iPads
At all three Brookline Libraries, patrons may borrow iPads with assistive technology apps developed for individuals with autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, and/or visual or hearing impairments. They also include apps for literacy development and healthcare, as well as games, education, and library resources for all audiences.
You can pick up an iPad at these locations:
Brookline Village Library
Reference desk, first floor (two iPads available)
Children’s Room, basement floor (two iPads available)
Coolidge Corner Library
Main desk (two iPads available)
Putterham Library
Main desk (four iPads available – three iPad Pros, one iPad mini)
iPads must be returned to the Library they were borrowed from and may not be returned via book drop. You may return any Brookline Village iPads to the circulation desk at the front of the building. iPads are available for a loan period of two weeks, and may be renewed if they are not reserved for another patron. Children under 18 must have a parent or guardian present to check out an iPad.
The Library’s iPads and app purchases were generously sponsored by a grant from the Friends of the Brookline Public Library.
Apps Currently Available
(App descriptions taken from app store where possible)
Are we missing something you’d like to try out? Send us your app purchase requests here.
Education (Kids)
4 by Boynton | Four delightfully interactive books featuring a menagerie of fun animal characters, appropriate for storytime before bed and playtime.
Alphabet | Alphabet and counting puzzle game. Good for early learners.
Byron #1 | Dive into 4 exciting Byron Barton interactive book apps for new readers! Explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and personalize the story with your own narration. Enjoy Planes, Boats, Trains, and Trucks, all in one convenient place.
Count-up-to-ten | Developed in partnership with a renowned expert mathematician, Aurélien Alvarez, Count to Ten: Learn Numbers with Montessori is a globally-acclaimed app that teaches children how to count from 1 to 10 through 4 playful, fun and engaging mini-games.
DD’s Dictionary | DD’s Dictionary, a Dyslexic’s Dictionary allows independent discovery of an unknown spelling or a quick check of an uncertain word.
Dollars & Cents | Dollars and Cents features three progressive programs with options to use either U.S. or Canadian currency: Counting Coins, Spending Money, and Making Change. Ideal for adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities, including autism.
Dr. Seuss | From holiday classics like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” to classroom staples like “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham”, find all your favorites here, now with fun animations and hidden surprises!
(Montessori) Early Reading | Montessori Early Reading is made for early readers who are eager to practice reading easy phonetic words. If your child can sound out most letters, he/she is just one step away from reading words. Trigger reading with this great app designed by teachers!
Golden Rule | Join the Berenstain Bears in this interactive book app as Sister Bear learns that choosing to be kind may not always be the easy choice, but it is always the right choice! Explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and follow along with three fun ways to read.
Happi Words | 3 pictures – 1 missing word. Figure out the word from the scrambled letters provided, spell it and collect funny characters. Happi Words is a vocabulary, spelling and association game for 6-9 year-olds that stimulates lateral thinking and sharpens creative problem solving skills.
Ispy | Helps kids learn beginning, middle, and end sounds of different words, animals, and objects.
Joy of Reading | Comprehensive collection of 9 multi-level games that are designed to encourage early reading. An array of colourful animals supports the child according to their readiness as they are exposed to systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics.
Kindergarten Math & Reading | Develops reading, writing and math skills through fascinating games. Features various types of content focusing on different memory types (visual, audio, muscle, etc.) ensuring deeper understanding of the learning material.
Literacy! | Fun adventures await your child in Ice Land where Boing and adorable bears, seals, and penguins are ready to teach essential literacy skills such as the letters of the alphabet, phonics and spelling.
Magic #1 | Brings kids a satisfying, successful first reading experience, with easy first steps, wholesome values, phonics-based methodology, authentic hand-drawn illustrations, and engaging stories.
Phonological Processes | The Phonological Processes app was created by a certified speech and language pathologist for children ages 4 and up who exhibit phonological disorders or delays. This research-based app implements a linguistic approach for treatment of phonological disorders by engaging users in minimal pair contrast therapy.
QuizFlick Jr | Compete against friends and family in a one-of-a-kind type of quiz game. Correctly answer questions from over 200 fresh categories. The first player to get 10 right answers will lead the pack into an intense 90 second flick round where the winner of the game is determined.
ReadWriteSpell | This multisensory reading, spelling and penmanship program builds an association between symbols and sounds in the English language through self-paced repetition. It utilizes the close association of visual, auditory and kinesthetic elements to help students improve their language skills.
Spelling Bee | The Spelling Bee has fun game modes to practice spelling! Enter your weekly spelling words or choose from one of the pre-loaded lists with over 850 words! This app is recommended for preschool – 5th grade.
