back to article iPad baby baffled by paper magazine

Youth is not wasted on the young. But apparently paper is, and so are static and archaic publishing models that don't involve pinching and poking. This baby is so used to an iPad that old-fashioned dead-tree media is just baffling. Somebody get this baby an Android tablet and some Arduino boards, tout de suite. Tip of the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Err

    It's a baby. Babies can't read.

    1. amanfromearth

      It's a baby.

      What's not to like?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @amanfromearth

        Screaming, stinky nappies and projectile vomit!

        They're great when they belong to someone else though!

        I'd love to see a version of this when the ipad and magazine get a good coating of 10 minute old dinner - I bet there would be a slight difference in reaction from the owner of said items!

  2. Vitani

    All babies do this with books & magazines (heck, even some grown men grope at magazines), it's just the tablet responds to those touches where as the paper does not. Interestingly enough, the magazines respond when she tries to turn the pages, but the tablet doesn't. That to me sounds like the death of tablets! Or not.

    Nice bit of entertainment, poor bit of journalism. Should be filed under Bootnotes, not Hardware.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Bootee notes?

    2. Scorchio!!

      @Vitani

      "Nice bit of entertainment, poor bit of journalism. Should be filed under Bootnotes, not Hardware."

      Perhaps not. Bear with me. Hubel and Wesel (spelling may be wrong) reared kittens in an environment deprived of horizontal phenomena, at a critical stage in their neurodevelopment. The result, when released into a conventional environment? They could not 'see' horizontal features and bumped into them. I believe the reason why colour blindness predominates in males not females is that they are not brought up to identify and use colours in the same way that females are. A conventional psychobiologial/neo Darwinist explanation might be than men are not thought of as requiring the skills necessary to put together meals not contaminated by (eg) toxic berries or perhaps decaying/infected foodstuffs.

      There are other more interesting neurodevelopmental tales to tell, including ones behind the development of social and political behaviour of children as they emerge into adulthood, spending/thrift and on it goes.

      In sum, you have a lump of biohardware on your shoulders, it has a manufacturing process that continues after birth, and how parents bring up their children is important, as evidence by the eccentric, nay dangerous, behaviour of one (supposedly adult) Harman, H.

      1. Christopher Cowan

        @ scorchio Colour blindness

        Colour blindness occurs because of a problem on the X chromosome not because women look at colourful things more than men. Men have one X chromosome and women have two, the problem needs to occur on both X chromosomes in women that is why men are more likely to inherit colour blindness.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Suburban Inmate
        Boffin

        Colour blindness you say

        Horizon series 50 episode 1.

        The tribe at the end is fascinating.

  3. Kirstian K
    Childcatcher

    Ive got a 2 year old and a 8 month old, and both use my ipad(2). we keep it to a minimum as we want our kids to have a life, but as a geek, how can we not let them have a play, afterall there are just so many cool apps out there for kids.

    anyway, both of mine have the same problem, the eldest cannot understand why the TV or old mobiles dont work touch screen (even though seeing him touch the tv whilst im using the controler i guess is cruel and misleading),

    but you think about the world they are going to grow up in :

    3d tvs,

    touch screens everywhere

    kinnect etc,

    the mind boggles, there is probably no requirement to teach them to use a mouse, by the time they are old enough to use a standard pc properly, mice will probably be a thing of history.

    add into that the printable paper lcd screens we have heard about, magazines petentially could be touch sensitive soon anyway..

    as a parent i think the most important thing we all have to face for this next generation is to really try and keep there feet ont he ground as well as open there eyes to whats out there. just whatever you do, dont let them get consumed by it,

    but unfortunately there will be a bucket load of social outcast, moron kids that dont know there is actually a world out there.

    1. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

      Re:

      At current rates, none of our kids will have jobs by the time they enter the labour market, so they may as well start to learn how to piss away their time on gadgets as as possible.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        2000AD

        "At current rates, none of our kids will have jobs by the time they enter the labour market, so they may as well start to learn how to piss away their time on gadgets as as possible."

        Ahead of it's time.

        Or something. I wish they'd agreed to change the title to 3000AD. Or possibly, 2020AD...

        1. lawndart

          You have a point there; after all, laws seem to get more invasive and draconian all the time, and our leader has a Clegg for back-up.

      2. OrsonX

        I must be getting old.

        But I find the tone and language of this editorial interjection somewhat below par.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge
          Childcatcher

          @OrsonX

          Not old enough, I think it's spot on.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Tony Smith

        You mean unemployed teenagers can afford iPads and other gadgets?

