Screen-free gadgets for kids are about to come for kids as young as one, while the Toniebox gets an upgrade with support for games.
Keeping the kids entertained can happen in pretty much any way, but if you tire of simply giving your kids a screen via a phone or iPad, there are other options. Devices with speakers and yet without screens make it possible for kids to be entertained with music and audiobooks in an area served by the Toniebox, and one of last year’s Best Kids Tech gadgets, the Yoto Player.
This year, the first of those is getting an update as the Toniebox turns two, and opens its screen-free approach to gadget entertainment to kids under the age of three.
The new gadget is simply called the “Toniebox 2”, and takes the previous generation of Toniebox and softens the design, while expanding its age range in the process with additions for younger players.
Toniebox’s technology essentially places a little chip inside of toys, and when those toys are placed on the special Toniebox, plays audio from that toy through the speaker. It means if you take a specific Elsa figurine from Disney’s Frozen, the speaker will play music and audio from the film, giving kids a sort of toy-based media player of sorts, but without the screen.
In the new generation, Toniebox is adding smaller, softer, and squeezable toys for kids under the age of two, opening up an age range more like that of 1 through to 9, and the company isn’t stopping there.
As part of the Toniebox 2, the speaker now includes a multi-coloured rainbow light ring to guide kids when used with games made for the platform called “Tonieplay”. The idea will see games and quizzes make their way to the speaker box larger in the year, with twelve games including characters from Disney and Paw Patrol.
Throughout the entire range, the Toniebox 2 appears to be similar to the original, possibly with the same shortcomings.
Simply put, you’ll need those toys to play the sounds from the Toniebox, and if you lose them, you lose access. Or more specifically, if your kids lose the Toniebox toys, they will lose the ability to play them.
However the company behind the Toniebox notes that those toys from the original will work with the new ones, providing some sense of cross-platform compatibility. We’re checking to find out whether this includes the new Tonieplay games on the old Toniebox, but haven’t heard back from Tonies by the time this was published.
For parents with little ones, they can expect to find the Toniebox 2 and Tonieplay games from September 15, priced in Australia from $209.95 with one character or from $249.95 with a Tonieplay game.
