apps younger users, weaned on Stardolls app purchases and the like, going time and again to buy unique options and accessories for their caricatures.

A fun, easy to use iPhone caricature app that is given a bright future by a hoard of unique features.

Customise your caricature with hundreds of unique items and accessories.

Download: Caricature Maker Pro from the appstore.

Explore Android Movies, music, games and more. Pandora just the tip of the entertainment Iceberg

With an Android phone connected to the internet the entertainment world is your oyster. Amongst the many streaming and downloadable entertainment apps for Android there are Pandora internet Radio stands out as one of the slickest and most polished music streamers for Smartphones. In this article we're going to take a little look at Pandora and some of the other services like downloadable movies and games that your Smartphone can offer.

Pandora Personalised Radio Stations for Android

One of the best features for this personalised music player is the ability to create individually personalised song lists. Search for a music artist on your phone by name or track and Pandora does what it does best by creating a radio station that is unique to every user that will only stream your favourite tracks and songs similar to it.Pandora free music is a must       have for any phone.( or try rival PBS which is also starting to make waves with downloadable music)

2012 smartphone gets better and better as Pandora TV has also come to Android!
Now a word on this , apparently this Android television streamer is great for streaming UCC Television. It took me ages and some research to find out that the meaning of UCC Tv is User Created Content! Initially I thought it was a Far-East television channel! UCC Content is thus quite simply any video that a creator has uploaded on to the internet and if that content happens to be some of the best soaps, dramas and new movies out at the moment. And you're luck enough to find it after sifting through Korean Dramas and Chinese Art Tragedies then be sure to enjoy and share with others. It is sometimes difficult to find good television shows on Pandora so other alternate Television Streaming Apps you can use for your HTC , Samsung or any other ice-cream sandwich or Gingerbread powered phone are:

Movie Streaming

Get the latest movie trailers and reviews with IMDb movie in theaters will never be the same again as not only will you be able to use this app to find all movie listings the amount of trivia on the shows and actors that it allows you to access is simply staggering.

Great films on Playon

Playon television and content streaming for Android Handsets is mightily impressive. Able to access content stored on your computer running Playon. Your phone can connect either via wi-fi or 3g to access a huge list of entertainment for your mobile including: Hulu; The Ultimate Fighter; CBS and many more. All shows streamed directly to your phone. Free movies for Android is just the tip of this enormous entertainment ice-berg.

And Games for your smartphone; just to namedrop off the top of my head: FAAD; The Android Market itself; Gameloft Store; Ea online; Getjar and many more, so much content out there that you could quite happily look yourself away in your bedroom for the rest of the year with just your phone for company and still never be able to get through all the great content out there.

Boring train journey? Deploy television powered by Android!

Free Tv on iPhone and Android Mobiles-1000 Mobile TV Channels!

New TV app makes BBC iPlayer redundant

With our Smartphones constantly on and with us theres no need to ever be bored again. Now that clever late 2011 ,early 2012 technology has caught up it's quite easy to get the latest television on your mobile. At a small cost of course and mobile TV does come with some warnings attached. In this article we'll explore how to get Amy from Big Brother on your iPhone, Shameless to your Samsung TV (phone!) ,and BBC's Merlin to your iPad.

Live Big Brother on iPhone?

Mobile TV Free or 'free cell TV' as the Americans like to call it is still in the distant future. I'm afraid that to get the best tv for Mobile you're going to have to pay a bit of money. Admittedly a lot less money than you would pay for an Apple TV or a Nokia Tv, but more than you would pay for the free BBC iPlayer! Thankfully Sky Mobile Tv has not yet raised it's head , indee why I downloaded the 1000 TV Channel Mobile App in the first place was to escape from the extortionate price of Sky television. A bit silly I know as I'm prepared to pay 500 pound for an iPad to watch free TV on but not the 70 pounds for Sky!

On reflection though the Mobile TV App doesn't even cost half of what a monthly Virgin or Sky subscription costs. And of course thanks to iOS magic I can now view my iPhone and iPad content on my television anyway! I'm sure there's a way to put these miniclips and full TV series (a thousand channels they promise, meaning sport on your iPhone, movies on your iPad and news and Kids programmes and adult shows and movies all streaming to your Mobile-that's awesome!)