        I reckon they should be taught to be satisfied with pressing the button at pedestrian crossings.

        1. sheep++;
          FAIL

          Pedestrian crossing buttons.

          Many of these are a waste of money - they give the illusion that the pedestrian is in control, but in bigger traffic junctions, it's all to do with the timing of the traffic lights. And while I'm ranting, With proper pedestrian crossings why the hell is the delay at the start after pressing the button. To my mind, the lights should change fairly immediately to allow you to cross and have the pause at the end. </rant>

          1. Decius
            Flame

            Re: Sheep

            Of course they are a waste of money, along with the roads. You don't need the roads to get to where you want to walk, and the fact that there are other people who have different needs is lost on you. As is the concept of minimizing the total of the squares of delays.

          2. TheRegistrar
            Holmes

            The function the change the lights does begin instantly, but they run Java on a 50Mhz CPU and sometimes the Garbage Collection kicks in, hence the delay.

      4. Graham Marsden
        Happy

        @Tony Smith

        To quote from The Ballad of Halo Jones, I think you mean "Increased Leisure Citizens" :-)

      5. Iain Hamilton
        Thumb Up

        They won't have the money for gadgets so will have to just sit there figuring out how to turn the pages on their paper magazines at the local library.....oh shoot, they might be closed too.

    2. Blue eyed boy
      Big Brother

      @but you think about the world they are going to grow up in :

      > 3d tvs,

      > touch screens everywhere

      >kinnect etc,

      And cameras to record their every movement and gesture.

    3. Steve Walker
      Thumb Up

      Fully understand.

      My 2 & 1/2 year old stands in front of the TV with her hand out and moves up and down - as that is what she has seen when using the Kinnect. To her that is "how" you work the television.

      And as for phones, surely you *always* touch the screen ... She knows no different - if you present her with a classic phone with buttons she thinks that what you pay for shopping with ...

      Go figure! This is their world now not ours. I had some Lego and Meccano and a TV with 3 channels and 4 buttons on the knob on the front - and this is all I knew.

      Regards,

      Steve

  4. TRT Silver badge
    Happy

    From first step to NextStep.

    Amusing but anecdotal.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "It will remain so her whole life"

    Imagine the situation in 15 years time...

    This exam paper is an ipad that doesn't work.......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      He won't be able to pay for education anyway

    2. BatCat
      Go

      Clearly...

      in 15 years time, exams will be taken using the iPad 17S

      1. Fibbles

        Re: Clearly...

        I'm not sure your math is quite right there... unless you're suggesting that from now on Apple will be releasing an ipad a month for the next 15 years?

        1. Fibbles
          Unhappy

          Misread 17S as 175. I deserved those downvotes.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can't say I'm at all surprised to see that.

    If I try to use my iPad during the daytime my 1 year old will always climb up, steal it from me and then just play with her apps. If I wait until the evening when I put her to bed, I will without fail come back downstairs to find my wife on it. I can't win.

    Perhaps I should start buying magazines. Maybe they'd confuse the baby by the lack of interactivity and distract the wife with celeb gossip. Then I'd get a chance to find out what this angry birds thing is.

  7. amanfromearth

    Awww...

    That's all

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Utter nonsense

    This video shows nothing of the sort. Yes the child is likely use to an iPad as opposed to a magazine but it's shows no signs of frustration when it realises the two are different. It just realises the two are different and guess what? They are!! Methinks the video creator needs to attend fanboys anonymous.

    1. ArmanX
      Thumb Down

      Actually, this video makes me a bit sad. If a baby knows more about iPads and iPhones than magazines and books, that really just means that baby has had more interaction with iStuff than with Real Stuff. Which means instead of learning useful skills like fine motor control and imagination, she's learning that entertainment is a single finger-poke away. Give her a few years, and she'll be just like some kids I met at the park - everyone else was running around, having fun, and they were sitting on a bench playing their Nintendo DS's.

      When I was a kid, my parents didn't even own a TV, and I didn't miss it - and I was rarely bored. The kid down the street had a Nintendo, his own TV, and all sorts of fancy interactive toys, and was bored all the time. Kids need fewer gadgets and toys and computers, not more...

  9. petur
    FAIL

    *sigh*

    As a comment on the Youtube page says: kids (certainly 1-year old) do this on anything you give them... It just happens that on the ipad something moves in response.

    No way this kid is trying to interface with the magazine...

    The person putting up the video and claiming this nonsense shouldn't have kids, since he has no clue about raising them.

