iPhone Applications for Kids

Top iPhone and iPod Touch Applications for Children

What are your favorite iPhone or iPod Touch Apps for your kids?

Even though I've had an iPhone for a couple of years, I'm just starting to get into the apps. We try to be careful with the amount of time our kids spend on the computer/iPhone, but once in a while they get to play with our apps. Unfortunately, I have found that it is difficult to find good applications for kids. Whenever I'm with a group of moms or dads that have an iPhone, which tends to be more and more these days, the topic of good, kid-friendly iPhone apps seems to come up. I thought I'd create this hub for us parents to share our favorites. We have three girls (six, three, and one), so our favorites tend to be in this age range. Below are some of our favorites, and I hope that we can start a good list in the comments capsule to discover new apps for kids.

Top iPhone Apps for Kids under Two

I know it sounds crazy for a kid under two to use an iPhone application, but our one year old loves to look at the animals and hear animal sounds. I haven't found very many applications that are appropriate, but here are our favorites:

1. Animal Fun: It has pictures of animals, says their name, and makes their sound. (FREE)
   
2. Finger Piano: Play the piano randomly or follow the directions for older kids. (LITE VERSION IS FREE)
3. Simple Draw: Draw with the touch of a finger (FREE)
4. Zoo for Baby: The Freestyle mode shows pictures of animals and when you tap on them they make a sound. (FREE)
5. Zoo Sounds: The free version has only 4 animals and sounds, the paid version (.99) has 12 animals.

If you have any other favorite applications for kids under 2, please start a list in the comments capsule!

Our Favorite iPhone and iPod Touch Applications

Top iPhone Applications for Toddlers Ages 2-4

Here are the best iPhone applications for our 3 year old that we have found. This age is really a sweet spot for applications. Please leave your favorites in the comments capsule!

1. Shape Bulilder: The lite (free) version is great. It's a puzzle game where you put the correct shapes in the correct spots. (FREE)
   
2. Jirbo Match: The girls really like the matching games; it's like memory. I'm sure there are others that are good too. (FREE)
3. The Wheels on the Bus: Every toddler loves this song. This application sings the song and lets you interact with the characters. (.99 cents)
4. Pocket Phonics: The lite version of this application only has 6 letters. It's worth getting the paid version on this application because it gives you many more options for sound blends, etc. I highly recommend this application for kids learning their letters and sounds.
5. iWrite Words: Follow a little crab to write letters. Our three year old likes this letter making app too. (LITE version is FREE)
   
6. First Words Sampler: You drag and drop letters to make a word. The lite version is great. (FREE)
7. I Hear Ewe: animal sounds in a cute user interface. (FREE)
   

The Best iPhone Applications for Kids over the age of 4

The iPhone Applications for older kids can be very interesting. Our oldest daughter loves the following applications:

1. Google Earth: This is a great application for kids and adults. (FREE)
   
2. National Georgraphic Games: Jigsaw or Spot It! (FREE)
   
3. Simon: Like the old school game where the four sections light up and you try to copy the pattern. (FREE)
   
4. Scramble: making words from jumbled letters (FREE)
   
5. Doodle Buddy: This is another drawing application for all ages (FREE)
6. Tangram Puzzle Pro: This is a more advanced version of Shape Builder (.99 cents)
7. The Fuzzy Fierce Peach: This a cute app that is more like a book than a game. ($1.99)

Track A Stolen Laptop Using Open Source

You might not realize it, but losing a laptop is a very common problem. In fact, according to a story in July of this year, a study by the Ponemon Institute shows that up to 12,000 laptops are lost at airport security checkpoints EVERY WEEK. How do you say “holy S**tballs” in geek?

But, there are solutions and, among them, is a free, open source option.

The solution is Adeona and I had the opportunity to watch a short presentation by these guys at Gnomedex only a short while ago. The project is coming out of the University of Washington. Here is how it is described:

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there’s no need to rely on a single third party. What’s more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

How it works is pretty simple. You download the free client software to your laptop and install it. That client software will then begin sending encrypted information to servers on the Internet on the geographic location of your laptop. If the laptop every goes missing, you as the owner can log in with your username and password and view the information on where your laptop is. The software is free and it is using the free storage service OpenDHT to store the data.

