Introducing Peterson Guides Bird Finder

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We've been busy working on a new feature for the Peterson Birds app, and this week we're going live! Bird Finder is our new list archive based on information from Cornell's eBird database. You can enter your state and location and automatically import a list of all bird sightings recorded at that location, with abundance data. It's pretty cool and we think Peterson app users are going to love it.

To try it for yourself, fire up Safari on your mobile device and go to PetersonGuides.com. Then navigate to Bird Finder. Then select a state and a location and tap ALL to download a list with birds and abundance data for the entire year.

If you'd like a more in-depth view into Bird Finder, check out the Introduction to Bird Finder page on our new Help Wiki.

We want to hear your feedback. Let us know what you like and don't like about Bird Finder and where you'd like to see it go from here.

People are going nuts about the Peterson Feeder Birds app

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Peterson Feeder Birds has been out almost a month and the response so far has been outstanding. Everyone loves the app!

Here are a few of iTunes reviews for the app:

"AWESOME!!!"

"Want a terrific bird watching resource? This is a must have!"

"The most amazing free app I've seen. Very detailed right down to the bird's songs. I just bought the full version - North American Birds."

"Didn't expect such a comprehensive guide for a free app! Better than the one I purchased. Love the bird song and journal. Excellent app, thank you"

"Just right for the backyard birder! And free!"

"Awesome app, lots of info and free! Thank you, thank you ^_^"

"Comprehensive and creative! I can't believe this is an app or that it's free"

"Wonderful app, thanks so much."

"I can't believe all the info packed into this free app. Most of the common birds in my area and around my feeders are represented. My pets like listening to the calls and I am trying it out on the birds tomorrow. Thanks a lot."

"I LOVE THIS APP! It's totally wicked! it gives u so many ways to find the bird in ur region, listen to it's specific calls, and gives u other birds on the same page to compare ur bird to! I got turned on to bird watching last yr and this app would have been the most awesome thing ever had I had it this yr during our zoological field research trip. I LOVE THIS APP!!"

"As a avid birder I would have to say this is a great free app"

"I used the audio to have a conversation with a chickadee this afternoon. Highly recommended!"

"Beautifully illustrated and informative app! Thanks so much!"

"Works equally well on the iPad and iPhone. Great information and very intuitive interface. The sound recordings are faithful (my dog is still searching for the Jay in the house that I played). The version has motivated me to purchase other Peterson guides."

"Having a good time with this app!"

"I thought it would be fun for me and my kids to try and ID some of the hummingbirds at our backyard feeder. This app does WAY more than that. I would have paid $ for all the cool features. I think my kids will really like it. Would be kind of cool to have a direct photo button so you could add photos from directly in the app, but that would just be a fun bonus. Thanks for the app!"

"Informative,easy to use. Wish they had sounds for each gender though!"

"Hard to believe with all the features that it is free. The pictures are great, the sounds excellent and the ability to keep track of birds you have seen is the icing on the cake. If you are a bird lover this is a must."

"You have to drill down a bit to access the depth of info offered by this app but it's definitely not just pictures as one review stated. Lots of interesting facts, easy to use once you're familiar with it. It gets a ton of use at our house :)"

"This app is packed with features. True, it is not A's comprehensive as the Peterson's Guide, but nearly everything I see or am likely to see around my backyard and hometown is represented. It's packed with features too!"

"Works as advertised and its free. It is not the whole Peterson guide, but what do you expect for this price."

"This has to be one of the best-designed free apps out there. Peterson's took care to make an intuitively easy-to-navigate application that has just the right amount of information for the novice birder. Would be awesome if they made a full version (even if you had to pay, it'd be well worth it)."

"I have the book and this app is filled with all the info the book has. Great color pics, migration chart and specifics on each species."

"Definitely worth the download! Extensive info and very precise images!"

"This app will address the more common birds to be seen at back yard feeders; however during migratory "seasons" other birds will be seen that may not be in this app. This is with out a doubt the best easy ID app I've seen. If you want to ID all the birds visiting your feeders you should consider an app with more birds, such as Petersons $14.95 north American field guide which is a good price considering other apps are $21 and up. This "starter" for free is a blow away deal for a beginner or "weekend" enthusiast. Happy birding! And always remember to wear a hat!"

"I downloaded hoping that this would be handy identifying birds in the neighborhood and at my feeders. "

"While it may have a limited catalog, it is a terrific value with A lot of features including some bird song samples. It took a few minutes to figure the user interface (I was stuck at the pics for a bit myself, just touch near the bottom of the images and the menu appears). I happily recommend this charming app."

"This is a great value for its designed purpose. Our family has received much enjoyment from this app this spring."

"Perfect app for those just getting into birding. This app included the most common feeder birds with tons of info on each just a tap away. Includes bird songs and pics of nests with eggs."

"This is a lot of fun to flip through. My cat enjoyed the sounds too!"

"Now I can birdwatch like a boss."

"I have wondered for 30 years what these funny looking, obnoxious sounding black birds with yellow eyes that come to the desert in the late spring are called. A few clicks and less than 1 minute after downloading I learned that it is a Great Tailed Grackle! Now what am I going to do with all the time I used to spend wondering about the name of those birds?"

"so thorough, well organized, and intuitive you wish it had all the birds in Peterson's North America guide."

Go check the reviews out for yourself on the iTunes store.

Peterson Birds App Giveaway - How to use a promo code

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This week we will give away 10 copies of Peterson Birds of North America for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Each day, we will post two promo codes for the app on the @petersonguides Twitter account.

