BrillKids Forum

The BrillKids Forum => BrillKids Announcements => Topic started by: KL on November 15, 2011, 11:17:24 AM



Title: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: KL on November 15, 2011, 11:17:24 AM
This is reposted from my Blog here:
http://blog.brillkids.com/?p=190

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It's been quite a while since my last blog post. In fact, over the past few months, I haven't even been able to be very active on the Forums either.

What have we been up to? Quite a lot!


US Infomercial

The  that has been occupying my time, since the beginning of this year, actually, is the production of a 30-minute infomercial on Little Reader, for the US market. I'm happy to announce that it's just been launched, and we just finished our first week of test airings! As we continue to make adjustments to the show and re-test it, those of you in the US and Canada might see the show on and off over the next few months.

For those of you interested to see the show, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmKyiTGvSp4

(This is an edited version with repeated segments removed.)

I also talked about the testimonials that we got from parents in this Forum thread:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-reader/the-little-reader-testimonial-project!/



Little Musician

As many of you may know, we started beta testing of Little Musician a few months back. Since then, we've continued to add more features to it based on your feedback, and most importantly, we've been working on putting together a curriculum that takes you by the hand and guides you what you show to your child each day. This is especially crucial for parents who have little or no music background.

There are many enhancements that have been added, but the 2 main features you will see are:

- Rhythm syllables - ie., Ta, Ta-ah, Ti, Tika, etc.

- Customizable icons to replace note heads - Similar to how you can use all sorts of icons instead of dots in Little Math, you can now use your own icons instead of the note heads too!



Little Reader

We're very excited with what we've been doing with Little Reader. In the next major update (tentatively called "v3"), you will see new features including:

- Child Profiles - Keep track of different children's progress

- Game mode - Show different words and have your child choose the correct one

- Split Audio - Audio files can be split so that each phoneme, syllable or word can be sounded out separately

- Course Creator - Edit our curricula, and create your own course!

For full details, see my Forum post here:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-reader/little-reader-v3-0-look-what's-coming-next!/



Little Reader Touch for iPad

We will soon be launching our iPad version of Little Reader, called Little Reader Touch ("LRT").

LRT is designed to be the iPad companion to Little Reader for the PC, so that existing LR users can play back their lessons using the iPad instead of the PC. This is similar to how the BrillKids Presentation Binder Set also allows you to teach your child away from the PC and in the comfort of your living room.

The functions of LRT are currently still limited, so you still have to rely on the PC version to do many things such as editing lessons.

Further details on what this means for existing LR users will be announced in due course.

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Hope that explains a little why I haven't been around the Forum much in the past few months!

OK, back to work! :)

KL


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: DadDude on November 15, 2011, 07:04:18 PM
Good luck with the infomercial!  Very exciting!

Also, we've been using the iPad app.  Nice!


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: hypnicjerk on November 16, 2011, 05:01:06 AM
Wow!  I'm so glad big things are happening with BrillKids!  I look forward to having testimonials to share so I can help out. :)


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: mtb999 on November 23, 2011, 02:00:16 AM
HI KL,

I'm excited about the LR for iPad.  I have been considering getting an iPad for myself as it's so quick to fire up and my daughter loves using her grandfather's iPad and playing with the children's applications.  She doesn't like sitting in front of my computer watching LR (only got up to day 30something this time last year before giving up showing it to her).  I also have DS who is 6 months and want to try showing him LR too.

What I was wanting to know is - when will the sem 1 and 2 English (and Chinese) curriculum become available on iTunes?  And if I already have English will I need to pay any more for the iPad lessons?

Thanks so much for your help!
Christine


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: Kezia on November 23, 2011, 07:58:46 AM
Hi Christine, right now there are some English (US) files available for download in the Little Reader Touch in-app store, and the files are currently free to download (for a limited time only). Most of the free files you'll see there came from Sem 1 of the English curriculum.

About the complete English / Chinese curriculum for LRT, we are hoping to have it available early next year, but pricing details and specific arrangements for those who already have the curriculum for the PC version haven't been finalized as of the moment.

Kindly watch out for updates on these here at the forum. :yes:


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: queenkmommy on December 13, 2011, 06:33:41 AM
We really enjoy your products and look forward to the little musician. What is your estimated release date? Also are you planning to create a little Spanish similar to your little Chinese? Thank you!


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: Lappy on December 13, 2011, 06:42:58 AM
Hi Queenkmommy!

For Little Musician, we are still currently in the beta testing phase of the program, with a select number of forum members chosen who are able to test out the software features. The curriculum hasn't been developed as yet, and will probably take until early or middle of next year for completion and release.  In case you want to join the beta testing program (note that the beta testing program requires you to bug test and submit usage notes for the software) please see this forum thread:
http://forum.brillkids.com/little-musician-general-discussion/little-musician-beta-testing-details/

And yes, we're also currently working on completing a Spanish Curriculum content pack (very much similar to the Chinese content pack) for Little Reader. :) Hopefully this will be completed by early next year, so please do stay tuned!

Loads of exciting things to come from BrillKids! :biggrin: 


Title: Re: What Have We Been Up To At BrillKids?
Post by: at on December 13, 2011, 04:09:55 PM
How about Little Reader French?  I remember seeing a post that it is very close to be finished.  Any update?  How about the extra content pack for Little Reader English that KL mentioned?

Can't wait!