Smart Apps For Kids

Kelli's Tech Lessons: How to disable in-app purchases

For the longest time, every time I let my son use my iPad on his own I always felt the need to give him the dire warning, “DO NOT BUY ANYTHING!!” And still there was always that little worry that I’d end up with $20 worth of charges to my iTunes account because he just wanted more lives in Candy Crush or some such thing.

Good Free App of the Day: SmartMusic

Also check out our Featured Free and Reduced Apps 21st May including Dexteria Jr)

All right. I'm going to try, but I don't think that I'm going to be able to describe quite how powerful this app is.

If you are an instrumental student or teacher, SmartMusic (which requires a subscription for full access) is going to change the way that you practise and play. Your music is onscreen, you can record while you practise along to the built-in accompaniment, you can compare takes, adjust the speed of the accompaniment to suit your ability, transpose the key up or down at the touch of button, it supports just about every instrument (including voice) known to mankind, and even marks success and improvement needed within the practice session. Exhausted? Me too. And that's only covers a small portion of what it can do.

SmartMusic is an online subscription service which gives access to more than 30,000 solo and ensemble titles and 50,000 exercises for woodwind, brass, string, and vocal musicians.

BUT you can have a good play with the 15 or so titles that are provided with the free app download to really explore what this program can do! I must admit, I was simply blown away. 

Top 10 Smart Apps for Moms! (a mom on our staff shares her 10 favs!)

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, it seemed like the right time to check out some apps just for moms. 

So I set off in search of the perfect app for moms.  You know, that app that has Ryan Gosling saying “Hey, girl, <insert each mom’s phrase of choice>.” Mine would say “Hey, girl, I’ll be over soon to fold some laundry . . . and, by the way, those sweatpants make you look super thin.”  Alas, I discovered that no such app exists (somebody really ought to do something about that), so I had to settle for putting together a whole list of apps for moms.  I tried to keep the list to free apps (or free when I got them) and I avoided anything educational, just on principle.

Top Ten Tips for Managing Your iPad's Memory

Autism Awareness Month in April was especially problematic for my iPad space management — the number of free and reduced-price apps was amazing! The space on my 16 GB iPad (OK, two 16 GB iPads) quickly filled up as I downloaded so many helpful apps.

As an app addict, I have found ways to manage my collection, but I know that many people with a smaller-memory iPad avoid downloading quality apps for fear of running out of room. So here are my top 10 tips for managing a small-memory iPad.

Mother’s Day Pick: Café Stand and Stylus by Belkin

If you're a tech loving family looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift for your Cooking Mama, then check out the Mont Blanc of styluses from Belkin. It's every chef's best friend. It also would make a good looking desk set if your mother doesn't do her best work in the kitchen.

SAFK 101 (How to get the most out of our site)

I am a latecomer to the world of iPad. I was happily trucking along, not knowing what I was missing, until a year ago when I broke down and got an iPhone (which, let’s face it, is really just a gateway device for the iPad). Fast forward several months and you find me with a borrowed iPad in an Angry Bird haze trying to figure out Twitter like I am not completely ancient.

News-O-Matic: Review

 

 

Bottom line: a terrific introduction to current events with unlimited potential for repeated use for kids ages 7-10. Definitely worth the $6.99 per month subscription price, but you can view three issues in a free trial.