The cell phone as a baby monitor and a hand knitted iPhone
Jul 6 2007
The Browser just ran a short piece on Babble Soft today, July 6, 2007. Maybe that’s the reason our Technorati rank broke 1,000,000! See below for the full article…
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The cell phone as baby monitor
A few years ago, when the price of wireless airtime plummeted, wireless executives sometimes talked about customers who used pairs of mobile phones as baby monitors. (The Browser suspects this is the stuff of urban legend, but a few websites do explain to the technically impaired how to perform this trick.)
Now along comes Babble Soft, an upstart that can turn a number of so-called “smartphones” into a different sort of baby monitor. (Company founder Aruni Gunasegaram, a mother of two, prefers the term “baby manager.”) Gunasegaram has created a web-based application that helps new parents keep track of feedings, sleep schedules and other newborn activities and milestones that pediatricians often ask moms and dads to track. A mobile version of the application, available for many smartphones, such as the Treo, allows users to access their baby data on the go. (Think Google Calendar for the diaperpail set.)
Gunasegaram says she came up with the idea shortly after her son was born more than four years ago. She found herself keeping track of his feeding schedule on assorted scraps of paper. She and her husband scoured the ‘Net for an online service that could help them. They couldn’t find one, and a business was born.
Now it isn’t clear to Browser exactly how many new parents, mom’s especially, will have the inclination (or presence of mind) to go online and enter data about baby’s every move. But Babblesoft’s product does have one nifty feature any new mom will love: It can provide tallys of how much time she’s spent taking care of her little bundle of joy. “Sometimes you think, ‘What have I done all day?’ ” Gunasegaram says. “You can look and say, ‘Oh, I spent five hours today nursing.’ “
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Interestingly, they also ran a piece called Will the soccer moms buy it? in reference to soccer moms buying the iPhone by Apple (sooo much hype about the iPhone and sooo little time to read all about it). According to their source, 60% of soccer moms would not buy one. I’m not a soccer mom (yet) and even if I wanted to buy it, who has $600 + peripheral fees + monthly service fees laying around?!? I’d rather spend the money on my kids, a day at the spa, or building Babble Soft! Or better yet we could spend it on making our application iPhone compatible! But here’s something soccer moms probably would want to buy for their kids: a hand knitted iPhone! Daddy Types‘ mother created it. What a cool mom!
[…] The cell phone as a baby monitorThe cell phone as baby monitor. A few years ago, when the price of wireless airtime plummeted, wireless executives sometimes talked about customers who used pairs of mobile phones as baby monitors. (The Browser suspects this is the … […]
I guess there might be people who aren’t interested in tracking everything, but for some of us, Baby Manager is invaluable! I used to cringe every time my lactation consultant or pediatrician said “how often are you nursing?” or “how many wet/dirty diapers does she have in a day?” because I just CAN’T remember these things — but now I don’t have to!
Thanks Aruni! : )
if you really want to use your iphone as a baby monitor, check out iCry (uhear). It lets you listen in on your little one from the yard (or further, if you have babysitters) from your iphone. It’s almost available… sign up for beta now!