TumbleBooks | TumbleBookLibrary is a curated database of children’s e-books, available by subscription to schools and libraries around the world. NOTE: Requires library card login (Brookline residents only).
United States Puzzle | Learn all 50 states in this fun, interactive puzzle! This game will help kids learn the shape and name of every state.
Word Wizard | Word Wizard offers several unique reading and spelling activities for children ages four to 10 including a talking Movable Alphabet that allows kids to experiment with phonics and word building thanks to the advanced text to speech engine, and three spelling activities that increase in difficulty with a list of more than 1,400 questions and answers.
Games (Kids)
Baby Piano | This fun, colorful piano educates your child’s ear to music and helps develop fine motor skills.
Barn | Open up the world-famous Peekaboo Barn, perfect for toddlers. Inside the little bouncing barn, friendly farm animals are waiting to pop out and surprise your little one. Try and guess who they are; tap the doors to find out!
Busy Shapes | Busy Shapes helps children improve their ability to handle simple objects through a series of puzzles, in which they must change simple shapes and place them in proper holes. Along the way, the app responds to each child’s actions with positive guidance and motivation.
Coda Game | In Coda Game you can be the boss of your own awesome games. Drag and drop the visual coding blocks to create games such as Air Hockey, Flappy Bird and Platform games and share them with the world! Your imagination is the only limit.
Colors Shapes | Teaches color and shape identification and recognition, best for preschool kids.
Easy Music | Easy Music is the perfect initiation into the world of music, no theory required! It is a beautifully animated app to introduce kids aged 5+ to musicality. Children learn to recognize notes, pitch, rhythm, and melody in a nature-inspired game environment.
Flip Flap Farm | Flip Flap Farm is a flipbook with a twist. In this non-traditional story, kids control the content. Instead of simply creating unique animals as they flip the pages, kids get to read a story about them as they go. Kids can make squabbits, purkeys and a host of other animals just by swiping from page to page.
Hideout | Hideout makes use of blending and reading short vowel words within meaningful contexts. Interactive activities highlight a core of words that share a phonic pattern, and they provide meaning and purpose for reading and creating words.
Kids Music | Beautiful and easy music application for toddlers and preschool kids. This app inspires and encourages kids to create own melodies. Great introduction to explore the world of sounds and tunes.
Lightbot | Lightbot: Code Hour is a programming puzzle game, a game whose game mechanics require using programming logic to solve levels. This short teaser is meant to introduce players to programming who may have little to no experience.
Music Box | Beautiful and simple music application for toddlers and preschool kids, which inspires and encourages kids to create their own music. Great introduction to explore the world of music and sounds.
Music for Babies | Discover the transformational power of music for health, education and well-being with Classical Music for Babies. Experience the amazing “Mozart effect” on your baby, and increase your cognitive skills and boost IQ in the most pleasant way.
Name Play | Name Play will motivate the child to explore reading and writing exercises in comfort and style. Turn off the lights and battle pesky ninjas, play with letters as they float through space, trace letters, create birthday invitations with the typewriter, and even learn the importance of caring for one’s belongings!
Pogg | Pogg is a game that will help your kids learn words, objects, actions, and have a great time in the process! It’s a fun educational game for young children, as well as a proven useful tool in kids’ language development. It stars Pogg, a little green alien who can do all sorts of things.
Tinkerblocks | Easy and fun coding for everyone. Tinkerblocks is a coding app for girls and boys aged six and up–a language-free digital toy. With Tinkerblocks, children get into coding by way of a simple programming language they can touch.
Education (General)
Algebra 12+ | Algebra 12+ gives players a greater understanding of what mathematics is all about: objects and the relationships between objects. This educational game targets children from the ages of 12 to 17 but children (or adults) of all ages can enjoy it.
CodeSwift | Easily learn how to code in Swift directly on your iPhone or iPad! Includes dozens of fun and fully interactive mini lessons and tutorials.
EarthViewer | What did Earth look like 250 million years ago? Or 1 billion years ago? Or 4.5 billion years ago? What was the climate like in the deep past? Find the answers with EarthViewer, an interactive tool for exploring the science of Earth’s deep history.
Elevate | Elevate is a brain training program designed to improve focus, speaking abilities, processing speed, memory, math skills, and more. Each person is provided with a personalized training program that adjusts over time to maximize results.
Khan Academy | With Khan Academy, you can learn anything for free: over 10,000 videos and explanations at your fingertips in math, science, economics, history, and much, much more. Sharpen your skills with over 40,000 interactive Common Core aligned practice questions and step-by-step hints. Follow along with what you’re learning in school or practice at your own pace.
