Parents
Latest
Microsoft and Netflix help diversity by offering more parental leave
There are a few ways to increase the number of women working at tech companies. Intel is offering referral bonuses, for example, while other firms are trying more inclusive hiring policies. However, many companies don't do much to accommodate parenthood -- how are you supposed to feel welcome when you might have to take unpaid time off (or worse, quit) just to raise your newborn child? Microsoft and Netflix are clearly aware of that problem, though, as they're boosting the level of paid parental leave offered to both mothers and fathers.
IRL: Why I got my mom a Nexus 9 for Christmas
My dad called me up a few weeks ago saying he wanted to get mom a tablet for Christmas, one that might be good enough to replace the laptop she hated. It wasn't the hardware causing angst; it was the software: Windows 8. She's pretty comfortable with technology, but migrating from the familiar world of Windows' past was tricky and she wasn't alone -- I didn't find it easy either. While no tablet could completely replace a laptop, for general internet use, it's all she really needed.
Quotely for iPhone saves memories for new parents
"You're messing up my creation and it's going to be a disaster." -- William, age four. As almost any parent can tell you, children are masters of saying unintentionally hilarious things. Quotely for iPhone (free) lets parents and other caregivers capture these funny moments easily, for sharing or reminiscing. Sure, you could keep track of Jr's one-liners in a notebook or a spreadsheet, but most of us have our iPhones with us all the time, and Quotely makes it trivial to share with far-flung family and friends who miss out on the hilarity in real time. It also supports conversations, photos and several templates, so you can capture and share anything for a single moment to a whole sequence of events. Looks The app is quite cute, and features a cute little birdie mascot, driving the kid theme home. The template browser is clean and easy to navigate and the overall color palette is pleasantly subdued. Often kid-centric apps are heavy on the pastels or even bright colors, and while pastels are available in Quotely, they're not the default. You'll find plenty of options for customization, which I'll describe, and it's all easy to access and implement. Quotely has a built-in help section, but you won't need it. Everything is self-explanatory. Use OK, you're in Starbucks with Junior when he notes that your latte smells like dad's gym socks. To capture this precious moment, grab your iPhone, launch Quotely and follow these steps: Tap New. The template chooser arrives. Tap Plain Quote. Tap the edit field and select Edit Narration. Type the line and hit Done. That's it. Nice and easy, right? While you're there, you'll notice several options. First, there are 49 fonts to choose from (the default is American Typewriter). You can also choose text alignment: left, center or right. Finally, you actually have room for two lines of text in the Plain Quote template, which you can reorder at will. Once you've completed the steps and customizations described above, you get an overview of the quote card. At the bottom of the screen you'll find even more customization options: Card Style. There are 18 background colors to choose from (here's where the pastels come in). The text will change to white or black automatically, depending on the background color. Text, quote or photo. There's a "+" in the center. Tap it and three icons pop up, Path style: Text, Quote and Photo. Tap anyone to add that particular element to your quote card. Finally, the button labeled Options offers so much. There are four main sections, namely: People, Tags, Dates and finally Notes. People lets you name an individual and add a photo. This is a great way to distinguish between your kids or anyone else who might be a frequent player in your little dramas. Tags work as you might expect. You can create as many tags as you like and apply them to your saved quotes. This works towards organization, as you can quickly search tags. Dates lists the date a quote was uttered, as well as the date you created the card and the last time the card was modified. Finally, you can add a note to any card, like "Dad was amused to hear about mom's sock-scented coffee later that day." The other templates work in a very similar fashion, but add more to the process. Specifically, the Conversation template highlights an exchange between two or more people; the Narrated Conversation template lets you easily add your commentary to an exchange; Photo highlights an relevant image (either from your camera roll or shot on the spot) and finally Story is a combination of the others. Sharing is extensive I've got to mention Quotely's sharing options. In a word, they are extensive. You can share any card with the usual suspects: email, text, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Alternatively, you can send a card to your camera roll as an image, or tap the More Options button for a whole slew of options, depending on what's installed on your iPhone. But the real surprise here is postcards. Opt for Mail a Postcard and the Quotely team will turn your card into a real-world 4x6 inch postcard that will be printed and shipped anywhere in the world. Did grandma miss Junior's Starbucks quip because she's doing research in the Arctic? No problem. Your quote card appears on the front, you can customize the message on the back and even add a cute profile photo. Postcards cost US$1.99 each. Conclusion This is a fun app that can provide a lot of sweet memories. The fact that you can turn those into adorable postcards is the icing on the quotable cake. I tried to find a flaw with Quotely but couldn't. New parents will love it.
