If you like the Charlie Brown Christmas special then this app is a must have. The app is a book of the story we know and love, Charlie Brown finding the true meaning of Christmas. The app is very well done and includes the voices for the original cartoon. Also it is narrated by Peter Robbins who is the original voice of Charlie Brown. To go along with the story you can play Schroeder’s piano and finger paint with the gang and more. I bought this app when it was $5.99 and thought it was worth it but now it’s only $.99. For that price it’s a must have for everyone that loves Christmas or Peanuts.

We finally got our annual dashboard update this week and to my surprise we also got our very first Xbox LIVE app put out by Microsoft. Now there have been apps that allowed you to see who was online and send messages for awhile but nothing from Microsoft, until now.

The app does many of the basic things that you would think that it should like see who’s online playing, check messages, and send messages. You can also see your achievements and compare them to your friends. While doing this you will notice unlike other apps this app shows your avatar with motion much like the dashboard. There are also videos from the dashboard that you can watch. Most of this stuff has been done before by third party apps, the main thing this app does that others didn’t is allow you to customize your avatar. Just like from the dashboard you can dress your avatar or change their appearance all together.

Overall I like the app and it will replace what I was using to do the same thing. There are somethings this app doesn’t have that I wish they would of included like being able to schedule downloads of demos or being able to purchase games and have them download when you start your Xbox up. These are some of the things you can do these things from the xbox.com. Something I would love for them to do is to have the ability to join a Xbox party from your phone. This is something that they should be able to do and would take the social part of gaming to the next level. Maybe that’s something that will come out in a later update. For now the app is free and if you own an Xbox it’s something you should have.

iTunes Store

Stupid Zombies is a physics game in which you have to kill all the zombies on the screen with a certain amount of bullets. It starts off very easy but after a few levels you need to plan out how to take the zombies out. Some of it is skill and there’s a little luck to getting all three stars. Some of the early levels you can shoot the zombies directly but later on you have to blow up red cans or use similar type things to get the job done. The few the bullets you use the more stars you get, much like any other game in this genre. The graphic are ok but not great. However it clear that’s the style the designer was going after. The game works fine and is pretty fun if you like this type of game. You get one free pass called an Air Strike if you can’t pass a board and then you can buy more in the store. It’s .99 for 5 Air Strikes all the way up to $3.99 for 100. I believe this is a paid app but it’s been free for some time now. It’s worth picking up and checking out.

iTunes Store

If you have kids in a school that uses Process Portal then you want to check this app out. Process Portal is a website where you can go and see you kids assignments and grades. It’s really a nice site if the teachers at your school keeps it updated. Well now there is an app as well. With the app you can check on most things you would use the website to do. It’s not a fancy design but one that works well. There are six sections in the app: Daily Planner, Assignments, Attendance, Grades, Schedule, and Settings.

The Daily Planner shows your kid’s schedule for the day. In my case my high schooler has four classes and when I click on a class it gives me all kinds of information about that class. I get the teacher’s name, his or her e-mail address, location of the class, and a quick glance at what the assignments are, grades, and attendance. This is good for kind of an overall quick look at that class.

The Assignments sections shows all of the assignments for every class. In the Daily Planner you would have to look for every class and you would only see the latest assignments for that class. However in this section all of the assignments for all of the classes shows up in one location. At the far right of each assignment it also shows the grade for each assignment. By clicking on an assignment you see what the total amount of points where, the day it was assigned and when it was due.

Attendance is pretty simple, it shows you how many times your kid was absent and if they have it down as an excused or unexcused absents. The Grades section shows you all the grades for the year. You can look by quarter to get an overview or reminder of what their grades were and you can dig down more and see all of the grades for each assignment. The Schedule section is pretty much the same as the Dailey Planner section with the exception that you can look ahead to what the schedule will be in the future. For example my high schooler has four classes the first two quarters and four different classes the last two quarters. I could look and see what classes she has the last two quarters, along with who the teachers are and their e-mail.

The app works well and like I said if you have a kid in a school that uses Process Portal then you should pick this app up. One thing that I learned is there is a difference between a student login and a parent login. The information is the same but if you have two kids in school and use the student login then you have to log out and back in to change students. Also with a student login you get an ID that you can’t change and it’s a long number. However with a parents ID you can pick your login and all of your students information is there under one login. There is a button in the top right that allows you to pick what students info you want to see. This is very helpful. Of course it’s only your kids that show up under the app. You can’t go check how your kids friends are doing in school. The app is free and worth checking out.

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Want a good way to waste some time, then you need to check out Snoopy’s Street Fair. I’m not sure why it’s called Snoopy’s Street Fair and not Charlie Brown’s Street Fair because the reason for the street fair is to raise money to buy uniforms for Charlie Brown’s baseball team. The game is a farming type game (much like Farmville) in which you buy and setup different booths. Each booth gives you a certain amount of money and experience in a certain amount of time. Like a Popcorn Cart will cost you $5,000 to build but will give you $3,60 and 255XP every 2 hours, that is if you are there to collect it. If you are not there to collect the money it will stay there but that booth will not collect anymore money or XP until you collect what is there. You know it’s ready to be collected by a Snoopy coin over the booth.

