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The iTunes babysitter


Chloe & The iTunes Babysitter from Jason Bedell on Vimeo.

OK, this one might divide the audience somewhat.

Here’s Jason explaining how the iTunes visualizer has saved his day, kept his daughter quiet, and enabled him to do some work. You can hear the relief in his voice as he says: “Steve Jobs, thank you.”

Is this the best concept in babysitting since, um, TV? Or is she a little young for Apple cult indoctrination?

Do share your opinions in the comments.

About the author

gilest

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He is a columnist for PA, and has written for the BBC, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, MacUser, Macworld, and The Morning News. He has a blog you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

Email the author | Read more posts by Giles Turnbull.

7 comments

    My 8 year old begs to use iTunes, so we use it as a reward. He just got his first iPod as a hand me down. I can only hope he starts to explore computers more.

    I know it SEEMS bad, but every baby toy I try and buy these days contains a battery. They all flash lights and make sound.

    So if 80% of the ‘Buy Buy Baby’ store sells noisy, flashing toys, I can’t see how this is any worse.

    Jeff, it’s worse because the baby isn’t actually interacting in any way. Often, the battery-powered features respond to shaking to toy or something, and the baby is exploring it, trying to figure it out.

    I don’t have a problem with using the visualizer once or twice, but I would hate for it to be a ‘daddy needs to work, turn on the visualizer’ thing regularly.

    Sometimes I find myself mesmerized by the Visualizer… I often lose hours of my day just staring…

    I just discovered this with my 2 year old this weekend, he loves James Brown on the Jelly visualizer. He’s happy, drumming along on the desktop, and I have a spare moment.

    Jump back. Owwwww!

    Who would’ve thought that visual and auditory stimulation would occupy an infant’s attention?

    This is groundbreaking information, I must contact the scientific community.