Sound Shaker

A musical cause and effect app for the iPhone and iPod touch

Grade: B+ | Age rating: 2+ | Price: $1.99

Sound Shaker is a whimsical, graphically perfect musical app that lets kids explore cause and effect in an open ended way.

The welcome screen invites them to choose an instrument to play with.  From here they drop balls of various sizes and colors onto the blank iPhone screen by tapping and holding.  Next they roll and fling the balls around the screen to make interesting sounds.

What’s Hot:
The clean, uncluttered design.  The calming colors, sounds, and narrator.   The many choices of instruments, which include barnyard noises and a mystery mode.  The little pink bird that hatches from the pink ball and flies away if your kids overinflate a ball.

What’s Not:
The balls move slowly, as if underwater.  I wanted to be able to rattle them a little faster.  Mystery mode (denoted by a question mark where a picture of an instrument would normally be) includes a lot of loud cell phone ringtones—it’s fine for home, but don’t launch it at a restaurant.

The Bottom Line:
An engaging and visually appealing app that encourages open-ended play for the preschool set.

We tested version 1.1, which is compatible with the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later) and the iPod touch. Developer Tickle Tap Apps. Read our disclosure policy.

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