The iPhone App Review : iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad App News & Reviews

Price: $0.99    Score: 8/10    By Steve Beaudry

It’s difficult to judge the quality of an app that’s clearly designed for small children. For one thing, kids care little about the complex, graphics-heavy games that we love as adults. Their tastes are much simpler. The simple act of touching an area to fill it with color can make them believe in magic. While we jaded adults could be arguing that Color Me by SID On should allow us to color the areas we want to color and shade the areas that seem right to us, a little toddler may be concentrating intensely on getting just the right color for that octopus’ skin.

I gave this app higher marks than I usually would because I had to put myself in the state of mind of a child. If you’re looking for something with which to artfully pass the time, this is probably not the app you’re looking for. But if you need a little something to hand off to your young one for his or her amusement, this just might do the trick.

Color Me is utterly simple. Choose a picture from a gallery full of aquatic-themed line-art, choose a color from the spectrum at the bottom, touch an area within the lines and that area fills itself full of that color. Repeat until beautiful. Shake to start over. (And a really fun part is being able to tip the device left or right to roll the color bubble over a new color.)

Developing minds will learn all about their colors and some basic fundamentals of art without having to worry about scribbling outside the lines. And when they’re done, you can export the picture to your picture gallery and set it as your wallpaper or save it on your computer.

The only real issue I have with Color Me is the limitation in colors. You have a full spectrum of bright colors, but there are no light or dark colors – so it’s hard to be “accurate” with some of the animals, but I guess that’s not really the point of the app. Either way, though, this is really a great way to spend a little more time off your phone and with your children. Just be careful about receiving random text messages you don’t want them to see…

Color Me requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later and is compatible with both iPhone and iPod Touch.