NEWS RELEASE 24 JANUARY 2013
Kiwi Firm Behind Launch Of Anne Frank Diary iPad App
A New Zealand firm is breaking new ground with the global launch today of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank as an interactive iPad app.
BeyondTheStory, operating out of the UK, has developed digital technology to transform top-selling books into a
multi-media iPad or tablet interface.
It is working on digital editions for other classic book titles, including The Wind in the Willows with Stephen Fry, as
well as blockbuster movies.
The Anne Frank diary app was created for Viking, Penguin and the Anne Frank Fonds, 65 years after the much-celebrated
book was first published.
By tapping a word or icon, users explore Anne Frank’s world through video interviews, audio clips, archive images,
educational material and original illustrated features.
The CEO of BeyondTheStory, Jen Porter, says the app takes readers to a new level of interaction and understanding of the
author's experiences in World War Two.
"It is a world removed from the replication of e-book treatment and brings to life Anne's story in a way that will
delight today’s digitally-savvy readers," she says.
Viking publishing director, Ventia Butterfield, says the app, which is Penguin's first to market, provides an inspiring
and compelling user format.
It is available for $13.99 from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/anne-frank/id562909244?mt=8 and is authorised by the Anne Frank Fonds http://www.annefrank.ch/ founded by Otto Frank in 1963.
A trailer of the app in video can be seen at http://player.vimeo.com/video/57684633
The app includes material such as:-
• 21 video clips from Academy Award-winning documentary-maker Jon Blair, director of Anne Frank Remembered
• Over 40 audio clips, including commentary from Miep Gies, one of the helpers who risked her life to aid Anne and her
family in hiding
• The full, definitive text - including the five missing pages discovered in 1998 - with exclusive audio extracts read
by Helena Bonham Carter
• Context-sensitive notes, historic documents and hand-drawn maps
• Specially commissioned introduction by Buddy Elias, Anne’s first cousin and only living relative
• Translated facsimile pages from the original diary
• Dual timelines featuring family images from Anne’s life before the war, wartime images from international archives and
commentary on key events
• Expertly curated themes and ‘Story Trails’ for a deeper, more in-depth reading experience
• Exclusive access to the Anne Frank Fonds archive, founded by Anne’s father Otto Frank, including previously unreleased
material
PREVIEW LINKS
Broadcast quality video clip links:-
Walkthrough with voice over: http://video.beyondthestory.com/annefrankpresswalkthrough1080p25.mp4
Vimeo links for near-broadcast-quality:-
App trailer: http://player.vimeo.com/video/57684633
Walkthrough with voice over: http://player.vimeo.com/video/57689747
BACKGROUND INFO
BeyondTheStory Ltd is a New Zealand-originated developer of innovative multi-media publishing solutions, operating in
the UK. Its technology allows publishers and other media businesses to use digital formats in a fast, scalable and
affordable way. Its lead product is an automated publishing platform using proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and
advanced authoring tools to transform books from flat text to a fully immersive user experience, bringing them to life
with interactive, multi-media embedded content relevant to where the reader is in the story.
In the summer of 1942, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation, Anne Frank and her family were forced into hiding in the
back of an Amsterdam warehouse. Aged 13, Anne kept a diary in which she confided her innermost thoughts and feelings,
revealing how they coped with the threat of discovery and death, being cut off from the outside world, petty
misunderstandings and the strain of living like prisoners. An intimate record of adolescence and heartbreak, courage and
inspiration, the Anne Frank app enables readers to go beyond the words on the page to discover, enjoy and understand her
extraordinary world. Anne Frank and her sister Margot died in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, three months short
of her sixteenth birthday shortly before the camp was liberated.
ENDS