Our sister site ParentDish has posted an article on their favorite iPhone/iPod touch applications for parents. As an iPhone-toting dad, I've used mine to keep the little nippers busy with cute applications, but Sarah James has found even better options, including

1. Baby Monitor Did you forget to bring Jr.'s monitor to Grandma's house? Put your iPhone next to his crib and launch Baby Monitor. When he starts to wail like a banshee, Baby Monitor calls a pre-determined number, like Grandma's landline. Baby Monitor costs $0.99US.
2. Baby Tracker: Diapers I remember the days of The Diaper Pail* and anxious trips to the pediatrician's office. If that's still a part of your experience, check out Baby Tracker: Diapers. It lets you note the consistency, color and contents of Jr.'s waste. Giggle if you like, but I see exactly how this could offer peace of mind. Baby Tracker: Diapers costs $0.99US.

There are more, of course, so check out the full article. In the meantime, here are a few suggestions from this old dad:

1. iChalky When my 3-year-old is out of patience, I hand over iChalky. Jiggle the phone and drag your finger to flip little Chalky all over the screen. The preschool set loves it. iChalky costs $0.99US.
2. Jirbo Match My 5-year-old likes matching games, and Jirbo Match is challengeing enough to engage her. Jirbo Match costs $1.99US
3. iTalk Think of something while you've got your hands full? Just launch iTalk and record that thought. Later, you can sync recordings with the desktop companion, iTalk Sync. iTalk is free.

While we're on the topic, I've got a request for the iPhone and iPod touch. The problem with letting the kids use them is that they sometimes navigate away from the application or video and get into other stuff (plus that whole "throwing and dropping" thing). Recently, my daughter deleted some photos I hadn't exported to my Mac.

That's hardly the end of the world, but it would be nice to put the phone in "Kid mode" and prevent them from navigating away from a video or application.

*Only today do I realize the insanity of having what amounted to a miniature cesspool in my bedroom.

Once my kids were beyond putting random technology into their mouths, I have let them play with gadgets. But what about my iPhone? It started innocently enough: a Leapster for a birthday. Then I cleaned out the garage and let them "borrow" a few antique Palm devices. Then I got them hooked on an old iBook G3 running OS 9 and some great old classics (the original "Toy Story" interactive storybook is a nearly-perfect example of the genre). A Palm T|X loaded with games, music, photos and movies might have been a step in the wrong direction, as was the Dell Axim with the same. Access to those was limited until the iPhone came along.

Once a kid has used iSaber (currently unavailable from the iTunes store) or played DizzyBee, it's over. When you show them you can add yet more fun diversions the question becomes "got anything new on your iPhone?" By then it's over.

Now the question becomes, what's the harm? Is there harm? I've limited their use to the inevitable "we're waiting right now" moments. But still, no matter what we've done that day that was new and exciting, if my son plays with the iPhone for 5 minutes that's all Mom hears about when he's going to bed.

I grew up with an Apple ][ in the house and I'm sure that had a hand in my love of tech. But there's also a case for letting kids find their own way, at an age-appropriate level. I cringe when they swing my naked iPhone around using iSaber, expecting Wii-style damage to our windows and the device itself. Yet I can't help but think that getting used to technology early -- something that will increasingly invade their lives as it becomes more embedded in our world -- is maybe a good thing. Everything in moderation, of course. I certainly don't want them erasing my high scores; I'll let iTunes do that.

Son's favorite games: Cannon Game and MotionX Dice. (iTunes links)
Daughter's favorite games: DizzyBeeFree (guess I better buy it!) and aSleep (iTunes links)

We've covered MotionX and aSleep before.

We're back tonight at 10 pm on TalkShoe for the weekly talkcast; it's news of the week and general conversation tonight with the usual suspects, so put down your barbeque fork and your malt beverage and tune in if you can. Got specific questions or concerns? You can slide them into the comments below or send us an @tuaw on Twitter pre-show.

As we noted a few weeks back in the Mac Parenting show, we did have a few questions to follow up on for listeners and readers:

• One caller had questions about locking down the Dock to avoid inadvertent removal of application shortcuts. While we strongly encourage setting up limited accounts for your kids and having them work in those accounts exclusively, it is possible to lock the Dock plist file and have it reset to your permanent config on each login/logout.
• In a similar vein, another caller wanted to know about controlling the iChat conversations that kids can have -- specifically, who they can or can't chat with. In Leopard, there's a parental control for notification on new chatter requests so that you'll get an approval email when the kids try to chat with someone unfamiliar.
• I suggested that Apple's Workgroup Manager administration tool could provide more detailed control than the Parental Control system preference, which was a source of some amusement for a few listeners. You can learn more about WGM from TUAW, macenterprise.org or this tutorial series.
• Some other products and websites mentioned in the show:
  • Broderbund's Living Books series
  • starfall.com for reading instruction
  • tumblebooks.com for story time
  • Kidpix and open-source alternative Tuxpaint

For more tips and hints check out our Mac parents wiki page.

We had a fun time on the ol' TUAW talkcast last Sunday, with panelists Christina Warren, Dave Caolo, Erica Sadun and reader Brett Peters (yes, the broken iPhone guy). Brett had a sad saga of MacBook Air performance woes to tell -- his machine refused to run on two cores under moderate load, apparently a thermal management feature run amuck, and it's going back to the mothership now (read the details here). We also ran through the iPhone 3G rumors with a coarse-toothed comb. You can download direct, listen in your browser or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes.

For this coming Sunday's show (4/13), we're going to be talking about parents, kids and the Mac with Dave Caolo and hopefully some special guests. We'd love to get your suggestions and recommendations for the best educational software, kid-friendly peripherals and utilities, art and music tools for tots, and more. If you'd like to contribute your picks and pans, you can comment below or use our handy PBwiki page (you'll need a login, so just comment that you want to help out and I'll send you an invite). If you're wondering how to introduce your tots to computers or whether content filtering/parental controls really work as advertised, call in and we'll talk.