kids

This iPhone app will make your kid smile before every picture

It's always a bit frustrating when you're trying to get your child to pose for a photo and they won't even look at your iPhone, let alone smile for it. In the past I covered GroupShot, an iOS app that combines multiple photos to ensure everyone is looking at the camera in the final shot. A great app, but it doesn't solve the problem of actually getting your child to smile.

Instead of jumping around, making noises and embarrassing yourself, let the iPhone app Picasound make animal sounds for you.

Using the app is very easy:… Read more

Tracking watch for kids throws in GPS, GSM, Wi-Fi, kitchen sink

LAS VEGAS--Locator devices that let parents keep track of their kids are nothing new. Evado Filip decided to do things a little differently with the VivoPlay, a watch geared for the 5- to 12-year-old crowd.

Many parents don't want to cough up a real cell phone for their little dears until they get pretty close to being teenagers. The VivoPlay includes GSM, so parents and kids can get in touch when necessary, but it's not a full-blown cell phone with all the related texting and possible cyberbullying issues. This feature elevates the watch from a location device to a communication device.… Read more

Draw on your iPad without touching the screen

The Light Marker for iPad is Griffin Technology's latest collaboration with Crayola to make more kid friendly products, and this gadget looks like it will be a hit.

For $29.99, you can get a glowing marker-shaped pen that interacts with your iPad's front-facing camera to let you freehand draw, paint, and color on your iPad screen. After touching the glowing tip of the pen to your front-facing camera you simply point the pen in the direction of the iPad (from a couple of feet away) to see a laser-pointer you use as your drawing instrument.

Directing the … Read more

Sensor system gives disabled kids a second shot at tablets

For some people, touching a touch screen is difficult, if not impossible.

According to Georgia Tech, more than 200,000 kids in the U.S. public school system have some sort of orthopedic disability that hinders them from experiencing the vast information that awaits them on a tablet or smartphone. Children with neurological disorders -- such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida -- can also have difficulty using touch-screen devices due to motor skill impairments.

The need to counteract this limitation inspired Ayanna Howard, a Georgia Tech engineering professor, and graduate student Hae Won Park to create Access4Kids, a prototype assistive device that could level the playing field.… Read more

Hulu Plus for Android rolls out children's section

Watching "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Caillou" on Android devices just got a little easier today.

Hulu Plus announced that it updated its Android app with Hulu Kids integration. With this new feature, parents are able to make sure their children don't stray from their kid's shows by using a "Lock For Kids" button. Parents can also search Hulu Kids to find popular shows from different networks and age groups.

Hulu Kids launched in November featuring dozens of children's TV shows from Nickelodeon, PBS, Lionsgate, and more. The kid's feature has its … Read more

Instagram-Twitter feud fudges photos

Wednesday's CNET Update won't cut you off:

Instagram and Twitter aren't playing nice, and it's annoying users. As the two services compete in the photo-sharing space, Instagram stopped supporting a key Twitter feature that helps display media inside a tweet. The casual user won't notice anything different on the Twitter website. But on Twitter's mobile app, you will notice that Instagram photos are no longer properly formatted to fit.

Why would Instagram spoil the appearance of photos shared on Twitter? Because Facebook-owned Instagram is growing its website and wants you to stay on its … Read more

Highly addictive simple-to-learn game

Disclosure up front: we've played and been addicted to Fruit Ninja for a couple of years now! The goal of Fruit Ninja sounds weird: you get a bunch of fruit tossed up on the screen and you have to slice each one in half with a swipe of your finger (which represents a blade). Miss three fruits and you die. Slice a bomb instead of a fruit, and you die. Successfully slice enough fruit and you get one mistake wiped off your record. Very simple. And fiendishly addictive fun.

Fruit Ninja installs quickly. The paid app is very reasonable … Read more

Preserve your kids' artwork with Art My Kid Made

Like any parent, I prize the Picasso-caliber works of art my kids create at school and around the house.

Alas, I don't own a warehouse, so I simply don't have room to store all these masterpieces. What am I supposed to do, throw them in the trash? The guilt! The guilt!

Now there's an app for that: Art My Kid Made. (It's available now for iOS and soon for Android.) With it you can take photos of various crafts and drawings to preserve for posterity, and share them via Evernote, Facebook, or Twitter.

The app is … Read more

Netflix makes 'Just for Kids' iPad friendly

The name of the game this morning seems to be kids.

First, Netflix started the day off by announcing that the "Just for Kids" feature available at the video streaming service is now offered as a mobile app on the iPad.

The way it works is a child can click on the "Just for Kids" tab in the new iPad app and "find their favorite shows and movies by swiping through a row of their favorite characters, many of which they will instantly recognize." Netflix said the app is available on the iPad 2 … Read more

Toys 'R' Us takes on tablets with Tabeo

This Monday tech news roundup doesn't want to grow up:

Toys "R" Us has created it's own tablet designed for kids, called Tabeo. It goes on sale in stores Oct. 21 for $150, but the store is now taking preorders online. This kid-safe tablet comes with 50 apps pre-installed for games, education, reading -- even apps for cooking and editing photos. And there's 7,000 more apps available in an app store. It comes with 4GB of memory, but is expandable with a memory card slot. And Toys 'R' Us won't be sharing this … Read more