Survey shows parents are open to using tech to monitor unsupervised kids
Privacy issues are a big topic in America right now, but for kids under 17 privacy is almost always going to be dependent upon their parents. There are no unlawful search and seizure laws governing parents, and a new survey indicates that Big Mother and Father may soon be watching. The survey, conducted by the home automation and security company Piper, shows that a majority of parents interviewed would be willing to use technology to monitor their unsupervised children. Of the 500 parents interviewed for Piper's survey, 60 percent indicated they were open to the idea of using technology to monitor their kids when they're unsupervised at home. Still, those kids are probably doing their homework, right? Mom and Dad apparently aren't so sure, as only 5 percent of surveyed guardians said they thought kids would stay on track and complete their homework if left alone. With that in mind, their concern is understandable; these kids are spending a lot of time alone. 40.6 percent of respondents said their children spend four to five days a week unsupervised after school, while 35.2 percent reported their kids spent at least one to two afternoons unsupervised. Interestingly, while 60 percent of these parents are open to monitoring, only half of them think it would actually work. When asked if remote monitoring would make their kids more or less likely to follow the rules at home after school, 47 percent said it wouldn't make a difference. Kids will be kids, after all. What are your feelings on monitoring your children? Should modern technology give parents more control over keeping track of their kids? Are freedom, trust, and autonomy an important part of a youth's development? Let us know in the comments.
'Ignore No More' app makes sure your kids can't dodge your calls
Once you tiptoe past a certain age, ignoring calls from mom and dad sort of becomes de rigueur as you go about your day. That sort of filial nonsense doesn't fly when you're younger though, and now there's an app to make sure you return you young'uns return your parents' calls - it's called Ignore No More, and it essentially works by locking down your smartphone until you call them to verbally check in.
Apple isn't being parental enough, according to EU
Preventing unauthorized purchases on the App Store isn't difficult. Apple's system already requires separate authorization for App Store transactions and in-app purchases, provides a warning of the 15-minute purchase window when a paid app is bought, and iOS allows you to disable both in-app purchases and App Store transactions via its Restrictions settings. None of that is enough for European regulators, who are now shaming the company for not doing enough to keep kids from running up huge bills on their parents' credit cards. The European Commission released a statement claiming that "No concrete and immediate solutions have been made by Apple to date to address the concerns linked in particular to payment authorization." In the end, it's hard to argue that Apple is actually responsible for kids making massive purchases using the authorization provided by their parents. If a child -- whether they're too young to know the difference or an older teen who simply doesn't care -- can't be trusted with access to an adult's credit card, they shouldn't have the password or other authorization to use it on the App Store. It's as simple as that. Pointing the finger at Apple, which is providing ample tools to manage and restrict purchases, is just a way for those caught with huge credit card bills to pass the blame off on someone else.
Osmo extends iPad kids' gaming to the physical world
In a few short years, the iPad has gone from geeky luxury item to a ubiquitous, incredibly popular device -- and that's especially true with the fickle, frantic audience we call "the kids." Little hands love Apple's portable, touchable tablet... maybe a little bit too much. Parents and educators may be wondering if all this tablet time is the best way to engage and entertain young minds that learn most effectively by engaging with the physical world along with the virtual one. This tension between the allure of the iPad and the need to keep kids connected to reality is why the current pre-launch campaign for Osmo is so intriguing. With a remarkably simple hardware mirror module + stand to reorient the iPad's front-facing camera down towards a tabletop, plus some very clever software and visual recognition engineering, Osmo creates a "tangible play" experience that helps kids get out of the locked-in relationship with the iPad screen, and reconnects them to the people and objects around them. Osmo's three announced games -- Words, Tangram, and Newton -- all take advantage of the downward-view camera and the iPad's processing power to recognize what players are doing with real objects in the real world. For Tangram, it's geometric primitives assembled to match the onscreen design; with Words, players toss letters into the play zone to help answer clues. Newton is a "dots to target" puzzle game with a twist; the falling balls bounce off a drawing, objects or even a finger visible in the play field. It's easier to understand once you see it in action, as below. According to co-founder/CEO and ex-Googler Pramod Sharma, the kids in the promo video had never used or even seen the Osmo apps before they stepped in to be filmed. Their interactions and first impressions are what you see here. Osmo's pre-launch approach follows the example of a couple of other "quasi-crowdfunded" products, where the funding campaign is effectively an advance sale program; unlike many Kickstarter or Indiegogo hardware projects, the design and development of Osmo was locked pre-campaign. That didn't hold back its popularity, though; the product hit its $50,000 presale target within a few hours of the May 22 launch, and the second batch of pre-order units is now up for grabs. To sweeten the deal for early adopters (who get a $49 purchase price, versus the launch amount of $99 per Osmo, and additional $5 discounts for referrals), the company is promising that backers will get free downloads of any additional games released in the first two years of Osmo's sales. They'll also get a two-year replacement warranty if they lose any game pieces. With a target audience of kindergarteners through 12-year-olds, the Osmo market is nice and wide; schools and educators that have had a chance to help play-test and refine the product are expressing early enthusiasm for it. At the moment, however, it's parents and kids that Osmo wants to reach in advance of its late summer on-sale date. If it looks good to you, the pre-order desk is open.
