Toddler Tablets: Vinci & Sifteo (CES Reviews)

This year i attended CES for the first time and the show was much more exciting that my normal haunts like CTIA or Ad Tech.  In between looking at TV and connected home products for my cool day job i was able to cruise the floor to look at cool stuff for my other interests such as children's technology.

VINCI: Inspire the Genius

The first product that caught my eye was a prototype of the Vinci tablet being produced by Rullingnet Corporation.  The tablet was not yet ready for market but it's got a lot of good ideas that I hope they can pull off.  As you can see from the photo they have protected the device with a "medical grade" rubber handle that has been drop tested from over one meter.  The rep was harping that the key design motive is safety, and to bolster that they are going to replace normal tablet screen glass with tempered glass like the shatter proof stuff they put in cars windshields.  It's going to be an Android device with no internet connection, so parents can be sure to be safe from excessive Smurf Berry purchases.

I really liked the idea of this device.  One of my key worries about kids usage of Apple and other great mobile products is their durability, which i wrote about a little last year.   A device with features like this is a great solution for introducing your kids to technology.  Apps will continue to improve, especially for Android devices, if products like this can find a market.  Rullingnet is looking at a $479 price point which seems steep, but supposedly they are looking at a smaller or lower end device to lower the price point.    

The software package that i saw demonstrated was pretty weak, with mostly demo products on display.  I think it may be hard for a device maker to produce both a quality device and software so they may need to pick one side of the fence or another if they want to make a go of it.   Their time would be best spent perfecting the device and manufacturing process to get the cost down vs. trying to build kids oriented software when that is being done by developers for both iOS and Android.   Expected release date is unknown but their rep at the CES booth told me the target was 2011 so I hope to see something soon.

Sifteo

The second device I saw that caught my eye was the Sifteo cubes.  Sifteo has developed an alternative platform and device that is not really a tablet, but from a toddler's viewpoint, it accomplishes many of the same things.

The Sifteo cubes are 1.5 inch little devices that  have color screens and motion sensors that enable a more tactile type of game play.  The cubes connect to each other to create a seamless experience for story books, games, or any other experience a developer can dream up.   I actually couldn't figure out how to use it in my limited time but the concept was cool and given your limited actions I don't think it would take to long to figure out.

What caught my eye here was the size.  The cubes are tiny, imminently portable, and fun to play around with.   I can totally see keeping these in my back pack and breaking them out on a plane or on vacation with the kids.   The biggest downside I envision is the lack of applications due to small developer community and the reliance on PC to be the main conduit for loading games onto the devices.  While a similar issues exists for the Vinci, since it doesn't have any Wi-Fi, you can at least load it up with a ton of applications.   Still, as a possible technical/creative outlet for kids, i think this device has a lot of potential and will be interested to see if it finds a market.

3D TV's

On a side note....  3D television was a big push from the CE manufacturers.  From the Gabbaphone perspective, as in a parent reviewing technology for children, I cannot envision a world where i would be handing glasses to any child under 13 to watch a TV show.   Given the demonstration content they were definitely not targeting parents, who are used to putting up with a very broad array of content that includes Baby Einstein to Dora to Barney.  

Sound Shaker - Great Design, Cutest Ever

Sound Shaker by Tickle Tap Apps is a great app for the small toddler set.  The design is amazing and the functionality is straight forward.  The recommended ages is 3-5 but i would decrease that to 2-4,  I don't know any Pre-K kids that would like this for more than a few minutes - like when they pick up an old baby toy.

That said... once you choose your sound, which is manageable for the older users it is easy to use and encourages discovery.  When you press the screen it creates a ball, and the noise you picked in the set up screen, accompanies the ball.  If the user continues to press the screen the ball grows and then hatches into a cute little chick that flies away.  There is a motion control aspect that if you create multiple balls you can tile the iPhone or Touch and send them flying and bouncing all over the screen.

