TheGuardian.com in the UK has a blog devoted just to apps – a big job (with more than a million apps at Google Play's app store, passing up Apple's 900,000+ this past summer). And the blog's writer and app reviewer, Stuart Dredge, writes that he's noticed a shift in device and app use among families with kids. More and more parents are downloading children's Android apps for both smartphones and … [Read more...] about App reviewer’s top Android picks for kids
apps
Mobile learning & edugames taking off worldwide
Whether it's the chicken or the egg – the device or the edugames – fueling the growth isn't completely clear, but "tablets are proliferating everywhere across the planet," said Sam Adkins, head of research for market research firm Ambient Insight, at the Serious Play Conference in Redmond, Wash., last week. He was referring to mobile learning – especially on tablets, where school's concerned – and … [Read more...] about Mobile learning & edugames taking off worldwide
New MixBit app for video-sharing & remixing
The mobile video-sharing field just got a little more crowded. Of course there's Vine and Instagram's new video feature and Rounds more for video chat. But now there's MixBit from the creators of YouTube. It's "all about mixing and editing video," the New York Times reports. The app and the site (MixBit.com) are "aimed at making it easy to clip and stitch together snippets of video. Simple tools … [Read more...] about New MixBit app for video-sharing & remixing
Children’s library-on-a-tablet
In 2007 and '08, we took our kids, then 10 and 16, around the world, and we certainly could've used this technology and media then! Kids can bring along hundreds of books that take up no more space than a Kindle (introduced after we left on our 10-month trip August 2007) or the iPad, which debuted in 2010. A downside, though, might be parents having to ask kids what they're doing on their tablets … [Read more...] about Children’s library-on-a-tablet
Snapchat’s SnapKidz: All snap, no chat
It's an interesting experiment: The creators of Snapchat, the social app for sharing photos that disappear in seconds, have just introduced SnapKidz, a non-social photo app for kids under 13 with Apple mobile devices (it's not yet available for Android). So, true to its name, it's basically the snap without the chat. It's also the ephemeral photo-sharing app without the ephemeral part. Kids' … [Read more...] about Snapchat’s SnapKidz: All snap, no chat