100 pictures & videos of animals & vehicles packed in separate picturebook apps

We’re going to introduce you to 7 scrumptious picture book apps for the iPad and iPhone, which are each packed with 100 pictures + videos, thereunder subjects like Zoo animals, Trucks, Tools, Farm animals, Trains, Planes and Diggers.

The concept of this picture book app is simple: Instead of using the usual vector graphics, this app uses realistic photo pictures, which have been provided with the matching sounds. Also some educational text has been integrated for additional information and all in all, 10-18 videos can be discovered. Come to think of it, most other storybooks and picture books only have roughly about 35 pages, which is why the powerful 100 picture apps truly deserve the predicate “extensive and beneficial”. The apps only cost 0.99$ at the time of this review.

No more in-app purchases

A while ago, the picture-book apps were supplemented with matching videos, these were offered as in-app purchases. The app developer decided to offer any additional content for free and basically remove all the in-app purchases – even if iTunes still displays this information. (date 07.08.2013)

100 Tools – Hammers, screwdrivers and more | picture book app

Of all the apps which we will introduce to you here, we were mostly surprised by the tools app. We kind of thought that the children would be more interested in the other apps, such as the animals or vehicle apps, but the opposite happened. This 100 tools app even draws a lot of interest  to girls and has been thoroughly examined. This is not really surprising, especially as kids are always at the dad’s side, as soon as he is getting out his tools to do some DIY work and “pretending” to be a real handyman, kids always want to help or watch what’s happening.

Tools simply fascinate kids. They are strange, you can do all sorts of interesting things with them and they make awesome noises – which you’ll also be able to hear in this kids app. Not only the videos will show the different noises that the tools make, all pictures were given the characteristical sounds.

100 Farm Animals | picture book app

Some of the apps have been provided with a useful educational text display, thereunder the farm animals app. Kids can see all the different farm animals and also some pets, which you’ll often come across on a farm i.e. cats. A lot of horse and foal pictures are waiting to be discovered, which will probably be the girls favorite. The only thing which is a little bit annoying about these pictures are the windy noises and a very unsteady camera in the videos, the pictures as such are impeccable. We’re not going to overrate this as this is still offered as  a free bonus.

100 Zoo Animals | picture book app

A nice alternative or extension to the Farm app has to be the Zoo animals app. Kids will meet their favorite animals, which are probably the more exotic ones rather than cows, chickens or pigs.
Basically all animals which you’d expect in a Zoo are in this app, whether a giraffe, zebra, lion or elephant kids will see a lot of animals. Even if the animals are not shown in their natural habitats, we still like the photographs, because the animals have always been placed in the foreground of the pictures, so that the background doesn’t look too cage-like.
The names of the animals are also displayed in the text, even adults can still learn one or the other thing, unless you know all animals on this planet i.e. an agouti, a gray rhea or a seriema.

(!) Unfortunately no videos were integrated in the Zoo animals app.

100 Planes | picture book app

If you have ever taken your kids to the airport, or perhaps even flew on a plane before, you’ll know how fascinated kids are by planes. Planes are never just an ordinary transport like any other, they are always something special and with this fascination, children can approach the 100 pictures of planes and 18 awesome videos of this app. By the way, the planes are not just presented from the outside, there are also some fantastic cockpit and close-up pictures shown.

100 Trains | picture book app

I don’t really need to mention that all kids also like trains, especially boys. The choice of pictures in this app is pretty comprehensive and diversified. There are a lot of different trains and even an electric loco for kids to look at or a steam engine. Kids can even gaze at the steam engines of old times in the video section.

100 Trucks | picture book app

All the little wannabe Truck-drivers are going to love this picture book app, which has also got 15 videos of lots of various trucks and lorries in all different sizes to show. Kids can discover standard trucks as you know them of the motorways, vintage pickups, heavy-duty trucks and mobile cranes and so much more. There are also some construction vehicles to see, but if your kids prefer Diggers and Excavators, we can still recommend you the 100 Diggers and excavators app.

100 Diggers and excavators | picture book app

My very own excavator fascination has indeed vanished in the course of life, but as a child, I really liked Excavators and had my very own favorite excavator, which I paraphrased as: “excavator with two shovels” – meaning it was a so-called “Backhoe “, which i also didn’t find in this Digger app, which is a minus point in the rating 😉 But apart from that, this picture book app has many, many  excavators in general, which are mostly shown in use. Just like the Farm animals app, this app has far more explanatory text of the diggers as all of the others which we’re really fond of. A lot of videos also make this app pretty great.

Bottom line

A great picture book app collection which is perfectly suitable for extensive and safe studying of vehicles, tools, and wild animals. In addition, the apps are still offered at a bargain price. Pure Download recommendation!

Pro’s

(+) cheap & comprehensive
(+) no in-app purchases
(+) free additional videos
(+) choice of pictures is well-done

Con’s

(-) There has been some occasional sound cheating. Some of the many different birds of the Zoo app sound the same.
(-) links to the other apps in the menu
(-) 10-15 pictures per app are not really our taste

Top best apps for kids rating: 4 stars

kids app developer: Whyse ApS
Developers website: http://100thingsapp.com
kids app test based on app version 2.1