Archive for the ‘ereaders for children’ tag
LeapFrog unveils new tablet for kids 1 comment
LeapFrog has announced a new multifunctional learning tablet, 
the LeapPad Explorer, that will be designed for kids aged four and up. LeapFrog currently makes several learning game systems including the Leapster Explorer and the LeapPad Learning System.
The LeapPad Explorer will have many of the features of an adult tablet including a camera, video recorder and microphone. It will also have a durable, kid-safe housing.
Some of the learning features of the LeapPad Explorer:
- Breadth of Learning: The largest-ever learning library at launch: 100+ learning games, videos, e-Books, flash cards, and more, featuring kid’s favorite characters. Compatible with the entire existing Leapster Explorer library.
- Education: Curriculum covers everything from spelling, phonics skills and mathematics to creativity, science, music, geography, and more. Included stylus also lets kids practice writing.
- Creativity: The first kids tablet with built-in camera, video recorder, microphone, and animation studio allows for creative exploration that can be shared with family and friends.
- Personalization: Automatically adjusts the learning across experiences so kids can learn at their own pace.
- Engagement: Tilt-sensor for game control and 5″ brilliant color, finger-touch screen create an interactive experience that puts kids in the middle of the action.
- Durability: Though sleek and thin, LeapPad Explorer can withstand roughhousing and is designed for little hands.
The new tablet is designed to help children learn vocabulary, spelling, phonics skills, mathematics, and improve reading comprehension. As with other LeapFrog products, parents can follow their child’s progress and track achievements with the LeapFrog Learning Path.
The LeapPad Explorer is expected to be available this coming summer at a price of $99.99. Downloadable applications will be available from $7.50 and up, while game cartridges will be available for $24.99.
Update: According to the latest news from LeapFrog the LeapPad pre-order stock quickly sold out – this looks to be a hot seller this holiday. More stock is expected to become available again on August 15, 2011. The LeapPad can be ordered direct from LeapFrog.
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VTech unveils tablet for children no comments
VTech, which makes the V.Reader children’s ereader, 
has announced a tablet for kids. The new device will be called the InnoTab and is expected to launch in the fall of 2011 at a price of $79.99.
The InnoTab will be designed for children aged 4-9 and will feature interactive and animated reading, learning games, creative activities and a collection of applications. Like the V.Reader, the InnoTab will also use VTech’s ebooks-on-a-cartridge library.
Available applications include an Art Studio that offers painting and drawing with fingers or with the included stylus as well as the ability to view and edit photos. The InnoTab will come with quite a few integrated applications such as an MP3 player, video player, calculator, calendar, notepad, clock with alarm and address book.
The InnoTab’s features include a kid-tough housing, 5-inch color LCD touchscreen, tilt-sensor for game control, microphone, USB port, SD card slot and a headphone jack. The InnoPad will connect via USB to both Mac and PC computers.
Update 8/23/2011: The InnoTab is now available for pre-order.
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Barnes & Noble Nook Color Review (Updated) no comments
Note: I’ve updated my original review to reflect the version 1.2 firmware update from Barnes & Noble that upgraded the Nook Color ereader to Froyo and made it even more tablet-like. Most of the problems that I noted in my original review seem to have been fixed or at least improved. 
This update has really upgraded the Nook Color from being a good ereader to a great one.
* * *
One of the first things to do upon unpacking my new Nook Color is to connect to Barnes & Noble. I had to try several times to successfully connect to my Wi-Fi network, but once connected initially it has seemed to stay faithfully connected with only one exception. On that occasion I just had to tap a button to reconnect after waking the ereader.
To wake the Nook Color you need to drag the screen lock across the bottom of the screen. The home screen has three panels where you can arrange books, periodicals and documents as you like. You can even stack multiple books and periodicals on top of one another (kind of like my office). If it gets too messy, the Nook Color can also clean up and neatly arrange the items on the home screen after a double tap on the screen.
