kids - page 3

Nanocam, A Build-It-Yourself Camera Made From Bricks

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fuvinano

Fact: Kids love Lego.
Fact: Kids love cameras.
Fact: Kids love to choke on teeny, tiny sharp plastic bricks.

Fuuvi’s special edition Nanoblock camera satisfies all of these passions: It’s a tiny little kit made of even tinier little nano-Legos, and any child, even a stupid one, can use it to make all kinds of neat working digital cameras.

The 2012 iPod Touch: A Great Pocket Computer For Kids [Review]

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The first thing you notice about the 2012 fifth-generation iPod touch is how beautifully it’s made. Crazy thin, ridiculously light, yet sturdy as a slab of slate.

The fit and finish are extraordinary. There are no seams, screws, gaps, cracks or openings. It’s literally seamless. The buttons look like they’re part of the iPod’s case, not nubbins that poke through. Who makes stuff this good? Oh yeah, Apple.

Other reviews have complained about the price (it starts at $300) and some reviewers seem unimpressed by the touch. Who is it for, they wonder? Especially if you already have an iPhone.

Well, it’s for the kids. It’s a kids’ computer. Their first computer, if you like. It’s a relatively cheap, highly portable, extremely capable little handheld computer for children. It plays games, music and movies; surfs the net; communicates via text and Facebook; and hosts a bazillion apps for entertainment or homework. It also displays e-books, though let’s be honest: reading is the last thing it’ll be used for.

But $300 is a lot of money to spend on a kid. Is it worth it?

Tones, A Full-Featured Ringtone Editor That Runs On The iPhone Itself

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Using Tones might actually be more fun than hearing the result.

 

Tones looks to be just about the coolest way to create custom ringtones for your iPhone that I have seen. Then again, I haven’t seen many as I’m not a thoughtless teenager who thinks that other people want to hear his crappy music every time a call comes in.

Better still, Tones puts iPhone ringtone editing just where it should be: on the iPhone itself.

Martha Stewart CraftStudio: Crafts Without Mess! [Daily Freebie]

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However dramatic the stories about her extra-curricular activities and personality are, Martha Stewart remains the undisputed queen of crafts.

But the last time I did anything crafty was back in high school when I ditched three periods and headed for the beach — so I wasn’t horribly enthusiastic when Martha Stewart CraftStudio popped up on our radar. Color me shocked though, because it’s pretty darn awesome — especially for kids, and people who actually know what they’re doing.

Drive-In Turns You Car’s Back Seat Into A Movie Theater

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Shut the brats up in style, with the Drive-In iPad case.

There are several iPad cases which have straps to let you fasten them to the headrests of your car seats so people in the back can watch movies. The trouble is, they’re almost all bulky and ugly, as they try to cram too much into one case.

X-Doria’s Drive-In is also bulky and ugly, but as it’s designed as a permanent addition to your car, who cares?

Apple Store’s Kids’ Tables Trade iMacs For iPads

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applestoreipads

Head on by the kiddy table at your local Apple Store and you used to see four iMacs, loaded up with educational software and games. Go on by with your kid today and you’ll see four iPads running educational iOS apps instead.

Hope they wipe those things down frequently: never seen a kid without at least several culture farms worth of germs on his or her pink, sticky hands. Those iPads are going to be disease-crusted petri dishes after a day’s worth of kids finish sliming them up.

Otherwise, great call. The only better learning tool for a child than an iMac is an iPad.

Barefoot Atlas: Tour The World With Your Kids Before Bedtime [Review]

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Every one of those icons has a story to tell
Every one of those icons has a story to tell

Barefoot Books World Atlas ($8) is a kind of digital globe for children, giving them easy access to a simplified cartoon overview of the whole world.

From the orbital view (for want of a better word), you see the globe peppered with hundreds of colorful icons. Spin the globe and zoom in. The little icons grow and become tappable controls. Each one reveals a snippet of information in text and audio form (read aloud by the UK’s favorite TV geographer (yes, we have those), Nick Crane). There’s also a photo to look at for each fact, which is often much more informative than the icon was to start with.

Dad Warns Developers: Don’t Trick My Kids Into Buying

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Talking Tom Cat is one app Rian picks out for criticism

User experience expert Rian van der Merwe posted a heartfelt rant at Smashing Magazine yesterday, begging developers of iPad apps for kids to think a little more carefully about how they put their apps together.

Most of his comments were about UI and interface issues, but the final one was a warning a lot of parents (myself included) will support: don’t try and trick my kids into buying additional content.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire May Also Ignite Kiddie Buying Sprees

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Remember those sneaky Smurfs? The in-app iPad purchases from the free game Smurf’s Village – and dozens of games like it – had parents seeing red as their toddlers accidentally ran up credit card bills.

The Kindle Fire also has a similar problem. Kids who play about with the 7-inch tablet are just a few swipes away from Amazon’s famous 1-Click Ordering, a feature that cannot be disabled on the device. (If you haven’t disabled in-app purchases on your iPad, here’s how.)

Reuters reports that Jason Rosenfeld’s 3-year-old daughter basically bought her own Christmas presents after seeing Dad’s shopping history on the tablet.

Use Your iPhone To Play With Real Legos With Life Of George

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Following the news that Disney is introducing a series of iPad games that interact with physical toys, Lego is also introducing its next generation of games with the “Life of George” iPhone app.

The game consists of classic Lego bricks, a free iPhone app, and a mat that basically acts as a green screen. The player tries to create the image shown on the iPhone app in Legos on the mat before time runs out.

Disney is About to Turn Your iPad Into an Interactive Game Board

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An upcoming line of toys from Disney is about to take the iPad’s multi-touch display to a whole other level. “Disney Appmates” will be a series of interactive games that use the iPad’s display to enhance the experience of playing with physical toys.

Initially, characters from the Cars 2 movie will be sold with an accompanying App Store app. 6-year olds everywhere are about to have a new obsession.

Keeping An Eye On Your Kids’ Online Activities With Parental Controls [Video How-To]

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parental


As a parent, it is always important to keep tabs on what your children are doing on the computer. Whether it’s the sites they are visiting, the amount of time they spend online, or even what applications they are using, Mac OS X can cover it. OS X includes a set of parental controls that can be tweaked to anyone’s liking. In this video, you will see how to set up parental controls and use the features that work best for you.