Math Drills | Graphically rich and fun environment allows up to 50 students to learn basic math skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
NASA | Come explore with NASA and discover the latest images, videos, mission information, news, feature stories, tweets, NASA TV and featured content with the NASA app.
Periodic Table | This fact-filled, image-rich app is the only periodic table you need. Ideal if you’re a student, teacher or just have an interest in the chemical sciences.
Settle It! | Do you ever find yourself at the dinner table beside someone who seems to have the facts wrong? Do you wonder about the truth of campaign ads you see on on TV? Try Settle It! – PolitiFact’s Argument Ender, a free app that lets you to look up Truth-O-Meter fact-checks from PolitiFact.com, the Pulitzer Prize-winning website.
TED | Feed your curiosity and expand your world with TED Talks. Explore more than 2,000 TED Talks from remarkable people, by topic and mood, from tech and science to the surprises of your own psychology.
T-REX! | Join Tyrannosaurus Rex, the fiercest predator in all the land, as she shatters the stillness of the prehistoric forest with a loud, pounding sound! Explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and follow along with three fun ways to read! Come along and see what Tyrannosaurus Rex finds to eat.
Udacity | Udacity is an online learning platform where you can browse hundreds of free courses. Cutting-edge curriculum, beginner to advanced. From HTML Basics, to Self-Driving Cars–all on the go. Download content and have access wherever you go, even places without an internet connection.
Units Plus | Very simple and beautifully designed unit converter with 12 categories and many different units.
Games (General)
Amazing Brick | “I’m not an amazing brick as named by my stupid creator. I’m just a happy brick, jumping joyfully around my beautiful colorful female neighbors.”
Block! Hexa | Block puzzle game that’s easy to play for all ages. Move blocks to fill up the square and collect the block pieces to level up.
Everyday Jigsaw | A puzzle a day keeps the boredom away! How about turning your family photos, travel pics and any snaps from the camera into beautiful jigsaws? Or, you may browse a collection of over 12’000 eye-catching customizable jigsaw puzzles and purchase the ones you like from within the game with just a few mouse clicks. 16 different cutout shapes, puzzles with up to 1000 pieces – we’ve got it all in Everyday Jigsaw, your personal jigsaw puzzle extravaganza.
Lumosity | For decades, researchers have created tasks that measure cognitive abilities. We’ve adapted some of these tasks and made some of our own, creating 50+ cognitive games.
Hanx Writer | Hanx Writer expands recreating the permanence of a typewriter with the convenience of your iPad and iPhone. As ever, the report of SHOOK SHOOK and KLOCK-KLOCK is mated with the luxuries of the DELETE key. Your typewriting will be true word-processing with the look, feel, and sound of a classic writing machine. Every Hanx Writer document can be emailed, printed – shared! – with a personality as unique as the person who creates it.
Temple Run | You’ve stolen the cursed idol from the temple, and now you have to run for your life to escape the Evil Demon Monkeys nipping at your heels. Test your reflexes as you race down ancient temple walls and along sheer cliffs. Swipe to turn, jump and slide to avoid obstacles, collect coins and buy power ups, unlock new characters, and see how far you can run!
TrainRunner | This amazingly cool platform game will challenge you to run from the top of one train car, jump, and run down the next. The challenging and dynamic conditions of each car will push your free running game skills to the very edge of sanity. Be sure to avoid running into obstacles like bats and railroad security or it’ll be game over!
Vainglory | Join with friends or go solo in this breathtaking free-to-play, real-time PvP MOBA filled with dragons, epic heroes and a global community of allies ready to fight by your side. Super Evil Megacorp’s Vainglory 5V5 is the only “no-compromises” MOBA on mobile, providing to players superior gameplay and strategic depth, the most accurate and responsive controls and the best graphics and highest frame rates on mobile.
Assistive Tech
aDyslexia | aDyslexia is designed to help people with reading disorder dyslexia to read ebooks in PDF format and browse the web. The app modifies the text in such manner that it becomes easier to read for a dyslectic. You can set your preferences via built-in settings to customize how an e-book or a web page is displayed. This app also has a built-in text-to-speech synthesis with many supported languages.
Aipoly Vision | Aipoly Vision is an object and color recognizer that helps the blind, visually impaired, and color blind understand their surroundings. Simply point your phone at the object of interest and press any of the recognition buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn on the artificial intelligence.
Ariadne GPS | Ariadne GPS is more than a simple gps app. Besides offering you the possibility to know your position and to get information about the street, the number, etc. it also lets you explore the map of what’s around you. What do we mean by saying “explore”? You’ll deal with a talking map. If you have VoiceOver activated on your device, you will be able to know the street names and numbers that are around you by touching them.
