The last app my kids and I looked at was the $5 ( Macworld rated 3.5 out of 5 mice ), a universal app from . This one's fairly different from the other two, and while both my daughters had some fun with it, only my 4-year-old really understood the app's focus. It's meant for kids who are learning to read, to help them practice forming words.

The app has two modes. In Alpha mode, you're presented with a grid of 50 colorful icons--a lamp, a dog, a jet, and more. Tap one, and you land on a new screen featuring that object, a horizontally scrolling alphabet, and not much else.

A pleasant female voice announces the object's name ("lamp,") and then pronounces it again, focusing on the phonetics ("ull a mmm puh"). You're meant to drag letters down from the horizontal strip to anywhere on the screen, to spell out the word you're hearing. Drag down the wrong letter, and you're very subtly coached ("I hear 'ull a mmm puh'"). You can drag erroneous letters back up to the bar to discard them. (Mercifully, the voice over artist in Alpha Writer shares none of the qualities of the grating narrator in . [ Macworld rated 3 out of 5 mice ])

As you drag letters down, you hear their sounds voiced. The app doesn't offer any additional corrections or help; this is really an educational tool meant to be used by you and your kids together. When you tap the checkmark to indicate that you've finished spelling a world, there's no overt indication of whether you've spelled the word correctly or not. (In truth, the app only repeats the name of the word you've spelled when you press the checkmark if it's spelled correctly, but that's a very subtle cue.) With some words, like "ship," Alpha Writer wants kids to figure out the "sh" sound, but of course the "s" and the "h" don't make those sounds when tapped individually. Again, while you can certainly hand this app off to your kids if you want to distract them for a few minutes, you'll want to instead stay by their side if you're hoping to teach them something.