There is a side-scrolling strip across the bottom of the home screen called the Daily Shelf that holds recently added or read books and periodicals as well as recently used and added apps. You can arrange your titles as you like on the Daily Shelf and move them back and forth to the panels above. There is a Keep Reading button at the top of the home screen that will return you to your most recent read. There is also a More button, a tap upon which results in a drop-down list of several titles you have recently been reading.
The library of the Nook Color arranges your titles on 
bookshelves. You can sort by type of material — books, magazines or newspapers. You can create new shelves to sort your ebooks onto. This effectively works like categories or folders. If you prefer you can ditch the shelves and view your library as a list. You can sort your titles by Author, Title or Most Recent. To save space on the ereader books can be archived (removed from the device but stored in the cloud) and this is also where you will find a handy file explorer tool.
Nook Books will sync across different Nook devices and apps. Besides the Nook Color I have the Nook Touch ereader and apps on my iPad, Android phone and tablet. They all sync to my last read page as long as the Wi-Fi or 3G is connected.
One thing that is not so nice is that ebooks that were not purchased from B&N don’t seem to show the cover art while resting on the shelves of the library — just a generic gray cover with the title, at least in the case of the titles I have on my ereader.
The only hard navigational control on the Nook Color is the Nook symbol just below the screen. This is used to wake up the Nook Color when it is sleeping or, if the ereader is already awake, this button takes you to the home screen.
As long as the Nook Color is not sleeping there is a virtual button at the bottom of the screen that brings up the Quick Nav Bar. This contains icons for Library, Shop, Search, Apps, Web and Settings.
The App button takes you to a page where you can access the built-in apps of the Nook Color. These include Chess, Contacts, Crossword, Email, Gallery, Music, Nook Friends (B&N’s social ereading platform), Pandora and Sudoku. You can also go to the B&N store from here to buy more apps. Currently there are several hundred apps available (both paid and free) of all different types.
Using the Email app you can quickly and easily set up the Nook Color to send and receive your email over the Wi-Fi connection. I have email accounts with Yahoo, MSN and Gmail — the Nook Color was able to readily connect with all. You can view individual mailboxes or view messages from all accounts in a unified inbox.
The Settings button lets you access the device settings from anywhere, regardless of what you are doing on the ereader at the moment. This is as it should be — you should not have to close your book and go back to the home screen in order to change some setting or other. Overall I think B&N has done an excellent job on the navigation and the integration of the touchscreen on the Nook Color.
If, in your reading, you tap on a link to a web page in the text the browser will open and take you to the appropriate site. When you are finished you can tap on a small open book icon on the status bar to get back to your reading. This open book icon is usually present when you are doing something other than reading and is a quick way to go back to your last read.
That is not the only way to go back. Swiping to the left on the status bar serves as a back button and will take you back to whatever you were last doing. This function has a long memory — multiple swipes will take you back multiple steps.
Tap the center of the screen while reading and you get a reading tool bar with buttons for Content (lists TOC and your notes, highlights and bookmarks), Search, Share (Facebook, Twitter, via email to Gmail contacts), Text (font style and size — six choices for each; background/font color; line spacing and margin options) and a Brightness control. Basically, all of the controls you might need to access while reading are accessible without leaving the page you are reading.
Study tools are good. Simple tap in the upper right corner to add or remove a bookmark. To add a highlight and/or a note just tap a word and hold. This gives you a tool bar for these functions as well as the option to look up a word in the dictionary or online. Again, B&N has really done an excellent job of showing how to implement a touchscreen on an ereader.
The color LCD screen of the Nook Color is gorgeous. 
The VividView screen with ISP from LG Display is capable of displaying over 16 million colors and has a resolution of 1024 x 600. It is sharp and has a very wide field of view. Although the display of the Nook Color does seem a tad better than the iPad when outdoors, this is still not a good choice for reading at the beach. It is possible to see enough to read when outdoors, but the experience will not be pleasant.
I do prefer reading ebooks on e-ink rather than on backlit LCD displays (see LCD vs e-Ink). I suffer eyestrain if I read for a long time on a portable backlit screen. But the Nook Color has many choices for changing the background and text colors. I find that if I turn the brightness down and use the grey or black background setting I can read on it for quite a while with no ill effect. If you read for really long periods or if you plan to read a lot while out of doors, e-ink might be a better choice.
