South England Interactive Travel Map

July 27, 2016 by 2 Comments

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When going on a  trip, one of the most important ways to prepare for it is with research.  Research is a whole lot easier with the right tools and a wealth of information pertinent to your trip.  One great tool which I was recently introduced to is the South England Interactive Travel Map.  When visiting the UK, it can be difficult to figure out what places to visit, what things to do, and where to find them. This map helps do just that in one place, broken down by area and destinations.

This map brings various locations in Southern England to your fingertips, and is broken down into four categories: directions, activities, food and drinks, and local attractions.  Each category is broken down into bite size nuggets of information with just enough to whet your appetite to visit locations for yourself.  Each destination also has a picture included with the short description, to give you an interesting sneak peak. Some of the locations included are: Berkshire,Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, Devon, and Cornwall.  What I really like about the site is the local attractions section. This area includes not only historical and cultural locations like castles and cathedrals (tours Americans typically love, being as we don’t have much in the way of those here in the USA) but also family friendly fun locations like adventure parks and beaches.

I also like the food and drinks section, which includes local dishes available from both small family owned restaurants and pubs as well as upscale restaurants.  (Always try local favorites and whatever the area is famous for!) The combination gives visitors a great overall taste of the area.  This is the perfect tool for planning your next trip to England.  It doesn’t matter if you are planning a short visit like a long  weekend or a more in depth trip, the interactive map of Southern England is a valuable tool when planning and doing research and will help you find all the local hot spots.

Filed Under: technology, traveling Tagged With: , ,

Fighting is Fun in Tankwars.io

July 5, 2016 by 1 Comment

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If you liked playing Agar.io, you probably also enjoyed Slither.io. After those two, you might’ve tried Wings.io and Boattle.io. But, is that enough .io games? After playing Tankwars.io, I don’t think so.

Tankwars.io is a new type of .io game, one that provides a much deeper, more immersive experience. The current alpha stage includes one game mode—KingDM, an ongoing deathmatch between anyone brave enough to compete. The leader (i.e. the King) gets a strength boost to further dominate the desert. It sounds simple enough, but there’s much more to Tank Wars than meets the eye.

Special abilities are among the most important features of the game. In Tankwars.io, players mustn’t resort to firing the same supply of ammo in every direction. Instead, you can plant mines across the battlefield. Deadly explosives are effective, but they’re not the only special ability at your disposal. The Air Strafe calls a computer-controlled plane to decimate a certain section of the war zone. This is extremely useful when being cornered by multiple tanks (or if you simply want to wreak havoc on others). Other special abilities are defensive, like the Shield, which surrounds your tank with a glowing force field. Your bullets can get out, but no one else’s ammo can get in.

The gameplay in Tankwars.io feels different from similar titles. In games like Agar.io and Slither.io, any player can die instantly at any time, even from one small mistake. In Tank Wars, each tank has a fair amount of armor and health, so it takes longer to destroy each other. Longer life cycles tend to result in less frustration. In this matter, Tankwars.io feels more like a worthy RTS than a free browser game.

It is also important to note that the graphics in Tank Wars are rather exceptional. Compared to every other game in its class, Tank Wars is the clear winner for visuals. Every part of the terrain is highly detailed, from war-torn parts of the desert to 3D caves that double as barriers. When a tank blows up, the fiery destruction is beautiful. There are also colored markers to highlight your tank and outline enemy vehicles. These markers can be dramatically customized by size, color, and transparency. If you don’t like the way they look, you can tweak them until they’re perfect.

Even though it is still in a relatively early stage of development, Tank Wars is a very promising game. Yes, you might notice an occasional glitch during gameplay. But, all of these kinks are being ironed out, with under-the-hood improvements and bug fixes released every day. At this stage of the game, Tankwars.io surpasses many of its competitors. When fully developed, the additional modes will add to the already deeply satisfying gaming experience.

Some games are fads, exploding in popularity and disappearing after a brief amount of time in the limelight. Already, the buzz surrounding Tank Wars feels different. This is a good game today, and it’s only going to get better tomorrow.

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Povi App For Kids #ad

May 24, 2016 by 2 Comments

This post is part of a sponsored campaign for Povi. I received compensation for my participation, but my opinions are my own.

