A Numbers Coloring Book for Toddlers 1.0

Developer Johannes Metzler likes to make easy money. He’s designed a so-called coloring book app for kids aged 4 and above that tucks away so many scams it’s really miraculous that it got approved.

Actually, it’s no surprise at all. The number one reason we’re in business with these reviews is that the app store model is flawed and needs an additional layer of curation. Apple rakes in so many apps every day it’s hard to test them all for scams and bugs.

Not even a coloring book

Filed under Books, Johannes Metzler’s A Numbers Coloring Book for Toddlers is basically just a drawing app that comes with sketch templates that the child is require to fill out with color. No page-flipping animations, and the drawing tools and page numbers cover up most of the screen. The design is bad, to say the least. But that’s not the worst thing about it.

No tools

Another aspect that this app messes up badly is the lack of tools to make accurate coloring. See the screenshots to understand what I mean. If that’s the best we could do, imagine how hard it is for a 4 y/o to stay within those boundaries. There’s no zooming in or out, and the undo function only erases the last move. If you make two mistakes, you’re stuck with the first one forever, or until you decide to load up the template again.

It’s easy to mess up, and there’s no feedback to give the kid any satisfaction that he / she has done something right. But that’s not the worst thing about it.

Page numbering can confuse the child

You see the colorful page numbering at the bottom? Well, besides using random colors from the palette making it seem as if they’re somehow connected (which they’re not), each page contains not one but two drawings that represent numbers.

A child looking to correlate 1 and 2 as successive numbers will be confused by the presence of 3 and 4 on page 2. And that’s still not the worst thing about it.

A complete scam

The absolute worst thing about this app is the built-in phone-number scam that pops up when you tap on one of the ads. Every time you go in and out one or even two ads will display at the same time. As an adult, you’ll know to hit the x button and escape. As a child,  you may not. Adding insult to injury, the sixth page is followed by what appears to be more content. Tap and yet another ad pops up, followed by the phone number scam (if you tap the ad).

We hope Apple makes note of this and pulls it, or at least tells the developer to get his act together.

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