Speaker 1: I'm Richdimiro and this is Rich on Tech Daily. So
Speaker 1: I had a cool device come my way called the
Speaker 1: Kids Connect Phone. This is an interesting little gadget for
Speaker 1: parents who want to keep in touch with their kids
Speaker 1: and also keep track of them on a map. So
Speaker 1: it's a very simple cell phone. It only has a
Speaker 1: touch screen and then four buttons on it. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's not even an easy way for a kid to
Speaker 1: figure out how to turn this device on or off.
Speaker 1: So the touch screen can store up to fifteen phone numbers.
Speaker 1: You pre program those in. And the thing about this
Speaker 1: phone is that it can only make or receive calls
Speaker 1: and texts from numbers that you preapprove, so you have
Speaker 1: to add them to the address book, and then and
Speaker 1: only then can the phone get calls from them, make
Speaker 1: calls to them, or of course the same thing with
Speaker 1: text messages. So that's kind of cool. So first and foremost,
Speaker 1: it's a GPS tracking device, so you can always see
Speaker 1: where your kid is on a map, and then you
Speaker 1: have a location history so you can see where your
Speaker 1: kid has been on a map. There's a feature called SOS.
Speaker 1: So this is that fourth button I was telling you about.
Speaker 1: So if you press and hold that button, it will
Speaker 1: get in touch with up to three people that you determine.
Speaker 1: It will also send a text message to them with
Speaker 1: the location of the phone. Then there's a geo fencing
Speaker 1: feature which lets you set an area around their school
Speaker 1: or wherever you want the kid to be, and if
Speaker 1: they enter or leave that area, you will get an
Speaker 1: alert that says, hey, the kid entered or left that
Speaker 1: alert that area. And finally, this one's really interesting. It's
Speaker 1: called voice monitoring. So this allows you to send a
Speaker 1: text message to the child's device and then the device
Speaker 1: will secretly call you back, so it doesn't light up,
Speaker 1: it doesn't ring or do anything fancy to let you
Speaker 1: know that you're listening in on your child, so you
Speaker 1: can pick up your phone and hear what's happening around
Speaker 1: your child. So the Kids Connect phone again as it's called,
Speaker 1: is one hundred and thirty dollars. You do have to
Speaker 1: pay a monthly fee of thirteen dollars a month minimum
Speaker 1: for their service. You cannot add this as a separate
Speaker 1: line to your current phone plan with say Verizon, their
Speaker 1: T Mobile, or AT and T, although the service for
Speaker 1: the Kids Connect phone is provided by T Mobile. Now
Speaker 1: the software on the back end not so pretty. You know,
Speaker 1: this is an independent company. It's definitely not up to
Speaker 1: the standards that we're used to of say Facebook and
Speaker 1: Instagram and how slick all their apps look. So I
Speaker 1: found it to be a little bit wonky on the
Speaker 1: back end to try to figure out how to do things,
Speaker 1: and it just doesn't have that like slick look to it.
Speaker 1: But I think the company's onto something. Parents definitely want
Speaker 1: a device that's easy for their kids to use. This
Speaker 1: can be for kids ages four and up, and also
Speaker 1: just something that would have the battery last a really
Speaker 1: long time. This has like maybe two days of battery life,
Speaker 1: three if you really stretch it. But we need something
Speaker 1: that lasts like a week, so you can put it
Speaker 1: in your kids backpack for the week, forget about it,
Speaker 1: and be able to get in touch with them at
Speaker 1: the same time. So I'm glad that kids Connect is
Speaker 1: working on this. I think this is a good start.
Speaker 1: I think that if a company like at and T
Speaker 1: or te Mobile, or if Verizon eventually sold these phone
Speaker 1: in their store and you can add it to your plan,
Speaker 1: that would be really nice as well. So if you
Speaker 1: want to see the video I did on the kid's
Speaker 1: connect phone. You can see it on my Facebook page.
Speaker 1: Just go to facebook dot com slash Rich on tech.
Speaker 1: A lot of people kind of mixed on this thing.
Speaker 1: Some of them are saying, you know what, just get
Speaker 1: your kid a real phone, or you know, maybe you
Speaker 1: don't need a phone for your kid at all. This
Speaker 1: is all too much, so you can voice in with
Speaker 1: your opinion on my Facebook page. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you next time.