Disney Digital Books  is the first digital subscription library of children’s books.  A $24.99 subscription fee gives you 3 months of downloads.  The books I saw demonstrated were pure Disney – Mickey Mouse and Toy Story all the way up to Hannah Montana and chapter books – there are over 600 books in the collection.  The writing, as best I can remember, is verbatim from the Disney print books collection.

Built for kids ages 3 -12, these stories allow for listening as they are read aloud, highlighting words to be read aloud and the turning of pages. The books seem considerably less interactive than those on LeapFrog's Tag Reading System (formerly the LeapPad Reader), for instance, but they do have a (fully customizable) handsome opening interface resembling a kids’ library. There are also trivia contests and a simple build-your-own-story tool for young children.

You can log in to the Disney Digital Book area online (http://Disneydigitalbooks.com) or go to a book retail outlet and purchase a box that contains the online access code.  The good news is that a subscription is only a three month obligation, just long enough to overdose on the mouse.

• Best Use of Motion Interface
• Best Implementation of Best use of Multi-Touch
• Best Children’s Mobile App 
• Best Interactive Toy 
• Best Children’s Web Site or Service 
• Best Creativity (music, art, design) 
• Best Computer Software 
• Best Hardware or Peripheral Device
• Best Learning Experience 
• Best Video Game 
• Best Virtual World 
• Digital Pioneer

According to NPD, a research firm, families are using video games big time. After sports games and action games (each holding approximately 20% of the market), family games represent 12%, the next largest category. Though the press would have you think otherwise, nearly 50% of games sold are rated “E” for everyone. And the game platforms are looking for new cool ways to exploit the growing gaming market.

This holiday, the three big industry platform giants—Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo—are going to battle it out with next generation systems, each targeting a wider consumer audience in its own unique way. For each, the ease of use, price, mobility, ability to download music and movies and play online, and, of course, a little bit of gamer’s luck will affect its ultimate success. 

Microsoft Kinect

$149, $399 for Elite Bundle that includes the requisite Xbox.

Expected release: November

What it is: Originally dubbed Project Natal, Kinect is an Xbox accessory that allows you to play video games without having to use any sort of input device or controller other than your own body. You can wave your hands and make things move around a virtual screen, or kick up your heels to play a rousing game of soccer. Microsoft emphasizes Kinect’s natural user interface: voice, touch, face recognition, motion sensors, video chat, and more. Having tested it, I can attest that a Kinect experience can leave you breathless, the same kind of breathless any good workout gives you.

Technology: A clever packaging of a traditional digital webcam with a second camera that senses depth plus four microphones to pick up voice. The Kinect sits next to your Xbox. The cameras pick up your body movements and the software has been taught more about degrees of body articulation than an Indian fakir. Kinect reacts to slight movements of arms, wrists, knees, neck, etc. with equal aplomb.

Games preview: Many of the games are what you’d expect to be playing with or without a controller: Kinectimals is like a cuter version of Nintendogs; Kinect Sports is like the Wii sports with soccer, bowling, and track and field games. There’s a go-kart racing game and plenty of jumping adventures in Kinect Adventures. My fave announcement is the Your Shape game from Ubisoft and Dance Central from Harmonix, letting me up my fitness unencumbered by dance pads or controllers.

Pros and cons: Kinect is sold separately but you’ll probably want the Ultimate Pack, which includes the new update of the Xbox 360 Live featuring more memory, USB, and HDMI, to name a few.

Sony Move PlayStation

Under $100 for the three components: the Move wand, the navigation controller, and the Eye camera.

Expected release: September

What it is: It looks like a karaoke mic but it’s an accessory for the PS3 that adds new dimensions of control to video games as you wave it like a baton. Much like the gyroscope/accelerometer in other motion-sensing devices and the Wii remotes, the stick can record your body positioning and relay that information to a webcam attached to the PS3. Think of the Move as a magic wand. Swing it like a baseball bat, golf club, or tennis racket and the movement is detected.

Technology: Unlike Kinect, where it’s your body or nothing, the Sony Move includes some buttons that can be used to enhance play. Gamers will enjoy having the buttons to add another dimension. Nongamers will continue to be confused. Some games require having two Moves in hand, like archery, for example. According to my colleagues in the know, the Sony Move is much more precise than the Kinect precisely because you’re holding something in your hand. Sony Move uses a Bluetooth controller to communicate between the wand and the camera.