Ava | Ava makes deaf and hard-of-hearing people lives easier and more accessible with real-time captioning any time they need it. Anyone can now have effective communication with people who can hear, and get information about what people say around them. Ava developed cutting-edge voice recognition technologies to instantly show, in colors, a transcript of what’s said in the environment you’re in, by leveraging the smartphones around you.
Be My Eyes | Access visual assistance on demand, if you are blind or visually impaired, or lend your eyes to the blind or visually impaired if you are sighted. Be My Eyes is all about connecting blind or visually impaired with sighted volunteers, to help the blind or visually impaired lead more independent lives. Benefiting and contributing to the community is easy.
Bitsboard Pro | Study almost anything for free across 25 addictive mini-games in one app. Includes tens of thousands of gorgeous flashcards and carefully curated lessons covering hundreds of topics.
BlindSquare | BlindSquare uses GPS and the compass to locate you. It then gathers information about the surrounding environment from FourSquare. BlindSquare has some unique algorithms to decide what information is the most relevant and then speaks it to you with high quality speech synthesis.
CB Teen | ConversationBuilderTeen is a teen version of the popular and award winning ConversationBuilder virtual conversation simulator. It is designed to help teenaged children learn how to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers in a variety of social settings. The auditory pattern of conversation is presented in a visual format to help students recognize and master the flow of conversation.
Clicker Communicator | Clicker Communicator is the definitive AAC app that gives a voice to children and young people with speech and language challenges. This is the latest addition to Crick Software’s Clicker family, developed over 20 years and used worldwide.
Clicker Docs | Develop students’ writing skills and build struggling writers’ confidence with Clicker Docs – the writing tool that provides differentiated support for students of all abilities. Continuously developed by Crick Software for over 20 years, the Clicker product range is used in schools around the world.
Clicker Sentences | Develop emergent writers’ skills and build struggling writers’ confidence with Clicker Sentences – the definitive early writing tool that enables you to build sentences with whole words. Continuously developed by Crick Software for over 20 years, the Clicker product range is used in schools around the world.
CoWriter US | Co:Writer® is a writing tool that aids with phonetic/inventive spelling, grammar, and topic-related vocabulary. Co:Writer has been a trusted friend to writers and communicators for decades (tracing its roots back to the days of the Apple II in the late 70s).
Dyslexia Quest | Climb the mountain and play the yeti games. Each game will test memory and learning skills. The Yeti Master will explain signs of dyslexia.
Ghotit Real Writer | Ghotit Real Writer assists people with dyslexia and dysgraphia in their English writing and text correction.
The application corrects badly spelled words, confused words, homophones, grammar, and punctuation like no other writing assistance tool and offers advanced word prediction with grammar and phonetics awareness capabilities.
Keeble | Keeble is an iOS keyboard that allows users with fine motor-challenges, switch users and users with vision impairments to type in almost any app. The keyboard offers word prediction, timing options, Select on Release, Select on Dwell, auditory feedback and other accessibility features. It also fully supports Switch Control and VoiceOver.
knfbReader | Take a pic. The app reads the print. The app helps you get a good photo! Hear it aloud, or read in Braille.
Letter Sounds | Click a letter and hear the most common sound of that letter. This app features clear enunciation of the sounds of the 26 alphabet letters. Designed for use with the All About Reading Pre-reading curriculum.
Magnifying Glass | This app is simplicity itself. Turn it on, point the camera at the fine print and then touch the plus button until it is enlarged enough to read.
MBraille | MBraille brings you a mobile braille keyboard. With the free features you can type, edit and send tweets and text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille.
MCT MoneyReader | MCT Money Reader instantly identifies some currencies and transfers the result to the user via text to speech. This application complies with accessibility standards for visually impaired or blinded persons who can quickly and easily identify and count the banknotes. No internet connection is required for this use, the application is working offline. The recognition takes place in less than 1 second under normal conditions. The phone flash works to allow it to be used in dark surroundings.
Mental Case | Mental Case brings premium quality flash cards to your Mac and iPhone. Use it to learn a language, memorize trivia, or study for an exam. Mental Case automatically generates lessons for you, syncs them to your iPhone or iPod touch, and even tells you when to study.
Petralex | Petralex ® is a hearing aid application based on iPhone or iPad, running same principles as conventional wearable hearing aid. Auto-adjusting to your personalized profile, completely invisible to anyone – use it with ordinary headset! Using iPhone or iPad powerful hardware with our patented algorithms and user-friendly interface with fast profile selection brings maximum sound quality and comfort of use.
