Amazon has finally cracked the kid tablet code

[techbeck]

 

Amazon's cavalcade of tablet announcements this evening includes a surprisingly good offer to parents. It's the Fire HD Kids Edition. Essentially, the Kids Edition is a standard Kindle Fire HD tablet ? at either the 6-inch or 7-inch size ? with a pile of add-on features that are designed for kids and the havoc they tend to wreak. You pay a $50 premium over the standard version, which amounts to $149 for the 6-inch version and $189 for the 7-inch base model. But for that $50 you get a few special bonuses. The first is a one-year subscription to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, the company's set of kid-friendly content that includes 5,000 games, videos, and books. You also get a gigantic case that protects the tablet and makes it easier for small children to hold. Last but certainly not-least is a 2-year, no-questions-asked warranty. Amazon representatives all but intimated that your child could put it in a blender ? just send the busted bits back and Amazon will send you a new one.

 

There have been many attempts at making tablets for children, but the vast majority of them have been so poorly-specced or had so few apps that they have been more insulting than educational. Amazon, however, has been spending the last couple years building out both a massive content library and parental controls in its Fire OS software. The combination of those pieces with hardware that's cheap enough to entrust to your toddler makes this the first child-friendly option that could legitimately compare to just handing your iPad to your kid. The fact that your son or daughter won't have access to your work email is a nice bonus.

 

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http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/17/6364279/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-kids-edition-announcement