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Povi is a brand new toy with a very special lesson.  Instead of teaching children the alphabet of mathematics and reading comprehension, Povi helps improve your child’s Emotional Quotient.  An emotional quotient is how your child deals with emotions,  feelings and empathy.  These abilities and social skills are dissolving with the addition of more screens and less face to face interaction.  Learning school subjects is of course important, but in order to have a happy, successful child grow into a happy successful adult, they sometimes need help.  This type of education has gained momentum in recent years, in large part due to concerns over school violence, bullying, and teen suicide. Parents want the best for their kids but it can be difficult sometimes to break through the hard shell of, “How was your day?” “Good”, “”What did you do today?” “Nothing”.

With Povi, there is a chance to interact with your child on various life learning topics like caring, resilience, confidence, motivation, thankfulness, and other valuable life skills.  The toy was designed to be play with a parent, not alone. This helps conversations blossom from stories and flow naturally into a learning experiences.  Kids learn to ask and answer questions like, “If you could be someone else for a day, who would you like to be?” or “How can you tell when someone is sad?”

Povi comes with 10 stories and a free app (available for Android or iOS) featuring additional questions parents can ask related to those stories, as well as 20 additional stories that are age appropriate for each individual child. Parents can choose from three levels- for ages 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. The stories are written and curated by experts including psychologists, teachers, and parents.  Povi is available for funding on kickstarter now and if you are one of the first 2,00 backers you can get Povi for 40% off, for the price of $49.

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Colgate “My Bright Smile” app for kids

February 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

“My Bright Smile” helps parents and kids age 4-6 learn the importance of oral health. Not only does it teach children why they need to develop good brushing habits, but with five interactive games, plus word challenges and puzzles, the app makes learning fun. There is even a two-minute “Brushing Song” that helps children learn how long they should brush.

The app has been picking up awards, including a Mom’s Choice Award. And best of all, as part of the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® program, it is 100% free to download from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

What’s more, Colgate produced a series of videos to help spread the word. These videos show actual kids discovering the games, sharing what they’ve learned, and how we make brushing fun, and mornings easier.

All of which continues Colgate’s commitment to oral health education. The Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® program has been running for 25 years, reaching half a billion kids around the world. http://www.colgatebsbf.com

About Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures®

The “My Bright Smile” app extends and builds upon the success of the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® program. In the United States, the classroom curriculum reaches nearly 9 out of every 10 kindergarten students each year, 3.5 million children in all 50 states, and more than 750,000 kids through our partnership with the Office of Head Start.

Globally, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® is among the most far-reaching, successful children’s oral health initiatives in the world, reaching children in 80 countries with free dental screenings and oral health education. Colgate’s commitment to building a lifetime of healthy habits provides children with burgeoning self-esteem and a foundation for success – that’s the Power of a Bright Smile.

In all, thanks to long-standing partnerships with governments, schools, and communities, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® has reached more than half a billion children and is available in 30 languages.

Award Winning Curriculum

The cornerstone of Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® is its award-winning dental health education curriculum. Developed by global experts, Colgate’s multi-cultural materials help illustrate how to maintain healthy teeth and gums. Today, the educational curriculum has become a part of the permanent school curriculum.

Reaching Communities

In some countries, Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures® is mobile. In the United States, Colgate’s fleet of mobile dental vans travel to rural and urban communities to provide free dental screenings and oral health education to children in need.

Filed Under: health, kids Tagged With: ,

Panda A Panda

February 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment

As fans of all things fun, humorous, and quirky we at Have Sippy Will Travel would like to introduce our American and international readers to Panda A Panda, the phenomena from Hong Kong.  Panda A Panda follows the adventures of On On and Guy Guy the pandas.

Panda A Panda have a quirky sense of humor and give international readers and fans a taste of Hong Kong.  The next step in the evolution of Panda A Panda is stop motion animation as well as digital comics, vinyl toys, plush and a whole plethora of other fun and imaginative panda branded items.  One of the most interesting aspects of Panda A Panda is their  support of the Friends of the National Zoo which is the non- profit that supports the Smithsonian’s National Soon in Washington DC, in the United States.