Pictello | Everyone loves to tell fun, engaging, and imaginative stories. Go ahead and make a social story or visual schedule for a child with autism or a slide show of holiday pictures for your friends – Pictello makes it a breeze to create and share! Whether you use the included natural-sounding Text to Speech voices, or record your own voice, Pictello is the perfect tool for visual storytelling. Each page in a Pictello story consists of a photo or video and some text, which can be read aloud by a Text to Speech voice or your own recorded audio.
Prizmo | Prizmo is a universal photo-based scanner app that lets you scan and recognize text documents, business cards, and images, and then export them as PDF/Text, vCard, or JPEG/PNG. Prizmo relies on state-of-the-art technologies, like a highly accurate OCR, real-time page detection, and beautiful image cleanup. Using iCloud, you can even shoot the picture on your iPhone, and finish editing on your iPad or Mac. All of this in an elegant and intuitive user experience.
Proloquo2Go | Proloquo2Go is an award-winning symbol-based communication app that gives a voice to those who cannot speak. Over 175,000 people already use this AAC app as a powerful tool for expressing themselves and increasing their communication skills and language development. Its innovative features let users, parents, teachers and therapists quickly personalize the app. Proloquo2Go is an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app used by people with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other diagnoses.
Quickgets Park | Do you forget often where your car is parked?. Thank to this app is not an issue anymore. With Quickgets Park you will know exactly where you left your vehicle and will provide you with the route to get to your it, and also with an image of the place you parked.
Read2Go | Read2Go is an accessible ebook reader that makes reading Bookshare titles easy. Bookshare is the world’s largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities with over 345,000 titles. For questions on whether Bookshare is for right for you or for someone you know with a qualifying print disability, please refer to www.bookshare.org. The Help Center on the Bookshare site offers assistance in preparing your membership and in using this app or other ebook readers with Bookshare. From within Read2Go, you can browse, search, download, and read books directly from Bookshare using your Bookshare membership, as well as read DAISY books from other sources. The app gives you full control over visual choices for font size and color, background and highlighting color, and text-to-speech preferences. Read2Go features word-by-word highlighting for multi-modal reading.
Subtitles Viewer | View subtitles on your iOS device synchronized with television or movies on your TV, or at the cinema. Brilliant for when you’re at a cinema watching a movie, and you need subtitles in your native language! Great also for the hearing impaired or deaf community.
TalkSciCalc | A comprehensively featured calculator that has become a favorite among adults and high school students around the world. Designed for a wide range of users, this calculator has large colorful buttons, optional high contrast, full VoiceOver support, and unique to this calculator; the option to use speech for answers, buttons names and formulas!
Vocal Eyes | VocalEyes uses artificial intelligence to make the world more accessible for the blind and visually impaired. Created at MIT, VocalEyes uses proprietary computer vision algorithms to identify objects, read text, describe environments, label logos and brands, detect faces, and more.
Voice Dream | Voice Dream Reader is an accessible reading tool for mobile and tablet devices. With advanced text-to-speech and a highly configurable screen layout, it can be tailored to suit every reading style from completely auditory to completely visual, plus synchronized combination of both.
Wet Dry Try | Bring the multisensory genius of the Handwriting Without Tears® Slate Chalkboard and Blackboard with Double Lines to your iPad with the Wet-Dry-Try app. Students can practice formations accurately, with correct start, sequence, and directionality—all based on our proven methodology. Verbal guidance from a personal handwriting coach provides instant feedback on errors and positive reinforcement.
Health
First Aid | Accidents happen. The official American Red Cross First Aid app puts expert advice for everyday emergencies in your hand. Get the app and be prepared for what life brings.
Headspace | Headspace is the simple way to reframe stress. Sleep trouble? Meditation creates the ideal conditions for a good night’s rest. Relax with guided meditations and mindfulness techniques that bring calm, wellness and balance to your life in just a few minutes a day.
Pacer | Pacer is like having a walking buddy and fitness coach in one app. Our personalized fitness plans and guided workouts help you achieve your unique fitness goals. You’ll get motivation and support to get more active by joining groups and becoming a part of our amazing Pacer community. Work out anywhere, any time with Pacer.
Pillboxie | Pillboxie is the easy way to remember your meds. Other med reminder apps are either too complicated or just downright boring. Pillboxie is easy because it lets you *visually* manage your meds. Scheduling a reminder is as easy as dropping a pill into a pillbox.
Pill Reminder | With Medisafe you won’t put yourself or your loved ones at risk by missing a dosage — or taking a double dose because nobody tracked. Our mission is giving you the pill reminder tools, support and info you need to safely take pills. That’s why millions of patients and non-patients have downloaded Medisafe, the top-rated medication manager and pill reminder for those who need reminders to take vitamins, meds, fertility drugs, birth control, and other medicines.