When I first received my Nook Color ereader, I noticed that in certain applications — most notably the Crossword app — the touchscreen was not responsive at the edges of the screen. This was very frustrating at times. This problem became less severe after an earlier software update, and I am happy to report that it is no longer an issue after the Froyo update. I now have no complaints with the touchscreen of the Nook Color — it is very fast and responsive.
When reading PDF files you can use pinch to zoom and pan around the page. Enlarging the page does not loose graphics in the files that I tried. The Nook Color handles zooming in and out and panning around PDF documents pretty quickly.
I did find a few problems related to handling PDF files, however. Firstly, page turning does not work the same with PDF files as it does with Nook Books. You have to swipe vertically to flip pages rather than horizontally as with a regular ebook. While this is not really a problem, it is confusing.
More troubling is that, at least with the PDF files I tried, you cannot manually add a bookmark and this ereader does not seem to be able to remember your last-read page in PDF documents. This means each time you open a PDF file you start at the cover. Most annoying if a lot of your reading is done on PDFs. The little open book icon also does not seem to work to take you back to a PDF document. Nor can you make annotations in PDFs.
In my initial impressions of the Nook Color post I said that the speaker was not very loud. I think this was in large part due to the poor volume of the web-based video I was watching. In fact, the speaker system is not as loud as the iPad’s, but should suffice in areas with little or no ambient noise. Unlike the iPad, which has a rounded back, the back panel of the Nook Color is flat. This means that if you have it sitting on a table or something the speaker is somewhat muffled.
I fired up the Pandora app (very nice!) and plugged in a set of Shure E500 earbuds and the sound volume and quality was quite good. The Pandora app and the music player will play in the background while you are reading.
The web browser on the Nook Color has been much improved since the ereader was first released. Pinch to zoom is now enabled. You can open additional windows and you can set the browser to be recognized as a mobile device or open webpages in desktop mode.
YouTube videos are also now much better on the Nook Color after the updates. They are now much sharper and rotate quickly between landscape and portrait views.
The Nook Color has an accelerometer, so it is capable of changing screen orientation automatically. When reading NookBooks, however, you can only read in portrait mode. One problem with this is that if there is a chart or some sort of graphic that is too small to see properly you cannot switch to landscape mode to achieve some enlargement. I wish B&N would unlock the orientation in the NookBook reader. You can read PDF files in landscape mode.
Magazines work quite nicely on the Nook Color. There is a page mode, in which pinch to zoom works, as well as an article mode, which is better for reading longish articles sans most of the graphics. Tapping on the center of the screen brings up a slider of page thumbnails at the bottom of the display that is handy for quickly navigating through a magazine. The Barnes & Noble Nook Newsstand has more digital magazines than most other ebookstores and magazines are identical to the paper versions.
I think that the Nook Color will make a good, 
albeit expensive, children’s ebook reader when combined with Nook Kids — B&N’s NookBook store for children. B&N is constantly growing this section of the store and children’s Nook Books work quite well on the Nook Color.
One advantage over the few dedicated children’s ereaders out there is that young readers won’t outgrow this one as their reading advances out of the picture book stage.
The Nook Color – Should You Buy One? – My Take
The firmware updates that B&N has supplied have rendered most of my previous complaints about the Nook Color ereader moot.
The Nook Color is something more than an ereader and something less than a tablet. The recent update to Froyo has made it more tablet-like. The Nook Color has already been rooted, so you could have a $250 Android tablet if you choose to go this route. Rooted Nook Color ereaders can get Kindle and other ereading apps. You can find out more about rooting the Nook Color at the XDA forums and NookDevs.
But even without rooting, the Nook Color seems much more functional to me than many of the cheaper Android tablets. There is no access to the Android Market, but B&N’s app store is growing. If one of the main purposes you plan on using a tablet for is ereading, then the Nook Color is an excellent choice.
The Nook Color is currently priced at $249 at Barnes & Noble.
