To touch or not to touch!

[lrrhood]

Before I launch too far into this I am talking

I Pod touch!!

Sorry guys and expect quite a lot of you to click out now,

for those of you still here, I need help from anyone who knows anything about the I pod touch. Basically Aaron has been on about getting one of these for months now and basically I have said no!
It's now 1 week till christmas and I have found lots of notes to father christmas scattered around the house listing numerous different items but all starting with the I pod white!

What he would use it for...
please bear in mind he is very good with computers and tech but is only 6yrs old so not so good at writting and reading, hence all the grown up aps are no good..

Camera/Video... budding film star loves nothing more than recoding himself and taking photos what is the quality like?

Games..... anyone know how many free game aps are available and what they are like?

Surfing the net....... Can he use this like a normal comp to surf cbeebies, youtube,cbbc,play on line free games as a normal windows comp can?

Watching childrens tv progs on demand?.... Can this be done?

Music...... how much do you have to pay to upload music and do you have to use apple or can you still use other music sites?


The one we are looking at is the 4th Generation 16G, It comes in at about £160, I know a lot for a young child but we were thinking of getting him a decent/ish digi cam anyway that would have been about £40+, plus his comp in his bedroom is one of our old ones and hanging on by its last legs so if this can breach the gap for a few years... well lets face it you can't pick up a new comp for £150!
This would be his major pressie 4 way split between us and grandparents so no he is not spoilt and then just stocking fillers from poundland! There is a new 5th generation but sorry there is no way I would spend that much money on something like this for a 6 year old.

Decision deadline friday and any help from those in the know would be very much appretiated.
Cheers folks :thumbs:

 

[The Arch Bishop]

I expect evilrob will be about in a bit with some proper knowledge, but I think Cbeebies would probably be a no go as they don't run Flash. It may be that the BBC have gotten around this and used something else though.

The problem is that children all seemed somehow programmed to 'want' an Apple product so any alternative won't be what he wants... Shame, as a half decent Android full sized tablet (Google Nexus 7" is about the same money) would probably be better for playing games for the same money. I find playing games on a phone-sized screen way too fiddly and tablets are very child friendly. I think a Nexus will run CBeebies to some extent as well.

 

[lrrhood]

do they have a camera/ video recording facility as that was the other big draw for the I Pod, fit in your pocket like a camera idea?

If there are any other pocket size devices you or anyone knows of that would fit the bill, he is only 6 and would probably be fooled by an apple sticker on the back :wink: open to sugestions

 

[zinc2000]

Buy the wee one a toy car, much more fun and future petrol heads need to be started young :grin:

Failing that if he insists, buy him an apple, Tesco near you?, check out the fruit counter :grin:

 

[evilrob]

Websurfing:
Internet works very well on the iPod Touch. However, the Cbeebies website and most online games won't work as they are usually Flash-based and iOS devices (iPod touch, iPad, iPhone) do not do Flash. Even on Android devices, Flash isn't brilliant as Flash is generally a heap of crap whatever device you use so I wouldn't place that too high up the priority list. I've got a Blackberry Playbook tablet in addition to my other Apple devices not least because they said it could do Flash the best out of all the portable devices - and it can. But it's still pants.

Youtube:
There is a dedicated app for watching YouTube videos.

Telly:
You can watch telly on it - both live and catchup.

Watch live telly:
TVCatchup

Native apps for catchup telly (as far as I'm aware they all have parental controls):
BBC iPlayer
4oD
ITV Player
5 on Demand

Free games that I reckon are quite good (there are millions available):
Jetpack Joyride
Cube Runner
Real Racing GTI
Temple Run
Draw Something
Song Pop
Zen Pinball

Music:
You are not bound to iTunes - you can buy MP3s from wherever you like, or convert your CDs to MP3 on the computer and transfer them across. iTunes is the most convenient way to buy stuff for it, though, as you can download straight from the device, whereas if you purchase from Amazon or Spotify or wherever, you have to download on the computer and then copy them across.

Camera:
The camera is very good - can record full HD video; though you will need to copy them off the device and onto the computer fairly regularly as HD video takes up a lot of space.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

There he is! :grin:

 

[lrrhood]

Hum, now that has given me a real dilema, If it wasn't for the cbeebies/cbbc thing on what you have said I would get it in a flash, but to Aaron those sites ARE the internet with youtube stuck on the side like a dish of damons coleslaw! Ohhhhh, will have to have a sleep on this and chat it over with Ian. Thanks guys for your help :thumbs:

oh and Zinc, trust me mate he has tons and tons of cars, garages, roads, remotes, build your own etc etc etc, he will def be a petrol head :thumbs:

 

[The Arch Bishop]

To be fair, the only things that run Flash-heavy sites like CBeebies are half decent laptops or desktops. evilrob is right that Flash runs like poo on virtually everything.

