droolicious : iphone

7 Days of Dad: Music to his Ears

JeanneSager — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:01:00 GMT

He ponied up for Mother's Day, so now it's time to get cracking on how to make Dad's day. Lucky for you, we were wondering too. So we're offering up seven days of what we'll be giving the guy who reads bedtime stories and changes stinky diapers.

For dads whose playlist can't handle one more "waaaah" or "why," we can help.

Help him get double duty out of his iPhone or iPod with the dexim docking station that hooks right into the TV for big-screen viewing and big sound listening of your downloaded podcasts and movies. One of the most affordable options out there at just $69.95, it was easy to set up and it's versatility means it will last (it works with most generations of the iPod or iPhone). With a wireless remote for easy control from his easy chair and a recharging option as part of the docking station, the dexim will let him share his favorites with his favorite little people.

Because sometimes, he just needs to block it all out, EarPollution headphones from iFrogz can help. He can design his own set (or you can plug his tastes into their site to make him a pair), but even better than the style is the sturdiness of these headphones. Made to be folded up and stowed in the bag, they can handle your toddler yanking them off of Dad's head to ask him a question or accidentally (we'll give them the benefit of the doubt) sitting on them. Loud enough to drown out the noise, with good quality sound and comfortable fit, iFrogz hops onto the list for Dad.

Check out more gifts for Dad this week on the 7 Days of Dad.

Got Apps?

Lisa Mulcahy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I’m not talking about the puff pastry kind, but the useful wonders that are available for the iPhone. This app turns your iPhone into an instant baby monitor.

If you’re visiting friends or relatives and baby needs a nap away from the crowd CodeGoo's Baby Monitor application, $4.99, for the iPhone will keep a watchful eye. Simply place the iPhone near your sleeping baby, if it detects noise, it places a phone call to the number of your choice. You can then listen in for activity from your baby.

CES 2009: iHome Rotating Alarm Clock - Perfect For Teen Bed Side Tables

Chris Ford — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

File this one under "cool idea for a product that I can see a college kid or teenager thinking was cool too." The Rotating Alarm Clock from iHome has all the features normal clock radios that have built-in iPod docking stations have, with one exception. You can turn the whole thing on it's side so you can see a movie on your iPod easier.

"But wait a minute," you may be thinking. "Won't that make the clock look all screwed up when the whole damn thing is on its side?" It normally would, if the designers at iHome hadn't already thought of that first. When you rotate the radio, the clock display rotates as well, so you'll always be sure to know how much time you're actually wasting watching your iPod.

The IP41 Rotating Alarm Clock will take all kinds of iPods (including the iPhone) and should be out in April of this year for around $79.00.

CES 2009: Parrot By Starck - Wireless Speaker System

Chris Ford — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:30:00 GMT

Parrot by Starck isn't for kids or even families really (at least not families with a normal budget). But the modern design and Starck name is making me add it to the long list of cool stuff at CES 2009. What you're looking at is basically the most expensive iPod docking station I've ever seen, with a few bells and whistles thrown in too.

Parrot by Starck are two wireless speakers that work together via bluetooth, and they show up on your wireless network. What this means is that you can play music from your computer, iPod or any other source on your home network. In fact, the only cord to these speakers is a power cord. I have to admit they did sound pretty great, but what you're paying for obviously is the look and the Starck name.

Parrot by Starck, $1500 (for the pair) and should be available in the US in April.

CES 2009: iHome iHM77 Portable Mini Speakers

Chris Ford — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

These little speakers from iHome may be small, but the sound they produce is pretty big. The iHM77 are the perfect little portable speakers for a laptop or for an iPod or IPhone that you or your kids don't want to plug headphones into. They are rechargeable, collapse into a capsule (pictured on the right) when you're not using them, and will cost you $49.99.

Check them out at iHomeAudio.com

Capture the Kids In a Fisheye Without Putting Down Your iPhone

Aaron Burgess — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

If you snap the majority of your family photos on an iPhone, USB Fever has a literal handful of detachable lenses that can dramatically expand the types of shots you're getting.