Nook Color covers, cases and skins
B&N
has its own selection of covers and there is also a growing selection of third party Nook Color covers
For protection against splashes TrendyDigital has its waterproof covers available in a size for the Nook Color.
For shock protection Otterbox makes its Commuter Case in a size to fit the Nook Color.
DecalGirlhas a selection of skins to fit the Nook Color that include a downloadable matching wallpaper. I recommend the matte finish — it not only looks better but feels better. Decal10 is a discount coupon code that will give a 10 percent discount at DecalGirl.
SkinItalso has a number of skins for the Nook Color ereader. Coupon code skinitsaver15 will give you a 15 percent discount on any Skinit device skin throughout 2011.
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Nook Color unboxing and initial impressions 3 comments
So Barnes & Noble did in fact get my Nook Color
ereader to me sooner than expected. I suspect that if I hadn’t called CS to complain about the delayed shipping date shown on my order, even though I had placed my pre-order the first day possible, my Nook Color would not have shipped until next week. At any rate it arrived yesterday, though I have been able to spend only a few hours with it so far. I will just post my initial impressions here until I have spent some more time with the Nook Color.
First of all, the packaging deserves mention. The box is attractive, elegant and easy to extract the Nook color from. This contrasts sharply with the plastic shell the original Nook ereader came in and which was notoriously difficult to open. B&N has taken a page from Amazon’s Frustration-Free Packaging playbook and jazzed it up.
The display of the Nook Color is a 7-inch LG VividView IPS LCD display that supports 16 million colors. It is quite beautiful. The capacitive touchscreen also seems quite responsive.
I tried taking the Nook Color outside and taking a photo 
beside my iPad, but it is a rainy day here. The screen of the Nook Color appears to be somewhat more visible when outdoors than the iPad, but I will have to try this again when the weather is better.
I had to try a few times to connect to my Wi-Fi, but once the initial connection was made everything seems to be working ok.
The speaker does not seem very loud, so I think you will want to use earphones when watching videos or multimedia books. The Nook Color should work very well for ebooks enhanced with multimedia. I’m thinking that combined with content from B&N’s new Kid’s Club the Nook Color will make a quite good, if somewhat pricey children’s ereader.
I’ve written before that reading on an LCD ereader for an extended period of time does bother my eyes. When reading on the iPad and other such devices I set the screen to the nighttime mode (light colored text on dark background) and this usually lets me read for a longer period of time without bother. It appears that there is no way to do this with the Nook Color. The only adjustment you can make is to adjust the brightness.
I don’t understand why B&N would not include this feature. If, like me, your eyes have problems reading text for long periods of time on a backlit screen you might have problems with the Nook Color unless B&N fixes this.
Oops! Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Yes, Virginia there is a night mode. Not sure how I missed it, but there is in fact a night mode as well as five other background/text colors to choose from. This control is in the popup font and page format option window right where it should be — for some reason I just overlooked it.
Update: For more see my full Nook Color review.
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Fable – A tablet and ereader for children 2 comments
Isabella Products has announced Fable — a new tablet designed for children that will feature reading, drawing, gaming and sharing over mobile broadband. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is partnering with Isabella to provide content, and the Fable will come pre-loaded with some well-known children’s material from the publisher.
Fable’s easy-to-use interface, coupled with a secure connection to Isabella’s VizitMe.com content management system,
enables children to interact with educational and entertaining content at home, school or on-the-go. Fable’s core applications include reading, drawing, gaming and photo sharing. Fable will ship with selected content from HMH’s treasured storybook collection. The e-Reader application will provide access to the Fable library, which includes a child’s personal collection of preloaded and purchased material available for immediate viewing. Parents and children will be able to purchase additional eBooks from Isabella’s VizitMe bookstore or directly from the bookstore located on the Fable device. With a wide selection of picture books and interactive content, Fable provides an entertaining digital experience for children of all ages and interests.
In addition to the e-Reader application, Fable offers:
- Drawing – Includes an artistic toolset of various sizes and colors including markers, paintbrushes, magic pens or shapes, which can be applied to a blank page, coloring book pages or photos.