PBS gives parents a way to monitor what kids are watching on its site
The PBS KIDS website is a pretty great hub of entertainment for little ones. And even though there's nothing but useful learning content to be enjoyed there, PBS still wanted to make it easy for parents to monitor what their kids are doing on the site. Enter PBS KIDS Super Vision, an iOS application which promises to give you, the parent, a powerful tool that lets you do anything from keeping track of what the kids are watching in real-time, to limiting the amount of time they can spend on certain activities.
FTC focuses on Apple's App Store while ignoring similar issues with Google Play
The FTC last week announced a settlement agreement with Apple whereby Apple agreed to pay out, at a minimum, US$32.5 million dollars to the parents of children who made unauthorized in-app purchases. At the root of the FTC's investigation was a 15-minute window which allowed iOS users, once an iTunes password was entered, to make in-app purchases without having to re-enter their credentials. So in Apple's effort to enhance the iOS user experience, they inadvertently gave kids 15 minutes to rack up huge bills. In one well-publicized case, an 8-year-old went on a Smurfberry binge and racked up a $1,400 bill in the Smurfs Village app. Naturally, a class action suit was filed in 2011 with Apple ultimately reaching a settlement agreement with affected parents this past February. While you would assume that that would be sufficient, the FTC, for reasons that defy explanation, was still keen on suing Apple. But rather than go through a protracted legal battle -- perhaps Apple learned its lesson after refusing to settle with the DOJ regarding e-book price fixing -- Apple decided to settle. In a letter sent out to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the FTC setting their sights on Apple "smacked of double jeopardy." A federal judge agreed with our actions as a full settlement and we felt we had made things right for everyone. Then, the FTC got involved and we faced the prospect of a second lawsuit over the very same issue. It doesn't feel right for the FTC to sue over a case that had already been settled. To us, it smacked of double jeopardy. However, the consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren't already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather than take on a long and distracting legal fight. So what gives? Why is the FTC seemingly wasting its time on an issue that seems to have already been settled? It's hard to say, but it's interesting to point out that the Google Play store inexplicably seems to be off of the FTC's radar. Even more so considering that the parental controls on the Google Play store are much less stringent than the ones that govern the Apple App Store. Consumer Reports this weekend discovered that the 15-minute window that created quite a stir on the App Store is actually 30 minutes on Google Play. In its complaint against Apple, the FTC noted that one parent of a young Apple user reported that her daughter had spent $2,600 in the Tap Pet Hotel game from Pocket Gems. So I installed the Android version of that game on an Android tablet by downloading it free from the Google Play Store. Having previously enabled the store's password protection feature (using the Google Play app's Settings), I approved one in-app purchase of a Bunch of Treats for 99 cents, just as any soft-hearted parent might do. As you can see below, there was no indication on the screen that I had approved anything but that 99 cent purchase. Morphing from Doting Dad to mischievous child, I then entered the Pet Hotel unsupervised, where I spent the next 30 minutes making seven more 99 cent in-app purchases of Treats or Coins, all without any further authorization. Just tap and spend. Of course, with some in-app purchases on kids games costing upwards of $99 (a whole other issue altogether), it strikes me as odd that the FTC, in their zeal to prevent kids from going on spending sprees, focused exclusively on Apple. Even more so considering that Apple had already settled the case with affected parents. If the FTC truly believes that giving children the ability to make in-app purchases is worthy of its attention, wouldn't you assume that they'd focus on all mobile app stores instead of singling out Apple? It's hard to know for sure, but perhaps the FTC didn't receive many complaints from Google Play users on the issue. And if that weren't bizarre enough, the language of Apple's settlement with the FTC provides some more peculiarities. Again Apple, at a minimum, will have to pay out $32.5 million in damages when all is said and done. Under terms of the settlement, if the amount paid out by Apple to affected consumers is less than $32.5 million, Apple must pay the difference to the FTC. To hear a different take on the case, you might be interested in taking a look at FTC commissioner Joshua D. Wright's dissenting statement where he explains why the FTC shouldn't have gone after Apple in the first place. Here, Apple did not anticipate the problems customers would have with children making in-app purchases that parents did not expect. When the problem arose in late 2010, press reports indicate that Apple developed a strategy for addressing the problem in a way that it believed made sense, and it also refunded customers that reported unintended purchases.44 This is precisely the efficient strategy described above when complex products like Apple's platform develop problems that are difficult to anticipate and fix in advance. Establishing that it is "unfair" unless a firm anticipates and fixes such problems in advance – precisely what the Commission's complaint and consent order establishes today – is likely to impose significant costs in the context of complicated products with countless product attributes. These costs will be passed on to consumers and threaten consumer harm that is likely to dwarf the magnitude of consumer injury contemplated by the complaint. Wright also writes that the percentage of affected users was so small as to make the FTC's involvement completely unnecessary.
Guided Access is the single greatest iOS feature for parents and kids
If you're like me and you routinely have to mind an Angry Birds-obsessed 3-year-old, you already know how easily tiny fingers can find their way to strange parts of the iPad and iPhone. You can disable WiFi or even turn cellular data off to prevent unauthorized web browsing, but that's tedious and unnecessary, and it doesn't keep young users from venturing to other parts of the phone they shouldn't be going. Enter "Guided Access," the best way to turn your iPhone into a one-app device. Here's how it works: Head to the Settings menu of your iPhone and then the Accessibility section. Find Guided Access and enable it. Now, enter whatever app you want want to use and triple-click the Home button. Choose which areas of the screen you'd like to disable, if any, and click start. That's it! Now, if your young iOS user attempts to back out of the app (either on purpose or accidentally) they'll be stopped short. If they (or you) triple-click the Home button, a four-digit code must be entered before Guided Access can be disabled. The feature even works with apps that can open web pages on their own, such as the "Toon TV" links in the Angry Birds apps. Clicking on one of these links is met with a blank screen, rather than a portal to the web. Using Guided Access, you can also disable the volume buttons, lock button or the screen orientation. It's the ultimate iPhone (or iPad) lockdown feature, and your device already has it. Give it a try and you won't be disappointed! [Image credit: Scrapgeek]
A comprehensive list of developers who make apps for kids
Apps are wonderful tools for learning and fun, but sometimes it's hard for parents to find companies that make kid-friendly apps. Sometimes those recommendations come from odd places, like a random tweet invoking Oskar Schindler. Today's tip comes from just such a tweet, sent by Twitter user @bmf. You know else makes lists, besides Oskar Schindler and myself? @chrisoshea lists who makes apps for kids: http://t.co/Z2cFH7tphU - Mike Lee (@bmf) October 8, 2013 What you'll find at Chris O'Shea's link is a staggering list of developers from around the world who specifically develop apps for children, including links to each of their websites for further exploring. So get looking, parents! You never know how far down the list your child's new favorite learning app might be.
Apple launches 'Kids' category on App Store
Apple has quietly launched a new category in the App Store: Kids. First announced at WWDC, the newly launched category features apps curated by Apple's editorial staff, appealing to children of certain age ranges including sections for: "Best for Ages 5 & Under," "Best for Ages 6-8" and "Best for Ages 9-11." Besides sub-categorizing apps by age range, the Kids section also features games specifically aimed at children aged infant to 11, brands (like Disney) with apps that appeal to children and kid-specific collections like "Create &Play," "Shapes & Colors," "First Words & Numbers" and more.
Parenting Tip: Using Find My iPhone to locate a misplaced iOS device
We've read countless stories about Find My iPhone and how it has helped police recover a stolen iOS device. The service is great for this type of field work, but did you know that Find My iPhone can help you find an iOS device that's been misplaced around your house? If you are a parent of little ones, you undoubtedly have experienced that frustrating moment when you need to leave for an appointment and can't find your iPhone. You remember placing your phone on your desk, but it's now missing because your tot has snatched it and casually tossed it aside. You try to interrogate your little one to find out where he or she left your iPhone, but all they do is point to their cup or the potty. One easy way to locate an iPhone that's been stashed in a toy box or dropped behind the couch is to use the "Play Sound" feature of Find My iPhone. It's a no-frills locator beacon for your iOS device. To find your phone, you need to login to iCloud on your computer by going to icloud.com and entering your Apple ID credentials. After you login, you can click on the Find My iPhone icon to view all your iCloud devices, including your missing iPhone, on a map. You can also follow the same procedure described below using the Find My iPhone app on an iPad or another iPhone. Once you have found your iPhone on the map, select it to open a small box with the name of the device and details about when it was last located. You can then click on the "i" in the corner of this box. This "i" stands for information and clicking on it opens a small window with several options to let you locate or lock down a missing device. In this article, I am focusing on the "Play Sound" option that'll let you play a sound on your missing device. When you click or tap on "Play Sound," your iPhone immediately starts beeping with a loud, resounding beep. It continues to beep until you find your device and turn off this beacon. This beeping sound is loud enough that it won't be muffled by a couch cushion or anything else that may be hiding your iPhone. It's not the traditional usage of the Find My iPhone service, but it works well for iPhones and even iPads that have gone missing in your house or car. I've used it successfully dozens of times since this feature debuted a few years ago.
McDonald's releases McPlay app: 'Hey kids, this is advertising'
McDonald's has awkwardly tried to enter the App Store marketplace with an app it calls "McPlay," available for free on the App Store right now. I wouldn't recommend a download (personally, I've boycotted the golden arches for almost a decade now), but it is fascinating to see the fast-food giant not quite understand how to do iOS-style marketing. The app is just one game at the moment, asking players to throw a ball into a Happy Meal box. And McDonald's is obviously being as careful as it possibly can with this one. Not only is the app all about gathering nutritious food for kids, but there's a "for parents" nutrition section, and as you can see in the screenshot above, the app proudly proclaims, "Hey kids, this is advertising!" Funny. I think there is room for McDonald's on the App Store -- big brands like Starbucks and Walmart have seen some interesting success by integrating iPhones into their marketing plans. But this is just plain goofy, and it shows that the biggest fast-food chain in the world wasn't quite sure what to do with its first iOS entry. Better luck next time, McD's. [via App Advice]
Withings Smart Kid Scale tracks your baby's weight
Withings makes a popular line of wireless body scale products that let users record and track their weight on their iOS devices. Recently, the company has brought another product to market that targets parents. The Withings Smart Kid Scale is a child-sized body scale that sends weight readings to the Baby Companion app via WiFi or Bluetooth. The app allows you to track your child's weight progress, see where your child fits with the average weight of children his or her age and allows you to track the child's nutrition as well. I found the Baby Companion app lacking on several fronts. First, it took more than a dozen tries to get the scale to pair with the app and even then, a connection was hit or miss. The app's UI seems too convoluted as well. It's trying to be too many things and those that just want an easy way to see their baby's weight data might be put off by all the bell and whistles. The scale itself was little better. I'm a fan of Withings' body scales because their design is top-notch and the company uses sturdy, high-quality materials. The Smart Kid Scale, on the other hand, is mainly plastic and feels cheap. A nice thing about it, though, is that the scale comes with a detachable tray, so you can lay you infant down in it to take a weight reading, but as your baby grows, you can continue to use the scale as a stand-on unit until your child reaches the ages of between 6 and 8 -- when they typically go over the 25kg / 55lb scale max. So is this scale something parents should buy? I brought the scale over to friend's house who has children and I let them use it. While they said it was nice, when I told them the price was US$249, they told me the value-to-cost ratio wasn't worth it. I would agree -- the scale prices most parents out. It's too much money for something that doesn't offer much more than a normal scale does. After all, once your child outgrows the baby tray, why not just have them stand on a regular bathroom scale?
