Fuhu announces its latest kids tablet, the Nabi Elev-8

Giving a child a Nexus 9 or Galaxy Tab S2 for Christmas might not be the best idea. That’s where Fuhu and its Nabi line of kids tablets comes in, offering a slate that can hold up to a child’s fingerprints and potential damage they’ll put the device through. However, the Nabi 2 is getting old, and Fuhu is back to refresh the line with the all-new Elev-8.

This year’s refresh doesn’t include many changes, but you can expect an 8-inch 1280 x 800 slate. The company says this is the thinnest tablet it has created yet, but hasn’t released any details on the dimensions. You can expect that thinness to go away after enclosing the Elev-8 in the plastic casing intended to help child-proof the tablet (e.g. protection against drops, spills, and so on).

As far as specs go, it’s got 32GB of onboard storage, microSD support, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a front 2MP camera, and a microphone.

As per the norm, you can expect the Elev-8 to have a fully featured child-friendly interface with plenty of colors, large icons, and an arsenal of different activities. There’re growing concerns of how much screen time kids have these days, and to help combat against that, Fuhu has included a bunch of parental controls for tracking screen time, limit the use of certain apps, and so on.

You can pick up the Elev-8 from retailers like Walmart or Toys R Us for $169. It’s the perfect gift for your child this Christmas, and if you buy it before December 31, you’ll get a free six month Nabi Pass, which is a subscription to a bunch of child friendly and education-based content.

Anyone picking one up this holiday season? Press release below.

Fuhu Propels Kids Tablet Technology, Experience and Design to New Heights With the Launch of nabi ELEV-8

The Most Enhanced, High-Tech, Full-Featured Tablet, Built Just for Kids, That Merges the Latest High-Performance Technology With Best in Class, Meaningful Digital Experiences to Set a New Standard in “Elevating” Screen Time to Enriching Playtime

Loaded With a Six-Month Complimentary Subscription to nabi Pass, With Curriculum-Based Educational Enrichment, and Much More for $169*

EL SEGUNDO, CA–(Marketwired – Oct 20, 2015) – Fuhu, Inc., the creator of the award-winning nabi® tablet and the foremost innovator in technology solutions for families, is debuting today its most advanced and powerful kid-focused tablet to date — nabi Elev-8™. With its new flagship tablet, Fuhu is once again setting a new standard in the kids technology arena and loudly declaring that kids deserve more than just a device: they deserve a tablet powerful enough to keep up with their high demands, that is chock-full-of content-rich meaningful digital experiences that empower them to get the most out of their screen time and digital playtime, and sleek enough to match up to the design of the hottest adult tablets.

nabi Elev-8 raises the kids tablet bar on every level, while giving parents peace of mind by offering the most comprehensive parental controls, including an advanced time control system for monitoring tablet use time. The tablet was built with some of today’s most advanced technology specs and marks the first kids device to include a 64-bit Octa-core Processor — giving it the speed and power needed to unleash the huge array of robust and meaningful experiences offered to provide kids a safe gateway to digitally explore the world around them. These experiences include — for a limited time — free, six-month access to Fuhu’s industry leading kids content subscription service, nabi Pass™. This curated, kids-focused “all you can eat” mixed media subscription service offers good-for-the-brain content led by unlimited access to nabi’s award-winning Wings Learning System™ for skill set mastery, as well as “kid friendly and parent approved” videos, TV shows, apps, games, books and music (*offer good for nabi Elev-8 tablets purchased through December 31, 2015, and while supplies last).

nabi Elev-8 also marks a complete shift in design for the nabi tablet line, with an ultra-thin, sleek, more sophisticated look intended to make it a product kids can truly grow with over time. While other companies are slashing the cost of their tablets at the expense of quality and experience, Fuhu remains laser focused and unrelenting on its core mission: delivering superior, high-end, and top quality smart technology experiences and solutions for families at an affordable price. nabi Elev-8 is now available at Walmart and Toys R Us nationwide for just $169 MSRP.