As an added benefit, if you’re using a Mac, the software will use isightcapture to take a quick snapshot using the built-in Isight webcam and therefore send a picture of whoever is using your MacBook.

You might be wondering how it knows where the laptop is. The answer is: it doesn’t. Your laptop most likely does not have any built in GPS technology. Instead, the system logs the IP addresses used to connect to the Internet as well as any data on nearby routers. And as most geeks know, it isn’t usually hard to geo-locate an IP address. At the very least, you can report the information to authorities and track down the thief.

This is free and open source and, for that reason, lacks many of the features of the commercial services such as Lojack for Laptops or PC PhoneHome. But, the creators of Adeona were trying to solve the privacy problem. The concern with commercial services is that they could be used to track even the legitimate owner of the laptop. The overriding goal of Adeona was to make sure only the actual owner of the laptop could see the data.

Since Adeona is open source, we’re likely to see new features built on top of it. Anyone can take the source code and improve upon it. Perhaps we might even see Adeona adapted to the Iphone. That would make a very cool app seeing as the Iphone 3G has integrated GPS technology. The downloads page of the Adeona site says they are exploring the possibility of Iphone and Windows Mobile versions.

Adeona is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is free to try.

10 ‘Awesome’ iPhone Applications

While I am not an iPhone user (I am still happy with my ancient flip phone), I am sure many of our readers here are. So for you iPhone users, I thought I would pass along an article on Wired you might want to take a look at: 10 Most Awesome iPhone Apps of 2008.

The article outlines different applications, most are free with the rest $3 and under. Most of the outlined items are applications, but a few games made the list. Another thing to note as well are the user comments which point to even more applications you may want to give a look.

Again, I’m not an iPhone user so I cannot personally comment on any of these applications, but considering most are free, what do you have to lose?

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone

Sling Media's highly anticipated SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, announced at CES in January, is finally available for purchase in the iTunes App Store. Like its SlingPlayer Mobile (for Windows Mobile) and SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry counterparts, the iPhone application is priced at $29.99. Just like the other versions, the iPhone version streams live television from a Slingbox directly to your handheld device. One big difference that's sure to disappoint iPhone users, however, is the fact that, at Apple's request, the live television streaming app can only function when used with a WiFi connection. 3G and EDGE data connections aren't supported (as they were in the beta).

Sling Media's highly anticipated SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone, announced at CES in January, is finally available for purchase in the iTunes App Store. Like its SlingPlayer Mobile (for Windows Mobile) and SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry counterparts, the iPhone application is priced at $29.99. Just like the other versions, the iPhone version streams live television from a Slingbox directly to your handheld device. One big difference that's sure to disappoint iPhone users, however, is the fact that, at Apple's request, the live television streaming app can only function when used with a WiFi connection. 3G and EDGE data connections aren't supported (as they were in the beta).

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone officially supports Sling's current lineup of media streamers, though the app will also connect to "legacy" boxes, including the Classic, AV, and TUNER. Because these older boxes are not officially supported, customers will be on their own should they run into any technical problems getting the app to run with these devices.

The installation process is no different from other iPhone applications—you purchase and download SlingPlayer Mobile directly from the App Store—though the $29.99 price tag rings in significantly higher than most other iPhone apps. When launching the app for the first time, you're prompted to select from a list of associated Slingboxes after entering your Sling Account information. After selecting a Slingbox, the app automatically reconnects to that Slingbox whenever you launch the app.

The app functions in much the same way as the other two versions, though the landscape-only interface has been polished for use on the iPhone. I was able to effortlessly connect to a variety of Slingboxes using an account provided to me by Sling Media. I also connected to my Slingbox PRO without a hitch. Streaming video appears about 20 seconds after logging in, significantly slower than the five seconds required to connect from my computer. Flipping through channels took about five seconds per channel—a significant hindrance for mobile channel surfers.