  10. Mark McNeill
    Flame

    Three pretty obvious points

    One, babies have always pointed at things.

    Two, babies have always loved shiny moving things.

    Three, what should we conclude? That we should dumb down interfaces to baby standards?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And they're not already? :P

      Hate to point this one out to you =P

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      It's already been concluded

      See Windows 8 Metro and MacOS X Lion.

    3. Belgarion

      ...and just like that, Apple's secret is revealed.

  11. stucs201
    Joke

    Well better than confusing them the other way around

    E.g.

    An iPad is a magazine that doesn't bend.

    An iPad is a piece of paper that gets you smacked when you draw on it with crayons.

  12. Richard Jukes

    erm

    "Three, what should we conclude? That we should dumb down interfaces to baby standards?"

    I thought they already had...

  13. Stephane

    According to my 9 months old, magazines are full of shiny things that can be ripped apart and spread around the house. As for the eee pad, it's nice to pull away from daddy's face then mash hands on repeatedly.

  14. Ragarath
    Alert

    Oh no, babies play with things to find out how they work. Shock, horror!

    My only thought was at that age my two sons knew the difference between a book and an interactive device so what have these parents been teaching their little one.

    She did not even use the tablet properly, just moving things (which is incredibly simple) no demonstration of pinch and zoom unlike with what this person interpreted as pinch and zoom on the magazine and then replayed because they were SO amazed. To me the perceived pinch and zoom was just her trying to work out where the page turns.

  15. What? Me worry?
    Childcatcher

    So what's new..?

    For them, it’s “always” been this way. For my youngest brother, there has “always” been World Wide Web. For me, there has “always” been TV. For my parents, there has “always” been radio. For my grandparents, there has “always” been telephone/telegraf, steam locomotive, horseless carriage, etc. Nothing new to see here, move on…

  16. PhilipN Silver badge

    Sheesh - yoof of today

    Not like our day when we were directly keyed into reality -

    When every Rolls Royce was driven by Amos Burke

    Every sticky lolly had Kojak on one end**

    And every guy using a biro in public was actually talking to Ilya Kuryakin

    ** For those too young to know, some company in England brought out a sticky lolly under the name "Kojak Pop" and was duly sued for breach of copyright (or whatever). Plus ca change.

    1. Dan 10

      Memories

      Our school lollipop man (who also happened to be bald a la Telly Savalas) was given the nickname kojak...

  17. LuMan
    FAIL

    Doesn't Work?

    I'll tell you what doesn't work. Filming in portrait mode.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      that's the i effect

      @LuMan

      try rotating the monitor/tv 90 degrees like we do to watch most films made by my wife with her iphone

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Incredible...

    ...that such an epic fanboi managed to laid and father a baby in the first place!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Simples

      We're not obsessed with writing garbage in every Apple related article so we have more time to enjoy actual social and sexually active lives.

      1. Feralmonkey
        Joke

        We're not obsessed with writing garbage

        you seem to be here writing garbage now so it seems to me that your definition of sexually active is probably left or right hand.

  19. Count_of_undolpho
    Facepalm

    @Ragarath Yup! my one year old smashes ants on the iPad but turns the pages of books and/or hands them to a grown up so they can be read to her. She also makes exactly the same pinch and zoom gesture when stroking the cat or beeping me on the nose. Perhaps more interaction with an analogue child is needed?

  20. Ian Entwistle

    My 6 YO is getting a Android tab for Xmas, my 2 YO loves playing on my current Android tab.

    Daft bit is my 6 YO is about to be taught "joined up writing". Am I alone is thinking Why? I haven't written anything serious beyond basic musings on dead trees for years and certainly not in "Real writing" as it was called when I was a kid. I'd rather them spend that time doing something more productive with the time than teaching her a skill she will probably never ever use.

    Ian

    1. BorkedAgain

      Please tell me you're joking.

    2. amanfromearth

      Incredible

      How many broken washing machines are there in your front garden?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      My battery died.. and it's late at night..

      And I'm stuck in town.. What's the number for the taxi?

      Quick let me "write" that down on my hand.. I need a keyboard..

      Oh.... Daddy didn't teach me this bit...

      Ian you are certainly in a very tiny minority who think that instead of using one's natural appendages, who want to replace that with a shiny battery operated one.

      So you don't teach them math either.. "why, just use a calculator"

      You're kids are the ones on TV.. 1+1 is... hang on, let me grab my phone.

