These comments directly conflict with the Ire risen by folks about the other gps device for keeping track of your people

Is it because of engadget's presentation? "this is for kids" while the other was for "spying on your kids" aka teens? There is a real disconnect here. Either because Evan put the prior post in terms of 'spying', or because the people who hate this stuff think this is for big kids. (and they are teenagers, not kids, a big difference in my mind, as a parent of real kids, my oldest is not even 7). Either way, I look forward to things like this to help me protect my kids.

Why can't tech help me parent, rather than make me a 'failed' parent? I dig the idea that I can help my kids, even when I am not there. That helps me give them *more* freedom, not less.

Technology is not our enemy, but our friend (to a point) and we need to embrace it, If we don't, then just welcome your arms to our robot overlords.

Wow! My kids are younger, and knowing where they are is a *huge* priority of mine. I need to balance that with giving them some freedom too. I'm not running out and buying this, but a tool that let's me know where my kids are and where they have been can be incredibly helpful in talking to them about keeping safe. They aren't driving age, and won't be for a decade (for the oldest), but to be able to monitor when they've gone to places that might not be safe for them (after talking to them about what is safe) could be very valuable in making sure they know where they can and can't hang out safely.

Maybe you all live in beautiful suburbs where you think your folks shouldn't worry about you, but for me, there are places that aren't more than a mile away that I don't want my kids going to alone. Partly for drowning reasons, but partly for homeless people reasons. (Lest you think I just hate homeless people, you should come here and hear the chaotic incomprehensible screams that some of our homeless people engage in) They aren't homeless because they chose a 'free' lifestyle. They aren't hobos. More often they are homelees because they can't abide by the 'rules' that we all live by (they need mental counseling, and Tom Cruise blast me, chemical help). And I'll be damned if my kids go someplace where those 'rules' aren't followed. Those 'rules' often involve respecting someone else's safety.

In Harvard square, a young woman was killed not too long ago, because she told her friends not to do what the 'homeless people' wanted. 'My' homeless people, about a mile away from Harvard Square, are (hopefully) less homicidal, but are still clearly not able to grasp the same set of mores that the rest of us do.

To know when my kids are investigating the area is invaluable to me.

I don't get this, either. Why U2? Why premium pricing? Can't you get the U2 stuff with a non-U2 branded iPod?

Verizon does have a center devoted to working with 'special needs' customers, but it isn't called a special needs division. Plus they don't go around calling the call centers as far as I understand.