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iRulu Android Tablets

1/10/2015

 
My wife and I got 3 of our middle children (who can claim that nowadays? THREE "MIDDLE" KIDS) tablets for Christmas. After considering who these were for, the specs and cost, we decided on new iRulu tablets. It's been about 3 weeks since buying them as of this post and I've got to say that they have been pretty good. For ages 3 to 13, I think they're perfectly fine. We got the 7 inch tablets - 1 quad-core with Android KitKat for the oldest of the 3 and the Jelly Bean version with a dual-core CPU for the younger 2.

Experience:
Amazing! Now my kids have their own tablet. I get to keep my Kindle Fire HD for myself and the baby. They play the games they like and that I feel are approved for their age group. They don't fight over the Kindle anymore. Simply amazing.

Setting Up:
You have to know your way around setting up tablets if you want to get these. iRulu doesn't load a lot of software or widgets so it's a pretty blank slate. I won't go into the details but the two things you'll absolutely need are a wireless connection and a Google account in order to start installing apps.

The biggest problem with the Jelly Bean version is its poor management of the storage. Every app has to be manually moved to the internal SD storage so it doesn't fill up the internal memory. I don't get that. The KitKat version has only one storage partition so this annoying step isn't necessary. I had to do a factory reset on ond of the Jelly Bean tablets and reinstall all the apps AND move each one to the internal SD storage because it filled up its 1GB internal storage really fast. After the reset and moving of apps, I was able to install more programs than the first time around.

Parental Controls:
The Kids Place app is a pretty good app to keep your kids out of the settings, email, web, etc. All the stuff you don't want them to have access to. It locks with a PIN, and you can set it up so that only the apps you want them to use are accessible. There's also a setting that forces the app to launch even when the device is rebooted.

You can also set the content filtering in the Google Play store. I was pleased to find that even though I used one account for all 3 devices, I was able to determine the level of filtering on each tablet individually.

Cost:
I was able to get these 3 tablets with cases and screen protectors for less than $170 dollars. For large family on a tight budget, that's an amazingly low cost.


Windows Phone 8 Me Card (Tile - App)

5/30/2014

 
John Gamboa Windows Phone 8 Me Tile
John Gamboa Windows Phone 8 Me Tile
The Me Tile or Card on Windows Phone is a pretty cool little app. Since Windows Phone 8 allows you to connect to various accounts without installing any apps, Microsoft made the Me app your centralized accounts aggregator - sort of. It's not a full-fledge app for all your accounts like FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn but you can see recent updates and post to all three in one step. That ability makes having to login to each app separately to post a thing of the past. You can post to all 3 at once or select the social network or networks you want to post to. It's one way you can efficiently posts updates very quickly which is nice.
Windows Phone 8 Me Tile
Post, Check In, Set Status in one spot
Windows Phone 8 Me Tile
Post an update to all 3 or pick the social network
The notifications screen contains updates from your accounts. For instance if someone posts on your wall, you'll get a notification there. If you get mentioned in a tweet you'll get a notice there too.

The What's New screen shows you the newest posts and tweets.
Windows Phone 8 Me Tile
What's New on the Windows Phone 8 Me Tile
If you have Windows Phone 8 try the Me app and see if you like it.

Why Microsoft Windows Phone Kid's Corner Works For Me

4/28/2014

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Microsoft Windows Phone 8 has a great family friendly feature called Kid’s Corner. Having small children and living gadgets presents some challenges when it comes to technology at home in a way that allows the kids to experience the new technology and have the peace of mind as a parent knowing that I’ve done as much as possible to protect my kids from content that they shouldn’t be seeing as well as keeping my data safe from their curious tapping and swiping of touchscreens.

Just like how you set boundaries for your kids out in the real world you want to do the same thing in the internet connected world. One way you can do that on the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is with Kid’s Corner. I won’t go into the details of how enable it. You find out how to enable Kid’s Corner anywhere on the web.

But once you enable Kid’s Corner, it is real easy to access. Swipe left from the Lock Screen then swipe up. All you have to do enable the feature, add the apps you want your kids to access, set up a lock screen password and you’re done. You can customize the lock screen with a picture and screen title for some customization. The kids can resize and reposition their tiles in Kid's Corner as well as choose a theme color. They won’t be able to get onto the web, your email, settings, etc - basically any area or app you don't want kids to access.

So whenever your kids want to play with your Windows Phone, swipe left then up and put them in the Kid’s corner. I can’t tell you how much this has made my life easier when the kids ask me for my phone to play games. I have two, the Nokia 925 and the HTC 8x, and both have the Kid’s corner enabled. My wife has the Nokia 1020 with Kid’s Corner enabled. 

You can't set up multiple profiles like you can on the Kindle Fire's Kindle Freetime which I blogged about earlier, but for me that's ok. At least my kids can still use the Windows Phone's in our house without my wife and eye having concern about them getting into or changing things in our corners.

Thanks Microsoft!

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My Kids And I Love Amazon Kindle Fire HD And Kindle Freetime

4/25/2014

 
Hello there. John Gamboa here starting off my blog posts. For my first blog, I chose to talk about one of my favorite family tech toys. Our Kindle Fire HD which my beautiful wife got me last Christmas 2012. For this blog post though I want to focus on how the Kindle Freetime app, which is free on all Kindle Fires no matter the version, has eased my parenting life and lowered my stress in regards to having my kids use it.

I have five kids. Needless to say (but I’m saying it anyway) they really like playing with the electronic gadgets – laptops, tablets, smartphones. Even my 1 year old finds touchscreen computers and tablets fascinating - always needs to grab and swipe or tap the screen. 

I found that certain tech toys in my house are less worrisome than others to hand over to my kids without worrying about them getting into things they’re not supposed to. At home, on road trips, or wherever, I can hand them out without worry because of nifty features like my Kindle Fire HD’s Kindle Freetime app. I find it extremely comforting that I can hand the Kindle over to one of my younger kids and not worry about them getting into sensitive areas like my work email, the web, or messing around with my settings, or using or buying apps, or other stuff like that. It’s so easy for them to rack up crazy charges if you're not careful especially with 1-click enabled for some things like books. We've heard the stories about parents getting charged hundreds and thousands of dollars in app, music, or other charges.

So....

What is Kindle Freetime?
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Kindle FreeTime | John Gamboa
It’s a cool app that allows you to create a digital play area for each of your kids. In their play areas they only get to use the apps, games, and books that you want them to have. I have 4 kids who use my Kindle Fire HD. Each of them has their own profile which I set up with apps, books, and games that I am ok for them to use. My 11 year old has apps that my 3 year old doesn’t need and my 11 year doesn’t want toddler designed apps in his profile so I don’t add those to his. And all my kids’ profiles don’t have access to my email, books, or apps that they don’t need, use, or want.

Another thing it has which is pretty cool is screen time limits. It allows you to customize how much screen time each child can have on your Kindle Fire device. It goes much deeper with classifications - Video, Games, and Books. Each type can be set individually really making it easy to set it and forget it.

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Kindle FreeTime Time Limits - John Gamboa
Internet and app purchases are automatically disabled in Kindle Freetime which for me, is important. It really allows me to be able to hand off the Kindle to any of my kids knowing that I’ve set it to parameters I feel are appropriate for the age and situation of each child.

I use the unlimited free version of the app which is really all I need. There are subscriptions you can get per kid or for a family which gives you access to Amazon's content for children. Check it out on Amazon.com.

If you’ve got kids and need to have a kid friendly tablet that can be shared among the kids as well as the adults in the house, then I highly suggest looking at a Kindle Fire and Kindle Freetime.

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