Bookful
Make books come alive!
Free (IAPs) From Inception VR Ltd, bookfull.app Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 12 or later
Augmented reality is tons of fun and opens up all kinds of exciting possibilities. One of those possibilities is bringing books to life, which is what Bookful is all about. It delivers beautiful, interactive 3D books that can sit on top of your real– world environment, and it also gives you a bunch of fun augmented reality games.
You get two free books to begin with, a story book and a kids’ encyclopedia. Both are designed well and work rather like high–tech pop–up books: castles rise from the pages, cartoon characters play musical instruments, and you can zoom, swipe, and swirl everything about just like you might with a real pop–up book. It’s brilliantly done, although for actual reading you’re better switching modes from augmented reality to 3D.
The books also include games that enable you to race moon buggies around the couch or play with letter blocks on the rug. They’re pitched just right for younger children: not so simple they’re boring, but not so tough they’ll cause a tantrum. And the in–app book purchases are priced right too: $1.99 for an augmented reality book is a steal.
It’s impressive stuff, but while the books look gorgeous on the iPad’s big screen there’s a trade–off: it’s awfully heavy and cumbersome for us adults, never mind our kids. For reading, the iPad is better — but for the AR features the iPhone or iPod touch is much better suited to little hands.
the bottom line. Bookful brings kids’ books to life brilliantly by using augmented reality.