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Delete Infinity Blade from your iPad right now. Chuck Real Racing into a ‘Never Used’ folder. Gaze in disgust at the icon for Flipboard. As long as you’re a parent to pre-schoolers, anyway. The only app that’ll be getting any usage on your iPad today is In The Night Garden.
That’s right: the BBC has brought its popular CBeebies show to Apple’s tablet, with a separate app also available today for iPhone and iPod touch. It’s the first official app for the series, and one many parents have been demanding — although also secretly dreading, given the likelihood they’ll never get their iPad back from the kids once it’s installed.
The app is described as an ‘interactive playground’ featuring the characters and locations from the show. That means virtual versions of Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and the Tombliboos capering about in a series of subtly educational minigames.
The Beeb says the app has been designed “specifically for young players” (translation: you can leave your iPad in the hands of your toddler and retreat to the kitchen to drink gin rather than listen to Upsy Daisy’s song again). The only downside from our point of view is that the apps aren’t universal: you pay £2.39 for the iPad version, but if you want it on your iPhone, you have to pay £1.79 for that version separately.
Apps for kids are huge on the iPad, as parents download books and games to keep their sproglets occupied. It’s likely to be even more true in a few weeks’ time, as early iPad 2 buyers relegate their first-generation tablets to ‘playtoy’ status (although hopefully not before removing their email accounts from the settings).
It’s about time In The Night Garden got an app, anyway, although arguably it’s only just in time, as parents switch their affections to Rastamouse…