Relax Lite | Effective and rapid stress relief in 5 minutes. De-stress with our guided breathing and meditation exercises that use calming music to promote relaxation. It’s an ideal stress management tool, being simple and intuitive. Finding time to relax can be very difficult for most people. Our app can be easily integrated into your daily life.
Relax Melodies | Take back control of your sleep with Relax Melodies and join our community of millions that sleep better every day. Featured in People magazine, Mashable and many more. Start sleeping now and enjoy full nights of sleep like you haven’t in a long time. Select sounds and melodies that you like, combine them and adjust the volume of each sound to create a mix. Add one of our meditations specially designed for sleep, lay back, listen, and enjoy falling asleep.
Sleep | Find true relaxation with this app. Features professional music, a Day and Light Mode, and adapts to different light and hobbies. Pick and choose to select the music that best suits your sleep.
WebMD for iPad | WebMD helps you with your decision-making and health improvement efforts by providing mobile access 24/7 to mobile-optimized health information and decision-support tools including WebMD’s Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings. WebMD also gives you access to first aid information without having to be connected wirelessly – critical if you don’t have Internet access in the time of need. Personalize your app by saving drugs, conditions and articles relevant to you — through secure access and easy sign-in.
Languages
ASL Dictionary | ASL Sign Language Dictionary. Over 5,200 Signed words in ASL. The most complete ASL American Sign Language Video Dictionary.Translate English into ASL, from A-Z, plus the entire numerical system, common English phrases, symbols and much more. A must have educational iPhone, and iPad app.
ASL | THE ASL APP is all about teaching you conversational ASL. Packed with 1500+ signs and phrases, easy navigation and features, with different signers, The ASL App is designed to make learning easy, accessible, and fun. Start signing today!
ASLT | Learn conversational ASL right now, on the go, with all phrases and signs organized to make it easy for you to learn.
Duolingo | Duolingo is the world’s most popular way to learn languages with over 200 million users. 23 languages to choose from. Super fun and free — Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian, Polish, Hebrew, Esperanto, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swahili. Oh, and English too.
Gus French | Learning French has never been so much fun! Join Gus, the friendly owl, as he travels around the world and explore languages from every corner of the globe with Gus on the Go! Featuring adorable animations and fun exercises, your child can learn basic vocabulary concepts with interactive visual and auditory lessons on numbers, colors, shapes and more.
FingerSpell | This app is a practice tool designed to help improve ability to read fingerspelling. Users like the variety of words and ability to choose the speed of fingerspelling.
iTranslate | iTranslate is the leading translation and dictionary app. Easily translate text, websites, or start voice-to-voice conversations in over 100 languages. Our new Offline Mode allows you to use iTranslate abroad without having to pay expensive roaming charges.
Language! | Get your child ready for school with Boing and these fun Language development learning and educational games for kids in Preschool and Kindergarten.
Le Bonheur De Lire | Le bonheur de lire offers a fun and compelling gameplay. Children explore a charming village where cute animals invite them to learn how to read French words. A visit to the store allows children to select the next word to play with. Exercises are chosen by artificial intelligence and adapted to the child’s specific needs.
Little Pim | At Little Pim, we believe all children deserve to learn a second language. Our language learning series makes learning a foreign language easy and accessible to all kids–at the age they learn best, from 0 to 6 years. Little Pim keeps kids entertained while inspiring in them a lifelong love of language learning.
Mango | Learn a new language on the go with hands-free features and offline accessibility. Prepare for business trips, family vacations, or study abroad with practical, conversation-based language lessons. (Requires Brookline library card sign-in.)
Mimix3D | This 3D avatar will interpret text/speech input in English and deliver real-time sign language translations, enabling easier communication with the deaf & hard of hearing community without having to know sign language.
Library & Book Apps
Aesop | The Aesop for Children interactive book is designed to be enjoyed by readers of any age. The book contains over 140 classic fables, accompanied by beautiful illustrations and interactive animations.
AML | The virtual doors are open! In this easy-to-use free app you can find directions to every participating library–public, school, university, and more–in your community, and access outstanding resources online. (Resource access requires library card login.)
Bard Mobile | The BARD Mobile app provides access to braille and talking books directly from the NLS Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD). BARD contains nearly 80,000 books, magazines, and music scores in audio and braille formats, with new selections added daily.
Dark Horse | For more than 30 years Dark Horse Comics has published some of the best comics and graphic novels in the world. With the Dark Horse Comics app your favorites are at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere!
Dictionary | Get America’s most useful and respected dictionary, the perfect app for English language reference, education, and vocabulary building. And now we’ve added new word games! It’s never been more fun to learn new words and test your vocabulary for everyone from English learners to total word nerds. Hundreds of words to test your skills.
iBooks | Be well read with iBooks and all its latest features Fill your “library” with everything from the classics to the most recent best sellers. Whether you’re on the go or in for the evening, you’ll always have your favorites within reach.