- Gaming – Provides interactive games focusing on counting, reading, nutrition, colors, shapes and other educational themes, all supported by HMH and other publishers’ unique characters and stories.
- Photo Sharing – Supports the delivery of photos from family and friends to Fable’s own Gallery. An onboard camera will also allow users to take photos from Fable and share them as well. Photos can also be used as coloring sheets in the drawing application.
To ensure a secure and safe experience, Fable is managed by Isabella’s VizitMe.com content management system that controls the device’s access to new content, friends and family, and the VizitMe bookstore. Fable’s settings can be adjusted on the device by parents through a pin code or can be remotely managed through a password-protected account at VizitMe.com. All purchased and created content is saved on VizitMe.com where parents can also invite and manage their friends’ and family’s interactions with the child’s device.
Powered by a mobile broadband connection, families will be able to take their child’s Fable with them almost anywhere—as a fun interactive and entertaining tool in the car, at a sibling’s soccer game or on the school bus. Fable’s durable design takes into consideration a child’s handling of the device and external factors within various environments. For more information about Fable, please go to www.isabellaproducts.com.
The Fable tablet is expected to be released in the middle of 2011. Pricing and specs TBA.
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Woogie – Turn Your iPhone or iPod Touch into a Kid-Safe Children’s eReader no comments
The Woogie is the outcome of Griffin + Iceberg Kids — a partnership between iDevice accessory maker Griffin 
Technology, Inc. and ScrollMotion, makers of the Iceberg Reader.
The Woogie is a soft plush protective case for the iPhone and iPod touch that when combined with the Iceberg Reader can turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a child-friendly ebook reader. The Woogie has a built-in battery-powered speaker.
Woogie is the soft and huggable answer to that inevitable question: "Can I play with your iPhone?" Part stuffed animal and part protective case for iPhone and iPod touch, Woogie is designed to go wherever your kids are, be that at home, in the car, or anywhere else a stuffed animal can go. Woogie features two built-in speakers (powered by included AAA batteries) to play with Iceberg Kids eBooks, music, videos, and more. The six legs (or are they arms?), made from soft, non-toxic fabrics, allow easy carrying, and tuck underneath to prop Woogie up for handsfree viewing.
"Children’s books are so much more than words and pictures on a page; they are tactile worlds of exploration
where a child finds joy in being surprised by what’s on the other side of the page," said Josh Koppel, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of ScrollMotion. "With the Woogie, we are able to bring the magic of great children’s books to life, and make them eminently more huggable."
At the moment the Woogie is available directly from Griffin for $19.99.
Iceberg Kids makes a variety of interactive children’s book apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. There are titles from Sesame Street, Curious George and more.
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Velocity Micro Cruz Readers and Tablet 2 comments
Velocity Micro has announced that it will be releasing three new color LCD ereader/tablet devices: The Cruz Reader has a 7-inch screen and will sell for $199; the Cruz Tablet, also with a 7-inch screen and priced at $299; and an ereader for kids dubbed the Cruz StoryPad and priced at $149. These are all Android-based. Some of the features:
Cruz Reader: 
- 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi; Web browser
- High res video and High quality audio playback
- Built-in dictionary, notepad, calendar, alarm clock, contacts, games and other apps
- Accelerometer
- USB
- SD card slot; 2GB SD card included
- User replaceable battery; 6 – 10 hours battery life, 24 hours standby
- Resistive touchscreen
- Docking station (Reader only)
Cruz Tablet adds:
- 802.11n Wi-Fi
- Microphone
- 4 GB internal storage; package includes 8GB SD card
- Capacitive touchscreen with multitouch
Cruz StoryPad:
- Kid friendly, drop resistant
- Simplistic and intuitive navigation
- Available in pink, blue or green
- SD card slot
Supported ebook formats are: ePub, PDF, TXT and HTML. DRM content from Borders.
The Cruz Reader and the Cruz StoryPad will be available in August, while the Cruz Tablet is scheduled for September 1, 2010. I haven’t found a picture of the StoryPad yet. UPDATE: Velocity Micro has sent me a photo of the StoryPad, which I have posted here.
