Innotab
Kids Ipads seem to be the big trend for this Christmas with 2 very big children’s educational toys manufactures both bringing something to the table, from Vtech we have their kids tablet called the Innotab!
The innotab is basically a children’s version of the ipad, it’s an apps based tablet that comes with a touch screen (which can also rotate just like the ipad depending on how you hold it) and a whole range of fantastic apps like the art studio which kids will love.
Not only will the Innotab allow you to upload and view all your photos, but you can also upload your mp3 tunes!
As well as using your fingers to navigate around the vtech innotab, it also comes with it’s own stylis which is housed in the unit. The Innotab or Innopad as it’s known to our american readers is also not just touch sensitive, just also pressuce sensitive screen.
Kids can really learn about and have the full multimedia experience with the integrated MP3 player so that they can listen to their favorite songs, as well as view videos with the built-in Video Player. Other integrated applications include a Calculator, Calendar, Notepad, Clock with personalized voice alarm and Friends Address Book.
The innotab is of course designed to help with learning through multimedia so that your children almost don’t realise that what they are doing is work and learning thanks to the great range of learning games and interactive reading ebooks that can be downloaded or bought through cartridges.
The animated e-books offer story narration, character voices, animation, vivid graphics, sounds and music, this actually makes it really bearable for the parent also!
Kids will learn and enjoy reading comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, word building, and interact with animated characters.
As they read, kids will watch the words highlight and can touch individual words to hear them pronounced. Each e-book comes with a story dictionary offering word definitions that are easy for kids to comprehend and helps with the context of the story.
Of course this being a kids version of the ipad there is also a vtech kids itunes libary…the VTech’s Learning Lodge Navigator is where you can go to download additional content and they will have over 100 download titles available by the end of the year. Parents can also use the Learning Lodge Navigator to stay abreast of their kids progress on a variety of educational milestones and lessons. You can find out more by visiting: www.vtechkids.com/download.
InnoTab easily connects to a PC or Mac computer via USB port and has an SD card slot for memory expansion so you can download interactive e-books and learning games.
Here is a rundown of the Innotab features:
The Innotab is available in both blue and pink from all the major online toy retailers like amazon.co.uk, play.com, tesco, john lewis, woolworths etc and if you are thinking about buying the Vtech Innotab then make sure you check out the price comparison table where you will be able to compare UK prices.
I bought this device for my son. I am not thrilled. All photos have to be in JPG format and I haven’t figured out what format they want for videos yet. The menu screen has too much junk on it. I just turned the device on and it froze on me. Had to remove the batteries to get it to reload. The information on the website is extreemly limited even for device owners. I found the LeapPad products to be much more user friendly.
We LOVE the Innotab!! We got it for our 2 year old. I was concerned it may be a bit much or he may need help navigating through the system. He figured it out on his own within an hour or so. He navigates through all of the apps on it. We have downloaded books and other games for him and the prices are very reasonable for the amount of entertainment and educational activities it provides to him. I love that we can upload our personal pictures and he enjoys seeing all of his family on his “puter”. We are working on videos, as I have to get a program to convert the videos to AVI format. We have also uploaded mp3 music and he has a blast dancing and browsing through songs.