StoryBots

Hello Grownups!

Thanks for being one of the earliest friends and supporters of StoryBots.  Since we have launched, you have watched over 7 million StoryBots videos, put your faces into 500K personalized videos, read more than 3 million personalized iPad books, and given over 500,000 Beeps and Boops. It’s been very, very busy here!

Today, we are excited to announce two changes that make everything in the StoryBots universe easier to use and even more affordable.

First, the characters you create and faces you upload to StoryBots.com or using any of our apps are now accessible to you in all of our other apps.  For example, if you create kid characters in our StoryBooks app, you can simply log into Beep & Boop and the same faces will be there, too.  Hooray for more fun and learning and less time uploading photos!

Second, StoryBots now has a new and improved pricing plan.  Today, for only $4.99 a month, our All-Access Family Pass gets you everything in the StoryBots universe — including 7 apps, 26 books, 36 videos and 124 activity sheets, with new goodies added every month.

Why did we go with a simple one-price plan instead of charging for every little thing?  A subscription approach lets us keep in-app payments far away from kids — and keeps our products 100% free of advertising.  It’s the kind of peace of mind we want as parents for our families, and we think you deserve the same.

Thank you again for all your support and friendliness.  We invented StoryBots for our own families and nothing could make us happier than the fact that so many of you have invited us into your homes.  If there is ANYTHING we can do make your experience with StoryBots more fun or more pleasant, please email us here.

Happy Parenting,

Evan & Gregg Spiridellis
Brothers, Co-Founders, Dads

Greetings Grownup!

A year and a half ago, my brother and I took our first plunge into creating something for our families –- an iPad book app called JibJab Jr. that ultimately evolved into StoryBots StoryBooks.  Many of you have been around since those early days and we thank you for it!

Today, we are excited to announce an upcoming change that we believe will result in a lot more of our books being read to a lot more kids.

Instead of charging $3.99 or $7.99 per book, in March 2013 we will switch to a simple $4.99/month membership that gives you unlimited access to all of the books in the library.  In other words, instead of buying individual books, it will be more like Netflix, where you pay one set fee to access everything for a period of time.  

If you are an existing StoryBooks customer or monthly book subscriber, rest assured:

• All of the books you purchase up until the date we make the switch will be available to you forever.

• You will NOT be charged automatically once the new app update is released.  We will voluntarily shut down all your current monthly payments so that you are not being moved into a plan that you did not explicitly tell us you want.

We anticipate the changes described above will take place by the end of March 2013, but depending on some factors outside of our control, it could happen as late as April 2013.  We will keep you posted as the date is set.

Finally, we want you to know that this upcoming change is part of a broader effort to give you more for your money.  Not only will the $4.99/month membership unlock all of the books in our app, it will unlock EVERYTHING across the entire StoryBots universe.  Members will get exclusive access to dozens of Starring You® Videos we have in the works as well as a host of new apps that we will be releasing throughout 2013.  You can learn more about what a StoryBots membership will get you here.

Thank you for your past and ongoing support of StoryBots.   My brother and I — along with the entire team here — are so grateful you’ve invited the StoryBots into your homes. We promise to work hard to deliver you quality content that thoroughly entertains not only your kids, but also you!

Happy Parenting,

Evan & Gregg Spiridellis
Co-Founders, Brothers, Husbands, and Dads

Greetings Fellow Grownup!

So, you have a 2-to-6 year old in your life? How are you holding up? Could you use a little less stress and a lot more fun in your parenting routine? We thought so.

My brother and I created StoryBots to lend parents a hand with high-quality content you can feel great about giving your kids — as well as tools that make parenting more fun.

When we first started looking at apps for our own kids, we were shocked by the large number of low-quality, spammy apps out there. What’s worse, many of them showed inappropriate, unsafe ads to kids or tricked them into buying things.

We chose a different path for StoryBots.

Our vision? For a simple monthly subscription of $4.99, parents could unlock an entire universe of learning and fun across the web, iPhone, and iPad.  That way, kids could have a blast without hitting roadblocks (e.g., pay $.99 to get to the next level) and parents could rest easy knowing their kids were exploring in a high quality, safe, commerce-free environment.

Today, a StoryBots membership unlocks all 10 of our Starring You® Videos on StoryBots.com.  Over the next 3 months, we will be rolling out a host of new apps and web experiences that will make your StoryBots membership the lowest-cost, highest-value arrow in your parenting quiver!

By the end of March 2013, members will have access to:

• ‘Starring You® Videos’ on the web – with a new video added every month
• ‘Starring You^® Books’ for iPad – with a new book added every month
• ‘ABC Videos’ apps for both iPhone and iPad
• ‘Tap & Sing’ musical app for iPad
• ‘Printables’ activity sheet downloads on the web
• ‘Beep & Boop’ for iPhone
• A new parent app that’s too secret to tell you about yet!

Plus, we have even more apps and videos planned for later this year.  We will keep you posted about them on this blog, via our newsletter, and also on Facebook and Twitter.  As always, if you have any questions about StoryBots, please visit our help center or feel free to email us.

Thanks for inviting the StoryBots into your home.  We promise to work hard to keep delivering new, fresh, and fun products that make your kid(s) – and YOU – smile!

Happy Parenting,

Evan & Gregg Spiridellis
Co-Founders, Brothers, Husbands, and Dads

We are so sorry but we noticed that we made an error when we published our latest book, “Snowball Fight,” that caused one of the generic characters we use to animate the book to appear on page 9 in a spot that should feature your child. We understand that this is a big mistake and we are very sorry for the error. As of right now, the only way we know to correct this error is to delete the app and re-install it, which is a horrible solution since it requires you to re-install all of the books, which takes a lot of time, and you lose all your photo faces. We are researching to see if there is any way to enable you to just delete the book itself but we have not found anything yet.  We will keep you posted if we do.  In the meantime, if you want to go through with the re-install, we have provided detailed instructions below. We can’t tell you how sorry we are for this error.  We know from reading these books to our own kids that there is a certain magic that happens when they see themselves in the book, and that spell is broken when we make an error like this. In fact, it was our own kids who spotted the error the first night we read it to them!  We promise you, like we promised them, that the mistake that caused this issue will never happen again. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns in the comments or by emailing us at support@storybots.zendesk.com.

1. Delete & reinstall the app.

-To delete, go to the home screen, tap and hold Starring You StoryBooks. You will see an (x) on the corner of the shaking app icon. Click the (x) and confirm deletion.

-To reinstall open the iTunes app store & download Starring You StoryBooks.

2. Open the app and  restore previous purchases.

-The “Restore Previous Purchase” button is in the center of the bottom of the home screen. You can also find a “Restore” button if you click on the “i” for info in the lower right corner of the app, then go to My Books. Below any books listed, it will say “Have previous purchases?” and a “Restore” button.

3. Enjoy personalizing the stories without a hitch!

We are very sorry for the inconvenience. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns by emailing our friendly support team at support@storybots.zendesk.com.