Issue 8 – Minecraft Mobs, YouTube Tips + More! in News - April 30, 2015The newest 110% Gaming is OUT NOW! And you need it in your life… IT HAS 4 EPIC GIFTS! We’ve got 2 HUMONGOUS double-sided posters – featuring your favourites like FIFA and Mario Party! There’s a pack of World of Warriors trading cards to ready you for battle and some brain blaster super sour sweets to chow down on! PLUS ALL THIS INSIDE! The Most Dangerous Minecraft Mobs Ever! Top Ultimate Team Tips! Part 2 of How To Be A YouTube Star! A Full Review Of LEGO: Ninjago! The Biggest LOL’s at P v Z Jokes! The Best Marvel Heroes OF ALL TIME! You Could Win A Nintendo 2DS and Inazuma! 24 Excuses For Losing!Grab your new issue of 110% Gaming – on sale NOW! Buy The Mag, Live The Game! ARTICLE TAGS MagNew issue Email you wish to send this Post to The App Store takes delivery of hundreds of new apps per day. The overwhelming scene makes it possible to easily overlook an exciting game, valuable productivity suite, etc.
However, we have a solution. Today’s Best Apps tackles this problem by providing you with a handpicked and tested list of apps that are truly worth your consideration each and everyday. Remember: Even though in-app purchases typically require your iTunes Store password for processing, you can further prevent them and other unauthorized actions by enabling local restrictions using the passcode locked iOS parental controls Youtopia for YouTube by Lifelike Apps, Inc (Free, 5.2 MB): This slick YouTube client brings the typically iPad-only multitasking efficiency, browsing while watching, to your iPhone or iPod touch. A simple, single tap on the fullscreen video activates three panels that slide in from the bottom and sides while the video continues to play. Indeed, the amount of items on such a small screen would presumably be undesirable in terms of usefulness, although, it's actually not bad. The menu bar overlaps a very minimal space across the left, the browsing pane covers a quarter or so of the right side, and the control bar gets nestled between the two at the very bottom, sliding over about another quarter, which leaves a reasonable to good view of the video with little compromise on tool usability.
Even so, not everything is windowed. Switching lists temporarily moves entirely away from the video and into a fullscreen browsing and input mode. The supported sources include featured/popular, favorites, specific channels, optionally filtered search, playlists, and previously view (history). Access to some of these requires a Google/YouTube account. In addition, links may be shared via the standard iOS options: Mail, Messages, Twitter, Facebook, and other relevant third-party apps. LEGO® City My City by The LEGO Group (Free, 260.3 MB): Give your elementary school-aged kids some simple entertainment with this collection of city-based mini-games made of virtual LEGO bricks. From the community map children can choose to chase down criminals, either on foot or using a police cruiser, as well as be a hose commanding firefighter against a multi-story building blaze, race for the gold, fly the Coast Guard hell to save stranded boaters from swarming sharks, fly a cargo plane on a time sensitive package delivery, plus help a frustrated motorist get his tire fixed lickety-split.
Every mission is repayable an unlimited amount of times with incentives to improve time completion and coins earned. The game features 3-D graphics, charming music and sound effects, single finger control, and no ads or links.From Minecraft builds to YouTube videos – not to mention YouTube videos of Minecraft builds – children in 2015 have plenty of options for digital entertainment. YouTube, in particular, has emerged as an alternative to traditional children’s TV – although it’s probably more accurate to say that the two are merging: plenty of popular children’s TV shows are now on YouTube in some form, while to young viewers – many on tablets – it’s all just “video”. With the launch of its YouTube Kids app in the UK and Ireland, the company is hoping to capitalise, but this being YouTube – owned by Google – it’s also kicking up a debate about its motivations, as well as familiar arguments about children and screen time. For critics of YouTube, it’s tempting to see YouTube Kids as an example of the company identifying children as the next group it wants to target.
In truth, the app is more about YouTube catching up to the behaviour of the children who’ve flocked to its service. The 20 top children’s channels had more than 5.2bn views in October alone, from Little Baby Bum’s 428.5m to Toys and Funny Kids Surprise Eggs’ 164.7m YouTube is reacting to the fact that tens of millions of children are already watching. It is a necessary move to avoid children seeing inappropriate videos and ads, as well as being exposed to its frequently toxic comments section. YouTube Kids bars non-child-friendly ads; uses algorithms to filter out inappropriate videos – with a flagging system for parents to warn it about any that slip through the net – and strips out the comments. The phrase “digital babysitter” crops up regularly in comments about children and YouTube. It’s often framed as a criticism of parents: leaving their children in the corner of a room with an iPad doing the parenting. In some ways, this argument doesn’t ring true.
