Macworld Forums

Hello all,

Can anyone recommend software suitable for ages three to five years old children which is available on the high street not online?

Have you used a particular educational app and found it helped or rather kept your child's imagination going?

I know there are lots of games online which kids enjoy like on the Cartoon Network website, but there are times that it would be nice to just give them something else to do on the mac that did not involve going online.

I have seen stuff about like for Barbie or Disney fans but most of it seems to be only usable in Classic mode which I never use. Are there any Mac OS 10.3.6 compatible stuff out there I wonder?

Thanks

Helen J.

maggie, most of the software I obtain seems to rely on you having Classic support loaded as it has not been written for 10.x software at all. There is some software the appears to use 10 upwards, like Enjie Benjy. But most is 8.1 upwards, so I run mine using Classic support which actually works very well.

The problem is will Classic support be available when Tiger is released?

Gary

maggie,
heres a macupdate search you might see something http://tinyurl.com/5z8sj
and on versiontracker http://tinyurl.com/4nx2h

maggie, I have found a piece of software that runs native on OS X for children called Cliffords The Dogs Phonics. Give that a try.
Gary

Maggie,

The best places for educational software are the big education suppliers. They will also sell to the public. Try:

REM
TAG Learning
Sherston Software
Granada Learning

They sell a HUGE range of software. A fair bit of it will still be needing to run in Classic as schools have been slow to adpot OS X. Most Sherston stuff is still triple format (Mac, Windows, Acorn).

Hope this helps...

maggie,
Currys and PC world stock a few titles of mac/pc compatible software you just have to search the shelves. None of it however is 10.3.6 compatible yet. If you have classic running along side OSX there is no problem allowing it to kick in when required. My 5 yr old has had great fun out of the "Learning Books" series, "Green Eggs and Ham", "Dr Seuess ABC", "Postman Pat", "Maisy", and "Pingu"! - however he is now playing "Age of the Empires" and "Maisy" is "babyish!!! (Most of this is 8.6 and upwards compatible running on 9.2.2 so check out the requirements first)
Good Luck
Angie

maggie,

Try the new Kid Pix Deluxe 3 my two young ones love it. £30 and there is lots to keep them happy.
Have to buy online but these people delivered within 24 hours. Cool! http://www.macgames.co.uk/

Best.

Angie2, off course all this is irrelevant if Apple phase out Classic Support within Tiger which will leave everyone concerned with a much smaller software library.

gswhite,
Do you really think they will when so many people use applications like Quark 4.1? Its a big chunk of the design industry and many people still have not gone over to OSX yet anyway - I personally think they wont if classic is withdrawn.

I know many small design companies that are still on 8.6 and while it works they wont change!

When they withdrew the floppy drive third party alternative devices popped up, people will always find a way round and apple becomes more unpopular with their customer base. Dont get me wrong nothing apple do surprises me!

I cant believe they can send out upgrades that cause such chaos on such a wide scale - and then to ugrade again to 10.3.7 which seems to have only made things worse!!

Scary!!

Angie

Angie2,

>Do you really think they will when so many people use applications like Quark 4.1? Its a big chunk of the design industry and many people still have not gone over to OSX yet anyway - I personally think they wont if classic is withdrawn.

So, presumably you expect them to go over to Windows instead? With ALL new hardware, ALL new software and ALL the aggorvation that would cause, even WITHOUT the trojans, spyware, viruses and other rubbish that PC users accept as perfectly normal and acceptable. Why do they put up with it? Beats me.

>When they withdrew the floppy drive third party alternative devices popped up, people will always find a way round and apple becomes more unpopular with their customer base. Dont get me wrong nothing apple do surprises me!

Why did Apple become more unpopular due to phasing out the floppy disk? Are you seriously suggesting that they should still be using this? Please!

>I cant believe they can send out upgrades that cause such chaos on such a wide scale - and then to ugrade again to 10.3.7 which seems to have only made things worse!!