If you have a Twitter account, follow @petersonguides and watch for the post with the codes.

If you do not have a Twitter account, you can still participate by watching the Peterson Guides Twitter account on the web at http://twitter.com/petersonguides. We will also mirror the Twitter post to Peterson Guides on Facebook. So if you have a Facebook account, please Like our page and keep an eye open for the codes.

When you see a post with codes, copy the code and then go to iTunes on you PC or Mac. In the iTunes store, look for the Quick Links box on the right hand side of the screen and click on Redeem. Paste the code into the box and click on the Redeem button. This will take you to the download page for the app.

Each code can be redeemed only once, so you will have to be quick!

There you have it! It's that simple. Just follow http://twitter.com/petersonguides and watch for the codes.

If you are one of the lucky winners, please Tweet about it, or post to our Facebook wall, of comment on this blog post.

Good luck!

Update: For those of you on PCs who don't currently have an Apple iOS device (iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad) you will need to download and install the iTunes software from Apple to redeem the code. Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/, click on the Download button, and follow the installation instructions.

Appweavers honors ABA Young Birder of the Year

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Here's the full text of a press release we sent out earlier today. You can see the original on BusinessWire.com

SAN ANSELMO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Birding Association (ABA) Young Birder of the Year Rachael Butek could not believe what she was reading. Only one week ago, Rachael learned she had won the ABA Young Birder of the Year contest. And today, an email from Nigel Hall, President of Appweavers, Inc., arrived to let her know she would receive a brand new Apple iPad 2 along with Appweavers’ latest app, Peterson Birds of North America for the iPhone and iPad.

Ms. Butek, a homeschool graduate from Colfax, Wisconsin, completed the ABA’s seven-month long contest taking first place in two of four competition categories. A second and third placement in the two remaining categories gave her the overall win and title Young Birder of the Year.

The ABA’s Young Birder of the Year contest is an annual competition that tests the wits of birders aged 10 through 18 years. Participants submit entries in four modules—field notebook, writing, illustration, and photography. Submissions are judged by a team of volunteer birding experts who this year included noted birding author David Sibley, nature writer Laura Kammermeier, and director of guidebooks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Lisa White.

“We are 100% behind the ABA’s push to encourage young birders, and when we heard Rachael had won the Young Birder of the Year competition, we knew we had to find a way to recognize her achievement,” said Nigel Hall, President, Appweavers. “The iPad is such an amazing tool for birders, and our unabridged adaptation of Roger Tory Peterson’s classic Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America looks astounding on the device.”

Appweavers is a San Francisco Bay Area software company focusing on nature guide apps for mobile computing devices. The company has a multi-product licensing agreement with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for development of mobile apps based on the highly respected Peterson Field Guide series of books. The company is getting ready to release its second app, Peterson Feeder Birds of North America.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the world’s largest provider of educational products and solutions for pre-K–12 learning. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt education products and services are used by 57 million students throughout all 50 U.S. states and 120 countries. With origins dating back to 1832, the company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning literature for adults and young readers.

Appweavers hits a home run with Peterson Birds - MyMac.com Review

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Earth science and biology teacher Mike Breed wrote a very thorough review of Peterson Birds of North America on MyMac.com.


My favorite quote:


" ... Appweavers, Inc. hit a home run with their version of the Peterson Birds of North America ..."


You can read the review here.


Nice Review of Peterson Birds at BirdingIsFun.com


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Scot Tuthill at BirdingIsFun.com wrote a nice review of Peterson Birds. Here's what he thinks of the app:

"Appweavers has done a stunningly good job ... I would feel confident using this app in the field. "


You can check out the review at BirdingIsFun.com

Intro to the new Peterson Birds iPhone UI [video]

Peterson Birds version 1.1 is now in the iTunes App Store. It's a huge improvement on v1.0, especially for iPhone and iPod touch users.

Check out this new video of the iPhone interface

Peterson Birds of North America Intro to iPhone UI from Nigel Hall on Vimeo.

Bound to become a must-have app for tech-savvy birders Kirkus Reviews

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Nice review of Peterson Birds of North America by Kirkus Reviews. They're the go-to review site for the publishing world.

The Kirkus conclusion? "Bound to become a must-have app for tech-savvy birders." We think so too.

Go read what they say at Kirus Reviews.

The app looks gorgeous on the iPad Macworld Expo Notes

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Those nice folks at Macworld came to the Peterson Birds booth at the Expo in SF a couple of weeks ago and interviewed us while we demo'd to customers. They liked the app — who doesn't? And they gave us a nice writeup.

Go check it out. Expo Notes.

The Inaugural Blog Post and Macworld review

Here it is. The Peterson Guides blog. Finally!


First a quick overview of what we expect to do with this blog.


Although Peterson Guides is very active on Twitter and Facebook, this blog will be the core vehicle for disseminating our plans for global domination ... ah wait ... make that world peace, I was thinking of another blog. And we hope to find a few slots in between vitriolic rants to answer questions about the Peterson Guides mobile apps and provide more insight into how we do things.


Also, we'll be posting a few photos of happenings around the office and events that we go to. In that vein, here's a photo of our booth/podium at Macworld last month:


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We had a lot of fun at Macworld and met lots of wonderful people. There certainly are a lot of birders in the Mac community. If you came to the booth and watched the demo, please feel free to leave feedback — good or bad, we can take it — in the comments below.

Peterson Guides on Twitter Peterson Guides of Facebook Peterson Guides YouTube Channel Download Peterson Feeder Birds from iTunes Download Peterson Birds from iTunes