If you're a parent, you know how little kids often want to be like their older sibs and other "big kids" they look up to. And that goes for technology too, of course. Enter Talking Angela, an iPhone and Android app designed for teens (and the teenager in all of us) but not for little kids. Though I can see why little ones would find Angela the talking cat fascinating. Yesterday morning I found … [Read more...] about The flap over Talking Angela the chatbot app
cellphone
One mom’s cellphone contract for her son
When I first read Janell Hoffman's 18-point contract for her 13-year-old son Greg's cellphone use, I was a little put off. So it really helped to watch Good Morning America's video story about it. Why? Because GMA gave it a light touch, and reporter Akiko Fujita pointed out afterwards that "a lot of this was done in jest." That helped because this was very public parenting, and – if this national … [Read more...] about One mom’s cellphone contract for her son
Adults’ texting catching up with teens’
US cellphone owners aged 18-24 now send "an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day," reports the Pew Internet and American Life Project in a just-released study, and "that works out to more than 3,200 texts per month." Which means that young adults are getting very close to the level of teens' texting – well, teens' texting about a year ago, at 3,339 texts/month, according to Nielsen figures … [Read more...] about Adults’ texting catching up with teens’