Cow Says Moo for Android - Teach Your Kids Farm Animal Sounds

James, my partner in Mobile Magic Developers, and I have a handful of Android applications under our belts now. We loved working on Chinese Whispers, an idea my wife gave me for a new twist on The Telephone Game. James wrote an immensely handy application for getting your WiFi Passwords from your phone.

I wrote the Chuck Norris Fact of the Day Widget and the Jane Austen Fact of the Day Widget, and James wrote a really nice widget that shows you your last few installed applications called Latest Apps.

But… Then we Wrote Cow Says Moo

Cow Says Moo is definitely my favorite so far. Many of my friends and family are having babies now and my wife and I have one on the way. I noticed that kids are growing more and more interested in technology and are remarkably capable with it. My niece loved playing with my Motorola Xoom and I loved the way her face lights up when she touches the screen and something happens. That's where we got the idea for Cow Says Moo.

Cow Says Moo is an educational game to teach young kids and toddlers about farm animals and the sounds they make. Each picture is hand illustrated by Emily Upchurch Robinson and when pressed plays farm animal sounds. You can use the front facing camera on your device (or the rear camera if you prefer) to record video and sound while your child interacts with your mobile device or while you simply delight him or her with the sounds. You can use the built in media gallery to share your videos with friends and family. You'll be surprised how much fun you'll have playing Cow Says Moo with your kids and you'll get a lot of cute video footage like I did "User Acceptance Testing", i.e., playing Cow Says Moo with my godson AJ.

Check out Cow Says Moo, and as always, feel free to contact us with any comments or bugs.

Upgrade Chuck Norris Facts Free

Initially, when I released Chuck Norris Facts, I published two versions. I had a free version which was limited in facts and functionality. Then I published a paid version that included all the facts and customization.

This proved difficult to maintain, so I decided to make the free version ad supported and (at the time of writing) fully functional. Unfortunately, it was still a little difficult to maintain. I still wanted to have only one code base so that I could release one app all the time. Another issue was that if you have the free version for a while and switch to the paid version, you lose your fact history and start over.

Thus, I switched upgrade paths. Now, I encourage everyone to try the Free Chuck Norris Fact Widget for a while until you decide that you like it. Then, you can purchase the Chuck Norris Fact Widget Upgrade for less than a buck. This will remove the ads immediately and you won't lose your current fact history.

If you are a user who has already installed the full Chuck Norris Fact Widget, you can download and install the free version and there will be no ads (as long as you don't delete the paid version). You'll have to start over with your facts (but they're random anyhow so it shouldn't be too bad). This way you'll continue getting updates with new facts and seasonal backgrounds.

If you really want to delete the previous paid version, send an email to me and I'm mail you a buck or something so you can download the paid key.

I'd also like to thank all of the users of both the free and paid versions for sticking with me through this learning experience. I hope it's been as enjoyable to use as it has been to write.

Sincerely,
Patrick Caldwell

Chuck Norris Facts Widget for Android

A few weeks ago, I decided I'd like to try my hand at writing an Android application. One of my favorite features of Android over iOS (other than the fact that I think Apple lacks any form of ethics or sense of social responsibility) is that Android allows you to add widgets to your home screens. Sure, you can still have the half dozen views full of rows of boring icons, but the widgets give you a great deal of functionality without ever having to launch an app.

I decided a good first shot at Android development would be to write a Chuck Norris Fact of the Day widget my family and friends could stick on their home screens and enjoy a little daily pick-me-up. I knew that adding customizability would let me work with preferences and the nature of a daily fact would give me some Android data management experience.

I released the Chuck Norris Fact Widget on the Android Market and several of my family and friends downloaded it the first day. Over the next few weeks, about 1,500 of their family and friends downloaded it, so I've been working to improve it ever since.

If you're on your Android device now, you can download the free version called, Chuck Norris Facts Free or for just a buck, you can get the paid version called, Chuck Norris Facts with Widget. The icon should look familiar from above and the publisher name is, of course, D. Patrick Caldwell.

I hope you check it out and I hope you enjoy a little bit of my sense of humor.

Sincerely,
Patrick Caldwell

For the programmers who read my blog, I'll be posting some technical information I learned while developing this application. Specifically, how I managed to change the background image of my widget with remote views.