Libby | Did you know your local library has thousands of ebooks and audiobooks? You can borrow them, instantly, for free, using just the device in your hand. It takes just a few taps to find and borrow a book. Libby has a ground-breaking built-in ebook reader, and a beautiful audiobook player. If you prefer, you can send books to your Kindle for reading.
OverDrive | Borrow eBooks, audiobooks, and streaming video from the library using OverDrive. Find out more about using Overdrive as a Brookline patron on our website (http://brooklinelibrary.org). (Requires library card login.)
U.S. Constitution | Senator Sam Ervin pulled one out of his pocket during the Watergate Hearings… Now prepare to own any legal debate with a copy of the US Constitution on your iPad!
Music
GarageBand | GarageBand for iOS makes it incredibly simple to play, record, and share your music, no matter where you are. Tap into a wide range of instruments from around the world. And now with the Sound Library, you can choose and download more free instrument and loop packs when new sounds are released, to help you easily craft songs in your favorite styles.
Apple Music | Get unlimited access to millions of songs and your entire music library—totally ad-free. Apple Music works seamlessly with your iTunes library to give your personal music collection a major upgrade.
Musyc | Musyc is a fun and innovative music application where touch turns into music. No use of piano keyboard or partitions–draw shapes and listen to your piece of music while viewing sounds bouncing on the screen.
Old Time 24 | A radio player app to listen to yesterday’s “old time” USA radio stations, broadcasting shows from the 1920s to 1950s and 1970s.
Pacemaker | Instant mix magic! Pick your tracks or playlist from Spotify or iTunes and let our AI DJ help you create a masterpiece. When done, share it with friends.
Pandora | Pandora gives you a personalized music experience that continually evolves with your tastes. Create stations from your favorite songs, artists or genres. Or search browse to find recommended stations for your mood or activity.
Spotify | Spotify is the best way to listen to music on mobile or tablet. Search for any track, artist or album and listen for free. Make and share playlists. Build your biggest, best ever music collection. Get inspired with personal recommendations, and readymade playlists for just about everything.
News & Entertainment
Boston.com | Stay connected with Boston.com and find out what Boston really cares about right now. Follow top stories and breaking news: local, national, sports, politics, entertainment, business and more. Access the latest weather and traffic reports. Sign up for push alerts for the latest headlines or share the news with your friends via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.
Epicurious | One of the best food apps of all time is back and brand new for iOS 10! The all-new Epicurious app makes it even easier to find the world’s best recipes, watch incredible food videos, and cook delicious meals. Our top-to-bottom overhaul includes weekly content updates to inspire you, along with videos of your favorite recipes.
News (Apple) | News collects all the stories you want to read — so you no longer need to move from app to app to stay informed. And with the For You tab, it’s easier than ever to find the stories that matter most to you. News also features breaking news notifications and subscriptions to some of your favorite publications.
NPR News | The ultimate NPR experience for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Follow local and national news and listen to your favorite NPR stations wherever you are and whenever you want to. With the NPR News iPhone app, NPR is always on.
NYTimes | Stay up to date wherever you go. Enjoy award-winning journalism with the NYT app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
NYT Cooking | Browse, search and save more than 18,000 recipes from The New York Times, featuring beautiful photography, and easy-to-follow instructions.
NYT Crossword | The best crossword in the world is better than ever! Enjoy the same puzzles printed in the daily newspaper in the crossword app built by The New York Times. (Note: 7-day trial only.)
Podcasts | Discover free audio stories that entertain, inform, and inspire. Explore shows you’ll love from entertainment and comedy to news and sports.
The Weather Channel | The Weather Channel App for iPhone is your best option for accurate forecasts and timely local weather alerts. Make confident decisions this fall, whether you are planning for the day, the entire week or the next 15 days!
5-0 Radio Pro | Be the first to know about tornadoes, floods, shootings, riots, looting, protests, hurricanes, earthquakes, bombings, terrorist and crime waves happening near you. Join the tens of thousands of new users daily and tap into over 50,000 live police, firefighter, emergency medical ambulance, emt, air traffic control (ATC), railroad, ham radio, NOAA weather, news, talk, sports, and music stations.
Office
Adobe Acrobat | Adobe Acrobat Reader is the free, trusted leader for reliably viewing, annotating, and signing PDFs.
Alarmed | Create a simple reminder with just a couple of taps. Want options? Alarmed offers full configurability, including robust repeat options, snooze, choice of custom sounds, pre-alarms, notes and more. Both timed and location reminders are supported.
