Are your kids begging you for a smartphone but you want to hold off until they are a bit older? Techno Source may have the perfect phone for your family. It is introducing The Kurio Phone, which is packed with safety features. The MSRP has not yet been announced but the phone should be in stores this spring. The TimetoPlayMag.com Team will review it as soon as possible. Here are just some of its capabilities:
Contact Management
Parents can manage a child’s contacts, allowing, or blocking certain contacts. If parents choose to maintain a safe list of contacts, kids may add contacts to their device, but they won’t be able to call or message them until the parents add them to the list of allowable numbers. Parents can create up to five primary contacts that aren’t subject to any restrictions and can also receive alerts.
Phone Use
Parents can set daily, weekly, or monthly call-time limits and also limit the child’s number of text messages. They can also access the child’s call log, text message, and internet browsing history. In order to respect the child’s privacy, the content of MMS and text messages is not displayed.
Application Management
Parents can choose which applications are allowed, blocked, or restricted by the calendar. Newly downloaded applications are blocked by default.
Geolocation
Using Kurio Phone’s GPS tracking technology, parents can monitor their child’s position every 15, 30, or 60 minutes, including his or her current position or last known position.
Geofencing
Parents can also pre-define secure and danger zones on a map, and set the days and times when these zones are activated. If the child leaves a secure zone or enters a danger zone, the parent will receive an alert.
In Case of Emergency (I.C.E.)
Parents can store the child’s information, including date of birth, allergies, blood type, as well as a doctor’s name and phone number, which can be accessed on the device in case of emergency. A child can alert emergency services and their primary contacts in case of emergency, and also trigger a silent alarm by repeatedly pressing the “power” button when in danger.
Theft/Loss
In the event of theft or loss, parents can remotely trigger an alarm on the device, block the phone completely so that it cannot be used, erase the device’s data, set it to take a picture at phone start up, display a message on the device’s screen, and even track the device’s current location.
Kurio Phone’s password-protected parental controls are built into the device and parents can access them remotely from a computer or another device. No subscription is required. Kurio Phone will run on the Android 4.2 (Jellybean) operating system, has a multi-core processor, 1 GB RAM, a 480 x 800 4-inch screen, front and rear-facing cameras, 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, FM radio, and 4 GB of internal memory for apps and files (expandable to 36 GB with a micro SD card).
View Kurio’s current products on TimetoPlayMag.com.