“At Fuhu, it is our top priority to create high technology solutions accessible to families,” said Jim Mitchell, CEO of Fuhu. “With nabi Elev-8, we are once again setting the standard and showing that we are putting kids and families first in designing the type of enriching, high-quality experiences and tablets that they deserve. Our goal is to continue to innovate and move the industry forward for the benefit of our end users — kids and families. While others in our category may resort to driving down price at the expense of quality, performance and experience, creating digital babysitters, we are here to push the envelope and continue to show that delivering robust digital engagement and a healthy media diet should be a top priority.”

Elev-8 Design and Technology

nabi Elev-8 is Fuhu’s thinnest, lightest, most sophisticated and powerful tablet that runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and is the first kids tablet to include a 64-bit Octa-core Processor. With an 8″ IPS 1280×800 multi-touch panel, 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32 GB of media via MicroSD card, nabi Elev-8 delivers an advanced and impressive high-tech solution designed specifically for kids.

With great focus on design, nabi Elev-8 is encased in durable pearl white finished casing, helping to protect the screen’s glass edge in the event of bumps and drops. Under nabi’s signature red bumper, nabi Elev-8 unveils a thin, sleek, sophisticated design with front firing speakers covered with stainless steel grills. nabi Elev-8 has rear (5MP) and front (2MP) cameras, 1080p video capabilities and a built-in microphone for kids to create and share their digital masterpieces or video chat safely with their friends and family.

Elev-8 Screen Time

Screen time should be enriching and worthwhile. For a limited time, nabi Elev-8 comes with six months free of nabi Pass, a multimedia subscription for kids that provides unlimited access to Wings Learning System and good for the brain content spanning several media categories — videos, books, apps, games and music — refreshed monthly to enrich and inspire kids’ interest and creativity.

In addition to nabi Pass and a current lineup of impressive content partners such as Discovery Communications, National Geographic Kids, and Cupcake Digital, nabi Elev-8 debuts all new content experiences from red-hot kids content makers including four apps from the No. 1 mobile-first kids brand Toca Boca, and children’s educational app, Captain McFinn’s Swim & Play featuring live, interactive guided play.

Elev-8 Learning

Award-winning Wings Learning System delivers over 300,000 questions for Pre-K through 6^thgrade, covering fundamentals in math, reading and writing. Aligned to Common Core State Standards, Wings curriculum adapts to each child’s proficiency levels. Wings Learning System provides real time feedback for efficient learning with teacher led video tutorials to walk kids through core concepts and how to get to the right answers for each quest. Parents can also access reports on their child’s proficiency levels with Wings N-Site.

Elev-8 Experiences

nabi’s proprietary Blue Morpho™ OS offers tools that help foster the 5 key characteristics of well-balanced, happy kids — academic achievement, self-discipline, social connectedness, self-confidence and creativity & imagination — through over 400 kid-friendly, parent-approved features, including Wings Learning System, Chore List, nabi Konnect and DreamPro Studio.

Elev-8 Controls

nabi delivers the most comprehensive controls that not only offers parents real insight to children’s tablet usage, but also the ability to positively influence their screen time by being involved in setting a healthy media diet. nabi Time Controls do more than just power on and off — parents have access to full usage reports and set time limits for individual apps or a group of apps. Parents can also reward kids with more playing time on their favorite apps and games for time spent on learning apps or other enriching activities — all with the help of an animated nabi character that lets kids know when it is time to exercise, learn, play or go to sleep.

nabi Elev-8 is debuting at an exciting time, as Fuhu continues to expand its portfolio of family-friendly technology solutions. Earlier this year, Fuhu announced its entry into the realm of Internet of Things, with groundbreaking devices in the baby and toddler space, and Fuhu also plans to enter the wearables arena in the coming months. In addition to several recent product debuts, Fuhu has been the recipient of a series of prestigious accolades, including makingFast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2015 list as the #4 most innovative company in the consumer electronics industry and #24 most innovative company overall worldwide.

