Professionals in the field had been relying on symbols developed in the early 1980s, and the development of a contemporary symbol set was overdue. Smarty Symbols is a symbol set that provides nearly 12,000 symbols for developers of educational or medical apps and manufacturers of AAC devices to use on their apps in order to promote the learning and development of communication skills for individuals with disabilities. By using symbols, many children have gained the ability to communicate with loved ones and many adults have regained their communication. The Smarty Symbols set is appropriate for all age levels. Through the presence of Smarty Symbols, developers and manufacturers of products for individuals with disabilities can create learning and communication materials that are more appropriate and attractive thus providing a more rewarding experience for children and adults with communication difficulties.

“Developers and AAC companies can license our high-quality product, Smarty Symbols for a significantly lower fee than our competitors. We want to revolutionize our field with Smarty Symbols. The current license options include a one-time payment for lifetime usage of 11,000 symbols, or a one-time set up fee plus a royalty payment schedule based on the sale of products using Smarty Symbols.”

Smarty Symbols has a modern, up-to-date, comprehensive and very transparent library. Vocabulary is organized into semantic and meaningful categories (such as food, animals, fruits, drinks, communication, expressions, and colors) and can be easily retrieved by the user. It features a low frequency vocabulary that cannot be found on competitors’ symbol sets such as adult intimacy, college life, employment, and Internet and social media vocabulary. Smarty Symbols is also currently being translated into Spanish and Portuguese.
Smarty Symbols will play a vital role in the communicative experience of children, teens, and adults with disabilities. Barbara Fernandes explains:

“We want to empower individuals with disabilities with a vocabulary that reflects the communication being used today by everyone which includes words that did not even exist five years ago. Smarty Symbols is a modern symbol set and allows users to express themselves fully like it should.”

Smarty Symbols is currently featured in some of Smarty Ears’ iPad apps available on the app store, Custom Board, That’s How I Feel, and Expressive. It has already been licensed to developers across the world to be utilized into apps, computer software, and traditional alternative communication devices that are currently in development. Soon, professionals and users will start seeing more and more products using Smarty Symbols.
For more information about Smarty Symbols, visit http://www.smartysymbols.com or contact Smarty Ears at contact(at)smartyearsapps(dot)com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smarty-Symbols/144792392259713
Twitter @smartysymbols

It is very important that you keep your iOS system up to date in order to have apps run smoothly and also take advantage of the enhancements  and the possible bug fixes provided by Apple.

Updating your iOS system is FREE

While most apps will work on older versions of the iOS system, keeping an up-to date update will guarantee you best performances.

In fact, some apps also do not work on older iOS versions (e.g 3.1); therefore you will not be allowed to purchase the app from the app store. First let’s learn how to identify which version of the iOS system you are running on your device.

1. Identifying the iOS system on your device:

1st. Go to the setting area on your device and click on “General”:

2nd. Under the “General” menu, click on ” About”:

3rd. Under the “About” menu you will see the information you are looking for under the “Version“.

On this example you can see I have the Version 4.3.2 of the iOS system; which is the most most up to date version as of 4/23/2011.

2. Understand app’s iOS requirements

Now that you know how to identify which version you have, now let’s learn about the fact that some apps do not support older version of the iOS system.

When you are purchasing an app from the app store you will notice that the app has several requirements, one of them is compatibility with iOS systems. Take fore example the number one, best selling educational application: Star Walk for iPad ; it requires that you have the iOS 3.2 in order to run this app. See image below:

Notice that the app requires that you have iOS 3.2 or later; if you have anything older the app will not install. Another example is an AAC app called Expressive:

As you can see, Expressive requires that users have the version 3.1.4 or older in order to run the app on the devices.

Now that you know how to identify your iOS system, and understand that some apps will not run on older versions of the iOS system; you will need to know how to update it. This is the easy part of the whole story.

3. Updating your iOS system

You will need to connect your device ( iPhone, iPod or iPad) to your computer to update it.

1. Plug your device

2. Open iTunes

3. Select your device and make sure you are under the ” Summary” section.

4. Click on “Check for Update”.

You are all done!

I hope it helps… Now go update your device 

There are two ways to redeem your code.

1. On iTunes
2. Directly on your iPhone or iPad

If you are redeeming your code on iTunes, follow these steps:

1. Open iTunes and find the “App Store” button;
2. Find the “redeem” button on the right side of your screen on iTunes;

3. Enter the code provided to you;

4. Wait until app is downloaded

5. Enjoy your app and we hope you can write a review telling us how you like the app.

If you are redeeming your promo code directly on device, follow these steps:

1. Open the ” App store” on you iPhone or iPad,

2. Navigate to the “featured” section;

3. Scroll to the bottom of the list to find the ” redeem” button;

4. Enter the promo code and tap ” redeem”

5. Once you are done; click on ” done” and check to make sure your app is being downloaded.

How educational institutions can purchase Smarty Ears apps and get 50% off on all our apps.

Apple has implemented a program called “The Volume Purchase” program.  This program allows approved educational institutions to receive 50% off when 20 or more copies of the same app are purchased for their staff members. It is important to note that the developers have the option to opt out of this discount; therefore, not every application will offer the discount even if you purchase 20 copies. All Smarty Ears apps have opt in (option) for the discount. This way, if an educational institution chooses to purchase 20 copies of any of the Smarty Ears apps, they will receive 50% off on the cost of the application. This is a significant saving for the educational institution.

Here is how the program works:

Someone from an educational program must enroll by becoming the program manager for your institution.  The program manager will be in charge of making the purchases, and after the codes are downloaded this person is in charge of distributing codes that teachers, therapists and other staff members can use to download the application free of charge on their end.

How to sign up

The program manager can sign up for the program by visiting the following link: http://edu-vpp.apple.com/asvpp.html

Forms of payment

The program manager can make payments using credit cards (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa), debit cards, cashier’s check, money orders, and even wire transfer. Financing is also available. For more information you can visit : http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/volume/us/terms.html

How do I get the app?

After the program manager purchases the copies of the application he will receive codes that can be distributed to the staff members or students. Each person receiving the code must login to their iTunes account and redeem the code. The redeem link is on the right side of the iTunes store (see image below).

Now just click on the link and redeem the app by entering the code given to you.