Singing Fingers starts with a blank white screen, then you drag your finger slowly across the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad’s screen. A microphone is required. As you move your fingertip, you notice that your “ink” is powered by sound. The louder you sing, the fatter your line. And the color is associated with the pitch. So if you sing a scale, you make a rainbow pattern. After you’ve made a doodle, trace your finger back over your drawing, to hear your captured audio. If you drag quickly, you make a drawing, to play your sound back. If you trace your finger quickly, the sound plays back quickly, like fast-forwarding through a file. The app was created by doctoral students Eric Rosenbaum (who spoke at Dust or Magic 2009) and Jay Silver of the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Road Trip Bingo turns your iPhone or iPad into a bingo board. Instead of numerals, the 5 x 5 grid contains a random assortment of items you might see passing by your window, ranging from common things — a cloud, tree or exit sign, to the more unusual — a horse, sailboat or a police car (may your sightings be rare). Once you spot an item on the board, you give it a tap to mark it with a virtual marker. Five in a row in any direction wins, an event marked by a chime and a sticker. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Buckleitner, W., 2010. Book Review: Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software. American Journal of Play, Spring 2010, page 485-486.
Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software
by Mizuko Ito
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009. References, index, photographs, tables. 234 pp. $24.95 cloth. ISBN: 978026203352
If you’re looking for a thrilling tale of corporate espionage and rags-to-riches (and rags-to-rags) careers, you need look
no further than the business of making children’s software over the past two decades. In Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software, cultural anthropologist Mizuko Ito opens the door for a closer look at children and
technology during this time period. Limited in scope for reasons described below, the book breaks new ground in the way it attempts to interpret what happened during this period of optimism and frustration, when publishers were competing to produce and market 979 commercial products per year during the peak year (2001) and trying to market them in retail settings.
Inspired by the Mandala patterns of the Buddhist monks, this app makes it possible to convert your finger drawings into snowflake-like symmetrical art, set to zen-like music. There are two drawing modes, normal and blend. The palette contains 35 colors and three types of brushes. Content includes ten songs. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
First Annual 2010 Kids @ Play Interactive (KAPi) Nominees and Winners Announced
We are pleased to announce the winners of the first annual KAPi Awards, given at Kids @ Play event on January 7 at CES.
The KAPi prize is an honest attempt to ask as many people as possible “which children’s tech products raised the bar for innovation and excellence last year?” For more about the award and award process, visit the KAPi FAQs.
Like a recipe book for exercise, this reference for iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad consists of a database of 150 exercises. You start by touching a region of the body (e.g,. back, legs or shoulder) and then see a list of exercises, presented in step-by-step fashion. For each exercise, you can download a short 10 second video showing what to do. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You begin by plugging in your iPad into a Windows or Macintosh computer (required), and starting iTunes (also required). This starts the standard registration process, and some free trial offers to subscription-based data services; all easily skippable. Next, you log into your favorite Wi-Fi zones (also required). The next parts are familiar to anyone who has ever synced an iPod Touch or an iPhone with a computer. You can decide which apps you want to transfer, from the huge selection of free choices, along with your movies, podcasts and photos. Or you can give Apple your credit card and download some of the new iPad native apps already on the market. These titles, in the $5 – $10 range, have markedly better graphics and sounds. Regular iPod Touch apps appear in a regular sized window on the iPad’s larger screen, with a “2x button” in the lower corner, making it easy to quickly fill the screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Last month Apple released its iPad, a $500 picture frame/clip board/report card/bubble scoring sheet/virtual world portal/music stand/easel/photo editor/browser/movie player/record collection/book shelf/carpenter’s level/subway map/chess board/night light… I’ve already blogged about how it might become a child’s best friend for the New York Times (see http://bit.ly/cHxQG1), and that post has stirred up a good deal of additional questions.
Nintendo's DS lite, DSi and the new DSi XL
Here are some official photos that Nintendo released yesterday about the Nintendo DSi XL (covered yesterday in GadgetWise). The DSi XL (which I’m assuming stands for “eXtra Large” will be in stores March 28, at a suggested retail price of $190. That’s just $10 cheaper than the Wii. According to the release, the screens are significantly larger than those of the Nintendo DS Lite model and feature a wider viewing angle. The new system will come in two colors, Burgundy and Bronze, and comes pre-loaded with two Brain Age titles ( Arts & Letters, Math and Photo Clock) plus a browser and Browser and Flipnote Studio. The stylus is larger (“pen-like”).
Question: Do you think that Nintendo is trying to get into eBooks? Is there any coincidence between the release of the iPad and the XL? What does XL really stand for? And where do you store that big ‘ole stylus?
The larger, more comfortable stylus
This is a collection of follow-along gross motor body puzzles, ideal for children or adults. The puzzles are played from a non-interactive DVD that contains eight songs. There are multiple motions to go with each song, that vary in difficulty. MeMoves is the second release from Thinking Moves. The first, with more complex routines, is sold by FableVision. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
One of the more interesting things I spotted at CES 2010 was a keyboard made of light, formed by a red projected laser. At first I was a skeptic, so I put down my camera to give it a try. Yes, it does work, but it takes some getting used to. For one, I had to separate my letters, because it seemed that my fingers were casting shadows. Compared to my texting ability, however, my Laserkey typing was much faster. Clearly there’s some validity to this concept. The red laser diode keyboard comes in four languages (English, German, French, Korean) and is regular sized. It requires an opaque (not clear) surface, so don’t think of using it on a glass table or anything with a reflective surface. If a laser mouse will work, so will the keyboard. It is powered from your USB port, or an optional battery; and is designed to work with Microsoft Windows Mobile software, Palm OS 5.x, RIM OS (for the Blackberry), Windows, and Symbian OS s60 3rd Edition (for Nokia). Besides having some implications for student desktops or library tables, this type of device could have obvious use with a portable device or perhaps a living room. Teaches: a laser projected keyboard. Celluon. http://www.celluon.com/index.html, $190.
This is a new feature that lets you password-protect your browser, so that the only Google search option is strict filtering, designed to remove explicit language and images. To change your settings go to the classic Google start page, click on “Settings” at the top of the screen and then “Search Settings.” Look for the SafeSearch settings, and find the “Lock SafeSearch.” Once it is checked, you’ll need to type your password to set the lock. From this point on, any Google search done with that browser will be strictly filtered, to remove explicit text and explicit pictures. In addition, four large colored balls are shown on the top of the search results screen if the SafeSearch lock is on; a design that is easy to spot from across the room. No colored balls means no lock. Learn more by watching 
. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
JP Dyson of the Strong Museum of Play’s National Center for the History of Electronic Games demonstrates a historic toy that raised the bar in electronic games. He starts by providing hints. How quickly can you guess which toy he’s talking about?
Presented at the Ninth Annual Dust or Magic Institute on November 3, 2009.