kids

Cutting fruit has never been this fun

Fruit Ninja is a simple, but well-made game that challenges you to slice and dice fruit with a ninja sword as it flies onto your Android screen. The controls are extremely simple, requiring you to swipe your finger through a flying fruit as you would slice with a ninja sword. There are three game modes: Classic, Zen, and Arcade. In Classic you're challenged to slice fruit as it flies on screen while avoiding occasional bombs that will end the game immediately or allowing three fruits to drop below the bottom of the screen. In Zen mode you won't … Read more

Kid-friendly creativity

Kids tend to love both art and computers, so anything that brings these two things together is bound to go over well. Tux Paint is a drawing program that is both easy enough for kids to use and full of fun features and sounds. It may drive parents a little batty, but kids will definitely get a kick out of it.

When we first launched the program we encountered a configuration menu that let us adjust the program's audio, video, keyboard, and mouse settings. Certain features and controls can also be disabled to make the program easier for younger … Read more

The 404 852: Where it's always bummy in Philadelphia (podcast)

It's our last show before the three-day weekend, so we're wrapping up with a review of the movie box office, and some new services that'll help with the cost of tickets. We're also exploring the idea of 4D movie theaters, and quizzing Wilson on another episode of Tang that Tune. Also, be sure to tune into the second half of the show for the debut of Jeff's new recurring segment, Squishy Moments with Jeff Bakalar!

The 404 Digest for Episode 852

MoviePass: See unlimited movies in the theater for $50 a month. 4D movies: what the heckbeans is that? Do something cat! 2/5 stars for Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Episode 852 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

'Problematic Internet usage' more common than asthma

Two recently published studies out of Seattle Children's Research Institute indicate that certain levels of media usage can lead to depression in college students as well as disrupt sleep patterns in preschool children.

Not exactly earth-shattering.

Perhaps more surprisingly, the researchers found in the first study that out of the 224 college students who took the Internet Addiction Test, only 9 of them (4 percent) scored in the "occasional problem" or "addicted" range.

To put what sounds like a small number in perspective, the researchers say that Internet over-usage is now more prevalent than asthma.… Read more

Get a 9-inch portable DVD player for $59.99

For long car rides with kids, nothing, but nothing, beats a portable DVD player. (OK, an iPad comes close, assuming you're willing and able to rip all your DVDs ahead of time--and pay $500+ for an iPad.)

If your minivan didn't come with a built-in player, try this: today only, 1 Sale A Day has the Haier PDVD9KIT portable DVD player for $59.99, plus $4.99 for shipping.

The player features a 9-inch wide screen that can swivel--which may not seem like a big deal, but believe me when I say it comes in handy--plus stereo speakers … Read more

Zazoo photo clock keeps kids in bed longer

The current No. 1 best seller in Amazon's parenting and families category is a children's book for adults titled "Go the F**k to Sleep." Clearly, sleep issues are big on parents' minds.

Zazoo Kids has come out with a gadget that would be a perfect companion for that book. The Zazoo photo clock looks like a small tablet, but its main purpose is to serve as a clock that keeps your young ones in bed longer so you can get a few more minutes of precious sleep in the morning.

The $89 photo clock is geared toward little angels who are too young to tell time. It shows a sun image to let them know it's time to get up. If the clock shows a moon, they little ones are supposed to stay in bed and wait for the image to change.

The Zazoo photo clock doesn't settle for being just a fancy timepiece. It can also act as a digital photo frame, has a nap-time setting, and can play music and video. You can customize the visual alarm with your own photos. Perhaps a photo of exhausted, baggy-eyed mom and dad might help drive the point home?

If you want to get fancy with it, you can load a children's audiobook onto the Zazoo photo clock and let the gadget handle the parenting for an evening. Ah, blissful slumber.… Read more

E3 2011: Microsoft angles for toddlers

LOS ANGELES--Kids and games. When Tim Schafer of Double Fine stepped onstage to demo his Sesame Street-branded Kinect game today, he explained how he had his 3-year-old daughter in mind when he developed the idea.

Sesame Street, Disneyland, and more: It looks like younger and younger kids are being targeted for gaming. Both Disneyland Adventures and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster are Microsoft exclusives for the Kinect. Add in Kinect Fun Labs, a series of interactive toys and camera-based art apps on a single disc, and you have a clear-cut strategy for attracting the toddler crowd.

Call it the iPad Effect, or whatever you'd like, but the hands-free gaming that Kinect represents looks like Microsoft's new fertile ground for the youngest gaming set. The question is, will parents want their kids to play? … Read more

Free PBS app streams kid vids to iPad

When the PBS for iPad app debuted last year, I bemoaned the lack of any PBS KIDS content (other than previews).

Well, I will bemoan no more: PBS Kids Video for iPad is a brand new app that streams--you guessed it--video for kids. Specifically, it serves up over 1,000 clips from shows like "Arthur," "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That," and my personal favorite, "Word Girl."

Yes, unfortunately, I did say clips. The app doesn't offer full-length episodes, but rather a whole mess of snippets--most of which run … Read more

Drawing and doodling for kids

Doodle Buddy is a free, no-frills, ad-supported drawing and doodling app with playful stamps and backgrounds that will appeal to kids.

Doodle Buddy's "finger-painting" interface lets you draw with swipes and taps. A row of tappable icons on the bottom of the screen lets you undo your last action (multiple times), erase your current drawing (you can also shake your device to erase), and choose from several different tools: a drawing tool (brush, chalk, glitter, smudge, or eraser, all with adjustable sizes), a stamp (with dozens of built-in stamps, from animals to smileys to speech balloons, each … Read more

iPad graphic novel teaches kids self-esteem

I had a hard time in middle school. Other kids picked on me, girls ignored me, and many of the friends I'd had in elementary school abandoned me.

Perhaps reading "Be Confident in Who You Are: A Middle School Confidential Graphic Novel" would have helped--if only it had been available back then.

Based on the actual graphic novel of the same name, Be Confident in Who You Are for iPad reads like a nicely illustrated comic book and addresses a number of important tween/teen issues: bullying, body image, problems with friends, peer pressure, and so on.… Read more