Technoglam

Fancy being a spelling bee champion?

Many parents do dither about buying their children electronic toys but dress it up as an educational toy and you might just be a little bit more persuaded.

What you see on your left is the Seiko spelling bee which is being launched to coincide with the final of The Times Spelling Bee Championship next week, an event I hadn't heard of until five minutes ago.

Content has been pulled from the Collins School Dictionary and Thesaurus and is specifically for UK English speakers. Aimed at the 8+ market, there's a two inch LCD screen, colourful graphics, speaking 'tutor' and word games with beginner, advanced and master levels. It aims to help children with their basic skills, to develop their own language knowledge and not become reliant on a spell chequer (see what I did there?).

All sounds good to me but I wonder how enthused children really will be about it and whether parents might not be a little offput by the £99.99 price tag.

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Parents want more control over children's video games, finds Mumsnet research

It's not exactly a new topic, but there is at least some new research on the subject of children and video games. They have found, rather unsurprisingly, that parents want more control over their children's video game playing. A whopping 7.7million parents, says the research is unaware of their children's video games content whilst 5 million are also concerned over the length of time their children spend playing video games. 90% of families also reported fighting betwen siblings over 'their turn'.

It's not all bad news though. 72% of parents believed video games helped children learn new skills and 27% thought it taught children about the world.

The survey was conducted on 906 Mumsnet members between April and May 2009 in association between Mumsnet and Metaboli, a digital distributor of PC games. In response to the findings, Metaboli are launching parental control features across all its platforms which will enable parents to pre-select games by age, genre or on a case-by-case basis.

   

REVIEW: DS Junior Brain Trainer

Junior Brain Trainer is the children's version of the hugely popular Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. Aimed at three years and over, there's 100 different brain games from memory and logic puzzles to maths and English that complement learning. Fun game rewards are added after the player has completed the daily training and there is a very enthusiastic squirrel screen guide to encourage players.

Whilst the game is aimed at children as young as three, I felt that children would only really benefit from this game once they understood the basics of reading and writing so three year old players probably wouldn't find much to interest them, where as our four year old tester, who has mastered the basics of the alphabet, was quite keen on the handwriting tasks which involved copying the lower and uppercase letters.

Daily training games are accessed from the top menu where a series of small tasks are set such as copying shapes on a grid, guess the extra word, 'drag and drop' to complete the word, guess the number sequence, a set of multiplications using 'drag and drop' numbers, compare 'less' and 'more than' numbers, dominoes with count the dots, additions table and ordering numbers with games changing each time the training programme is accessed. The maths games were really suited to a slightly older player who had gone through the basics of maths and probably just starting their multiplication tables. An adult may also need to be on hand for younger children who are will no doubt know the answers but may not be able to read fully enough to complete the task alone. We also thought that if children are already taking their first steps on a PC, a virtual QWERTY keyboard may have made more sense for some of the word games than an alphabet grid.

So that the daily brain trainer aspect doesn't seem like work, every daily task is rewarded with a game that many parents will recognise such as Snakes which zips round the screen picking up jewels, simple card game Beggar My Neighbour, Ghosts and Balloon Pop. There's also a quiz to test knowledge and a progress chart with a virtual star chart.

The graphics were very child friendly - animated mice, cows and ladybirds all made an appearance alongside the squirrel with cute cloud backgrounds.

I felt the graphics were intended at the younger age range but that it wasn't patronising and remained very child friendly. This game is ideal for parents who have bought their children a DS but want to ensure that their offspring are getting something cerebral out of it, rather than just playing a game, and it would make a good game for parents and children to play together.

Age range: Box says 3+, we say 4+ with occasional help.
Type: Children's/Puzzle
Price: Around £15

Technoglam rating: 4/5

Like this? DS Review: Barbie: The Island Princess

Hi-tech gadgets for your trainee geeklings

How old should you be to get into tech? From birth if these gadgets have their way. We've taken a fun look at the gadgets for hi-tech kids...

Combi iPod Bouncer with built-in sound, vibration and rear-mounted controls and a toy bar, usable from birth for $79 ThinkGeek; Lego digital camera made to appear as if it's built from Lego bricks, out this summer around $60 Lego; rechargable Kid-Tough DVD player in pink or blue $150 Fisher Price; the Plasma 7 iPod buggy with padded speakers and an iPod pocket for sound whilst you're out and about, £230.99 at Little Butterfly; Crayola MP3 player with 2GB storage and powered by a single AA battery, around $50 and clock/radio dock, around $30, out this year from Crayola.

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Ask a techie - what laptop is right for my teen?

 

I'm thinking of buying a computer for my teenager. He'll need it for doing homework, browsing the web and emailing. Can you recommend some laptops? I don't want to spend too much.

Alex answers... Laptops are becoming more and more powerful and you can now get much more for your money. But if you truely want to save money and get a decent machine then avoid the High Street! The High Street tends to focus on the bigger brands such as HP but you can find a good quality machine for much less by picking a lesser-known brand or surfing online for the best price deal. For instance, ACER, available online and in some Tesco stores offer good quality machines with a range of offerings to suit most budgets. You might also want to look at budget online store Laptops Direct.

