I agree with everything you’re saying. Isn’t the SE supposed to be a “budget” option though? I’m not someone who keeps up with this stuff though.
Hopefully it can be a learning experience for your nephew about not worrying what others thing - just looking on the bright side, then when they’re older maybe they can have the perspective of “not being cool is cool in a way”.
There's more to life than fitting in. Letting kids from spmenother family dictate what you spend your money on is lame.
As others have said, the issue is the kid's feelings and self confidence not actually technology. That applies to sideloading not being the point, but it also applies to switching to iphone not being the point.
I don't see why they wouldn't, with the right marketing. Surely there's a large market of parents desiring locked-down devices for their children? It shouldn't be a hard sale.
The kid will most likely make the decision on this one. iPod touches are not marketed to them. They don't care about apps or watching mobile porn. They want the games they see ads for. Their parents will succumb because the DS has a smaller up front cost. Why risk the extra money for the extra features the kid didn't even beg his parents for?
In addition to that kids usually know exactly what games they want and don't care if they can get 50 games they've never heard about for $1. You don't reason with kids. You get them what they ask for if they deserve it.
" Has he succumbed to the inevitable pleas from the children for an iPad, iPhone and iPod? His face hardens: ‘They have the Windows equivalent. They have a Zune music player, which is a great Windows portable player. They are not deprived children.’"
Wow, I am honestly amazed at the limitless range of human ignorance.
Congrats to the author for being a successful person, a good devoper and being the founder of Xamarin, but that doesn't mean you know everything, and according to text I read in the article being a good parent..
"I have kids aged 10, 7 and 4, and my eldest had access to an iPad since she was a year old,"
I have read this several times now and I cannot believe what I am reading. Giving a child, ONE year old to use an iPad? What in the world is happening? And then the author says he has trouble explaining to his kids why they have to watch an ad before continuing mindlessly playing games. And even better, he wants the rest of the world to adapt because of the children, who should not even be using it, especially not having access to Internet without parent control.
I feel like I am taking crazy pills. Someone please explain to the author that it is not GOOD PARENTING to give a 1-year-old access to an addictive device.
Don't listen to me if you want, just ask Steve Jobs.. The guy made the iPad yet wouldn't let his own kids use it.. Says enough about it..
I disagree - I've been considering buying a tablet just for my kids, and Amazon has put a better option on the table for parents. I can't tell you the number of times I've found my kid browsing some Youtube videos or in the Apple store after being upsold something in the game itself.
So for me - and I expect for other parents if they can get the word out - Amazon is making a play for my Apple business.
Still amazes me that Apple didn't see the kids/children's market and provide a better solution than the restrictions - I mean they are ok, but the lack of separate profiles means I'm constantly tweaking them as I work on the iPad, then my son grabs it, etc.
My kid felt iOS was a better choice for certain multiplayer games. He's PC for gaming we are a mixed tech family. I use Windows, Linux and Android. My wife iPhone and a used macbook. Kid wanted mom's old iPhone when mom upgraded. Sorry your kid is getting bullied.
Well first of all, 12 isn't that young. He could understand it if he had to. Second, its kind of a great teaching opportunity. Why does he care what other kids think? Get him to try putting into words exactly what he thinks the iphone can do better. There's no time better than now to not get sucked into the consumerist bullshit signaling game of owning things for others to care about. It may hurt now, but not being a slave to marketing is a valuable lesson to impart.
I feel like whoever wrote this doesn't have kids or just now started paying attention to what they are doing on their devices. Also, this seems like it would be really obvious; people want money. Kids love to just click everything so there is a ton of revenue there.
Depending on the size of the family, buying a normal nexus tablet for each child eventually isn't exactly ruining. (Speaking for a developed country, at least)
Buying three year old kids tablets for Christmas is already a fuckup imo. They're not even able to have logical thoughts, don't feed them digital heroin already!
A friend of mine have an iPhone to his kid on his 9th birthday and, despite the fact that his son is really smart, I thought it was way to early to give a child a smartphone. The parents were going through a divorce, so it was a classical « I’m better than your mom » bad attitude, but still.
I hope when the times come my own kids won’t be to needy on this, because I’m thinking like the author of the post and if I can, they’re going to wait sometimes before getting any.
After all, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs prohibited smartphones and pads for their kids. There’s a reason behind that...
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