Come comment on this article: Fuhu announces its latest kids tablet, the Nabi Elev-8

Upcoming Google Maps update will enable users to navigate to multiple destinations

Google has just published the contents of a rather nifty update it’s set to start rolling out to Maps for Android over the next few weeks. This upgrade will enable users to add stops to their journey, meaning they’ll be able to set a waypoint to a destination and get directions to a gas station en route, without having to reset their final port of call.

Here’s what Google had to say:

“When you’re driving in navigation mode and you get that call from your spouse to pick up some more milk on your drive home or if you’re on a road trip and want to find a great restaurant option along your route, simply tap the magnifying glass at the top right corner of the screen.

You’ll see a drop-down menu with helpful options, like gas stations, grocery stores, or restaurants. If the drop-down options aren’t what you need, you can always add a detour to your favorite coffee shop by tapping the search icon or by using voice commands.”

Are you looking forward to this update? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: Google

Come comment on this article: Upcoming Google Maps update will enable users to navigate to multiple destinations

Game streaming comes of age with GeForce NOW

Over the past few years, streaming has gradually become the dominant way of enjoying media. Without any big announcement or launch, services such as Spotify and Netflix have become part of our lives, making it easy to instantly access huge libraries of music, movies and TV shows at a reasonable price and without having to amass an enormous pile of physical media or wait for downloads.

Streaming games over the Internet is a more challenging puzzle compared to streaming movies and music, however. And NVIDIA solved it with a unique combination of advanced gaming supercomputers in cloud datacenters and low-latency optimizations for encoding and decoding that make the experience feel just like playing a game locally on a console in your living room.

The company has launched its own commercial cloud-gaming service called GeForce NOW, and it’s available now, exclusively on the SHIELD platform. Members can access the service to stream a collection of more than 60 popular PC games that you’d otherwise need a top-end rig to play. NVIDIA’s cloud gaming servers do the heavy lifting, turning up all those detail settings and encoding every frame in an instant, and then flinging the results across the Internet to SHIELD devices at up to 60 fps nd a1080P, without latency getting in the way and ruining your fun. No other game-streaming service currently offers this level of performance.

The service is launching with 60-plus games available to dip into as you like on NVIDIA SHIELD, with something to match every gaming mood. It packs big-name action games such as Borderlands, Red Faction: Armageddon, Dead Rising 2 and Bionic Commando, alongside more adventurous titles like Alan Wake, Brutal Legend, Psychonauts and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

If you’ve a taste for racing games then you’re spoiled for choice, with the likes of GRID 2, MotoGP 15, F1 2010 and Toybox Turbos leading the pack. If arcade action is more your thing then you’ll find PixelJunk Shooter, Astebreed, Ultra Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken.

And if NVIDIA has plans to set itself up as the Netflix of gaming then it’s on the right track, with a bunch of series available to provide the gaming equivalent of box set binging: three of the Batman Arkham series including the critically acclaimed Arkham City, a whole swathe of LEGO games, two helpings of Darksiders and, best of all, The Witcher 2 with this year’s blockbuster, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on GeForce NOW.

That’s hundreds of hours of gaming on-demand, and there are plenty more games to follow: look out for Mad Max, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and LEGO Jurassic World in the near future. Check out the full list of games here.

Naturally you’ll need a reasonably strong Internet connection to make the most of it. NVIDIA recommends a minimum broadband speed of at least 10Mbps, and a SHIELD-Ready 5 GHz Wi-Fi router, to stream at 720p resolution and 60 fps (frames per second). A minimum connection speed of 25Mbps is required to stream at 1080p resolution and 60 fps.

You’ll also need to get your hands on an NVIDIA SHIELD. The latest model, SHIELD Android TV, is a beast of a set-top box powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra X1 processor that’s built for high-end gaming and absolutely perfect for getting the very best out of GeForce NOW. It’s also a full-featured home entertainment hub that can pump out 4K video and 7:1 surround sound. It comes complete with its own high precision controller, and it’s available now with prices starting at $199.

You can join GeForce NOW for a reasonable price of $7.99 a month with the first three months available to try out for free. To find out more about how GeForce NOW enables you to enjoy gaming instantly, without all the hassle of discs, downloads, installations and patches, get more details here.

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