The video below is a promo from Velocity Micro. The device seems reasonably fast and the touchscreen looks quite responsive.
Velocity Micro is an online custom PC shop, but also sells preconfigured systems through Amazon,
Velocity Micro has been around since the early ‘90s, but unless you are a PC gamer or order your desktops through a custom builder, you may not have heard of them. Building custom PCs is a very competitive space with very low margins, so unless you are doing something right you don’t last for almost 20 years.
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V Reader – Animated eBooks for Kids no comments
VTech has announced the launch of its V.Reader – an ebook reader for
children. The V.Reader plays animated stories with narration, character voices, music and sounds.
The V.Reader has a 4.3 – inch color touchscreen. The ebooks come on cartridges and are age graded for 3 to 5 year-olds and 5 to 7 year-olds. Besides a story, each cart also contains eight reading skill games and a story dictionary. The device has an SD card slot and a USB port.
Priced at only $60, the V.Reader Animated E-Book System
The story cartridges already listed do include some good titles. There is a Toy Story 3 cart as well as various Disney titles and Shrek. Each cartridge costs $19.99. If VTech does build out its library with another 100 titles and they are of the same pedigree as those that the V.Reader is launching with then there should be plenty to keep the average 3 to 7 year-old happy and interested.
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New Children’s Website to Offer Children’s eBooks no comments
A new edutainment website aimed at children ages 2-6 named Mister Rooster and Pals was announced today by Donna Cardellino. From the press release:
Donna Cardellino today announced the launch of a new educational and entertaining website for children, http://www.misterrooster.com. The site is geared for children 2-6 years old and their parents. It was designed as a safe environment filled with hours of "edutainment" where families can learn and bond together. Listen and see samples by Clicking Here: http://misterrooster.com/demo/.
The site will also feature music, E Books, and videos. The music distribution by TuneCore will include songs on iTunes, AmazonMP3 and more. Some of the E Books distributed by Lightening Source, a division of Ingram Digital Books will include, Powells.com, Ebookmall.com, Diesel-ebooks.com, Fictionwise.com (only offers e-Books in MS Reader and Palm formats), Booksonboard.com, eBooksAboutEverything.com, ebookpie.com, MBS, Echapterone.com, Lybrary.com, Booksense.com and many more.
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Worldreader’s One Kindle per Child Program no comments
Worldreader is a not-for-profit organization based in the US and Barcelona whose goal is to increase literacy in developing countries. The organization sees ebooks and ereaders as the best way of doing this:
Education and literacy are critical drivers of economic growth (OECD International Adult Literacy Survey 1994-98). Yet in much of the world, children have access to a vanishingly small range of reading material. Transportation issues, logistical problems, payment difficulties — all reduce the availability of books and written material in the developing world. Yet imagine what children miss if they never discover an encyclopedia, an explanation of our solar system, or a favorite book about dinosaurs. Electronic readers use the mobile-phone GSM network to provide near instantaneous access to hundreds of thousands of full-length books, newspapers, and magazines, at a very low cost.
Worldreader is currently conducting a pilot program in Ayenyah, Ghana, where they are providing Kindle ereaders to school children. Amazon has donated 18 Kindles for the project.
My first thoughts are that ereaders will work better for this type of thing when we have plastic-based screens instead of the current easily broken glass displays, but there is no question that ebooks and ereaders can in the future play a major role in raising literacy everywhere. This will be especially true as ereaders become more affordable.
CrunchGear has written an article which is critical of the program, and they do raise valid points. Ereaders are not yet ready for school use here in the US let alone in the more rugged conditions they will need to survive in Africa. Ereaders are also at this point still way too expensive for widespread use in poorer nations, but as with all electronic devices the prices will come down. Worldreader is at least laying the groundwork so that they and others will be ready when the hardware is ready.
One of Worldreader’s stated goals is to also help develop and digitize local low-cost content in local languages. This would probably help to counterbalance the regional distribution rights and DRM issues that currently complicate digital publishing.
£149.00
£109
