Funky Fruitilicious, an interactive learning app developed by local software programmer Noel Baldacchino is the first educational iPad product of its kind to be made in Malta.

The app has already been ranked amongst the top 50 most downloaded Educational apps in Belgium, Greece, Poland, Turkey, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia, and rated amongst the top 100 most downloaded Educational apps in United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Cyprus, United States, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan & Philippines.

The app was developed over a period of 4 months, by a team of 7 artists, lead by Mr Baldacchino himself. A child psychologist and 2 kindergarten educators were also consulted during the initial design process. The app was originally intended to aid volunteer educators who travel to third world countries, and was subsequently released to the general public for free.

Funky Fruitilicious was recently highlighted as a must-have story-time & educational app, at the "There's an App for That!" conference, held at the Anahiem Convention Centre in California, where the theme of the day was the use of Technology to enhance children's Librarian-ship. Schools and public libraries are increasingly adopting tablets as a means of interactive learning, and hence librarians are looking for ways to use apps to enhance lesson plans and create more entertaining story-times. Two school librarians and two public librarians explained and demonstrated how they have successfully integrated apps, amongst them Funky Fruitilicious, into their weekly library programs.

Funky Fruitilicious is indeed a fun and intuitive developmental app aimed to guide kids in the learning process of gaining their first knowledge in the basics of numbers and the concept of counting. The app not only provides a fun learning environment but engages children by using visual comprehension techniques and combines core early learning number skills with interactive fun, colourful fruit characters, 2 different game activities that reinforce number recognition, and funny audio sounds to enhance quicker reception for early kindergarten goers.

The app is most effective when parents spend quality time playing with their kids and guide them through the included activities. As they become more familiar with the structure of the app, children can play alone and build early learning and number competency skills. Smart parents will find the educational elements of the app to be extremely helpful for their kids to develop focus, concentration, visual and audio cognitive skills, thanks to the vivid graphics and fun soundtracks.

Funky Fruitilicious has a safe kid-friendly layout with no buttons or complex menus. There are no embedded adverts or social media links in the app itself.