 

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Their Kickstarter campaign has already raised in excess of $25,000.00 and is well on its way to global outreach and maybe further… One of the levels of backing available is the “Conservation Panda”, you will adopt a Giant Panda to help support the Friends of the National Zoo in their mission to support giant panda conservation. At this reward level, you will receive:

  • EXCLUSIVE resin figure available only during this Kickstarter campaign
  • CERTIFICATE from the Friends of the National Zoo
  • EXCLUSIVE digital wallpaper
  • EXCLUSIVE Early Access to the First Ever Panda-a-Panda stop motion animation.

The company JazWings is also involved in the campaign which means you will get some awesome perks for each contribution level.

The campaign was started to help fund the creation of Panda-a-Panda’s first-ever stop motion animation and introduce the brand to the rest of the world. However, the JazWings team feels they can achieve even more. As backers continue to fund the campaign, JazWings will release new and exciting stretch goals such as digital comics, extra stop motion animation videos, and more.

Filed Under: kids Tagged With: ,

Crayola DJ Music App

May 27, 2015 by 6 Comments

New apps are available everyday, and as more come out they become more and more creative in what they offer the average smart phone or tablet user.  Today we are looking at just one creative app made by Crayola, Crayola DJ.

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Crayola DJ is a fun new app where kids (suggested for kids aged 6 and up) learn about music production and music mixing in a fun, colorful, friendly way.  The app is easy to use and is fun for everyone, including adults, to become “celebrity” DJ’s.  In the app there are almost 100 exclusive tracks by professional DJs.  These tracks are from various genres like Holiday, Hip Hop, Dance, and Pop, which sound great and are easy to mix together to make head bopping, toe tapping beats.

Learning how to mix the various elements of the song is interesting, and its even more fun once you have an understanding of them as well and can mix with some background.  It is great fun taking and mashing up different genres and coming up with something interesting.  Why not mix dance and holiday tunes?  Each song can also be saved to be played again and again as many times as you like.

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Once your track is complete, its time to perform.  In performance mode, there are strobe lights, effects, and a whole lot more fun as the user can get creative with their track and even score points as well.

DJ battle is a two player competitive mode where each player tries to out scratch and mix the other, this mode is quite fun although takes a bit to learn.

The new Crayola® DJ app is available now for $4.99 on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. In June, it will also be sold in the iTunes Store for iOS devices, for the same price.

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WIN Light in the Dark App

October 30, 2014 by 4 Comments

Disclosure- I received the below in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own and honest.
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Mobile gaming is a huge field right now and probably will continue to be one until cell phones are implantable, but that is another story completely. Today we are looking at a new game for iPhones, iPads, Android and Windows phones. This game is Light in the Dark, which was developed by Dreamgate Studios. Dreamgate is a relatively new company, formed in 2011, made up of industry veterans who wanted to bring AAA level games to the indie environment. Light in the Dark combines cartoon artwork with a light bending puzzle game which starts off easy enough for kids but ends up being mind twistingly difficult for kids and adults.

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Kamino iOS App For Travel

June 24, 2014 by 3 Comments

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When traveling to a new place, one of the first couple of important steps is acclimating yourself to your new setting.  The best way to do this is take a walk.  Wander around a bit, see what you can find.  Go a bit off the beaten path.  This works, sometimes, but sometimes after your little stroll you come back only to find out you just missed an incredible view or the best Chinese this side of the Mississippi.  Alternately, you get crazy lost. This isn’t the end of the world but is aggravating, and it would have been nice to know what was around during your adventure.  This is the general idea behind Kamino.  Kamino lets users share their hikes around an area with other users, leading to new adventures and great finds.

Kamino is simple to use, it works using the GPS of your phone and other users suggestions.  The various hikes can include nature walks or simply a stroll around your local suburbs, highlighting locations like restaurants, recreation areas, bars, and stores.  This service can be great fun for explorers or for those of us who are not as adventurous.  Either by striking out and finding great local hot spots or having your own walking tour, this app will be a useful tool.  An important characteristic to remember is the GPS component of the app, so the user will have the GPS with them constantly.  This makes getting lost difficult and finding new stuff very easy.
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