Yoto devices?

[flyweightnate]

We'd love to have audiobooks and curated music playlists for our kids (preschool and elementary), but need to not hand them a device with internet, ads, or a way to screw it up.

Yoto seems like the solution. Looks like there are rewriteable "cards" we could refresh through the Libby app or Spotify, making the long term cost not much more than the initial.

Anyone have experience with these or alternatives you'd recommend?

[Painthappy]

Never heard of those. A quick look, they look neat. I mean, a loadable standard mp3 player might be also what you need/want. Just download what you want onto your computer and load them on. You can use this: https://ezconv.com/7r4o to download from youtube their favorite songs / stories. Or join and make a play list yourself that you curate and use a program (I have a mac, so youtube to mp3) and you can download full playlists.

So no experience on that particular device. But tossing out an alternative.

[flyweightnate]

Yep, my middle has my old Sansa Clip loaded with an SD card full of stuff. Not simple enough to navigate, though, for the youngest.

Might check out that link later. Seems useful.

[RedLeaderSB]

You might guess that data is stored in the cards, but it’s more of a signal to access that content stored on memory that is loaded via WiFi. I did not really understand this at first.
it’s pretty cool, and easy to navigate for little ones. I’d probably buy it again.

[RedLeaderSB]

Another weird thing since the cards are not actual storage, they can “contain” wildly different amount of content in minutes of audio. Some are like 8 mins and some 30

[The Inflicted]

We've got one for our 3-year-old. She mostly gets to use it on trips. For a while we listened to the daily broadcast show before bed.

[BSmiff]

Grandma gave my youngest girls Yotos for Christmas last year. They liked them, but I found the setup and content loading process tedious. About six months ago an update landed and the devices couldn't connect to the WiFi anymore. I gave it the obligatory 30 minutes of troubleshooting and told the kids treeware (books) never need internet connections. Bottom line for me was if the device requires all kinds of reconfig to the wifi security to work after an update, I don't want it on my network.

[Tarsun2]

we have the YOTO and Tonies.
i will never go back to Tonies...

the Yoto is great. the full size ones have a little led display and have quite a few features to keep the kiddo's occupied. There are also travel ones that we use. great for spending nights at the grandparents house or if we stay in a hotel.

the full size one stays a home. Setting up was easier than the Tonies and the cards take allot less space than the Tonies figures.

If you ever take a deep dive into how these two players work, its wild. As my father says; "woah, they did have THESE when I was a kid..." lol

[nerdcore]

Co-worker had a Yoto Mini for his kid. He loved it for all the reasons that a parent would, having a device that provides content as pure as the target audience. His daughter loved it because she could operate it on her own (granted, only with the cards he provided).

But it was left outside once, and it rained. He wasn't able to salvage it. I'm sure he bought another one, though.

[Siress]

We were gifted a Yoto, but I haven't been able to bring myself to spending $50+ for a single audiobook "card" for a proprietary platform they'll grow out of in a few years. I did read that you can load audio files onto the device, but I didn't look into it much.

Now days, they're old enough that we give them cheap Android tablets with kid profiles, no app store access, no browsers, and all apps/media pre-loaded by yours truly. Since they only get to use these during road trips or other rare circumstances, and not as a daily/weekly thing, it's easily manageable for me to do it all manually. That said, I've also got them set up with PBS Kids and will let them connect to wifi (my phone's hotspot) to watch shows or download new games that I didn't pre-load since I trust that app entirely.

Pro tip - get magnetic adapters for the headsets. The physical ones WILL get broken off, and the wireless ones will get lost eventually or need charging at the worst time. I have them using a wireless compatible headset with a magnetic USB-C cord - so maybe one day I'll let them use the wireless feature again. Before that, it was magnetic 3.5mm jack adapters. Before that, it was a trail of lost and broken headsets/barrel-jacks... I'll never forget the one they left at a restaurant the same day it was given...

[flyweightnate]

Ok, solid call on the magnetic adapters.

[The Inflicted]

One of the main reasons we bought the Yoto was to occupy our kid on a lot of long plane rides (and to avoid screen time) but we discovered too late that it's impossible for the device to "play" new cards when you're already flying.

Still a fan of it once we figured out the quirks. The lack of a screen is by far its best feature.