DINO Interactive Studios

DINO Clients Tease Upcoming Releases

The Jungle Book: The Story of Mowgli and Shere Kahn is a rich, deeply-interactive children’s book adapted by Drew Frist of Electric type, illustrated by renowned artist Nigel Buchanan and narrated by Emmy-nominated Rich Orlow. The Jungle Book contains over 50 pages of interactive content, a sophisticated on-screen menu and navigation system, and provides a [...]

PBS Digital Learning Library client

Provides access to the PBS DLL (a collection of thousands of media assets) on iPad for use in the classroom

ABCs and Animals

A universal iPhone/iPad application providing interactive alphabet learning flashcards

Woezel en Pip

A children’s activity app based on the popular property from the Netherlands

Corporal Cup’s Food Camp

A cooking activity game based on the Emmy-Nominated PBS Kid’s show, Fizzy’s Lunch Lab

Lumos Virtual Birthday Candle App

Created for JK Rowling’s Lumos Children’s charity, this app is designed to raise awareness of the charity’s work

Akina HD

A calming generative art experience for iPad

Additional Projects

RDL Insider

Developed for the Rossignol/Dynastar/Lange brands of ski and snowboarding equipment, RDL Insider allows the RDL salesforce to educate staff members at retail stores in the features and performance information related to the RDL brands. The app includes detailed product images, lush video, and a flexible system for capturing salesforce and industry contact information which is synchronized to a server. The RDL Insider app was distributed internally within the RDL organization using Apple’s corporate provisioning system. Read More

ZipZap Retail Finder App

ZipZap allows users to find skateboarding accessory brands at local retailers near their current location. ZipZap makes use of XML data feeds providing always-up-to-date retailer information and special promotions, interfaces with the Location API in iOS, and features several unique interface elements. Read More

Pew! Pew!

This novelty iPhone application makes use of the accelerometer, orientation detection, swipes and tap detection to put realistic renders and sounds of a ray gun into the user’s hands. The user can choose between nine ray guns and nine sounds. When either tapping or shaking iPhone, the sound triggers. A stun/kill mode switch on each raygun allows quick switching between sounds. Development and Concept by DINO with custom graphics commissioned from a private artist. Read More

Meta-Nixie Clock

I knew I wanted to do more than just pop some pics on a memory card and hack the frame to advance every minute, so I got to thinking and settled on the idea of upholstering the frame in leather, accenting it in brass, and having a vaguely steampunky piece. I found a decent digital frame that had a nice, wide (and, importantly, solid wood) accent frame at my local Radio Shack, went shopping at my fabric store for some split leather, and hit several art and hardware stores to get some brass fittings. Read More

Black & White & Red All Over

This was our entry for Mini Ludum Dare 14- a collaborate game made using Processing. You play the role of the mustachioed newspaper editor who is trying to maintain a balanced coverage of world events. When the game loads, press any key to begin and then use the up/down arrow keys to catch incoming headlines. Some are tragic… some are comic… your balance-o-meter will tell you fair and balanced you are being in your headline gobbling. Headline sources include realtime Google News Feeds and Onion. Windows Linux Mac OS X Read More

A different thought on Apple’s in-app subscription rules

Content publishers are going to have to face the reality of the 30% Apple tax if they want to play in the iOS world. Could there be at least a glimmer of a silver lining?

Apple TV eBooks?

With an Apple TV app store imminent (I hope!), could made-for-tv ebooks bring back active family experiences in the living room?

DINO’s Tips for Making the Most out of Book^2 Unconference

Aaron and I are on our way to Book^2 Camp in New York. It’s an “unconference,” an event that has a participatory style of generating bottom-up content from the attendees rather than providing top-down, pre-determined content. In the tech industry this is a very common format. After talking with a couple of our clients also [...]

On the design of a simple object

My life, for better or worse, revolves around Apple products, and they are all, in general, well-designed, fun-to-use, and exciting products. So it’s no small praise when I say that one of the best-designed Apple products that I have laid hands on recently is the cheapest item they sell.

Concerning the business and ethics of Apple’s in-app purchase requirements (UPDATED)

Apple’s new requirement that all paid content in apps be purchasable via in-app purchase has many ramifications, and not all of them fiscal. In this post, I ponder the issue from several business-related directions, but I also address the potentially huge problem of appointing Apple the controller (and potentially censor) of content.

Week 40/41 Increasing Capacity

(this was meant to go up last Monday. Oops.) Ugh. Halloween, and by extension, October has come and gone. 2010 is nearing its end. This has been a hectic couple of weeks for us. Transitory periods have a way of making you feel like time is rushing past and also like you’re not going fast [...]