 

[lrrhood]

And unfortunately that is what he has grown up with, his and his dad's desktops and my laptop, but you have been very helpfull. It's so much easier just to ask people who know than try to make sense of the advertising/sales literature. I mean it cheers guys

 

[evilrob]

You're just not going to get portable Cbeebies I'm afraid.

I'll post a video of it on my Playbook in a bit, which is arguably one of the best portable Flash implementations there is (the operating system on the Playbook is QNX, a Linux derivative and is very fast, more secure and less flakey than Android). I'm fairly sure CBeebies will run like crap.

You can still get Playbooks for £130 with 64gb storage at PC World:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/blackberry-playbook-7-tablet-64-gb-10647930-pdt.html

 

[lrrhood]

Cheers, good price cos by the look you just about get everything you do on an ipod, just a fraction bigger.

 

[evilrob]

Whoa - not so fast; just uploading these videos for comparison!

 

[evilrob]

Cbeebies on proper computer - notice how smoothly the animation runs - particularly when the flowers cover the screen right at the start, and when the characters disappear in a cloud of stars:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2fe-f_TduQ[/youtube]

Cbeebies on tablet computer (the slow framerate is due to how crap it runs on a tablet computer not the camera; note again how the flowers appear and how the characters are animated when disappearing in a cloud of stars - silly slow, virtually unplayable):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5OSBQFgqHM[/youtube]

 

[evilrob]

Playbook vs. iPod Touch

Pros:
Camera is better <--- Playbook | iPod Touch 4G ---> Not bad
More memory (64gb vs 16gb, so 4x as much storage for films and stuff)
Price (£130 vs £170) - and you can get a 3yr "whatever happens" warranty from PC World - if it breaks, even if it's your fault, they'll replace it - that's an additional £30 but still on budget
Can do Flash (albeit slowly)
Accessories are much cheaper (cases, docks etc)

Cons:
App selection is pitiful (100s vs 1,000,000s)
Rubbish music store
No film store so it's a pain in the arse to get media onto it as it's only got a USB2 connection - you're looking at about 30-40 minutes to copy a 90 minute film onto it
Battery life isn't as good (but it's not bad, 4-5hrs vs. 9-10hrs)
Not as cool
Not as easy to use
It just isn't an iPod touch

 

[The Arch Bishop]

I've just tried CBeebies on my Lenovo ideapad Netbook. It's a fairly decent spec and even that ran poorly.

Some of the Flash based stuff that we've tried to develop at work we've had to junk as it's just too heavy for the majority of cheapy PCs, tablets etc.

Rob's right, mobile CBeebies isn't really going to happen. Still, I imagine an iPod touch will hold other delights. Our 5 year old loves Where's my Water, Angry Birds and lots of other stuff. If your son wants to go on to play Justin's House, he can always just use a laptop!

 

[lrrhood]

omg.... that is painfull!! Bless you and thankyou so much hunny. (Like the way you chose baby jake!! :wink: )
No but seriously thank you so much for that, I wasn't expecting you to go to all that trouble.
Yah right it's pants and Aaron would get seriously fed up with that and end up launching it!
Um looks like the i pod and as Aargos have the 16G at only a tenner more than the 8G with what you said about the hd video think I might go for that one. Again thankyou, thankyou, thankyou :thumbs:

 

[lrrhood]

Thankyou to Arch Bishop, guess I was asking a lot for something you can put in your pocket, maybee in 5 years time :wink:

 

[evilrob]

I didn't put any thought into which game I chose - I think I just went for the one with the picture of a digger in the thumbnail and had the word, "drive" in the title (boys will be boys!) :-D

I think iPod touch is the wisest choice, it's got the best software and it's the easiest to use.

Plus, anything else just isn't going to cut it - buying any other touchscreen device when the recipient desperately wants a shiny Apple toy is like buying bonky no-name trainers (you know the ones, where the soles leave marks on the gym floor) for someone who wants a pair of Nikes.

 

[lrrhood]

^^ :lol: ^^ :thumbs:

 

[The Arch Bishop]

buying any other touchscreen device when the recipient desperately wants a shiny Apple toy is like buying bonky no-name trainers (you know the ones, where the soles leave marks on the gym floor) for someone who wants a pair of Nikes.

Sadly true... Apple even take over the minds of children! Evil corporations! :evil: