“With so much mobile content available today, we recognized the need to create a go-to game play platform that parents trust and kids love,” said Nancy MacIntyre , CEO and co-founder of Fingerprint. “And today, we’ve enhanced the entire experience by adding multiplayer and safe social features tailored specifically for our young audience so that kids can connect, collaborate or compete.”

The new Fingerprint platform connects each child to his/her games, friends, messages and digital rewards. Key features include:

• Multiplayer Gaming: With a unique player invitation experience designed specifically for children, kids can challenge each other, while parents rest easy knowing Fingerprint is a completely safe social gaming experience. In multiplayer mode, there is always something fun to play, something new to learn and someone to play with.
• Safe Social: Kids can send each other fun and encouraging messages via whimsical emoticons and stock messages, providing a positive first social experience. Parents can join the fun too.
• Shared Family Account: Fingerprint offers a shared family account, making it easy for multiple kids and parents to share a device, track game play and learning milestones, and choose new apps to add to the family’s library.

Fingerprint apps inspire a love of learning and a passion for play around a broad range of topics from reading to math, money to manners, and science to music. With the debut of the new platform, the company will launch more than 40 new titles in 2013, including the following apps available in Q1:

• The Flying Alphabetinis (ages 6+; available now): Fingerprint’s first in-house, multiplayer game is a carnival of fun and tomfoolery starring the 26 letters of the alphabet in a circus-themed word scramble. Two players square off to make as many words as possible.
• Scribble My VeggieTales® Story (ages 3-8): Make custom VeggieTales® stories based on top-selling DVD lessons such as friendship, sharing, helping and forgiveness. The app features six all-new book starters and coloring pages, including content based on the new VeggieTales’ DVD launching March 5, The Little House That Stood.
• Step-by-Story: Caillou Adventures (ages 3-6): Based on the long-standing PBS Kids TV show, this Step-by-Story Adventure includes three new apps: Caillou’s Window, Caillou’s Barnyard Sounds and Caillou’s Imagination Camping. Children learn early reading skills while creating stories about Caillou’s world.
• Franklin Talk and Playset (ages 3-6): Build puzzles, play games, earn rewards, unlock the Franklin Toy and actually talk to Franklin! This new app is based on the popular Franklin property franchise from Corus Entertainment’s Kids Can Press and Nelvana Studio.
• Minuscule: The Private Life of Insects (age 6+): Based on the TV animated series from French producer Futurikon, and created by Happy Blue Fish and Fingerprint, Minuscule is a bug-sized adventure, blending a National Geographic documentary with a Tex Avery cartoon, where ladybugs can’t stop teasing flies.
• Kids Learn Mandarin (ages 3-8): Based on the award-winning series from Digital Learning Company, Kids Learn Mandarin teaches kids to speak, read and write in Mandarin Chinese using 200 engaging games and activities that teach the Chinese characters (sight and writing), as well as pronunciation of more than 250 words.

Most Fingerprint apps are free with in-app upgrades or additional content packs available for $.99 – $2.99. Fingerprint is currently available on iOS platforms (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) and will expand to Android devices in early 2013. Beginning this spring, Fingerprint’s current library of 21 apps will be upgraded to take full advantage of the new multiplayer and safe social features.

About Fingerprint Digital Based in San Francisco, Fingerprint Digital is a mobile entertainment company for kids and the creator of Fingerprint, the first kids’ learning and entertainment platform, providing sharing and engagement opportunities between kids and parents across mobile devices and the web. Its network of quality, Mom-Comm enabled edutainment apps is made up of first-party apps, as well as apps “fingerprinted” by third-party developers. Fingerprint funding is led by Corus Entertainment, a leading interactive media and entertainment company, along with K2MediaLabs, Reed Elsevier , and Suffolk Holdings. For more information, visit www.fingerprintplay.com orwww.facebook.com/fingerprintplay.

Related LinkThe Flying Alphabetinis – App Store

SOURCE: Fingerprint Digital

Each appisode will feature recognized kids’ entertainment brands and will be built around specific educational themes to deliver delightful learning experiences for kids. By taking full advantage of Fingerprint’s signature capabilities, from play insights to parent/child messaging, appisode content will provide kids and families a fully integrated and engaging learning experience.

“We know parents and kids expect Fingerprint to deliver apps that are equally fun, educational, and engaging,” said Nancy MacIntyre , CEO and co-founder, Fingerprint. “In Mindshapes, we have found a wonderful partner with a proven track record of creating innovative content with high production values. Through this partnership, we will add a new line of robust experiences to keep kids entertained, and Fingerprint families engaged for a very long time.”