Evernote | Let Evernote change the way you organize your personal and professional life. Evernote is the only organizer and planner you need: take notes, create to-do lists, add images, scan documents with your camera, take handwritten notes, make sketches, and more! Edit, share and collaborate on notes automatically between your phone, tablet, and computer.
HabitHub | Habithub is based on Seinfeld’s productivity secret: don’t break the chain! Every time you do a habit, your chain grows longer. Eventually, you will build a very long chain. Your only job now is to keep the chain growing.
Notability | Students, teachers, and business professionals use Notability daily to take notes, sketch ideas, create checklists, annotate PDFs, mark-up photos, record lectures, provide audio feedback and more. It is uniquely designed for each device to provide the best note-taking experience at school, at home, and at work. And with iCloud, your notes are always up to date.
PowerPoint | Now PowerPoint presentations look great on your tablet, too. When you edit or create presentations, you can be confident that they will look exactly how you want across PC, Mac, tablet and phone. PowerPoint has the familiar Office look and feel along with an intuitive touch experience, so you’ll be up and running in no time.
Productive | Plan your habits with an easy-to-use interface. Schedule habits for any time of the day, set smart reminders for each time of the day, and stay on track with useful feedback.
Scannable | Scannable moves paper forward. Scan contracts, receipts, business cards, and any paper that comes your way. Save or share documents instantly and move on.
Skype | Skype is a popular video chat and voice call service that allows for communication between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches via the Internet and to regular telephones. It additionally provides instant messaging services.
SuperNote | Perfect for lectures, meetings, conferences, interviews, debriefings, brainstorming, quick notes, to-do lists, planning, and more. Awesome for work, school and daily life. Type, record, or type while recording/playing–also add in photographs and capture everything.
Talking Calc | A comprehensively featured calculator that has become a favorite among adults and primary schools around the world. Designed for a wide range of users, this calculator has large colorful buttons, optional high contrast, full VoiceOver support, and unique to this calculator; the option to use speech for answers, button names, and formulas.
Tiny Scanner | Tiny Scanner is the little app that scans everything. Scan documents, photos, receipts, or just about anything else. Lightning fast and gorgeously designed for both iPhone and iPad. Batch mode combines multiple scans into a single PDF.
Tips & Tricks | Tips & Tricks is your complete guidebook to all things iOS. Whether you’re an iPad novice or a tablet veteran, we cover everything from getting started to hidden features and secret shortcuts. With 20 full chapters and over 200 tips, this app can help you become an iPad power user.
Word | The familiar Word app lets you create, edit, view and share your files with others quickly and easily. It also lets you view and edit Office doc attached to email messages. Work with anyone, anywhere with confidence.
YNAB (You Need a Budget) | YNAB will help you break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, get out of debt, and save more money. On average, new users save $600 in the first two months, and more than $6,000 in the first year. Try it free for 30 days.
YP (Yellow Pages) | Join the millions who have fallen in love with the leader in directory apps. The Yellow Pages app helps you find everything from business listings to movie times. It’s quick and easy to use, and perfect for any situation.
Photo & Video
Animoto | Turn your memories into movies in 5 minutes. Easily create video slideshows set to music using the photos and video clips already on your mobile device.
Artsy Folio | Access all of your art, anytime. Store thousands of artworks on an unlimited number of iPads or iPhones, and access them anytime—even without an Internet connection. Display artwork in high resolution and email works to interested clients at the gallery, at an art fair, or traveling.
Colorfy | The ORIGINAL coloring book! Join over 25 million users in a relaxing experience. Paint mandalas, patterns, animals, florals, and thematic images from our artists – or upload your own drawings and give them even more life. The new AR virtual gallery lets you visualize your drawings in the real world, as if they were a painting on your wall.
DailyArt | Every day, get inspired by beautiful classic, modern and contemporary art masterpieces and read short stories about them. Join the community of over 700.000 art lovers, for whom DailyArt is something that enlightens their day, every day.
DesignLab | Create beautiful designs and professional graphics with DesignLab. Choose from millions of images, graphics, fonts and customizable templates to produce stunning visuals, perfect for social media. It’s fast, fun and easy.
Hyperlapse | Create amazing time lapse videos with Hyperlapse. Using Instagram’s in-house stabilization, Hyperlapse shoots polished time lapse videos that were previously impossible without bulky tripods and expensive equipment.
SketchBook | With a quick snap of your device’s camera, SketchBook can transform your paper-based line drawings into digital form — with a transparent background. Great for getting new life out of old drawings or for making the transition to an all-digital workflow.
Watercolor | Watercolor Effect is the simplest app to turn your photos into watercolor art. Just click once to add watercolor or oil painting effects to your photos.