Most laptops come with built-in wireless that can connect you to your home WiFi  to share internet access, but do take into account anti-virus protection and child locks if they'll be browsing the web to prevent them from accessing anything unsavoury.

Dont be fooled by 'free laptop offers.' When you've calculated the cost of a 24-month contract compared to buying a similar model laptop along with a broadband line, there might not actually be any saving at all. If you're planning on downloading a lot of content, for example, music, you might find the small download allowance offered with a 'free laptop' deal not enough.

Will your teen want this laptop to be just for work, or for fun as well? All laptops will have reasonable sound and basic graphics ability, so there should be no problem watching a movie or playing music! And it will serve as an entertainment device as well as a homework tool.

Don't always listen to the salesmen! The salesmen will always try and push you for the most expensive options, even if you've said you dont want to spend that much. They'll try to blind you with acronyms and mesmorise you with specifications, so its worth reading up before you decide what you want.

Buying your laptop online from somewhere like Laptops Direct or Ebuyer will give you the opportunity to read all about each item before you decide plus Ebuyer also have a handy product comparison tool!

If you want a budget model, take a look at the £99 Elonex Websurfer that will go on sale this month. It's slightly smaller than most laptops with a seven inch screen and smaller keyboard but it does offer email, web browsing and can remotely access the home PC. It comes in a range of colours but you'll need to get a memory stick for saving documents. The Asus EEEPC 1000 is a popular portable laptop with a 10" screen display and a keboard that is only 8% smaller than standard models. It offers all the functionality of a standard sized laptop and costs around £360 from various online retailers.

Like this? More 'Ask a Techie' columns

Leapfrog's 'Baby Blackberry' - the 'text and learn' smartphone for kids

Forget your plastic pretend mobile phones, today's children are far more sophisticated than that, don't you know? Tapping into Mummy and Daddy business mode, is Leapfrog's 'text and learn' smartphone or the 'baby blackberry' as CNET and other blogs have already termed it.

The comparisons are easy to make - there's a broad phone style case with QWERTY keyboard, navigational buttons and a LCD screen. Whilst there's thankfully no internet connection, there is a pretend 'browser'. Tots can tap out a message to their on screen puppy chum Scout, plus there are some educational games including spelling challenges and shape recognition.

Some have already questioned whether a product like this is 'scary' presumably for its advanced consumerist nature, but I see it as no worse than a pretend phone or 'baby's first laptop' and it's certainly more fun than one of those ridiculous toy irons or vacuums.

It'll be out around Summer time for RRP £20 from Leapfrog.

VTech Smile Motion games console for three to seven year olds

If you're going to catch the next wave of gamers, catch them young. The Wii might have captured the interest of families, but the VTech Smile Motion console is aimed firmly at a much younger market - three to seven year olds.

Like many popular games for this age range, it aims to make education fun with colours, number and spelling games, problem solving, science facts and helps develop memory skills with many popular characters such as Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine.

The console hooks up to the TV and the chunky handheld unit has a joystick to move characters on screen and can be used by right and left handed players.

It comes with an Action Mania Learning Game which features sports based activities for £59.99 at VTech. 

Entertain little ones with the iPhone Peekaboo Barn application

You need three ingredients for this cute recipe - 1. an iPhone, 2. your child 3. a spare moment for some downloading. Created by artists and educators at Night & Day Studios, the touchscreen application is perfect for whiling a way a little time when waiting in a queue. Kids can tap on the barn doors, guess the animal by hearing its call and older kids can learn the animal types in Spanish and English. It also works on the iPod Touch. The application costs $1.99 here. [via Ohdeedoh]

Fizzbook Spin 2 - the rugged netbook tablet for children

I'll bet I'm not the only parent out there to have had to replace a laptop thanks to the machinations of children. So parents might want to take a look at the Fizzbook Spin, the latest in a range of child-orientated laptops from ZooStorm. It runs on the Windows operating system with an Intel Atom processor but what makes it really interesting is that it's not any old netbook, it's a touch screen tablet that has been 'ruggedized' for children's use by making it water resistent and drop proof. The age range it is aimed at is fairly broad at anywhere from 6-14 years but the design certainly shouldn't put off teens plus there's WiFi, a 1.3megapixel webcam and three USB ports to keep them interested.

It's going to be sold through educational resellers as well as general retailers which reflects its integration of Smartboard SynchronEyes software which can be synched with a classroom's SmartBoard. RRP is £319 and it'll be out in Feb/March. Check Fizzbook/ Zoostorm for stockists.

Whilst laptops like the EEE PC and £99 Elonex might win out on the price point, would you be persuaded to spend a bit more for a child-friendly netbook?

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Tanya Bryon becomes government's family internet guru

Pyschologist and presenter of shows such as House of Tiny Tearaways, Dr Tanya Bryon is now the government's family internet guru. The idea behind Byron's new role appears to be explore the usage of the internet by children and families and to provide safe measures where the internet can be used whilst also offering recommendations to parents who haven't grown up with online technology. We're keen to see what she comes up with - the Telegraph article can be read here and finishes up with some sensible tips on safe internet usage for children.

Following a report Byron compiled for PM Gordon Brown, delivered in early 2008, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) was also set up to help provide "regulation and education on Internet use, tackling problems of online bullying, safer search features and violent video games'.