Price: Free
Rating:

Doodle Tales: iPhone Written App Review

Reviewed by Valerie Lauer

Get ready for a whole world of creativity and storytelling fun. The new Doodle Tales iPhone app combines the best of drawing, coloring and creating and links young users to a worldwide network fellow doodlers for an instant community where stories and colorful pictures rule supreme.

Features:

The new Doodle Tales iPhone app consists of three main sections. The Doodles section lets kids make the most of a wide range of creative tools so they can sketch, color, sticker, write, draw and otherwise mock up anything their little imaginations can come up with. In the Tales section, kids can combine doodles to create their very own stories. And then there is the built in community portion of the app, where kids can browse doodles uploaded by other uses around the world. There’s even an entire built in rating and comment system.

This combination of features puts Doodles Tales in a unique position. It actually creates a social networking environment in an app designed specifically for and targeted to children. As long as this format is properly policed, it could be a great way for children to share their opinions and artwork with each other. Doodle Tales allows you to create three unique user profiles

The Doodle Tales app also features creative themed packs. These packs contain backgrounds, stamps, patterned brushes and more surrounding a specific theme and cost $1.99 each. For this reason, I highly suggest you adjust your iDevice settings accordingly before handing the app to your little one.

Layout & Design:

Doodle Tales

Coloring, drawing, sketching, stamping and all the features in Doodle Tales are easily completed with a simple tool bar that you can move around the screen for easier access to each page’s full canvas. The rest of the app is easily navigated.

I did find myself making full use of Doodle Tale’s help feature. Any screen you’re on will have an orange question mark on it. Simply tap this button, then touch any other part of the screen to see a pop up help item about using it. Just remember, in order to use the app as normal, you need to touch the help icon again to toggle the feature off. There are a ton of options and features especially in the doodle screen, so make sure your little one gets their questions answered, you may need to give them a hand.

Overall Value:

Doodle Tales has many sterling qualities, like its separate profiles for multiple children and its bevy of artistic tools, scenes, stamps and more. I am a bit frustrated that each additional themed pack costs $2. On a related note, any children’s app that includes in-app purchases tends to put my guard up. Doodle Tales definitely has a bit of work to do if they want to be considered one of the top apps for children, but it’s off to a promising start.

Doodle Tales

Doodle Tales iPhone app requires iOS 3.2 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

The iPhone App Review’s rating: