kids

The 404 957: Where the world's gone sour (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 957:

A researcher shows how to "friend" anyone on Facebook within 24 hours. Online casino gaming might come to Facebook users in the U.K. Siri on the Apple iPhone 4S tells you where to dump a dead body and where to score condoms, but has no clue about women's health clinics. Capcom seriously announces a Sour Patch Kids game with Method Man. GamePro magazine will quit publishing.… Read more

Kids won't do chores? There's an app for that

You may find this shocking, but getting my 11- and 9-year-olds to do household chores is like pulling teeth. Rotten kids!

That may change now that I've got You Rules Chores on my iPhone. This clever new app turns household chores into a game, rewarding each kid a designated number of coins for each completed job. Whoever finishes the week's chores first is the winner. (Of course, we all know who the real winners are: mom and dad.)… Read more

Make your kid the star of an iPad e-book

Every single children's book for the iPad, from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Yertle the Turtle," has one thing in common: it's not about your kid.

JibJab Jr. Books changes all that, putting your child's face and name front and center in a personalized, animated iPad storybook. It's really cool--but also oddly flawed.

You've heard of JibJab, right? The service was originally known for its satiric videos (most notably "This Land," one of my all-time favorites), and later for its Starring You vids--which insert your mug into various animated clips.

That's the tech that drives JibJab Jr. Books, which comes with one free book: "The Biggest Pizza Ever." To get started, you create a boy or girl character using a photo in your library or Facebook account. (iPad 2 users can also snap a photo on the fly.) Then, with a little zooming and rotating, you position the face just so, and you're done.… Read more

Poll: Do you buy albums or songs?

Not every album is a song cycle or designed to be listened to as a complete work of art. But the songs were more or less recorded in the same time frame, and someone tried to create a musical flow, from one song to the next.

Some musicologists cite Frank Sinatra's 1958 album, "Only the Lonely," as the first "concept" album, for its sustained theme of late-night moods and melancholy. There were probably earlier pop song cycles, but it was definitely the Beatles' "Sgt Pepper" and the Who's "Tommy" that … Read more

Silly parents, Netflix is for kids (too)

Slightly borrowing a line from a breakfast cereal not meant for silly rabbits, Netflix is launching a new division dubbed "Just For Kids."

At first glance, the Just For Kids feature, introduced to some members last week, doesn't really seem all that new at all. Netflix users can find these titles for instant video streaming under the tab by the same name next to the Watch Instantly section. It's sort of similar to the already-existing categories that are already divided up on a user's Watch Instantly page.

However, this makes it much easier for parents, … Read more

This Day in Tech: BART shuts down cell service to stop protests

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Friday, August 12.

• Bay Area Rapid Transit, a regional transportation system in the San Francisco area, cut wireless service prior to a planned protest at four downtown San Francisco subway stops. Activists were responding to a shooting by a BART police officer, but their protest seems never to have materialized because of the disruption of cell service. "BART staff or contractors shut down power to the nodes and alerted the cell carriers," James Allison, deputy chief communications officer … Read more

FBI releases child ID iPhone app

The FBI has released the FBI Child ID app, the first mobile app created by the bureau. The app is designed to help parents notify authorities in the unlikely event that their child goes missing.

It is currently available only for the iPhone but also works on the iPad and iPod Touch. (A device with a camera is required to use the app to take a photo of the child.)

Parents can use the app to record information about each of their kids and take a photo of each kid from directly within the app. There are also fields for … Read more

DefCon Kids joins adult hacker conferences

LAS VEGAS--Hackers of all types will be making their annual pilgrimage to the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences this week, including children who will learn how to write ciphers, hack circuit boards, and pick locks.

This marks the first year for DefCon Kids, which targets children aged 8 to 16. The event will run alongside all of the regular DefCon security and hacking sessions and the fun events for the adults like Hacker Karaoke, Hacker Jeopardy, Mohawk-Con, and an alcoholic ice cream contest.

"DefCon is a very adult orientated conference, more of a party then your typical conference. … Read more

Child's play

Anyone who's ever been around small children can tell you that they love to imitate Mom and Dad. If this tendency is endangering your computer with Junior's indiscriminate keyboard banging, Baby Kids Keyboard Free Edition might be the program for you. This simple software provides kid-friendly images and sounds while protecting your computer from potentially problematic keyboard inputs.

The program comes with five themes: the default theme (an assortment of random objects), cartoon animals, keyboard, piano, and an editable theme that you can customize. Each touch of the keyboard changes the image displayed and, depending on the theme, … Read more