Ruckus Reader

There are loads and loads of interactive books for tablets aimed at helping kids learn to read. The new Ruckus Reader aims to stand apart from the crowd by helping to evaluate how a child is doing while reading and then emails mom or dad a progress report -- a report card of sorts, once a week highlighting where the child is doing well and where they need some help. How does the app determine this? There are word games that are played throughout the story and then a comprehension puzzle at the end to see how much detail the child remembers from the story. The titles range from things like My Little Pony to Transformers. Ruckus Reader is a free app for iOS devices. Individual books range in price from free to $5.99 or you can get a six month subscription for $24.99 for full access to the library, which is right now 15 titles though developers say 20 new ones will be added every month.

Lonely Planet Country Guides

For the traveler, Lonely Planet Country Guides is offering some new e-guides that have the advantage of working entirely offline. In other words, all the content is stored on your device so that when you're abroad you can turn your wireless data off in order to avoid those overseas roaming fees. Nice thing is though the app allows you to keep just your GPS on so that you can still find yourself on the maps in there. Lonely Planet guides are available for iOS devices for $9.99 apiece. Right now they're offering Italy, Ireland, Australia, France, Spain and Costa Rica.