HMAUS Signal 30 years of helping people with technology

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you probably know there are tons of great apps you can download from iTunes. Many of them fill your own heart with glee, but did you know that there are many that can fill your young son or daughter’s heart with joy too?

You may be wondering if allowing your $300 device in the hands of a three-year old is the wisest of moves. And, this I often wonder myself, as I watch my son shaking my iPhone rather violently to get the iGlowStick to light up — a definite fear of seeing your phone sail across the room removes some of the thrills for the parents. However, for the kids, they love it!

Here are some really fun apps for kids that build on an original post I wrote some time back: “Kid-friendly iPhone and iPod Touch“. I added “EV” for “Education Value” (how educational it is) and “PV” for Play Value (how interactive and fun it is). As any parent with active kids will tell you, getting 10 minute breaks that keep your son or daughter entertained, can make a huge difference. It’s wonderful if the app is educational too, but at least it has to have good, clean fun.

Educational:

Tickle Tap Apps have a series of very gentle learning apps for your toddler. CountCaddy ($1.99)
is a cat that helps kids with counting, while Field Flier ($1.99) is more free-form; allowing your child to help the birdy explore his surroundings while learning verbs. Both are well done, calming, and good for younger children (under 4). (Good support from the company also.) EV= high, PV = good

EliasABC and EliasZoo (was free, now $1.99 each) — simple, clean graphic and easy movement to help toddlers learn either ABCs or animal sounds. EV = high, PV = good

FeedMe (free) — Living in Hawaii, you know how important other languages are. Feedme is available in different languages, including Japanese. Interactive and educational, my son really enjoyed playing it with his mom. EV = good, PV = good
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Mactoberfest was, for the first time, combined with Leeward Community College’s new Geek Day on October 24th.  It was a great idea, but there was a major problem – it was too short! There were 17 presentations in 5 hours and each was worth participating in. The sessions should have been strung out sequentially so you could attend all of them. Seventeen hours later . . . you’d be done!

But choices had to be made and about 120 good folks did that! The HMAUS sponsored talks were standing room only!  Rolf Nordahl presented Mac 101 for newbies and switchers. Gregg Kamei presented iPhoto, and Mark McMahon handled iTunes, iPod and iPhone. Burt Lum and Ryan Ozawa closed the day in the HMAUS track with Social Media 101.

LCC’s Digital Media faculty and students presented Illustrator, Flash, Alice a 3D modeling program, Ning for making a free website, Picnik for online photo editing, home security and iApp development. They were hands-on but aimed at the beginner.  Meanhile students and staff did demonstrations on Voice Thread, making a Hawaiian tattoo, drawing an anime character and Dreamweaver for artists and displayed their work.

As always we had door prizes and the top prizes were an 8 GB iPod Nano with video, a $65 backpack and a watercolor print donated by HMAUSer Candace Fernander. Mac Mouse Club and O’Reilly Books donated books and other prizes.

A big mahalo goes to our great presenters and volunteers, to LCC’s Kathleen Cabral and Cindy Martin who coordinated and marketed the day, to Christian, his faculty and the Digital Media student who set up, cleaned up, assisted and did presentations!  Good job!

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Macworld’s Christopher Breen reports that Apple will now allow people to pick and choose which music to upgrade to DRM-free.

Read the story here.

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