Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/26/__trashed-2.html
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If your Timex-Sinclair had a built-in CRT display, it would probably be quite easy to break.
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True. I also was just wondering about the RF converter and if I have one.
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Jason, I got one for my for myself primarily to play my video podcasts using BeyondPod app. I can easily carry it from room to room whilst doing my house chores. The tablet has pretty good audio, but I pare it with a Jambox when I want to make some noise.
I gave Hannah some kid headphones I was sent to review, but year I am surprised that for Netflix type viewing the sound is OK!
I had a Sinclair CRT pocket telly back in the Before Times. And a ZX81. I wonder why ol’ Clive never tried to combine the two.
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Hmm, interesting. I went another way with RatGirl the Elder (also age 9.) I’m not a fan of Amazon’s version of the walled garden, and I don’t like their parental controls. We ended up getting her an Asus MeMo Pad 7 from Amazon for about $60. It runs Android 4.4, which is old, but I know it pretty well. I enabled the internal parental controls and added MMGuardian for a little more granular control. It has an internal SIM slot so can be used with our family phone service provider (Cricket, a flavor of AT&T) and it’s got WiFi. I added a giant microSD card for her pics and ebooks, which seems to be her main use. It has dual front/rear cameras. We added a folder-style case (her decision) and so far it’s survived quite a few drops. Battery life is good but not great. Basically it does the job, isn’t anything special, and was inexpensive enough that we won’t care much when she loses it or kills it.
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If you have the chops, you can install CyanogenMod 12.1 on this thing and bypass FireOS entirely. Been running several of these stable for a few months now.
I got one of the 7" Fire tablets on the Amazon Prime Day sale for $33, and I’m delighted with it. It runs a modified version of Android, and works pretty much the same way as my Nexus 6 running Marshmallow does. The Kindle Fire is just enough bigger than the Nexus 5 to make it a WHOLE LOT easier for my 66-year-old eyes to see.
And with the Nexus providing a wireless hotspot for the Fire, everything is good.
Clive was always rather peripatetic. He was probably too wrapped up with developing the C5.
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Amazon’s Kid’s tablet has only two good things going for it:
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The no questions asked replacement warranty…seriously, you can pretty much put it in microwave, and they will replace.
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The rubbery case they include with it.
Other than that:
A. It’s lacking in storage, and anywhere from 10-40% can be taken up by the OS and un-removable bloatware
B. FreeTime is a nice concept, but actually managing content is ridiculously hands-on, and some app companies do not follow the rules, ignoring age restrictions, and literally not having a way to disable their appearance on the device.
C. The device is pretty much useless off of wifi and /or away from your home country. Yes, you can use a VPN, but that gets difficult when you don’t control the network.
We ended up getting a cheap 8" Acer tablet with expandable memory and creating a kid’s account via Android. Honestly, Amazon would be better served by selling FreeTime access and having an app to run it through rather than trying to get us to use their wonky tablets.
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Why spoil them with such luxuries? When I were a lad…
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I don’t think anyone is talking about the pricey “kid’s edition” tablet.
We bought one of the 7" Fire tablets when it was on sale for $29; that’s a lot of functionality for a throw-away price.
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You can buy a similar as heck looking case for $12.
Verizon is already selling off AOL’s executive assets?
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just buy them a raspi 3 and present it as a puzzle. Kinda like my childhood with an Apple 1 (but several orders of magnitude more powerful).
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