I love this app, I think the functionality was simple, easy to use, and the design and sound were fantastic.  Sadly, it never seemed to capture my kids attention very well.  Wormie was a little too old, 4+ and Oso, was just a little to young still at 1.5 years.  Oso is starting to show some more interest so I'm holding out that well designed apps like this will win his attention.

Age Range: 2-4
Difficulty: 4/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel : 5/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 2/5 (5 being helpful)
Price $1.99

Netflix App - Rad for Kids if You Got Connection

I spent this summer getting my daughter ready for Spanish Immersion Kindergarten by watching videos on Netflix's "Watch Instantly" service.  I realize that sounds way too California/Silicon Valley but the way I saw it, the more she could hear Spanish in a format she was used too (cartoons and movies) the more comfortable she would be when she started school.  Watching the cable channels seemed too complicated and show's like Dora are just way too thin on content.   The streaming online service that Netflix offers is a great streaming video service and there is no extra cost attached, which was great since this was pretty experimental.   There are a lot of spanish language shows/films to choose from but only a handful were appropriate for kids.  My favorite was Elpidio Valdes, a Cuban cartoon from 1980, about one of the failed or successful revolutions against the Spanish.  It was probably a little too violent and political for my five year old, but what would life be without some inappropriate TV?

I was excited when the Netflix App came out and had such good reviews.  As an active user of their streaming service it seemed like a good fit.  I use the iPhone a lot when we travel to watch TV shows I download, and sometimes review, from iTunes.  This theoretically would cut down my iTunes bill substantially.

The App is not designed for kids so if you want to set you child up with a show you'll have to do all the work.   The easiest method is to set up your watch instantly queue online.  Once that is completed navigating to your queue and watching a show is literally two clicks.  You can still search by name and genre but I found that flow too cumbersome.  The actual video quality was quite impressive and as long as my connectivity was decent the experience was exponentially better than any other streaming video's i have tried to watch on my phone.

The app is really targeted at using the streaming service, and given that the library is substantial and growing every day this is a great feature for Netflix families.

Age Range: 3-6
Difficulty: 2/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel : 3/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 5/5 (5 being helpful) 
Price: Free if you have Netflix

Toddler Time! Spanish - There has to be something better

As part of my work to make my Kindergartner fully bilingual I downloaded a bunch of apps aimed at teaching spanish.  Toddler Time was one of the higher ranked apps in the store so I dove in head first and paid the $1.99.

I can't say i was impressed with most of the spanish language education apps aimed at young kids.  Toddler Time functionality was fine.  The app is geared at some simple vocabulary related to colors, numbers, shapes, and animals.  Without headphones I found the sound hard to hear.  My daughter Wormie liked scrolling through the different shapes but there wasn't anything to prompt her to repeat or get involved other than whipping through each screen.

Another issue I had with the functionality was that the primary vocabulary word had two different call out points.  If you clicked on a work like "Azul" which means blue, a voice would say the word.  If you clicked on the picture of a blue ballon on the page it would read off  a translation of the picture ie."globo azul. "  It didn't resonate with me and my daughter was completely missing both the key word and the noun it was describing.

I will add in another odd behavior.  On the menu page there are some characters you can choose to follow you and jump onto pages through the app when you press the screen in non-vocabulary word areas.  This seemed completely gratuitous as these characters did not add a thing to the experience.

I wasn't super happy with the quality of the app as i felt the art was second rate, and the education component was lacking.  Overall not happy with the $1.99 i spent.

Age Range: 3-5
Difficulty: 3/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel : 1/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 2/5 (5 being helpful)
Price $1.99

Fantasy Dolls - GabbaPhone's Most Time Spent By Daughter Award

I try to veer towards apps that will education my kids as well as entertain them but there are days where i just need an hour of silence.  Most apps can only keep Wormie, now 5 years old, entertained for a maximum of ten minutes.   I downloaded Fantasy Dolls thinking that her recent obsession with Barbie Dolls, which i might add were given to her by her proto-feminist grandmothers and aunts, might translate to an iPhone application. After searching for paper dolls in the App Store i discovered Fantasy Dolls. 