Games preview: Sony Move aims to satisfy both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Titles already confirmed are: Sorcery, SingStar Dance, Heroes on the Move (working title), SOCOM 4, Heavy Rain Move Edition, echochrome ii, EyePet, Sports Champions, Tumble, Beat, Time Crisis: Razing Storm, Toy Story 3, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11.

Nintendo 3DS

Pricing still not available.

Expected release: March 2011

What it is: Due out after the others, the 3DS is similar to the current Nintendo DS but it’s 3D, and 3D that does not require the user to wear any special 3D glasses. The Nintendo Wii, the acknowledged granddaddy of motion-based gaming, captured the imagination of a new generation of young mobile gamers. Nintendo’s Wii sales have been ailing, and the earlier arrival of the Kinect and Sony Move will undoubtedly cause some defections.

Technology: The secret sauce behind Nintendo 3DS is a third camera that helps create the 3D image. Like the DS, it’s got dual screens, a 3.53-inch top screen and a 3.02-inch bottom touchscreen. The top screen is capable of showing 3D graphics; the bottom is a touchpad. A motion sensor, gyro sensor, and a slide pad that allows 360-degree input make it possible to play games or take a 3D photo. The 3DS comes with slots for 3DS and DS games, and an SD card slot, integrated Wi-Fi, and a rechargeable battery. The operative words here are mobile, connected, and 3D, and, knowing Nintendo, probably quite affordable.

Games preview: Here are some game trailers. The games looked a bit crude to me, but it’s pretty darn hard to simulate 3D on a 2D screen. Expect favorites like Mario and Nintendogs to resurface on 3D.

And the Winner Is

The kids I know say Nintendo’s 3DS is the freshest idea, one that most appeals to them. Frankly, the kids were less interested in the notion of full body motion control than I (in my inevitable quest to lose five pounds). Portability trumps motion control. Nintendo is promising 3D movie viewing too, and that’s adding to the ecstasy.

I, and the women I know, really like the Kinect idea and find a buttonless/controlless world really appealing. I mean, Kinect can even detect and correct an imprecise yoga down dog!
My gamer friends—they drool of the precision of Sony’s Move.

Where do you stand? Body, precision, or 3D?

Making a Buck on an Old Phone

Apple will send you a gift card when you send them your old Apple products. The company determines whether or not your equipment is reusable. If it can be reused, they’ll send you a gift card good for any purchase at an Apple Store if your phone makes the grade; if not, they’ll recycle it on the company’s dime.

A similar, private site is Gazelle, which emphasizes making money for your recycling efforts. Gazelle will pay up to $100 for the iPhone 3G models and $200 for 3GS models if the devices are in good condition. BuyMyTronics.com is a similar site, where both broken and working iPhones are bought and then either resold or used for parts. RadioShack will also pay between $100 and $200 for used iPhones.

Bartering

At TradeStuff you can trade your old phone for something else that you really need. Ditto for Freecycle, a locally based swap club where you trade your stuff for theirs.

For Greener Good

The folks at Green Recycling promise to take your phone off your hands, working or not. The company encourages fundraising through recycling cellphones. Enter your zip code into Earth 911.  A list of recyclers in your area appears.

For Charitable Donations

Don’t underestimate the power of the individual to do good things with old iPhones. Steve Glinberg, developer of educational apps like KidCalc Math Fun, runs a recycling program and collects old iPhones and iPod Touches to donate to schools. Glinberg wipes the data, restores the factory settings, installs educational apps, and ships the devices to teachers who have requested them.

Where do you stand in the norm? In a poll conducted on ZDNet, 40% of users said that they recycled their used phones; 35% said they donated them to charity. Final word of advice? Before you send your old phone to any sort of recycling program wipe it clean.

I’ve been a long-time proponent of creating an adult area for those who want access to pornography. It’s one of the best ways to segregate adult content, keeping it accessible to those who want access, but letting filtering software quickly determine the appropriateness of a site.

For years the counterarguments have been:

1. Pornography is too hard to define since it’s based on local culture.
2. Many of the largest pornography sites are located offshore, making it hard to have jurisdiction.
3. Porn sites would not voluntarily comply.

I applaud ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers, for fast-tracking the creation of a .XXX domain. The next step is for the ICM group to assess that there’s sufficient interest from the adult community. I know that they’ll do the right thing. What’s amazing to me is how long it’s taken to reach this sensible decision.