Navigating through channels without the full PC-based SlingPlayer interface can be a challenge, especially if you haven't managed to memorize your provider's channel lineup, but creating a list of favorites helps to make the experience more manageable. You can select channels by directly entering a channel number into the onscreen keypad, flicking your finger up and down on the screen to navigate channel by channel, or flicking left or right to navigate through your list of mobile favorites.

Standard definition 4:3 content looked best on the iPhone's display, appearing without distortion and filling most of the display. HD content in its native letterbox format was displayed with large black bars on all four sides. The app really ought to be able to do a better job fitting HD video to the screen, taking better advantage of the iPhone's widescreen display. Additionally, the app lacks some basic image-formatting functionality found in other iPhone apps, such as a double tap to maximize a video feed in the YouTube app, for example.

Formatting issues aside, video quality was acceptable—about what you'd expect when streaming content from YouTube, for example. The video framerate was lower than expected on my speedy WiFi connection, however. While the iPhone app lacks the frame rate counter present in earlier Windows Mobile versions, I'd estimate video streaming at 20 fps. Because it filled more of the display, I preferred viewing content from SD sources with the app.

There's certainly room for improvement, considering that the app is limited to WiFi connections, where bandwidth is less of an issue. There are currently no options for manually adjusting image-quality settings, with the exception of changing the aspect ratio. Audio quality was acceptable, but its low bitrate results in mild distortion. An audio-only mode is offered as well, presumably designed for streaming content over EDGE, even though the final version supports only WiFi.

Overall, the application is much snappier than the beta version I tested last month. While the beta version I tested was able to stream video over 3G and EDGE, quality suffered significantly when streaming video over AT&T's network. The stream required constant rebuffering, and the initial connection took far longer than with the current release. My iPhone's battery also depleted significantly faster when streaming video over 3G, so I avoided using the app whenever I was away from a power outlet. Of course, that's exactly when you want to watch portable live streaming television! While it's disappointing that the app only works in WiFi mode, the current more limited version of the app definitely works better than the beta did.

If you've been drooling over the thought of streaming live television on your iPhone since Sling Media announced the app earlier this year, you're in luck—this app certainly delivers, as long as you're in a WiFi coverage area. SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone still leaves plenty of room for improvement, however, and while $29.99 is the same cost as the other versions of the app for other platforms, it definitely isn't chump change when it comes to iPhone apps.

How to turn your iPod into iPhone

I try to keep a stiff upper lip about not having an iPhone. Just couldn't afford it -- not with the $75 a month or so AT&T charges for service on top of the $199 upfront cost for the device.

I could, however, afford the $229 iPod Touch -- and got it as a gift, as it happened. It has most of the same goodies: a Web browser, email, YouTube. And it stores way more music than the iPhone. Plus, the other day I used it to call China.

Yup, a call around the world -- on a device that doesn't have a phone. A handful of applications on Apple Inc's iTunes store will let you do this, as long as you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot.

My iPhone complex hasn't disappeared, but at least now I have a device that looks just like it, has no monthly service fees, and lets me make free or cheap phone calls.

The best part of these applications -- which require the second-generation iPod Touch that came out last year -- is that they are free to download, and calls to other people using the same app won't cost you anything.

Two of the services I've tried, Truphone and Fring, will also let you make free calls to Google Talk users and type instant messages to friends online. Both automatically queue up a list of buddies from different services you might have, including Gmail chat, AIM and MSN Messenger, once you log in.

But it's Truphone's pay feature that puts it ahead of the others. TruPhone charges you to make calls to landlines or regular cell phones, but generally at better rates than most wireless carriers. And it's upfront about what you pay.

Your balance -- which you can add to with a credit card, either on the device or on your computer browser -- pops up with the dial screen. Calls in the US are all 5 cents per minute (2 cents if you sign up to pay a $4 monthly fee).

Rates outside the US vary wildly but you can check in the application before you dial. To call cell phones in China, for instance, is only 5 cents per minute, while France is 25 cents. Antarctica? A whopping $2.25.

You can make regular calls with Fring using a Skype account, but that's another layer to deal with.