At first i felt a little deceived.  The icon looked pretty harmless but when i opened the app the doll characters looked a little too grown up and suggestive for my taste.  Granted, they were not much different from a Barbie, but i wanted to be part of the solution in my daughters burgeoning self image not part of the problem.  I tried moving around the clothes and found it a little tricky.  They clothes which you move from a right hand column and layer onto the figurine seemed hard to maneuver.  I handed it over to Wormie with some reservations. 

The surprise for me was that she then spent the next hour play with the application, and has continued to be a heavy user.  The only downside is that she saves every figure that she makes into my photo collection clogging it up with suggestive looking little faeries.  Apparently this app was made for finely tuned fingers of a five year old girl.  I'd classify this as a huge success in the time wasting/baby sitting category.

Age Range: 4-6
Difficulty: 4/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel : 5/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 4/5 (5 being helpful) 
Price $.99

iPad - A Parents View

One post a month is a horrible schedule - I will try to get Wormie back on a normal testing schedule...she needs to earn her keep and all.   She continues to test a few apps but I have mostly been thinking about the iPad and what it means for Wormie, who turned 5 the other week, and her brother Deadly who is still more interested in using the iPhone as a hammer than as a device.

Durability
The big question for the toddler set is going to be durability.  How well this device stands up to toddler abuse is an unknown.  It is easy to put a polyurethane guard around my iPhone and Touch but I am not so sure that it will work as well with a much bigger device.  The beauty of my Agent18 Shield Case  is the sides have become indestructable and even the screen gets protection from the raised beveled edge.  With a larger device it is going to become harder to protect the screen and minimize damage to the edges from the inevitable falls. 

Screen Size
The biggest advantage I see I see with the new device will be in video viewing.  I will be able to get rid of the portable DVD player we occasionally lug around as a replacement for the iPhone.  While a smaller device has been useful in a pinch i worry about eye strain, sound, etc that come with a smaller device.  More importantly i no longer have to deal with as many sharing issues.  I know it is not just my daughter that wants sole ownership of the device when she is watching a video or story.  A larger screen will make sharing that much easier, especially if we get some headphone splitters.  I think the larger screen will also make the children's story books more accessible since the art, pictures, and text will be so much more accessible when enlarged.

Screen Manipulation
I also see an advantage to having a bigger "field of play" for smaller fingers.  Once challenge i have seen kids have with applications, especially the younger ones, is moving objects with motor skills that are still in development.  The bigger screen will allow for some forgiveness when a child is trying to move, trace, or draw and object and provide a more rewarding experience.

Overall I'm excited to try it out and see if we can get through a month without breaking one. 

Wormie goes off the reservation with PreSchool Tap Animals Time

I downloaded preschool TAP Animals Time based on the world "Pre-School" being in the title.  Technically I do not think that my app selection criteria is all that rock solid but I am getting obsessed with trying to find apps that have some educational value.  The available resources on apps for kids are obviously not that great, or else i wouldn't be reviewing them, or else i wouldn't have to use trial and error.

Animals time is a sound picture matching game.  There is another version for "Toddlers" so I'm curious as to the distinction.  App functionality breaks down like this.  Four animal pictures appear.  Kid hits sound button and kid then chooses matching picture.   A correct match gets a smiley face and "Yes!". An incorrect match gets frown and "Oh No!"  Aside from how this will monkey with your child's self esteem and heighten their sense of anxiety I think it might be a little lost on the pre-school set.   Wormie diligently played with the app for a quite a while until i realized she was purposely getting all the matching items wrong to hear the voice to "Oh No" and "No, No."  It felt like she was making my iPhone squeal for the fun of it so i took it away.  If and iPhone had feelings it would have been upset.

Overall this is a solid app but the target is for younger kids.  I would say 2-3.5 are a good group for this sound picture matching game - the older preschoolers just end up teasing the poor phone.

Age Range: 2-4
Difficulty: 4/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel : 4/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 3/5 (5 being helpful) 
Price $.99