@casielane I don't have kids myself but I know plenty who'd love this (family members) and lots of schools that could use it too (I used to teach kids)! I was initially thinking about classical tracks, educational songs (Storybots or Badanamu etc.) but now I'm having lots of exciting ideas! It could even be useful for audiobooks too!
@tiffanyhoran@casielane In addition we'd like to put podcast-style stories on it also. Basically the idea that every evening you get a new episode to listen to. The original idea there is that some parent like to use storytelling in the evenings before going to bed (instead of e.g. TV) but are not very good at telling stories themselves (me for one).
@pieter_palmers this looks great. I have a mentally handicapped brother and we've had to buy a number of CD Walkmans for him to use as he wouldn't be able to navigate an iPod or MP3 device screen. He'd also press down too hard on the scroller and break it if it had one. Sadly the Walkmans are now also breaking! In principle would Jooki be a good solution for him? Does it have a headphone jack?
@btdhayes I think it would be perfect. I myself have a (40+) relative with mental limitations and he'll get one for sure. We've been getting quite some response from parents or relatives for this type of use. The main problems there seem to be too complicated interface and too fragile technology. In case of my family member the smartphone has been tried but it didn't survive for longer than a month or two.
We're going to put special care on checking the mechanical elements for adult-grade forces. You mention that your brother breaks the scroller, and that's in line with my experience. It's like a kid in an adult body, and in fact my relative is a lot stronger than me...
We're putting in a headphone jack, but we also support Bluetooth headphones because less wires is less problems.
@casielane thanks for hunting us...
We made this to solve a problem we're facing ourselves: CD's are gone and replaced by MP3's and increasingly streaming. At the same time the interface becomes very screen-centric (smartphones/tablets). This is cool for adults, but for kids it's a bit more complicated.
If you give them a smartphone or tablet they probably won't stick to music for a long time, jumping in to games, video's or surfing the internet. All very nice activities but sometimes you just want the music or the stories to keep their central role such that dancing and imagination can happen without the visual stimuli of a screen.
Also the interface of most music apps/devices is quite powerful and complicated and not very suitable for kids. They are remarkable in how they still find their way, but there has to be something better.
So here we are with Jooki, check it out on Kickstarter and support us!
Available for questions anytime!
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