The holidays are soon upon us. It’s a time for gatherings so this week on Moore in the Morning we’re looking at apps that will help you curb your dog’s bad habits, help you deal with any anxiety-driven sleep talking, and create fun ways for kids to connect with those who are celebrating afar.
Sleep Talk Recorder
$0.99/Free
Do you get the feeling that you talk in your sleep? This app will help you find out. Activate it and place your phone by your bedside and it will use the microphone to listen while you sleep. If you make any sounds it will record them, leaving you a brief snippet of audio you can check in the morning.
If you do talk it’s likely to be unintelligible, or comical, or a sound made by, well, something other than your voice. You can upload the comical ones to a public website for others to listen to and vote on. Users from around the world have been doing this in large numbers and yes, recordings of night time flatulence always ranks high. You can listen to these global clips through the app or online at SleepTalkRecorder.com
Generally, sleep talking is harmless. While the main intent here is more about curiosity and amusement, the hope is that it might help some face the fact that they do talk in their sleep and deal with the impact it might have on those they live with.
The makers of the app have been putting together a documentary based on select users to see just what they have learned about themselves. You can see clips from the work-in-progress film on their YouTube account here. As an educational novelty, the app works quite well.
Positively Dog Training: The Better Path To A Well-Behaved Pup
$4.99
As eager as dogs are to please, the English language is still beyond them. Dog training courses are valuable in that they teach us how to communicate with them in a way that is clear. This interactive guide, based on the expertise of dog trainer Denise Herman, will take you through a system where a clicker or a short verbal cue is used with treats to reinforce standard commands like sit, down, or stay. The clicker is only temporary and the idea is that once your commands become learned behavior you can fade it out of use.
The app uses a book format to offer up a wealth of information while offering a navigation system that makes it easy to skip forward to just the parts you’re interested in. You can take your time and go through chapters on different training tools, on the differences between clicker and other training systems, or on background information to understand the thinking behind the methodology. At the same time, you can skip ahead to the videos and interactives that matter most, from tackling housetraining or adjusting to a travel crate or diving straight into the main commands.
There are guides for tricks and games, from giving a High Five to ringing a bell, and sections to tackle specific issues such as dogs that are barkers, jumpers, or door dashers.
Although you won’t find any step-by-step illustrations or photos, and it may seem like a terribly serious course to get through, the videos are clear in their instruction, easy to rewind and repeat, and work to make what is being taught very accessible. If you’re new to having a dog, the app also goes deep into advice on collars, leashes, beds, toys, and treats too.
Toontastic Jr Pirates
$1.99
The problem with toy phones is the fictional characters you have to talk to. Kids get bored talking to them so they hand you the receiver to watch you speak to them instead. You get the feeling they’d rather use their toy phones to call you. With Toontastic Jr kids can use the app to contact a loved one, say a grandparent, using the internet and their e-mail address. It’s like a video call in that you can both hear and see each other, but with iPhones and/or iPads doing the connecting, the experience becomes a shared storybook too.
Both sides can see the pages and use their touchscreens to control the characters in the story, moving them about like puppets. Since everyone’s connected, you can do the voices too. For example, Grandpa can take on the role of Crazy Bearde the pirate while kids voice the mischievous island monkey. With multiple beginnings, middles, and endings, kids can choose how the story will change each time.
Here’s the cool part. The whole experience is recorded, so when the story is over and the kids hang-up on Grandpa, they have a personalized book they can play over and over. This first edition focuses on stories about pirates, but you can expect more titles to follow.
If you lack internet access or someone to call, you can still run the experience using one device, it’s just that you and your little one will share the same screen while still playing with puppets and doing the voices. It’s a wonderfully creative and rewarding experience that I hope will expand to include other phones too.
