Apple Debuts New 'iBooks Storytime' tvOS App With Read-Aloud Books for Kids

[MacRumors]

Apple has quietly introduced a new tvOS app for kids called "iBooks Storytime," designed to allow children to read along with interactive books on their television sets.

iBooks Storytime features a selection of children's books from the iBooks Store that feature Read-Along capabilities. Read-Along books are audio-enhanced with different character voices, vivid sound effects, and word-for-word narration that children can follow along with.

Parents can purchase Read-Aloud books chosen by App Store editors directly from the Apple TV and control the voice narration with the Siri Remote or turn on an automatic reading feature.

Some of the Read-Along titles include Lava, based on the Pixar short film, Green Eggs and Ham, Meet Tracker, The ABCs of Cookies, The Little Red Hen,
and Goodnight Moon. Apple is offering Dora's Big Buddy Race Read-Along Storybook as a free title for testing the feature.

Read-Along titles are also available on the iPhone and iPad, and previously-purchased selections will show up on the Apple TV. iBooks Storytime is a free download on the Apple TV. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Apple Debuts New 'iBooks Storytime' tvOS App With Read-Aloud Books for Kids

 

[Pakaku]

Read-Along books are audio-enhanced with different character voices, vivid sound effects, and word-for-word narration that children can follow along with.

If I could get Kermit the Frog as a Siri alternative, I would be all over that.

 

[GizmoDVD]

Not showing up for me.

 

[Zedcars]

Call me a Luddite, but I don't think it's healthy for young kids to be staring at a TV screen right before they go to sleep. Even Apple acknowledges the issues of too much blue light entering the eyes at night by featuring Night Shift. But, it's not just that, health experts advise parents to limit screen time for their children.

I think the old-fashioned way with a book is much more intimate and healthier too.

 

[puckhead193]

waiting for "Everyone Poops" to show up! Classic!

 

[bellang]

US only I presume?

 

[CarlJ]

If I could get Kermit the Frog as a Siri alternative, I would be all over that.

Oooh! Or Yoda! His grammar would make some of her mistakes hilarious.

 

[toph2toast]

Is their really a need and/or demand for a service like this. Kind of takes the intimacy of reading a book to your child away...

 

[Thunderhawks]

If nature adapts human eyes will eventually have the shape of TV/monitor screens.

As for books, what is wrong with just reading a book as it is?

 

[humanresources]

If nature adapts human eyes will eventually have the shape of TV/monitor screens.

As for books, what is wrong with just reading a book as it is?

Nothing? We're entering the future. Accept it. People like you is what is dragging us down to enter the future

 

[toph2toast]

Nothing? We're entering the future. Accept it. People like you is what is dragging us down to enter the future

The future is not reading a book to your child? Seems a bit odd...

 

[Thunderhawks]

Nothing? We're entering the future. Accept it. People like you is what is dragging us down to enter the future

People like you seem to think the future just has to be better, no matter what. There are a lot of conveniences, but are they really necessary at all cost?

Not everything about the future is beneficial or positive for humans and why needs there to be a thoughtless race into it?

A book, does not need batteries or a wifi hook up and can get many uses out of being passed on.
It may rip, but does not have broken glass or needs to be taken care off as much as anything you have to do on a computer device. There are kids books with plastic pages that can be taken into the bath tub. Try that with an iPad or so.

Especially kids books which come in many different sizes, diecut shapes, things to pull on, pushing on etc. enhance learning. To tap onto a computer screen is just not the same.

Any action which includes passively waiting for something to happen, does not stimulate what if thinking.

You can tell by the pages you can turn when the book is finished.

A books pages do not put glare into ones eyes and snuggling up with a child reading a book together at night is one of the best experiences one can provide.
If you have ever had a child coming to you with her favorite book asking you to read it, you know what I mean.

Books were a big thing when my kids were growing and my now 30 year old daughter was delighted that I saved all her children's books, which she is now reading to my grand daughter (Who is loving it)

You go into the future without me, it is never wrong to think before jumping into the latest fads.