“Mindshapes is delighted to be expanding the content we deliver to kids and families by offering a compelling and integrated experience of storybooks, games, and learn-and-play activities centered around kids’ favorite entertainment characters,” said Nina Pustilnik , co-CEO, Mindshapes. “We’re also excited to make our content available outside of our award-winning, subscription-based app Magic Town in cooperation with Fingerprint, our ideal partner to help us broaden our reach among this rapidly growing mobile market of kids, ages 3-8.”

Since launching its first app just over a year ago, Fingerprint has established itself as a dominant mobile edutainment platform, empowering young kids through fun, learning apps while providing parents with a trusted resource. To date, Fingerprint fans have logged over 50 million minutes of play time on Fingerprint-branded apps – while learning their colors, shapes, geography, math, science, reading, history, and more.

Mindshapes has invigorated the interactive storytelling category with its award-winning, flagship product Magic Town, in which children can explore, create, and learn from their favorite iconic characters. Since June 2012, the app has been downloaded in more than 190 countries with more than one million stories read.

About Fingerprint Digital
Based in San Francisco, Fingerprint Digital is a mobile entertainment company for kids and the creator of Fingerprint Play, the first kids’ learning and entertainment platform, providing sharing and engagement opportunities between kids and parents across mobile devices and the web. Its network of quality, Mom-Comm enabled edutainment apps consists of first-party apps, as well as apps “fingerprinted” by third-party developers. Fingerprint funding is led by Corus Entertainment, a leading interactive media and entertainment company, along with K2MediaLabs, Reed Elsevier and Suffolk Holdings. For more information, visit www.fingerprintplay.com or www.facebook.com/fingerprintplay.

About Mindshapes
Founded by game industry veterans from Playfish, Glu Mobile, among others, Mindshapes creates fun educational applications for kids. The company has offices in London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Mindshapes has released several award-winning kids’ apps for iPhone and iPad including its flagship storytelling app, Magic Town. For more information, visit www.mindshapes.com.

SOURCE Fingerprint Digital; Mindshapes
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1ybSn)

Why Scribble?

The idea for Scribble Press came out of a cross-country plane ride I took in 2006 to visit the grandparents with my husband and kids. I was looking for something more meaningful to do in my career, and was fortunate enough to sit next to the wonderful Darcy Pollack, who loves books as much as I do. We both had young children at the time, and wanted to create a business that would encourage and celebrate kids’ creative writing.

We invented Scribble Press as a retail studio where kids could create and publish their own books – leaving with a printed copy the very same day. There is simply nothing more wonderful than the look of pride on a child’s face as she holds up her very own published book. Letting kids know their work has value inspires them to create more. That’s the company philosophy.

When we first saw the iPad in 2010, we knew it was the perfect vehicle to bring simple book creation for kids to a global audience. Scribble Press for iPad took the best of what we had learned from watching kids create books in a ‘real world” setting and turned it into a fun, interactive creativity platform. That moment of pride is still there; kids share their creations —now, digitally — with friends and family, and still the positive feedback inspires them to do more.

We’re excited to launch Scribble My Story in partnership with Fingerprint because we’ll be able to help a new, younger audience (and their parents) connect around the creative process. Scribble My Story encourages the youngest kids – including pre-readers – to create books by making it simple and fun.

When it comes to developing creativity in your kids, there is no one way or right way. Scribble on paper, record audio of made-up stories, play make believe with stuffed animals, or draw and write on your tablet – all of these things get your imagination muscles working. Find what your child enjoys and engage with him. Scribble My Story and Fingerprint are a great addition to any parent’s creativity toolbox.”

If you’ve been following the giveaway, you’ll know we drew a winner last week who we never heard back from. Remember to check your junk email folders and add “no-reply@fingerprintplay.com” to your address book. More giveaways are coming, so make sure you’re signed up to be in the know first!

Although the VeggieTales brand now reaches far, it started from a small seed. During the creation of the series, the writer’s animation software limited him to producing characters without arms, legs, or hair. Despite the simplicity of their organic shapes, the round, cheerful, and wacky vegetables have grown to quite a wide audience. First created as video series conveying Christian moral themes and values—with a generous helping of humor—the VeggieTales now dish up TV episodes, movies, music, and live shows. Kids and parents alike love the crazy singing VeggieTales characters, led by their charismatic co-hosts, Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber.