Like what, exactly? Chaos on a large scale? What on the scale of the Netsky virus perhaps?

There are a few issues listed over on macfixit.com asscoiated with 10.3.7, but the vast majority of people seem to have upgraded without any problems at all.

I think that you are exaggerating the issues here slightly.

gswhite,

Classic support is in Tiger, and will not be removed for quite some time.

JP.

Apple Certified System Administrator

Angie2, Slightly off topic (Sorry Maggie). I think the point I am trying to make is although thanks to JP we now know that Tiger will support Classic, it was an unknown! Apple won't support old OS and applications forever. There may be software houses etc that still use these old versions, but I would be surprised if Apple continue to support classic mode in versions post Tiger. It may become unviable!

It would make no sense and at the end of the day, Apple are in the business of making money, and that means selling iPods, iTunes, Macs and the software that runs on Macs. Plus most of the commercial software that was available on older versions of Mac OS are now ported and available on OS X. So apart from cost of upgrade, there is no senseable reason not to upgrade, espeacially if there are added features from software XX V4.0 to V7.0.

Believe me working in the IT industry I fully understand the 'If it an't broke don't try fixing it' attitude, but sooner or later you have to move forward. Being a switcher myself, I personally disliked the older Apple operating systems, and if it was not for OS X I would not have switched. It was one of the major contributing factors for making my final decision to switch. Believe me, I am glad I did so, and would never go back now! But I am not sure I would have made the same decision if it was OS 9 staring down at me from my monitor.

gswhite,

Classic support will not be dropped for quite some time. It's just in maintenance now so no major new additions but it's not like keeping an entire OS up to date.

JP.

Apple Certified System Administrator

maggie,

Take a look here:

http://tinyurl.com/3qzrn

MacKiev software is now being distributed in the UK too, iBelieve.....

http://www.softline.co.uk/lifestyledetail.lasso?code=KPIX3

HTH.

andybarton,
I dont want to start you off again but what I was trying to say was that many people are already put off by upgrading their system when it all works.

Most people on this forum have the knowlegde and bravery to plough headlong into the new upgrades but others are not like that. By withdrawing classic I think apple would be cutting of their nose to spite their face. They gain very little, I dont think people would switch to windows I think they would stick to the old systems as long as possible. Yes they would have to upgrade at some time but alot of people would manage for longer.

The floppy drive has not been missed here but a few people panicked to start with.
I dont agree that we should still be using it either, how could you still be using it when most file sizes are into gigs now?! However there are some users whose files are small enough to use floppies still - and do!

Reading through this forum and others like it - as I know you do, and that I know you help alot of people, surely you cant think that all the problems with 10.3.6 and 10.3.7 are small. It seems fairly widespread to me that alot of people are struggling with long start up times and worse. Dont you think that problems like these should be identified and dealt with before releasing?

I dont think I am exaggerating issues, just putting my point of view across. It may be wrong and not as informed but there are a lot of people out there less informed than myself!

Personally I upgraded to 10.3.6 from 10.3 last weekend and luckily have not had too many problems - it has taken me this long to do it as the "not broken dont fix it" syndrome becomes important when you work alone and rely on a small amount of technical knowledge.

PS - JP glad to hear they are keeping classic a wwhile longer!!

Angie

Angie2,

"surely you cant think that all the problems with 10.3.6 and 10.3.7 are small."

Most of them are. The problems are generally to do with other issues, disk problems that are accentuated by the update and things like changing the DNS resolver in 10.3.7 (which solved lots of major problems). Delta upgrades are tested for weeks or months before release with a large cross section of machines. Any update related problems are generally caught before release, and it's normally only application or individual machine problems that are left. Slow start up times are often pre-binding issues for instance, or a disk problem.

You also have to remember that out of all the people who apply these updates it's generally the people who have problems that complain about them, and there's also a lot of people that suffer from a placebo effect with updates (it *feels* faster or slower).

JP.

Apple Certified System Administrator