lobsters score: 1 · tags: hardware
I only skimmed the article because just reading about the effort involved in building custom electronics wears me out. This is an incredible amount of work to build something I wouldn’t want in a house full of kids, but I completely understand the disdain for things like Tonies and anything that sets out to trap children and their families into subscription services.
Personally, I don’t like things that make noise with so little effort. When I was five I had more than one cassette player and I recorded my own stories on a microcassette. I understood where the content was coming from and that I could record my own. It was less passive than these kinds of toys. I listened mostly with headphones.
score 1 · canonical
This kind of device is essentially trying to replace cassette players. The kids want to listen to music or an audiobook but can’t read and the parents don’t want to give them a screen. This has the same kind of interface as a cassette player: plonk this in that slot and hit play. If you want the other story plonk the other thing in.
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I get that, but I don’t like that this is replicating part of the problem: a proprietary or otherwise nonstandard format. When I was a kid, I could pick up a cassette or CD for $1 at the local Goodwill (and I still get a lot of CDs that way). I could put tape over the write-protect notch on a 15-minute promo cassette that came in the mail and record my own silly songs or comedy skits.
The discoverability and flexibility of those earlier options isn’t there, and it feels like we’ve lost something. I had both at-home and portable cassette players, and then at-home and portable CD players. I had recordable cassettes and recordable CDs. My dad and I would make mix CDs together to play in the car. I could plug in headphones or run the audio out to another device or adapter. It was all standard and accessible and physical.
Anyway, this is a really cool project and I’d certainly rather someone build this than buy Tonies. I definitely lack context for what’s engaging or good for children. I’ve always been a crotchety old man inside ;-).
score 1 · canonical
I liked the start but when it came to the “The three mistakes caught before the order” and how they all end on this “how it would have all been broken” typical kind of sentence I had to close it.
score 1 · canonical