This app is also Fingerprint’s first Step-by-Story app. The gameplay is just like how it sounds – a child builds a story together step-by-step. Step-by-Story apps are designed to engage your child’s imagination while building reading skills through the proven power of age-appropriate play. Each app is carefully designed for pre-readers and early readers to help associate words, sounds, and pictures in preparation for reading.

The VeggieTales Collection is chock full of fun. With four different stories, kids can enjoy The Goofy Gift, Thanks for the Franks, Larry’s Missing Music, and I am that Hero! Vegetables, like this app, are truly good for your child!

You can get the full four-story collection for iPad or iPhone for $2.99 or download a free trial version and purchase any of the stories individually for $.99.

Have a Veggie good time!

Mother Kelly Mullarkey had this to say about winning 4 iPad Minis for her family:

“We are so grateful and excited to win the iPad minis. What a wonderful surprise before the holidays! Our two children, Molly, 5, and Jameson, 7, are in kindergarten and first grade. They enjoy reading and writing but love art most of all! Everyday they surprise us with something new that they have learned at school. Having these iPads will be incredibly beneficial to their development. They have recently added the use of iPads and iPods at our area school district which the children find very exciting and new. Not only will this be beneficial to their typical curriculum but they will also have the ability to learn to use technology that has become so necessary in today’s society.

Our family is very much looking forward to learning and growing with our new iPads and the Fingerprint Digital kid-friendly apps! Thank you again a million times and happy holidays!

The Mullarkey Family”

Aren’t they terrific? It’s great to see tablets coming into regular use for elementary education, and we trust they’ll find the iPad Minis and Fingerprint apps a winning combination for learning and play!

Remember, there are still 9 days left for you to enter to win a Retina iPad in our newest giveaway celebrating the upcoming release of the new Fingerprint VeggieTales® apps! Enter now: http://fingerprintplay.com/ipadgiveaway/ ]]> http://www.fingerprintplay.com/congratulations-to-the-winner-of-our-fingerprint-family-ipad-giveaway/feed/ 0 http://www.fingerprintplay.com/good-clean-learning-fun/ http://www.fingerprintplay.com/good-clean-learning-fun/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:38:20 +0000 Sarah http://www.fingerprintplay.com/?p=1029

We are so excited about our partner KideBook in Israel that we asked the CEO and Co-Founder, Yam Regev to tell us a little bit about how Panda Panda: No More Mess came to life.

FP: Tell us how you got started with KideBook.

YR: I am tech savvy and I love everything that internet has to offer, everything that is online. It all started when I watched my baby brother, who is autistic, operating my smartphone so professionally; immediately I knew what I want to do – create apps for children and help them learn things easily.

The world of apps is unlimited and accessible for anybody at any age, that is why I joined forces with some great guys and together we created KidEbook – Smart Apps for Smart Kids that Parents Love! Together, we want to make the kids’ world to be a better place.

FP: We love that idea, too.  What was your approach around the Apps you created?

YR: We know there are many children’s book on the market, but we think are storybooks are special and unique because they combine great storytelling with learning games  that keep the child reading and playing over and over.  We think like parents and share your goals. Our development is a winning combination of fun and educational qualities.

FP:  Panda Panda: No More Mess was a collaboration with Fingerprint.  How did that work?

YR:  Our philosophy has been that each book would have several modes to reveal the story – read, hear, and play. Fingerprint reviewed our book and really felt that the book was wonderful,  but that kids would enjoy playing a game based on the character Panda. We agreed.  Fingerprint gave us a very talented learning designer, Rachael Tobener. Rachael created the game, which was designed to teach kids how to sort things from the book.   Panda Panda is now twice the fun and learning.

FP: Can you tell us a little bit about KideBook?

YR: In short, we are all young mothers and fathers who have been working in the online industry for over a decade.  I myself have a two month old baby girl and I will be very excited to introduce her to our Apps when the time is right.

FP:  Maybe you’ll end up like the Dad in the book. Hopefully you won’t need your hair vacuumed!

FP:   We are thrilled to release Panda Panda: No More Mess for iPad today. There is a paid version that includes the complete Game & Book App for $.99  or a free version with the Game only.   Download it today and help KideBook change the world, one app at a time.

“Families with young kids own on average 10 devices. And, today, savvy parents are requiring that screen time be meaningful – equal parts educational and play,” said Nancy MacIntyre , CEO of Fingerprint. “With our new crop of Fingerprint apps, we are cementing our brand in the minds of parents and the hearts of children as the go-to destination for fun and learning – especially as so many kids will be unwrapping a new mobile device this holiday season.”

