Best Free Apps for Kids - iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android: March 2009

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03/15/2009

Kid-Safe iPhone Web Browser

iPhone and iPod Touch support parental controls where it is possible to disable access to many apps, including Internet browsing through Safari. You can access the article on how to set such restrictions here.

Once you restricted Internet browsing through Safari from your kid's iPhone or iPod Touch, you may still would like him/her to access kid friendly sites or reference sites, such as Wikipedia, for obtaining valuable information. Trying to fill in this need, there are several iPhone apps: Mobicip browser - a free app, iWonder Surf Web Browser available for $14.99 and Safe Eyes Mobile available for $19.99. All three browsers have mixed reviews, but looking at the iTunes reviews, Safe Eyes Mobile have better reviews than the other two. Here I review Mobicip browser, which is available for free.

First time you use the Mobicip browser, you need to setup an account at mobicip.com. When you are signing up, you select the level of filtering you like from one of three options: elementary school, middle school, and high school. The filtering levels are based on categories blocked and allowed for different age groups by schools. For example, gaming and entertainment related websites are blocked for elementary, but allowed for middle and high school kids. Dating, online shopping, and e-commerce sites are blocked for elementary and middle school, allowed for high school kids.

When you start the browser, you find shortcuts to many useful reference sites, such as Britannica, Wikipedia, HowStuffWorks, etc. Below is a video demonstration of how the browser works.

Even though Mobicip is a great start in addressing kid-safe Internet browsing, there is a lot of space for improvement. Some web sites are not rendered accurately. Wikipedia link on the front page is to the mobile version of Wikipedia, which provides a poor browsing experience compared to the full version. Nevertheless, user can go to the full version of the Wikipedia themselves and add this to the favorite links.

Do you have additional tips, concerns that you'd like to talk about? Drop us a note.

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Parental controls on iPhone and iPod Touch that every parent needs to know about

I was astonished to learn that various studies (from University of New Hampshire, University of Alberta) show that between 40% to 80% of kids have viewed adult content on the Internet. Our kid is young, we still have a few years before this becomes a concern for us. He needs to learn how to read and write (or type) first. Nevertheless, we already start collecting ideas from other parents about how they monitor their kids 'online life'. However most of those tips, such as having computers only in the living room, apply only to Internet surfing through desktop or laptop computers.

Mobile Internet surfing increasing at a rapid rate. Mobile devices are super portable and have small screens that makes them more 'personal' than desktop and laptop computers. This makes monitoring kid's online activities on those devices much more difficult. Luckily iPhone and iPod Touch support parental controls for Internet browsing, iPod movies, YouTube, iTunes, installing apps and using camera app.

How to setup parental controls for iPhone or iPod Touch?

For enabling restrictions, first run Settings, then select General, and then select Restrictions. Pressing on 'Enable Settings' button will direct you to enter a 4 digit passcode. After you entered your passcode, you can then select which applications you need to set restrictions for. Screen shot on the right shows disabling iPod explicit content, Safari and Installing apps.

You may want to write your passcode down. If you forget your passcode you have no choice but to reset your device. When you reset, you lose all your app data, such as your game scores. Resetting can be done by running Settings, selecting General, Reset, and 'Reset all settings'.

When Safari browsing is disabled, your kids will not be able to access even the useful Internet content, such as Wikipedia or dictionaries. In this case you may like to install a kid-friendly browser with content restrictions to porn, gaming, and other inappropriate web content on iPhone and iPod Touch. Such browsers include Mobicip browser, which is a free app, iWonder Surf Web Browser available for $14.99 and Safe Eyes Mobile available for $19.99. You can find review of Mobicap here.

Do you have additional tips, concerns that you'd like to talk about? Drop us a note.

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03/08/2009

iPhone Projector

Is there an iPhone projector? The answer is, well, depends on what you'd like to do:
Currently it is only possible to output iPhone screen to any projector or TV screen only when iPhone is playing movies. If you are demonstrating an application or playing a game, to the best of my knowledge an as of March 2009, it is not possible to project or display iPhone's screen on a larger screen.

For projecting iPhone's screen in the movie mode, you need an AudioVisual cable that converts iPhone or iPod Touch output to RCA. You can then connect the RCA output to almost any projector or TV. Different vendors offer AV cables for iPhone, and they are cheaper than Apple's connector. However, after reading on Amazon about the incompatibly problems that they may have, I would recommend purchasing the following connector from Apple Store, which worked well for us: Apple Composite AV Cable $49, http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB129

We do not have a projector but I would like to own one. For the coolness factor and extra portability, it would be nice to get an extra small pico projector. 3M sells such projectors but their reviews are mixed. On the other hand, I have seen a live demo of Microvision's pico projector and it was impressive. It is rumored to be available in summer 2009 and capable of running 2 hours on batteries.

Here is a youtube video that shows pico projector in action:

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03/05/2009

Making Math Fun for Kids: 5 iPod Touch Math Apps

Are you looking for ways of making learning math fun for kids? Combining Math with animations and games can be entertaining and motivating. Some best iPhone math apps do this well and some other apps simply display a math operation and present multiple choices or a place to enter results. Below I list some popular iPhone apps for teaching kids basic mathematics operations. If you know some great math apps that your children like, please let me know and I will include it here.

PopMath
Cost: $0.99
Age: 7 years and up
This app displays simple math operations and their results in bubbles and expect users to pop the math operation and the result bubbles one after the other. This is a really fun app even for us adults. You can get the app and view the other reviews here.

Basic Math
Cost: free
Age: 7 years and up
This app simply displays basic math operations, offers 3 choices as answers, and lets user pick the correct answer. Basic Math app lacks motivating animations or sound effects, but it's free. You can access the app and other reviews here.

Cute Math
Cost: 1.99
Age: 3 years and up
Cute math teaches counting, addition, and subtraction with very nice graphics and effects. More suitable for teaching math to young kids compared to some of the other math apps. Download and read additional reviews here.

miTables Lite
Cost: free
Age: 7 years and up
A plain math application that displays math operations and gives user 4 choices to select the answer from. Screen shots, download, and reviews can be access from here.

Dotty Shapes
Cost: $0.99
Age: 2 years and up
This app displays numbers and you can connect them in order and create shapes. Teaches counting in a fun way. To get the application from iTunes app store and see other's reviews click here.