Apps for Kids 027: Flow

Click here to play episode. Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 9-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder.

In this week's episode Jane and I talk about Flow Free, a game where you try to connect pairs of colored dots without crossing any lines you've already drawn. It's free in the iTunes store and on Android.

Don't forget to be part of our "Listener Email" segment. If you would like to have us read your favorite game or gadget recommendation on the air, or if you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, email us at appsforkids@boingboing.net. Include your age, and the city, state, and country you live in.

If you're an app developer and would like to have Jane and me try one of your apps for possible review, email a redeem code to appsforkids@boingboing.net.

Listen to past episodes of Apps for Kids here.

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Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Boundegar

I was hoping it was this…

http://interactive.usc.edu/projects/cloud/flowing/
http://twitter.com/txhoudini Eric

Also available on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bigduckgames.flow

I’ve been addicted to it for the past week
chgoliz

I enjoy Flow as an easy time-killer when I’m waiting somewhere, but my youngest (10) finds it too simple to hold her interest. FWIW.
tomchaps

Wow, Flow Free is a more elegant version of the Japanese Nikoli puzzle Numberlink, which I used to be addicted to–I’d order the books to be shipped from Japan. Those suckers get HARD, and there is little way to brute force your way through them. I hope the Flow puzzles are as well-designed…
- Quaternion
  
  They’re not just hard, but NP-hard!
http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G

Should have said this before: I love the fact that you’ve created an “Apps for kids” discussion space! And I would have been suggesting apps for it, but the hard/software that brought me to kids’ apps cut me off right before you started Apps for Kids. On the ipads, there are only eleven screens. As the kids and I discovered, after that you have to remember the trial apps you spontaneously downloaded and then search for them by name! Instead of just zipping to the back screen and looking at what’s been downloaded most recently. So we stopped experimenting. We regret that necessity.
How we’re coping: I emphasize using the search screen to type in terms like “ninja” or the obvious sequels to popular games. But we all regret no longer being able to stumble across icons, as kids do. When I bought the first ipad I assumed there was an infinite number of screens and proceeded accordingly. We all wish there were an infinite number of screens, because kids and adults work better grazing apps in the store and on the device.
- chgoliz
  
  Create folders. Put everything in folders. Easier to find things, too, without resorting to typing in a search term.
http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad

I’ve been playing Flow Free and love it. The only drawback has been that I’ve been playing it on my wife’s iPhone and things gets a bit tight for a grown-up finder once you work up to the 14×14 grids on that small screen. It’s definitely better suited for a tablet-sized screen.
bklynchris

My 10 yo daughter love flow though it embarrasses me she can complete the board in half the time I can : /