Dear parents, it's not Apple's In-App Purchase problem, it's yours
Dear parents, Week after week we see articles about someone's child racking up thousands of dollars' worth of In-App purchases on their parents' iTunes account. You know the stories. They're ones like this: Five-year-old spends $2,500 on in-app purchases. And this: Apple's in-app game charges: how my kids ran up huge bills. And this: Apps that cost parents dearly: Children running up huge bills on supposedly free games on phones and tablets. And this: Son makes £3,700 in app purchases, policeman father reports him for fraud. And inevitably, Apple takes the blame in the national media and several blogs. But here's the thing: it's not Apple's fault; it's yours. I wouldn't give a 5-year-old access to my credit card in a candy store and you probably shouldn't either. But that's exactly what you're doing when your give them access to your iTunes password. Children don't have the maturity to postpone immediate gratification for long-term gains. You know that because you were a child once. So if you let them into the massive candy store called iTunes and give them free rein with your purchasing details, you have no one to blame but yourself. So just don't do it. And stop blaming Apple. The company has done its fair share of helping out with an option in iOS that allows you to disable in-app purchases on your kid's device. Here's how to do it.
How 5 minutes AFK cost one WoW player 476,000 gold
We've all been there: leaving World of Warcraft running on our computers while we've run off to grab a soda or take a bio break. However, most of us return to find our characters safe and sound just as we left them. Not so for WoW-player 1104, who returned to his desk to find that most of his 476,000 gold was missing in action. The culprit? His 6-year-old son, who went on a pet shopping spree, picking up the rarest -- and priciest -- pets on the auction house. It could have been worse, of course: clearing out gold isn't nearly as bad as clearing out a real life bank account, as kids have done accidentally with in-app purchases in mobile games. But still, getting half-way to the gold cap is nothing to sneeze at -- it represents a lot of time and effort, if nothing else. So what's a WoW-playing parent to do? 1104 couldn't really blame his son, but does think this might be a sign that it's time to walk away from WoW. On the flip side, he could also take up pet collecting: he's bound to be off to a great start!
Blizzard shows parental controls for World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and StarCraft II
MMOs and other online games have such a wide appeal that they attract players of all ages. Some MMOs simply add a minimum age requirement to the signup process and advise parents not to let their children play, but others implement strict parental controls. Blizzard recently released a new video explaining the parental controls that parents can use to monitor and control their childrens' play time in World of Warcraft, Diablo III and StarCraft II. Parents can use the system to limit the total number of hours an account can play each day or week or even schedule specific play times on a calendar. The controls can also limit the use of RealID and voice chat and even mute all of the game's chat channels if necessary. Parents can also disable Diablo III's real money auction house and use of the Blizzard forums. WoW Insider suggests that parental controls may actually be equally useful to students who need to limit their play time or any player who might want a weekly report of his activity. Read on to see the full video and find out how to use parental controls on your child's Battle.net account.
Blizzard releases parental control video
Parental controls are of paramount importance in games such as WoW, which appeal to a wide audience of young and old, and are sufficiently immersive to permit lengthy sessions. Blizzard has long advocated responsible gaming, and WoW Insider is no different. To this end, Blizzard has released a video clearly and carefully laying out all the Parental Control options available to the WoW-playing family. These include: Limited hours' play per day or per week Scheduled playtimes and preset schedules Limiting of the use of RealID and in-game voice chat Preventing use of Diablo III's Real Money Auction House Automatically generated weekly playtime reports. These features may be useful for more than just parents. Students wishing to ensure they aren't distracted by WoW could have their own parents set up controls for them, or players who wish to limit themselves for any other reason could do the same. Additionally, any player might appreciate weekly reports of their playtime! Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Amazon unveils Kindle FreeTime, gives kids their own space to play
Amazon just solved one of the bigger dilemmas for parents buying that new Kindle Fire HD -- how to keep the kids in a safe zone for content. It's introducing Kindle FreeTime, a special mode that makes it easier for younguns to navigate while letting the adults create separate profiles dictating what children can access and for how long. The filters are separated by media type, and Amazon even turns the background from black to blue to reassure parents by the glow of the screen on Junior's face. We'd call the parental control a long overdue feature, although we're sure Amazon also sees it as a chance to scoop up an extra Kindle Fire sale or two among families.%Gallery-164595% Follow the Amazon liveblog here!