Every Fingerprint app promotes academic, social and emotional skills with a heavy dose of fun. Fingerprint’s newest releases, available in December, include:

• Scribble My Story (ages 3-8): Based on the award-winning Scribble Press app for iPad, this new app lets the youngest readers write, illustrate, and customize their own stories. Kids can customize their very own audio stories or create a book based on Fingerprint’s wildly popular Big Kid Life or Whole Wide World Adventure. (iPad only)
• Green$treets: Unleash the Loot! (ages 5-8): The brainchild of Neale Godfrey , creator and leader in the “Kids and Money” field and bestselling author, this app teaches kids goal setting, budgeting, the value of money, and financial decision making while saving the planet. (Available now)
• Panda Panda No More Mess (ages 3-6): A fun sorting game and interactive book that teaches shapes and colors. Children help Panda, a happy little bear armed with a vacuum, clean up by dragging and dropping toys, blocks, clothes and even snacks into the right toy chests.
• Step-by-Story: The VeggieTales Collection® (ages 3-6): Featuring the beloved characters from VeggieTales, this Step-by-Story collection helps kids associate words, sounds and pictures in preparation for reading. Plus, the apps focus on key character values (i.e., share your gifts, use your imagination, make new friends). The new collection includes The Goofy Gift, Thanks for the Franks, Larry’s Missing Music, and I am That Hero!

These new apps increase Fingerprint’s line-up to 21 titles, including 17 published through its third-party developer program, which now welcomes Scribble Press, Greenstreet Common, kidEbook and Playful Owl Productions.

In addition to game play, Fingerprint apps provide sharing and engagement opportunities between kids and parents across mobile devices and the web. The Fingerprint platform invites kids to explore and discover learning game apps on their own and then share the fun with their grown-ups via the one-of-a kind, in-app Mom Comm. This feature also provides parents with insight into their child’s play and offers personalized recommendations tied to their child’s interests and skill set.

Most Fingerprint apps are free to play, with an option to enhance and extend the experience for an additional charge. Fingerprint is currently available on iOS platforms (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) and will expand to Android devices in early 2013.

About Fingerprint Digital
Based in San Francisco, Fingerprint Digital is a mobile entertainment company for kids and the creator of Fingerprint Play, the first kids’ learning and entertainment platform, providing sharing and engagement opportunities between kids and parents across mobile devices and the web. Its network of quality, Mom-Comm enabled edutainment apps is made up of first-party apps, as well as apps “fingerprinted” by third-party developers. Fingerprint funding is led by Corus Entertainment, a leading interactive media and entertainment company, along with K2MediaLabs, Reed Elsevier and Suffolk Holdings. For more information, visit www.fingerprintplay.com or www.facebook.com/fingerprintplay.

SOURCE Fingerprint

PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1vN2h)

Teaching kids about money is so important today. Neale’s been evangelizing this cause and teaching kids since the 1980′s. Here’s her story.

Q:  Tell us a little bit about yourself:

I’m Neale Godfrey and I was one of the first female executives in our banking system in the US.  I began my career at The Chase Manhattan Bank, in 1972.  This was the time in our professional life as women, that we refer to as, “The Dark Ages!”  I showed up at Chase as a recent college graduate and I was asked, “Can you type?”  I couldn’t, so I thought clearly I was qualified to become a senior executive.  Chase decided to train a few women to really lend money.  I rose through the ranks and my lack of typing paid-off…I became an exec, heading a $10 billion division in the Global Bank in 1980.  I was also lucky enough to put together the bank financing for the largest merger in the US, the DuPont-Conoco deal.

I left Chase in 1985 and became the President of The First Women’s Bank.  I saw women disempowered handling money and my research showed that it was because we were not taught anything as kids.

Q: Wow, that’s impressive. How did you move into educating kids about money?

A: My own two children were little and I was committed to making sure that they knew about money so I went to look for books to teach them.  There were none.  So, my daughter said, “Mommy, why don’t you write them.”  So, I did!

Q: How did you go from there to here?

A: It was a long road!  I  opened up The First Children’s Bank at FAO Schwarz and an Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship in Harlem and started a greeting card company with underserved kids to teach them how to own and operate a business. I realized that my passion was in starting the Children’s Financial Network.  Now an entrepreneur, I was also a single Mom of 2 young kids and I didn’t know that the word, “entrepreneur” meant, “working out of your basement and eating macaroni!”  Who knew?

