Kidos Computer
© 2009 Kidos Inc.
Best described as a work in progress, Kidos, or "Kid Operated System" is an Adobe Air application that makes it possible to design your own desktop for your child (or children) by mixing parent-and expert selected videos, music, pictures and websites with a iTunes-like store. The store is how the service makes money, by making it easy for a parent to soup up the experience for a child, with a picture of a cute dog ($.50), a non-interactive storybook for $2 each, or a $10 musical album. The store uses a shopping cart model, and your credit card is billed automatically, iTunes style. While good in concept, the experience is at best buggy in it's current "beta" state (January 2010). For example, when we tried to add www.starfall.com as an web site option, we were told that the browser was out of date (Starfall runs just fine outside of Kidos). While the game of tic-tac-toe is well designed, the onboard drawing experience limited, with no ability to change pen sizes, for example. The good news is that YouTube works, and it is easy to add your own YouTube content, which could bring one-click access to hundreds of quality videos to your child's desktop. The service is free to download and preview.
Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: a utility for parents
CTR Rating: 76.6667%