Toy manufacturers have played around for a few years already with creating eReader books and other devices that are designed to give children a feel for what it is like to play with the same kinds of devices that their parents own.
Educational toy creator Oregon Scientific has announced the existence and upcoming release of a device that will help bridge the gap between toy and sophisticated device. The one feature on the Meep! that is most likely to excite parents and ultimately interest children is the fact that Meep! will run on the Android operating system.
That’s right, the same operating system that is used to power the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Motorola Xoom and the Droid 4 – as well as many other sophisticated devices – will now also be used to power your children’s playthings.
The Meep! is built for children who are age 6 and older. It will allow children to access music, movies, e-books and apps from the same kinds of developers who produce content for their parents’ Android devices.
Of course, security concerns are bound to rise up in the minds of many parents, especially considering that the Meep! will have Wi-Fi access. According to Oregon Scientific, parents will be able to monitor the Web usage of their children on the device, but we hope there will also be some ability for parents to block content from appearing on the Meep! children’s tablet in the first place.
The Meep! is being built to be more sturdy than some of the Android devices that you may own. It comes equipped with a rubber silicon sleeve for protection. Certainly the Meep! might provide a way for you to keep your kid from asking you to use your tablet all the time, but we’ll have to wait and see if this is something that we would actually invest in for our own children.