Advantages to using this instead of BBC iPlayer on iPhone and Android or even Youtube on Mobile are obvious. It's a very well regarded app (it's wants to be with it's higher than normal app price cost) and of course you're free to watch Mobile Series on the Tube, in the car, in the park. Catch Up Tv is yours for keeps anywhere you can take your mobile!

4od Android is another service that I see going the way of Netflix and BBC iPlayer on iPhone when you get this Mobile Television APP . There's just no need for any of these other television apps on your Android or iPhone or whatever mobile device you have when you download the thousand channel app.

1000 Free TV Channels on iPad?

The catch though is that you will have to pay a bit,also I'm not sure how the Mobile TV guide works for the TV app. Also I've researched quite deeply into television for Mobile and the big Tv broadcasters don't like it , as of course it takes eyes away from their TV adverts. So big broadcasting corporations have tried in the past to get the app pulled from the internet. Luckily the developers have fought on and for a little while longer at least you can download the best television app on Mobile Phones right here:

Download the best MOBILE TELEVISION APP here

A celebration of the Music of Heavy D

As part of our series of articles about Smartphone music we're going to write about the Music of Heavy D as a celebration of the life of this famous and much loved rapper.

Being such an instrumental rapper and record label mogul it's a pity that Heavy D is no longer with us just as I believe music is starting to get really interesting.

Even more interesting than the era of Itunes and such like as with our always on mobile phones as connected portals to all the entertainment we could possibly want. I truly believe that people like Heavy D would have continued to be at the forefront of modern technological developments that will put free music onto our Iphones and Android phones, the movement that is will one day hopefully bring free music online to all our Smartphones too. So that hopefully in the near future we can be enjoying  music like Heavy D music on our mobiles.

So now that the headlines are shouting out " Heavy D Dead" let's look at a few of his songs and then look at some of the best ways that we can get Heavy D music and others free and legally on to our phones!
Some of Heavy D's stand out moments included the theme song for the television show " In Living Colour" and a particularly meaningful at this time song as a tribute to his deceased " Heavy D and the Boyz" band member Trouble T Roy entitled "They reminisce Over You". His rapping on Michael Jackson's " Jam" was also phenomenal leading on to a collaboration with sister Janet Jackson.

Here are some of the Android Free Music Apps that we've found that can access an enormous amount of free Music Online:

With Download MP3 Music Download Pro Android App you can search through the millions of FREE MP3s available and FREE MUSIC for mp3 download, all from free public search engines, and download music! Three songs can be downloaded at once and the songs can even be edited to use as ringtones!

MUSIC BOX PRO

Lamentably this app has been removed from the Android market but has proved so popular that it shouldn't be too difficult to find a copy out there on  the internet. One of its great features is that you can search for lists such as 'Billboards Top 100' which takes a lot of guess work out of music downloads.

MUSIC PARADISE

A clean and simple no frills app that simply does what you would expect it to . Many users of Music Box Pro swear by this app too.

Not to make Iphone Users feel left out we've managed to source on e of the most recommended apps on Iphone for free music downloads  which is definitely worth checking out:

" Free Music Download" -Downloader and Player

It's claimed that it is free and easy to use and has access to a vast array of songs. The free version can only download up to 15 songs but the paid for version has unlimited amount of music downloads.

Heavy D I'm sure you're sat in a Gangsta's Paradise right now rapping away and sipping Gin and Juice , and I'm sure you'd give the next generation of Music your support as we take music out of the ghettoes, off of our CD players and on to our Shiny Android phones and Iphones. R.I.P Heavy D the next song I download will be one of yours.

Getting Lyrics from X factor on your Phone

The Lyrics from X Factor, particularly X Factor USA are always a source of entertainment and amusement for the Gametrender household. Whether it's singing along to old favourites or the mangled version of modern, happening songs or stifling a giggle for when the X Factor contestants slip up ,X Factor is always worth a giggle. Particularly American X Factor in which the contestants take themselves so seriously.

Of course any multimedia circus event like X Factor has just got to spread it's way on to our ever connected Smartphones so watching recent episodes got me to thinking about how my Android phone helps me to enjoy the X Factor even more now.

So let's look at some of the X Factor apps that we can get:

Quite simply titled  Total X Factor for Android

If you want to know the latest news about the contestants, watch the latest X Factor videos and  vote for your favorite singer, the X-Factor app in the Android Market is now available. This app will take your voting and participation in the show to a whole new level.