First, even an hour spent watching YouTube leaves plenty of hours in the day for reading books, riding bikes, drawing and generally getting the kind of face-to-face parental attention that’s so important for children. Second, because YouTube doesn’t have to be something a child does alone: co-viewing can be a fun activity for them to share with their parent. And thirdly: sometimes parents just need to get stuff done. YouTube, like television, can buy the short bursts of time that a parent or carer needs to keep things running. But also like television, it needs boundaries YouTube Kids does carry advertising. YouTube says it is carefully screened to bar ads that aren’t child-friendly. Even so, the advertising aspect has been controversial in the US, where several consumer groups called in April for regulator the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the app. Their complaints were less about the paid ads that run in between videos, and more about videos that blur the boundaries between entertainment and advertising.
First, in the case of channels for brands such as Barbie, McDonald’s and Fisher-Price that arguably function as ads for their products and services. Second, in the case of the hugely popular genre of “unboxing” videos that has emerged on YouTube – toys being unboxed and shown off at length – there’s the question of whether the channel owners are being paid by any of the toy companies to include their products. The first of those complaints is a tough one: can YouTube really treat channels for, say, Lego or My Little Pony as ads when those brands have popular and enjoyable shows on traditional TV?That’s more troubling, less for behind-the-scenes payments we don’t know about – they’re wrong, but the advertising regulators are already sniffing around the issue – and more for the content itself. Is the sight of children hypnotised by 30-minute unboxing videos of Disney or Barbie toys (or even Kinder Eggs) really something to celebrate? It feels like uncomfortably naked consumerism calculated to generate pester-power from its young audience.
As a parent, I’m hoping YouTube Kids doesn’t promote these channels – which are probably easier to sell ads around – ahead of some of the stories, music and educational videos on the service. YouTube – and Google – tracking the online behaviour of children is a can of worms, to say the least. That’s why YouTube is so keen on stressing that YouTube Kids is a “signed-out” experience: children don’t sign in with their own or a parent’s Google/YouTube account, and it does not collect any personal data. It does collect some data, though. “We keep watch history associated with the app so we can offer content recommendations based on that watch history,” a spokesperson said. “For example, a lot of kids like to re-watch their favourite videos and we want to make it easy for them to return to those videos and find other similar videos.” That watch history can be deleted by parents in the app’s settings menu. Anything involving tracking children’s online behaviour raises warning bells with parents – and with regulators, given the varying laws around the world on this area.
Are you comfortable with YouTube logging your child’s watch history? Would it be nice if the app understood what videos and channels they liked, and recommended more like them? So which is more important to you? The main thing isto understand exactly what is and isn’t being tracked; and have the ability to control that data. And if YouTube ever changes its approach – for example, if it were to start using that watch history to target ads – it should explain it and provide an opt-out. YouTube has already spawned new formats for children’s entertainment – even if they are sometimes baffling for people outside their target audiences. Many parents still don’t understand why watching Stampy or Diamond Minecart Dan play Minecraft is as appealing for many children as playing it themselves, for example. There are many positive things about what’s happening on YouTube. Stampy’s spin-off channel Wonder Quest was an interesting attempt to bring a more educational aspect to Minecraft videos – not to mention a scripted drama.
When Aardman brought its classic Morph character back, it was as shortform episodes on YouTube. Meanwhile, educational channels like Whiz Kid Science, Ted Ed and The Slow Mo Guys – the latter isn’t just for children – show plenty of potential for sparky shortform learning. YouTube doesn’t say how many of its 1bn+ viewers are children, but it’s safe to bet that it’s already the biggest children’s entertainment platform in the world. Hopefully, it will use that power through YouTube Kids to nurture – including sometimes to fund – a hotbed of creative, interesting shows that complement the best available on traditional TV channels. YouTube Kids certainly won’t exist in a digital vacuum either. Netflix and Amazon are both commissioning original children’s shows; the BBC is planning big things for children around its iPlayer service; and mobile apps such as PlayKids and Hopster are carving their own niches too. The competition will mean the next generation will be spoiled for choice on their screens.