The Firefly glowPhone – a restricted phone for kids

0,1425,i=190340,00.jpg

The Firefly glowPhone is to be released in the UK by the end of the year. The child friendly handset which has become a big hit in Ireland (7,000 units sold) aims to tap in to the ever increasing children’s mobile phone market – over half of all under 10s in the UK own a mobile phone.

The phone has a fairly basic setup – perfect for younger children. It has just five buttons and two of these are dedicated for mum and dad. There is a 1.5-inch colour screen with 128×128 resolution that kids will be able to customise with their own wallpapers. Other features include built in games, customisable ringtones and a flashlight.

The phone has capacity to store up to 50 contacts although everything is pin protected so as parents can control all in and outgoing calls. Blocking texts is also a function on some models.

Not surprisingly there is some criticism for the phone. Not surprisingly a lot of this criticism is via The Daily Mail.

I think the phone is a great idea. It comes as SIM-free so parents can stick a PAYG SIM in it, put £5 credit on and restrict the calls to only allow ones to/from themselves and selected others. It’s just another expensive toy for kids to play with. I know my youngest nephew would love one.

The glowPhone will cost around £85 and should be available from Firefly direct.

(via ITProPortal)

Top 5 gadgets for Florence Nightingale – Happy Birthday to the Lady with the Lamp

Florence-nightingale.jpg

As you may or may not know, today is the anniversary of the birth of one of Britain’s finest – the Lady with the Lamp herself, the pioneer of modern day nursing, Miss Florence Nightingale. It’s an education over here at Tech Digest.

If Flozza were alive today she’d be really old and not much good at nursing anymore and she’d be well on the way to her second telegram from her second queen at the ripe old score of 188 years old. Doubtless she would also be fascinated by advances in tech and were she to do her rounds in this day and age, then these would be Florence Nightingale’s top five gadgets.