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ARCHOS is jumping into the kids tablet game with the release of the 7-inch Child Pad. The new slate designed for youngsters is loaded up with an Alvin and the Chipmunks 3 theme, but we’re more interested in a set of specs that doesn’t look half bad for a device of the Child Pad’s class. The tablet features a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and WiFi connectivity. Better than that, it runs Ice Cream Sandwich.
ARCHOS is pre-loading the tablet with plenty of apps and games tailored to kids, including Angry Birds along with more educational fare. Additional titles can be downloaded from a curated list available through the AppsLib market. Plenty of Chipmunk related content and parental control software is also included.
The ARCHOS Child Pad is available immediately for $129.99 through a dedicated web site. It will head to other retailers soon.
[via ARCHOS]
Kill it! KILL IT NOW!!!!!!
Archos should collaborate with LeapFrog and make a “LeapPad Pro” like this. It would probably work a lot better than the current LeapPad tablet.
they have a tablet although it kind of sucks http://www.leapfrog.com/leappad/
if they made a andriod based tablet they could then start developing games / books / activities that leverage both their hardware platform plus others.
I am wondering if the games for the current leappad would be to big to sell via the market… looksl like they are hardware modules and at $24 a piece they also could get lost in the shuffle of others in the market.
As a parent, I’ve been trying to put this sort of thing off. My 7 year old daughter has friends with iPhones. I don’t even let my kids eat off ceramic plates. I’m thinking that when their DS’s become obsolete in a few years, an inexpensive tablet might be the way to go. I expect Sony & Nintendo to jump into the tablet game as successors to the PSP & DS.
I can even see where it might be necessary to have one for school in the next decade. Libraries are already in a tussle with publishers over digital loaning where some publishers don’t make ebooks available to libraries at all.
I presume Archos will also be selling some sort of protective case, like the Nerf one you can get for the DS. Kids drop things.
The PSVita, the successor to the PSP, is a sort of small tablet/slate with additional buttons. It has a 5 inch capacitive touch screen with a touchpad on the back of the device as well. Similar tablet concepts have been released for Android, but none have either been published or caught on yet. As for the DS, the closest we will see to a “nintendo tablet” for the better part of a decade will be the WiiU, which has a tablet-esque controller but it is just a remote display for the system, not a portable.
Honestly, you shouldn’t expect these large gaming companies to do anything in line with your thinking. They are sticks in the mud. Even Microsoft is looking at sponsoring a gaming tablet as their foray into the field that runs Windows 8 and is extremely expensive (but hey, aren’t most gaming PCs?)
Honestly, a 7 year old with a smart phone is trouble. And as for this tablet, I wouldn’t really recommend it. You can get a Nook Tablet for decently cheap and after you root it, it’s got all of the Nook Store’s children’s content AND the Google Play Market and an easier to use launcher like Go Launcher. Or, you can wait for the Nexus Tablet/MeMo 370t launching soon.
I could see Nintendo eventually rolling out a 3DS revision or successor with a design more like an iPod touch or tablet. If that were to happen, though, it probably wouldn’t occur for a while.
Think of it this way. The original DS came out in 2004. The 3DS came out in 2011. Nintendo went 7 years before releasing real new hardware (DSi doesn’t count).
There will not be a “revision” to the DS to make it a non-clamshell as the clamshell is what protects it and makes it palletable to parents. Plus, DS “Dual Screen”, so no single screen solutions either. Nintendo more than any other company loathes change. Consider that the original marketing term for the DS was the Gameboy DS. Catchy, huh.
So, looking at Nintendo’s track record, you won’t be seeing anything remotely “Portable Tablet”ish for a good decade.
yea on our second DS… the Nerf case has been great
While I initially recoil in disgust at the use of a resistive touch display, it may actually be ideal for small children who don’t understand their deliberate click isn’t registered on a capacitive screen due to the fact that their thumb from their hand holding it is trying to register a click somewhere else… This is a source of frustration for my 2 y/o w/ the free playbook RIM sent me for publishing my app to their App world anyway.
Biggest turn off: Resistive screen. I would rather pay an extra $50 and get a capacitive screen. At least they should offer a second model with a capacitive screen.
I have a question for the group. I am looking for something for my 7 year old and struggle on how to setup a google account…plus an Amazon account for books etc. Should I set the device up on my account or have a new one with his name (gmail does not like to create an email address for a 7 year old I found out)
My thoughts are to setup a separate account I could then give him a prepaid CC if he wants to buy stuff (although there are lots of free games)
I would love to understand how ARCHOS plans to address this in their setup, this is assuming it is custom. For us root friendly the fire is a great tablet and what I am currently building for him but there are a lot more people that would never even attempt it.
I’ve been hoping for some sort of multiple profile system for Android for awhile and surprised it hasn’t been made a priority yet… but I digress.
Under normal circumstances, and assuming this device is “Google Approved”, meaning it has access to Google Play, etc, I would absolutely recommend setting up another Google Account solely so your personal emails don’t start showing up on your kid’s tablet. The prepaid CC sounds like a good way to go. Probably could get away with doing something similar with the Amazon account linked to the same prepaid CC. The only argument I have for doing this with the Amazon account is just in case your kid decides to unwittingly go hog wild with in-app purchases… yes, this has happened to me :( There really needs to be a way to put a parental block on in-app purchases, or at least require a password similar to iOS.
In-App purchases can be blocked via password in both Play and Amazon. It’s in the settings menu of both apps.
I agree with Scott. I had my gmail account under my name long before I got an android device. Naturally I used the same account for android. That was a mistake. Now my email account and all the associated private info auto-fills on my tablet. I can’t even hand my tablet to a friend without them being able to go the browser, use it to go to gmail, and then the OS asking if they want to auto-login. And this cannot be disabled . . .
If I had it to do all over again, I would have made a separate account just for android. johncdoe@gmail for personal email might become johncdoeandroid@gmail (or something like that).
I wish google had warned me that my personal info would be permanently available to anyone using my android device. It wasn’t so bad when android was for phones. But tablets do get passed around. They need to be separable from personal info.
And as Scott says, they should have multiple profiles like other OSes do. This alone would solve the tablet loan problem.
Looks pretty cool. Does it come with chipmunk ringtones?
Amazing! Kids can play with ICS while the owners of the first Archos tablets still have to deal with the slow PHONE software 2.2 on a TABLET!
You really want to see how ICS runs on a device that chokes on 2.2?