The wide-angle lens (pictured above) provides 0.67 wide zoom and Super Macro capabilities for ultra-close shots, and it's easily swapped out for the 170-degree fisheye lens and 2.0X telephoto lens via an adhesive backing and magnetic ring.

If you're not an iPhone 3G user, don't give up hope: All three lenses also attach magnetically to a number of different metal devices, including digital cameras and laptops.

$16.99 each from USB Fever. [Via iPhone Alley]

Name That Baby with an iPhone

Lisa Mulcahy — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Expecting? Forget lugging around a stack of baby-names books: Finding a name for the new arrival is as easy as shaking an iPhone, thanks to Name That Baby!

Created by Shona Killoughery-McKenney, a stay-at-home mom of two kids under five years old, Name That Baby! is a new iPhone application that lists thousands of baby names. Parents-to-be simply choose a gender and a starting letter, then give the iPhone a shake. Name That Baby!--which makes a gentle baby rattle sound when the iPhone is shaken--delivers a scrollable list of baby names, complete with origins and descriptions, in whatever quantity the user chooses. Another shake produces additional names, until the perfect name is found.

Name That Baby! is available now in the iPhone App Store for just $3.99--a bargain compared to the price of most baby-names books.

Ten Best iPhone Apps For Distracting Young Children

Chris Ford — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:02:00 GMT

We've all been there. You're in the grocery store, or doctor's office, or a restaurant and you need a five minute distraction for your toddler. And if you're a dad or mom on-the-go who doesn't keep a spare stuffed animal in their pocket, you're usually relegated to whatever you have handy. If one of those things is an iPhone or an iPod Touch, then you may not realize it or not, but you've got a wealth of toddler distractions just waiting to be explored.

I've combed through the iTunes Application store and tested out what I think are the ten best applications you can use to distract your young child. The emphasis here is on the word "young." I only included things that would be good for pre-school aged kids, which means I didn't pick any games or anything that would have a learning curve. I also didn't pick anything that required your child to shake the iPhone. It's one thing to hand over your $300 telephone to a two year old, it's another to hand it over and encourage them to shake it.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Preschool Adventure ($0.99, 3DAL, LLC.):
Preschool Adventure is one of the few on this list that was written specifically for pre-school aged kids. It's an app that has four smaller activities inside of it: Colors, Shapes, Sounds and Body. With all of them, you touch the screen to make something appear and sound. So for instance, in the colors app, your child touches a splash of a color, and then a sea creature appears saying the name of the color and the name of the creature ("Pink Sea Animone" is, admittedly, kind of a mouthfull for children). I found the app to be very simple but engaging for a pre-schooler, and my two year old loved it.

Bubble Wrap (Free, Orsome Software):
Bubble Wrap is one of those adult time-wasters that can double as a diversion for your kid. The app itself is simple - you just get a field of bubbles like you were holding a sheet of bubble wrap. Then you touch each bubble to make it pop. As soon as you start, there is a timer to see how many you can pop in sixty seconds, but your kids will undoubtedly ignore that and just enjoy popping the bubbles.

Midomi (Free, Melodis Corp.):
Midomi is a distraction for your kids that you'll have to do with them, so it won't buy you any time, but it's cool nonetheless. Midomi is an application that will identify any song it hears, whether it is on the radio, being played live, or your own singing or humming. It's pretty amazing when you first try it, as it's quite adept at figuring out your tuneless humming. My kids and I had loads of fun thinking up songs and singing them into it to see if it could recognize the tune. Even better is listening to some of the songs it thinks you're trying to hum (especially the songs in Japanese).

YouTube (free, with iPhone):
Everyone who has an iPhone has the YouTube application built in, so some may think this one is a cop-out, but in reality it's one of the great diversions on the iPhone. This is how you get the most out of it. Get a free YouTube account, and in your free time (you are reading this after all) go and search for videos you think your kids will love. Mark all of those videos "favorites" and then when you log into YouTube on your iPhone, go right to your favorites and start playing them. I loaded my favorites with videos of Disney songs, and I can get both of my girls (2 and 4 years old) silent for the length of each song.