The call from Oprah changed everything.  Our kids are financially illiterate and I was committed to doing something about it. She believed in what I had created and that financial literacy for kids was real.  If we fast-forward to today, the topic is just as real. I’ve written 26 books for parents and kids to empower them with the tools to design the financial life they want.  I teach earning, saving, spending and sharing to preschoolers through adulthood. Because I had appeared on Oprah, 13 times, Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children hit #1 on the New York Times Best Seller’s List, and I’ve enjoyed other best seller’s as well.

I also created the first money curricula for kids pre-school through 9^th grade.  I reach app. 2,000,000 kids and parents.  I am proud to also be serving 200,000 youth of active military people, 110,000 youth in the National Urban League, 140,000 kids via FCCLA and DECA, 22,000 kids in YWCA, 5,000 Girl Scouts, ASPIRA, among others.

Q: Tell us about your app.

A: The exciting news is the release of my new iOS mobile video gaming app for young children, 5-8, called Green$treets: Unleash the Loot! My goal is to connect the children and their parents,  grandparents and educators, because indeed, “It takes a village to educate our kids”.  We have teamed with FingerPrint Play, who can do just that!

Above all, the app is fun.  Gameplay is initiated by a gooey, loveable, fuchsia   slob named, Shmootz™.  He messes up the place and the kids have to do chores to clean it up.  He is a metaphor for life.  It doesn’t matter who creates the problems, we all have to fix them.  Let’s face it, we all have “Shmootz” in our life.  Each of the Green$treet characters have financial personalities, because we are connected by the way we handle money. There is Penny Bright, today’s savvy feline and entrepreneur.  She knows her fashion and her tax code.  Penny teaches players how to save money and the environment.  Her friend, Small Change is a kinetic, cute rabbit who loves to spend his money, but learns how to also save to reach his goals.  We even teach about taking risk, through a character called, Opportunity.  Opportunity shows that there are good and bad opportunities in life.

Green$treets: Unleash the Loot! Gameplay is based upon the kids having to  rescue endangered animals, but first they have to build a budget to buy food, shelter and toys to play with the animals to make them happy.  The players have to “clean up” after Shmootz™ who has messed up the garden, the tree house and also left his globby fuchsia  footprints all over the place!  Kids also can spend some of their money in Bull & Bear’s Marketplace to decorate their tree house or the enclosures where the animals live until they can be released.  Kids even learn the “miracle of compounding” as they save their money and they donate to charity to help their animals not to be “endangered” when they return home.

Q: How did you approach building the App…. It’s quite different than writing a book!

A: We have amassed the brightest and the best to create this revolutionary app.  Tom Hester, creator of Shrek, designed the Green$treet Kids.  Laird Malamed, former executive at Activision and one of his lead producers also from the educational world, Brenda Lindsay, have been the visionaries leading the development.  Laird and Brenda are legends in the industry and known for their genius on three of the most successful projects in the video gaming world: Guitar Hero and Call of Duty and Skylanders. My educational team is from The University of Arkansas, Sam Walton School of Business and we have been invited to submit a grant to the Department of Education to study the effects of gamefication on 2^nd grade learning.

Q:  We’re thrilled you chose to launch Greenstreets on Fingerprint. What got you excited?

A:   I saw that Fingerprint had created a platform to send email to Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa and Educators as the kids play.We will not only send the adults messages about what kids are learning, the adults can send messages of encouragement back to the  kids, written or recorded.

The connectivity can continue.  Parents/grandparents/educators can go to my web site: GreenStreetCommons.com and subscribe to receive bi-monthly newsletters from me, via, “Neale’s Common $ense News”. These tips and tools will make money lessons easy to teach to your kids and grandkids and truly allow you to “make your world your classroom.”

Q: Neale, thank you, this has been amazing. We’re excited about getting the word out  about on Greenstreets:Unleash the Loot!

A: Thanks.  We invite you and your children and grandchildren to join us on this essential life-long learning to help kids to become healthy, wealthy and wise!  Download the app from the App store: GreenStreet Commons, Inc. (don’t forget to register to receive emails!) and visit the web site at GreenStreetCommons.com.  Download the  FREE app here https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/green$treets-unleash-loot!/id564402206?mt=8 ]]> http://www.fingerprintplay.com/words-from-the-creator-of-greentreet-commons-neale-godfrey/feed/ 0