The game is free but like other games like this they do have ways of making money. Certain characters takes Snoopy dollars to be able to buy. These are different than the Snoopy coins you collect from the booths. From what I’ve seen so far the only way to get these is to level up and when you do that you get $2. The first character you can buy with these Snoopy dollars is Linus which is $30, (most of them are $20 or $30 with Woodstock being $75.) You can earn the money to buy these but as you might guess it would take a long time. The other way to get Snoopy Money is to buy them (with real money). For $4.99 you can get $50 Snoopy dollars and it goes up to $99.99 for $2,000 Snoopy dollars. These are done as in game purchases so you would need to have your iTunes password to be able to buy them. The reason I say that is to say that a kid playing this game couldn’t accidentally buy Snoopy dollars and as long as they don’t have the password they couldn’t buy them at all.

The game also has a social feature. It ties into to either or both your Gamecenter account and Facebook account. This way you can see other friends you have playing this game. Once you add a friend you can go see their fair and give them gifts.

The app also features some mini games like Snoopy trying to make lemonade, making Snoopy jump into piles of leaves and several others. There are also a couple of other cool features like being able to read some Peanuts comics and taking a picture that makes it look like Snoopy is kissing you.

Overall the game is a time waster but one of those that I find myself getting pulled into. Maybe because me and my daughter try to see who can level up the most (without spending any real money.) It’s fun and if you are a Peanuts fan something you probably want to check out. For free even if you only play around with it for a couple of minutes it’s worth checking out.

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I have used this app for some time now and really like it. With this app you choose a picture and the app will give the picture the effect of being hand drawn. There are different settings for how detailed you want the picture to be and if you want it to be in color or black and white. One thing I use this app for is to make screen savers for my Nook. The Nook (or Kindle for that matter) can’t show color but by using this app you can make some really nice screen savers from your pictures.

The pictures come out looking great and it is a great app. However at $3.99 it is a little pricey. I would watch for it to go on sale but it is an app that I would keep an eye on and try to pick it up. Even if you picked it up at $3.99 I think most people would be happy with it.

iTunes Store

Want to waste hours playing Solitaire on you iPad or iPhone, there’s an app for that. The app is pretty basic with some awful graphics after beating the game. However the game works just like what you would think it should. You can choose from either 1 or 3 cards drawn at a time. There is also an auto feature which is nice after you have beaten it so you don’t have to move all of the cards. One downside to the game is that the auto feature (which can be turned off) will also allow you to swipe a card and it automatically go where you can play it. This is a downside because you can use it as a cheat. The game also features a leaderboard but I’ll be honest, I have no idea how it’s scored.

Free in iTunes Store

Imagine Farmville but set with Smurf’s and you have Smurf’s Village. You start out with two houses and one garden and the goal is to earn both XP and money. To do this you can play one of several mini games like mixing Papa Smurfs potions or by playing a baking game in Greedy Smurfs house. The other way to earn money is by planting crops and harvesting them. The different crops give you different money and XP and takes different amounts of time to be ready to harvest. Blueberries for example grow in a minute while Watermelons take 12 hours to grow.

The game is free but like Farmville this game allows to speed things up by buying (with real money) Smurfberries. Using Smurfberries will make crops grow instantly and the same with building houses or bridges or whatever else you may want to add to your village. You don’t have to buy Smurfberries to play, it will just take you longer to build up your village.

One more thing about this game that I like it that it does tie in with you Facebook account and you can visit any of your friends Smurf Villages or just visit a random village. Overall the game is pretty fun but mainly a time waster but for free it’s worth trying out. So download load it and start having a smurfing good time.

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Where’s my water is a game very similar to Cut the Rope. The goal of the game is to get water to Swampy, who is trying to take a shower. To do this you have to use you finger to clear dirt away, making a path for the water to get there. At first this is really easy but as the game goes on more elements are added which makes it harder and harder. Also there are three rubber ducks per level and much like other games of this genre, the goal is to pass the board while picking up all three ducks. The game is put out by Disney and is pretty fun. It’s $.99 in the app store and if you liked games like Cut the Rope or Angry Birds then you should like this game as well.

iTunes Store

Monster Madness is a game that I downloaded just to write a review on and have found myself playing it none stop. It’s a basic game that has two game modes, Classic Mode and Madness Mode. I have been play the Classic mode the most. The game is pretty simple and very similar to other games. Your goal is to get the monsters at the top of the rows to the bottom. To do this you have to line up at least three blocks. If you don’t plan your moves out right though they get near the bottom and you can’t make a move. If this happens more blocks come onto the screen allowing you what you need to pass. Sounds easy enough but you are also timed. There are 12 levels but I’ve only made it to level 6 so far. The Madness mode is only different in that every minute or so more blocks are added and if the blocks go above a line you lose. There are many games out there like this one but I have been enjoying it.

I picked this game up for $.99 but it has gone up to $1.99. I would stay it’s still worth it if you like puzzle type games like Tetris or Bejeweled.

iTunes Store