Scribble (Free, Zintin Software):
This one is kind of self-explanatory. Scribble is a simple app that lets you draw on the iPhone screen. You can choose colors and draw whatever you can manage to get on the screen. Better than drawing though, I've found it good for quick games of tic tac toe or getting my four year old to practice writing her name.

Vehicles ($0.99, iFRizzo.com):
I don't have boys, but this one is clearly for those of you with little XYs running around. Vehicles is a soundboard of all the cars, trucks and plane sounds they could fit onto one screen of the iPhone. The sounds themselves (cars, police cars, fire trucks, airplanes etc.) are about two or three seconds in length depending on which one you choose and can be played over each other for a true sounds-of-the-city symphony.

Koi Pond ($0.99, The Blimp Pilots):
This app is deceptively simple but mesmerizing to adults and children just the same. When you launch Koi Pond, you get a screen with Koi fish swimming underwater, with tranquil outdoor sounds playing in the background. When you touch the screen, the app makes it look like you are touching the water they are swimming in. This naturally makes the fish swim away, so you have to wait until they unwittingly swim again into your view. There are lilly pads to move around and food to feed them too (when you shake the iPhone food appears - thereby breaking my "no shake" rule) which makes them swim back into view more quickly. I know, it sounds really simple and boring, but both of my girls were fighting over the iPhone for a half hour the other day so they could see the fish.

Rulla (Free, LIngon i Korg Software Creations):
This one is a little odd, but kind of fun for a toddler who is learning to read. Rulla (terrible name) is a simple app that makes a message crawl across your iPhone screen, kind of like a news ticker. I think the original intention was to have a way club kids could shoot a message to each other across the dance floor, but my kids loved thinking up funny messages to "make the phone say." It started with their names and ended up with "Daddy is a kitty cat."

Color Tilt ($0.99, IMAK Creations):
This one is kind of like Scribble, but is way cooler. It's an app that lets you draw by bringing your finger across the screen, but the color you're drawing in is determined by which way you are tilting the iPhone. It's a great use of the iPhone's capabilities, making any scribble look cool. And quite frankly, scribbling is about all you're going to get out of a two year old anyway.

Bubbles (Free, Hog Bay Software):
Bubbles isn't the same as Bubble Wrap, although it may seem like it. Instead of a static page of bubbles, with this app you draw your finger across a blank screen to create the bubbles. Then, as they fall down the screen you pop them with your finger. Simple, but interesting enough to stop a toddler crying in a shopping cart, believe me.

Photos (free, with iPhone):
Photos might be the eleventh suggestion, but everyone gets it with an iPhone (or any iPod for that matter), but in some ways I saved the best for last. The Photos app is the one slam dunk that my kids always want to use. Looking at pictures of themselves, friends and family always quiets them down, and it's gotten to the point that when my two year old sees me with my phone she asks to look at pictures. The trick to it though is to load it up with pictures you've been taking with your regular digital camera, not the iPhone. The pictures will look better and you'll always have more of them.

So there they are. If you have any suggestions or great finds yourself, please let us know in the comments below and happy distracting!

Gorillapod Go-Go

Chris Ford — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:48:00 GMT

Imagine you're on an airplane, or a car trip, or any public place where you want the kids quiet, occupied and sitting down. Bringing the portable DVD player might not be feasible, but with all the iPhone's, iPods, cell phones and other small portable video devices out there, having something handy they can watch isn't out of the question. The real question is, how do you get more than one kid to watch it without them fighting over it. I present to you, the Gorillapod Go-Go.

The Gorillapod has been a handy portable table-top tripod for some years now, but manufacturer Joby has made it even better. The Go-Go comes with (in addition to the standard tripod screw mount) adhesive clips and a suction cup mount. The adhesive clips (there are two) would be for things that you would frequently attach to the Gorillapod, but the suction cup mount will attach to most anything with a flat, smooth surface. Which is (as it turns out) is perfect for an iPod, cell phone, GPS or anything else you can think of.

The website says they are "Coming in April 2008" and there isn't a price, but the regular Gorillapod retails for around $21.95. Check it out at Joby.com.