Iphonebook

[primbs]

This is a very interesting combo. Paper and ebook combined.
http://www.cultofmac.com/iphonebook-...-awesome/20728

[Javed]

Yeah does look interesting. Looks like fun for kids (and parents). But, the father looked like he was worried the child would drop the iphone.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by primbs

This is a very interesting combo. Paper and ebook combined.
http://www.cultofmac.com/iphonebook-...-awesome/20728

I regularly engage my 20 month old daughter together with my iPhone whether it's playing with a whiteboard app to draw, playing simple games like Skee-ball, using flash cards or just watching a movie.

She's always intrigued by it, and she really loves the flash cards with animals. She knows how to slide between the cards all on her own. A testament to the ease of use I guess? She's learning words incidentally this way which is great. We also discovered that she's really interested in dragons and flamingos (and most any other exotically bird-like creature) this way.

The thing I notice that is relevant to this video is that she has one major difficulty when playing with the phone's touch screen. She does not yet grasp that fingernails won't do anything on the screen. It's been the biggest challenge. I usually try to angle everything so that she can get down to doing what she's trying to do but, I find it interesting that such a simple usability matter could be a hopeless stumbling blocking to interactivity to someone who can't simply be told about it.

If I never moved the phone to better intercept her tiny fingertips, she never would've let out her compulsive giggle of fascination that indicated realization that what she was doing had an impact on something else. She never would've cared to explore further.

But, since I did arrange things as such, and she did make a discovery, I've actually noticed that she makes more varied tries at almost anything that she has newly encountered and wishes to interact with. Whether that means she presses buttons on a toy multiple times in multiple ways, or hits things harder if they don't response isn't relevant. It's just gratifying to watch the little animal learning and discovering better than she used to thanks to some interactive time between father and daughter and the help of a little versatile technology.

A toy like what is demonstrated here could go a long way if the right effort is made in making it accessible. If done right, I would definitely buy kids toys designed to interact with an iPhone, especially if it worked with the first gen iPhone because I have one of those just gathering dust these days.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by primbs

This is a very interesting combo. Paper and ebook combined.
http://www.cultofmac.com/iphonebook-...-awesome/20728

I suppose if it works with a 1st gen iPhone-and you happen to have one around you don't need/use-it would be okay. But really, kids picture books are far cheaper than buying an iPhone to use with these. Doesn't really make sense except as a gimmick for Neiman-Marcus/Sharper Image shoppers.

Derek