For more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10412765.stm.

A couple of new products make it easier than ever to encourage this sort of behavior. Some are more traditional than others, but each deals with online reputation management. SafetyWeb could just be considered a new monitoring product. It’s a service that lets you enter your child’s email and then does a search for them on the major social networks and photosharing sites. You’ll be able to see their public comments on Facebook, MySpace, Photobucket, and more. A quick search found my son on five networks, but missed his Facebook profile. The service costs $10 a month.

Similarly, a service called ReputationDefender will, for $14.95 a month, produce a report of your kid’s activities, including everything from photos they post to chats they have. ReputationDefender also works for business people and adults who want the less desirable things in their online history to show up at the bottom, rather than the top, of a Google search.

Webroot.com created a summer list to help parents in need of laying down the law on rules and best practices. Included are the basics like urging parents to become web savvy and know what’s on the web. Sounds like common sense, but it’s nice to see web software companies take action beside their core competency of blocking and filtering.

TrendMicro figured that, if kids were going to be a bit frightened about the consequences of inappropriate Internet behavior, then they might as well have their tutelage come from other kids. A contest where kids produced their own PSAs resulted in “Overexposed,” produced by Nicholas Chen and Edan Freiberger, which gets its slightly funny, slightly scary message across in under two minutes (watch it here). Contestants submitted 120 videos over six weeks; 40% of them were under age 18.

One of my favorite new approaches is not Internet safety at all; it’s an online community that’s been likened to Facebook on training wheels. Togetherville allows parents with Facebook accounts to create a kids’ safe area where they can stay in touch with family and friends that parents approve. Messages are confined to those you can select from a pick list. There are art games, photosharing, and mom and dad help pick your friends.

As tools get better, as education continues to be a focus, and as kids witness their own peers falling prey to Internet shenanigans, you can bet we’ll see more and more new answers emerging.

What do kids really need when it comes to digital literacy and learning? For LeapFrog,  a pioneer in kids’ educational devices, the answer is a newly announced $69 Leapster Explorer. For the price, the features are awesome, but today’s over-anxious parent might feel compelled to buy the kids a DS or iPhone/iPad instead. How to choose?  Read More

OLPC , short for One Laptop Per Child, began as the vision of Nicholas Negroponte at the MIT Media Lab.  The idea was to create a PC so inexpensive that every student on the planet could have access to technology. After a few years of fits and starts, OLPC is showing off renderings of its  next generation XO-3 tablet.  The tablet aims to resolve some former impediments: high price and energy efficiency . The company hopes to keep the price of the tablet at around $75. Currently the OLPC XO notebook costs under $200. OLPC's new tablet is banking on a just annonced partnership with Marvell , a company with low cost chip design and handheld formats like its Mobi that are  gaining the respect of the edtech community.  To read more about Marvell.
For more on OLPC

Who loves Powerpoint?  Well, this one's fun.  It's the essence of a talk I gave in Toronto at INplay.  Mark Northwood, from EarthRangers, was the moderator and we had a blast looking at where toys have been and we're they're heading. See how many of these you remember.

Flight Simulator the Microsoft game thats ultrarealistic controls and navigation path gave many armchair pilots a chance to take control of the wheel.  Now the kids can get into the act with two games announced for the junior fly-guy set.

MySims Sky Heroes: launching by this Sept
 Most of you are familiar with The Sims, the closest thing to a do-it-yourself soap opera videogame.  You may be less familiar with the junior version, My Sims.  It’s a simpler, younger adventure that concentrates on cute Mii like characters.  There have been racing version of My Sims and well as others.. The newest My Sims addition is called SkyHeroes and it will be available by September.  A better name would be My First Flight Simulator.  Instead of just navigating aimlessly from point to point, your mission is to battle Morcubus and his drone army . They’ve got nefarious plans to take over the skyways!  You earn your wings as your speed and reflexes are put to the test.  Available for Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox and Playstation. Watch the trailer here.
Sky Captain by D3 Publishers, also jumps into the flight training craze with a much more structured adventure for young children where they can  pilot anything from a plane to a UFO. The game has 40 different tasks from stunt flying to shooting targets.  No killing, no crashing, and simple enough to pilot that even I managed. Sky Captain reports they'll be available by this sumer on the Wii and DS,

It's well documented that these sorts of activities foster good spatialization and reflexes.