Children Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Reading Rainbow to be rebooted for iPad

by Chris Rawson (Sep 14th, 2011)

Reading Rainbow, a TV show geared toward encouraging children to read books, aired for over 20 years on PBS before the network's financial troubles forced the show to shut down in 2006. Reading Rainbow is coming back, but in a very next-gen fashion; rather than a TV show, Reading Rainbow will now ...

Daily iPad App: PlayTime Theater

by Michael Rose (Sep 9th, 2011)

Every parent who has taken a long car trip or flight with offspring in tow knows that the difference between a pleasant journey and a stressful, tiring marathon may come down to one key factor: can you keep the kids entertained (and fed) through it? If so, everyone's happier. This task is ...

7-year-old iPhone developer is on a roll

by Michael Grothaus (Aug 19th, 2011)

There's a quote by Nolan Bushnell I love that says, "Everyone who has ever taken a shower has had an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it that makes a difference." Most people reading this have probably had an idea for an iPhone app, but after ...

FTC requires iOS developers to pay $50K fine for collecting user data

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 16th, 2011)

App developers writing applications that target children have to be very careful when they collect and store information about their users. They may find themselves the subject of an FTC investigation. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites and other online ...

Ten-Year-Old Hacker presents iOS game exploit at DefCon

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 8th, 2011)

A 10-year-old hacker who goes by the name CyFi uncovered a new exploit in iOS and Android games. The time-based exploit lets you advance in a game by adjusting the clock on your phone or tablet. The California girl discovered the flaw while playing an unnamed farming game. Tired of waiting ...

FBI releases its first iPhone app: Child ID

by Michael Grothaus (Aug 7th, 2011)

The FBI has released it first iPhone app called Child ID. As the name suggests, Child ID works as a kind of digital passport for information about your children. With it you can store their photos along with physical identifiers such as height and weight. The app has several intended uses, the ...

Owensboro, Kentucky students to receive 2200 MacBook Airs

by Chris Rawson (Jul 27th, 2011)

Man, talk about lucky in Kentucky. Students and staff in the Owensboro, Kentucky district will all be issued Apple's newest ultraportable MacBook Air thanks to US$5 million in stimulus funding, Electronista reports. The MacBook Air's small size and increased durability compared to the plastic ...

Apple updates iBooks app with 'read aloud' feature

by Michael Grothaus (Jun 7th, 2011)

Apple has updated iBooks to version 1.3. According to the product description page, the update adds several new features and improvements, including improved responsiveness and autoplay of video or audio in enhanced books. Plus, it addresses an issue where some books displayed the same page ...

Peekaboo! Guess Who? an inviting game for the smallest of iPad users

by David Winograd (May 27th, 2011)

Peekaboo! Guess Who? (US$1.99) from Bacciz Apps is a lovely little educational iPad game for toddlers and young children. It teaches kids to identify the sounds animals make. Gameplay is simple and features both a "Kids Mode" for very young players and a "2+ Mode." First, kids choose a setting ...

PBS releases children's iPad app, interesting usage stats

by Michael Grothaus (May 16th, 2011)

Last week PBS released its free PBS KIDS Video for iPad app. The app features more than 1000 videos from over a dozen PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! series, including Sesame Street, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, and Super WHY! The app itself was purposefully designed so that young kids ...

Apple pulls iAds from apps for kids

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 11th, 2011)

Mike Zonrek reports that Apple has suddenly removed iAds from kid-focused applications in the App Store. Zonrek is the developer behind Dex, a Pokémon-browser that has been downloaded over 500,000 times and is a favorite among kids who are into Pokemon. Zonrek uses a combination of iAds, ...

Art of the iPad brings out the creativity of toddlers and tots

by David Winograd (Apr 24th, 2011)

Jonathan Gay works as a project manager for a pre-school in Newton, PA and has created a project he named Art of the iPad. He wanted to see how creative very young kids could be using new technology without the usual prerequisite of training. Not wanting to use any of the existing art apps ...

Two iOS apps meant to teach toddlers valuable lessons

by David Winograd (Jan 21st, 2011)

There is a new trend starting in interactive children's media: books that don't really tell a fully formed story, but are meant to teach a lesson. As with many new ideas, the first ones are pretty rough and may not be worth bothering with, but the potential is vast. Loris and the Runaway Ball ...

Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D: Two gimmicky and unfocused e-book apps

by David Winograd (Jan 18th, 2011)

Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D are two US$1.99 interactive children's books from Bacciz Apps. I'm sorry to say that they're also not very good. They are complicated, inconsistent, and neither provides a satisfying story. Both titles use elements often seen before in other interactive children's ...

Grimm's Rapunzel is an interactive pop-up book done right

by David Winograd (Dec 24th, 2010)

Although a number of interactive children's books have billed themselves as being pop-up (or pop-out) books, like The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas (both from Loudcrow), nothing really popped up and constructed the 3D scenes that I remember from my childhood. Grimm's Rapunzel - ...