Another baby monitor for iOS devices

Looks like smartphones are the new baby monitors – there are a number of super popular apps on pretty much all smartphone platforms that allow parents to use their phones as baby monitors. No surprises there ... we all carry around smartphones these days so why not make use of them as baby monitors when we're away from home (or even when at home). I've recently come across a very popular one called "Best Baby Monitor" (voted top 3 in parenting apps by babble.com) which is really easy to use and has a few features I haven't seen anywhere else. So I thought it was worth a giving it a quick DIYFather app-titude test.

iPhone app for multilingual children

Check this out - pretty amazing! It's a great and playful app when you are brining up children in several languages (the app is called "Word Lens" by Quest Visual). Enjoy!

-Stef

iPhone dads - spelling app

Here's another useful app for all iPhone dads - "Bubble Alpha". This app helps preschoolers and school children with improving their spelling. The app, available for $0.99 from the iStore comes with a standard spelling package for pre-schoolers and additional themed packages (animals, food, etc) can be added on. This is a great idea to get kids to improve their skills in a "non-boring" format. The downside - the cost ... it's quite expensive for the number of words that are stored in the system. But hey - who wants to put a price tag on avoiding embarrassing spelling mistakes when your kids send their tweets to millions of followers :-)

Enjoy

-Stef

iPhone dads - the Wiggles app

Well I guess it was only a matter of time ... The Wiggles have launched their own iPhone app. In fact they have launched 7 iPhone apps (!) One of the seven apps ('Colouring In') is available free of charge from the app store - all the others are paid for apps and will set you back $1.29 per app.

So all up you're looking at a spend of $10 if you get them all (not too bad considering what all the other Wiggles stuff costs). Here's a list of the apps with a short description:

• Big Red Car – Drive the Big Red Car while collecting a range of musical instruments as The Wiggles make their way to their next concert destination.

An alternative to baby monitors - use your iPhone

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch as well as a PC or MAC with a webcam you can save yourself the $100 or so that it would cost to buy a video baby monitor. An iPhone development company in Canada have created an app that enables a Mac/PC to become a video/audio monitor for your baby, kids or pet. As an added bonus, users can select a favourite lullaby from their iTunes library to make falling asleep that much easier. If you're an iPhone dad - check out www.softopinion.com for more information.

Enjoy and have a good night!

-Stef

iPhone dads and star wars fans

If you've got an iPhone and a toddler you must know about the iPhone lightsaber application by Lucasfilm Ltd. If you haven't heard of it - get down from whatever planet you are on, hop on the App Store and download the "Lightsaber Unleashed" app. It is very cool and will allow you to produce endless videos of your toddler acting out real-life light saber duells (and with no risk of losing life or limb). Like this one ...

iPhone Dads - check out the "Appvent Calendar"

Seasonal greetings to all iPhone Dads! Last year we reviewed 25 online advent calendars in the run up to Christmas. This year it's all gone a bit iPhone and some creative gaming company has come up with the "APPVENT CALENDAR". The website reveals a free iPhone game every day till Christmas. Download the game of the day at work and try it out with the kids when you get home.

Enjoy!

-Stef

iPhone Apps During Labour

There’s nothing more boring than a moaning woman in labour, but what if you could play on your iPhone throughout the whole ordeal without any recriminations whatsoever? Step forward the contraction timer app.

I’ve been able to find 17 applications that are specifically designed to monitor the duration and frequency of your wife’s screaming while she is making a right meal of childbirth:

• Baby’s Coming (free) – Dadgets.info top choice
• Contraculate (free)
• Contractulator (free)

iPhone Baby Apps - During Conception

Craig just posted a hilarious new article on iPhone baby apps ... this one is about apps DURING conception. It's such a great concept that I had to hijack his article a bit when I came across the following. The first digital aphrodisiac - check it out:

Here is Craig's article:

Baby name selection daddy style - the iPhone name shaker

Well here's another ever so practical iPhone application perfectly suitable for busy dads. The various "baby name shaker" apps have set out to take the process of choosing your baby's name into the 21st century. Find the perfect name for your baby using your iPhone ... what a great idea!

Gone are the days when you had to troll through dozens of over-prized baby name books or sign up to all sorts of dodgy email newsletters on baby naming sites just to get access to a collection of potential names for your baby. Also gone are the days when you had to resort to throwing books in the air to see which page they land on to introduce a random element to your selection.

The name shaker apps on the iPhone use the phone's accelerometers to assist with the name selection. So you can simple shake the phone and get a random name. If you prefer the rational method of trolling through the long list of names you can do that as well of course. Other features of most apps include:

* advanced search
* short listing / filtering (boy / girl)
* favourites
* meaning of names
* multi-language support

All up just the perfect and simple solution to a non-trivial task and at a price way below baby name books (prices range from $4.19 to $6.49).