Kurio has been offering Android tablets for kids for a few years. Now the company is expanding its lineup by offering kids’ tablets with integrated 4G LTE and a Kurio Phone.
The smartphone is a pretty basic Android phone designed both for kids… and for parents who want to be able to monitor and control what their kids are doing with the phone.
The Kurio 7x 4G LTE tablet featues Android 4.2 software, parental controls, support for up to 8 user profiles, and support for Verizon’s LTE network. The tablet also comes with a protective bumper case.
Parents can create profiles for individual kids, deciding what level of internet access to provide depending on their child’s age, for instance.
While the hallmark feature of the new tablet is 4G LTE mobile broadband access, you can also use it as a WiFi-only tablet with support for Bluetooth. But if you have a Verizon Share Everything plan you can add the tablet to your existing account for $10 per month.
The Kurio Phone features a 4 inch, 800 x 480 pixel display, 1GB of RAm, and 4GB of storage. It looks like a pretty basic, entry-level Android smartphone. What sets it apart is Kurio’s software which lets parents manage the contact list, among other things so that kids can’t call or send text messages to new contacts unless a parent approves.
Parents can also view call and message logs.
Kurio plans to launch the phone this spring and the tablet this summer.
via SlashGear
What about the requirement in the US for all phones to be able to call 911? Even ones without service plans.
Is it or can it be disabled so kids don’t dial it?
Or is this intended only for kids old enough to know better?
If you search you will find a lot of people like me who would like to give their kids their old out of service phone to use as a simple wifi only tablet but can’t because the 911 feature is still enabled even if the phone is not signed up for service.
Apparently the reason is so anyone can make an emergency call on any phone they should find at any time, but I wonder what the good is if the screen / phone is locked and they can’t get at the dialer or emergency applet. Or the battery is dead.