      What next? Why hands? Just have the phone implanted, duh..

      "my brain battery died, so I'm stupid till my recharge..."

    4. wibbilus maximus
      Boffin

      maybe

      I'm not certain if the people who have commented on Ian's post have read it the way it was intended. Ian seems to indicate that he is against his 6 YO being taught JOINED UP WRITING and if that is the case, I agree with him. I was taught joined up writing at school but i don't use it now. I see no need to join up my letters when i write. It is a skill that is no longer needed except in very small circles and should be dropped in favour of more useful skills.

      If Ian is referring to writing with a pen and paper in general however, then i encourage him to immediately attempt to gain himself a Darwin award and i weep for his children

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        if joined up is the same as "cursive" writing

        I'm very sad at the idea that it isn't being/mightn't be taught. It can be a beautiful, very personal expression with qualities that don't come across in typed or simply lettered text. I have some letters from a now deceased friend, and if I look at them, I instantly get a wonderful jolt of his personality by looking at his distinctive cursive handwriting. I'm on the computer much of the time, and write far more emails than I do letters, but I still believe a hand-written note with the personal qualities of cursive writing makes a special impression.

        1. Figgus

          Cursive

          I'm glad they are dumping cursive from the curriculum. There are only so many hours in a day, and cursive is a truly useless skill in this day and age. As long as they still teach kids how to print so they can jot something down in a pinch, cursive will never be missed.

          Of course, it not being taught might actually make it cool and unique to know, like calligraphy was in my high school. Seeing papers handed in like that was highly entertaining...

    5. wibbilus maximus
      FAIL

      i take it back

      I've just read his later reply to LOL123 and the reading of that seems to suggest he's against kids being taught to write at all

      in that case despite me giving him the benefit of the doubt it is a n utter fail and i pity his kids

  21. JonnyRoss
    Thumb Up

    Scary

    This really is scary! And it also backs up a lost I wrote last week after I saw my 2 yr old nephew playing with his iPad!!

    http://www.jonnyross.com/news/five-things-we-can-learn-about-digital-marketing-from-children

    1. petur
      Thumb Down

      @JonnyRoss

      Utter rubbish!

      I've never seen a 2-year old handle things so precise. My 3-year old kid has had a go at my tablet a few times, so I know what they can do at this age... The kid in that video is most probably older, or the video is tricked.

      1. Skydreamer

        Somewhere on the prodigy spectrum?

        Kids develop at all sorts of rates, and some will astonish you.

        e.g. Hunter Hayes at 4 years old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57sfRo26fAc

        e.g. Taliya at 3 years old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CgGM67QZPE

        e.g Christian at 2 years old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKOApC9KB48

        e.g. Shae at 1.5 years old: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01rFO9ugy-s

  22. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Unhappy

    Rather sad but that's today's life for kids!

    Kids don't care, they just take it all in without even thinking. My 8 year old just takes info in like an bottomless bucket, whether it comes from electronic or paper form. Kids these days don't think anything of jumping from screen to book, to magazine, back to tablet, to PC screen in the space of a few minutes.

    They've never had a world where these things have been slowly introduced and been able to marvel at the wonder of it all. Technology has always been there for them, an electronic gadget is nothing special to them, it's just another in an endless line of information suppliers. It's a little bit sad that kids under 10 are so jaded but on the other hand if they want to get on with life these days, they have to be that way.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've done this

    Tried to scroll my newspaper.

  24. TRT Silver badge
    Coat

    Tired of playing with daddy's shiny iPad? There's a nap for that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      This just became the new signature on my email.

  25. sisk

    Babies are cute

    I doubt the kid thinks the magazine is a broken iPad, but it's still a cute video. Then again I find all babies cute.

  26. BatCat
    WTF?

    Looks like it's just me...

    ... that noticed the baby isn't actually doing anything productive with the iPad, just randomly making stuff move about on the screen. But I suppose that's exactly what the baby has seen its parents doing... :oP

  27. Keven E.

    Cheezy crazy

    Another bit of foolish Jobsian i-dolly worship.

    Encoded? Really?

  28. Steve Evans

    I wonder...

    I wonder if Apple would like to use my new advertising tag line, it is available for a reasonable fee...

    The #insert_tablet_name_here#, an essential tool for those with poor motor skills.

  29. Steve Ives

    Ermm, I think some of you are reading a little bit too much into this - it's just a funny video. I don't think it actually says anything about anyone's parenting skills.

    Mind you, when my son aged about 4 and his friend were given a disposible camera to play with when camping, they did keep looking at the back to see the picture...

