New app lets parents read to children from afar

LONDON (Reuters) - Parents whose hectic schedules mean they can't be at home when their children go to bed can now buy an app which enables them to read their youngsters a goodnight story or sing them a lullaby from afar.

"Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime" allows iPad and iPhone 4 users to read their children tales and rhymes like Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice from their office desks or anywhere else they may be so their children don't miss out on their bedtime ritual.

"In a frantic modern world where business trips, expeditions and sometime separations draw parents further from their children, Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime brings them back together," said Chris Stevens, Chief Executive Officer of digital book publisher Atomic Antelope, which created the app together with digital design studio ustwo.

Parents and children synch their iPhones or iPads by signing into Game Center -- Apple's online gaming portal -- so they can interact on their screens in real time, with parents able to guide children through the book or watch as their children turn the pages.

"They can have a conversation on an audio level and a connection on a visual level," Steve Bittan, Marketing and Communications Manager at ustwo, told Reuters.

Now available on the App Store, the interactive book simulates gravity so that scenes from the nursery rhymes and stories react when children touch or shake their iPhone or iPad.

The app, which costs 2.39 pounds ($3.83), was the number one selling iPad book last week, Bittan said.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Steve Addison)

($1=.6243 Pound)