X Factor Voting

This app also allows you to get closer to the action and despite not being the original X factor USA app is very good especially as it has just been created as a labour of love by developer Izzy Appz

Bear in mind before we explore any more Xfactor Apps that many generic apps such as Youtube and other popular sites that can be accessed from your phone such as MySpace can also be valuable sources of info to feed your desire for news; views and X Factor lyrics .
So what other X factor apps are out there, let the hunt for apps continue!


Official X Factor USA App
Of course there had to be an official American X Factor App and here it is taking X Factor interactivity to a new level, allowing you to see missed snippets of the show; view official judge bios; catch bits of the X Factor USA that the fans loved and loved to hate and even participate in discussions with other fans.

It's sometimes hard to forget that the Xfactor is not just about the crazed participants and adoring fans but that at its heart lies the lyrics and music that we all love so because Gametrender likes you here are some extra apps related to the X Factor lyrics and which you'll have lots of fun with:
You've got to check out the MIUI MUSIC APP

Like many great apps it can't be downloaded from the Android Market but we've sourced one of the most artistic music apps out there for you and best of all it provides a scrolling karaoke bar with music lyrics so you too can pretend to be on the X Factor!


And Finally here's what inspired me to write about the XFcator lyrics in the first place, when I first got my Android Phone many months ago I was so enthralled by it that I wanted friends and family to share in the fun, so naturally the first thing that came to mind was Karaoke on Android! We've had lots of fun with this karaoke app which has a huge amount of lyrics and songs, including , yes , you guessed it X Factor Lyrics and songs too. Enjoy!

ANDROID KARAOKE giving you access via the net to thousands upon thousands of songs, which once found can be downloaded to your SD card.


If you liked this article read about bringing Heavy D's music onto our phones and other free Android Music Downloads.            

Youtube vs Netflix on Android

Netflix is becoming huge and is making its way to Smartphones and in particular the Netflix Android App is set to take Android owners by storm perhaps even eclipsing the popularity of the Youtube app, if you didn't know already Netflix provides a streaming Netflix service that puts TV shows and Movies into your home for a very low monthly subscription price.

Recent developments on the Netflix streaming front have seen the service come to Xbox; Wii; PS3 and as their website puts it , " Many other devices". The many other devices we are of course concerned with is our favourite Android Phones. Before we go on to discuss what Netflix can bring to your Android Phone let's first consider what should be a viable alternative, but somehow hasn't reached it's full potential, despite enormous success. What I'm talking about of course is Youtube. My Youtube app on Xperia Play has got to be one of my most used apps. Not so much for my sake but that of the toddler in the house, who despite not being able to speak properly has fully grasped what the Youtube app looks like, how to activate it and then will quite happily scroll through his favourite TV shows (Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam if you must know) and those linked to them without any assistance from me whatsoever. And of course Youtube brings all sorts of video and some Youtube music goodness to the mix as well. In fact it is so integrated with my Android phone that when I went to download Youtube I found that it had come pre-installed on the phone.
Now where I think Youtube has slightly missed the boat is that they already having a viable streaming service for Youtube music and Youtube videos; that content ranges from the quirky homemade stuff that we all love to actual Television shows and even snippets of movies. Whether the content added has been added in a legal way is a debate for articles beyond the scope of this one, but the overall point is that beyond the actual agreements that Netflix might have with their Netflix streaming content providers it seems on the surface that Youtube is quite capable of delivering a similar service to our Android phones and Iphone sbut hasn't yet taken that leap of faith. In the meantime though we will have to be content with the awesome service that Netflix provides.

Let's look in more depth at Android Netflix then: First of all the app is free on the Android market and with between 5 million and ten million installs is quite popular to say the least.  Netflix is also available for Android tablets which is brilliant news as the average 10 or so inch screen (and Yes, we'll give you a mention with your seven inch screen too Android Fire) is brilliant for pottering around the house or on bus/train journeys to watch movies ( not recommended whilst you are driving though!). Like the brilliant Amazon Kindle app what I love about the Netflix App is that the netflix streaming enables you to watch the movie on your Samsung Galaxy Tab , switch to your Xperia Play Phone and then finish off watching it on the Xbox or Wii thanks to the ability to resume watching where you left off. And you can also look forward to a free subscription when you start using the Netflix App.

At the moment this does seem to be one of the best ways to enjoy movies on your Android device, but we will be very keen to see what the future brings when Youtube realises the power it has as a movie and music streaming giant.
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