  30. TRT Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Bollocks. It was David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel, BTW.

    The reason colour blindness predominates in males is that one of the rhodopsin genes, a mutation in which causes a shift in the absorption peak, is sex-linked, i.e. it resides on a branch of a chromosome that men don't have (and not having that arm is what makes them male). Therefore a male has only one copy of this gene and a mutation in that gene copy will render their colour vision atypical.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And for the next article:

    Fluffy kitten plays in cardboard box. Cardboard box is not cat bed.

  32. sheep++;
    Meh

    And what happened to Political Correctness...

    Why isn't the baby's face mosaiced to indistintion !

  33. Bunker_Monkey
    Thumb Up

    Almost on parr with

    Scotty attempting to interface with the computer on Star Trek 4 - Voyage home.

    i am still hoping for Dust Repellent paper..

  34. Ian Entwistle

    @LOL123

    I didn't say that she shouldn't learn how to write or do mathematics ( which she is actually very good at ) what I did say is I dont want her to waste time learning "joined up" writing which was a skill taught when people wrote each other letters and were happy waiting a week for a reply. When did you last read anything written in human scribbled joined up writing? I certainly can't remember when I did and I dont think its likley to make a sudden come back.

    At your analogy of writing a taxi number down, why would she need to do that when she could just type it straight into the phone itself? or even SHOCK HORROR remember it?

    1. BorkedAgain
      Facepalm

      Good grief.

      You weren't joking.

      With any luck, your daughter's basic education will be entrusted to people with a little more perspective and common sense.

      (and, although your question was rhetorical, my answer is "five minutes ago" and it's something most people do all the time. Simple reason for this: boot time for a pen / pencil / crayon / burnt stick is zero seconds, they rarely run out of batteries and a reasonable scrawl is still, for most people, the fastest way to transcribe information. Also, doctors notwithstanding, there's rarely a format incompatibility issue...)

      1. Figgus

        Cursive

        I think he was talking about cursive, and to be honest learning a SECOND way of writing with a pen and paper is a colossal waste of time that would be better filled with some math or hard science classes. Block printing is good enough to get by in a pinch, you don't need cursive to jot down a phone number...

  35. Anonymous John

    I read somewhere of someone printing out an animated gif and wondering why it was no longer animated. Probably totally untrue though.

  36. Fatty Eglon

    Holo-feel books 2035?

    I feel quite unwell, I'd eat my feet if this ever happened to my kid. Ipad and paper books yes. Ipad only no chance!! I guess by 2035 people will buy holo-feel books for that old school real book odor and feel. As it is if things carried on the way they are if I'd likely be dead anyway :-P

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The touch-zoom someone claimed she's trying on the magazine, not something she's trying on the ipad as later pointed out, but it does look like she's learning about depth preception, searching for tactile feedback on the text and trying to pull out a sticker.

    Cute, mildly amusing misunderstanding.

    6/10 for stated concept

    but I suspect more liekly:

    10/10 for successfully trolling media houses and their punters! -because at no point does she seem alarmed OR hand it to daddy to fix, which is a child's first reaction to broken things.

    10/10 then, El Reg got suckered :p

  38. kallilB

    Nice entertainment. The tales of human-computer hybrids have long been fodder for sci-fi. Experts, however, have brought two new improvements to light. [url=http://www.newsytype.com/12996-biological-computing/]Two new developments bring biological computing closer than ever[/url]. These developments and others have been making the possibility of biologically compatible computers more likely. Medical science is especially interested in the possibility, as programmable, biologically neutral computers would be able to improve diagnostics. Medical science is not the only use for these developments, but it is sure to be one of the first uses. Truly usable, commercial biological computers are likely to be years, if not decades away. These developments, however, are two major steps toward the reality.

    In a combined effort, Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University have announced that a wearable touchscreen has been developed. The system uses a laser projector and depth-sensing camera. The system projects a touch screen onto any surface (including skin), and tracks hand and finger movements. This means that any surface can become a touchscreen or keyboard. The current OmniTouch system is housed in a shoulder-worn unit, and can project onto almost any surface. The unit is too bulky for commercial sale, but plans are in place to shrink the unit.

  39. patrick_bateman
    FAIL

    waste of typing and video

    both the writer and video person (may be the same i cant be bothed to look) are looking far too deeply into this.

    it doesnt understand what either are and what they actually do.

    a monkey can pickup a car key and some annoying over hyped human will go look, wow, this monkey can drive!

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