Terrible
My wife is due with our first child in just a couple months and there's no way we would buy this thing. All a baby needs are some dangling, brightly colored objects to paw at. If I had to guess, it probably helps develop coordination. Staring at a screen from the time you pop out of the womb sets you up for a lifetime of sedentary behavior. I feel like too many parents babysit their kids nowadays with an iPad and/or a Netflix subscription.
When my daughter gets older she can use Macs (if they still exist, yikes) and iPads but there will be limits. I had my NES when I was little, and today I have my Xbox One and iPad—but my mom was smart enough to make me go outside and play with my friends. Our neighborhood wasn't exactly poor—maybe lower middle class at best. So with a lack of shiny new toys we got pretty creative with coming up with imaginative games to play. Later on in middle school the internet was developing, and I was able to use it to learn lots of stuff about how to do graphic design and program apps and websites, which led to my future career in app and web design. So I can see the benefits of both. I think a good balance of spare time (outside of homework and chores) will be about ⅓ on devices and ⅔ outside playing, or inside if it's cold playing with legos or reading. Though I bet a lot of the reading will be done on devices, so that might have to be adjusted.
I hope iOS continues to add new and refine existing parental controls, especially filters for Safari. Or use TouchID to set daily time limits—especially for certain app categories such as games. Their fingerprint won't work, say, after 2 hours of use until the next day. That could be overridden by the parent, of course. But could keep them from sneaking in extra device time here and there.
I'd love to hear from other (responsible) parents on how they manage the time spent on devices vs. other types of play. I feel like a lot of it will be trial and error, and it probably depends on the kid.
Ah, thank you. I was feeling very, very depressed after reading the "let the market decide" nonsense. My first child is only 1 and the next is still in the womb, so I am not sure how we will manage the time. So far, I think he's watched some preschool cartoons a total time of 2 or 3 hours in all his lifetime - and he wasn't all that interested. Obviously there will have to be screen time, but we'll keep a close eye on how, when, and why.
Again, thank you for your comment. It's comforting to know there's people like you.
Well it's been scientifically proven that it's detrimental to children under the age of 2 to watch TV. Read John Median's Baby Brain Rules. Years ago, the Baby Einstein DVDs were busted as not only BS but as plainly bad for your child.
An infant/toddler cannot learn from TV/screen. It lacks emotion and social cues. The child learns from direct interaction with people. It picks up everything from their face and listens to it's parents voice. This cannot be replicated by TV.
That being said. I have an 11 year old and a 6 month year old. I didn't let my 11 years old watch much of anything until the age of 2, and I plan on zero tv for my 6 month year old, until they are 2.
Sadly, my ex-wife let my 11 year old son watch a lot of TV and play video games at an early age. IMO this had a negative impact on my son. He does play sports but he lost a lot of creativity once tv/video games started. He didn't want to play with toys or games, and even stopped coloring and drawing. Everything was about tv/video games. I had to do a lot to reverse this.
Yes, it's not easy to cut out TV or other things you like. It requires effort as a parent, but being a parent already requires effort. Cutting down my TV time for a couple years is nothing. There's more to life than TV. We don't watch TV when they baby is awake and around. Once in a while I will put on a soccer game, with low volume, when I'm rocking the baby to sleep. But the baby's back it to the TV. That's it.
Often I find that people let their children veg in front of the tv as a baby sitter. I know a number of parents that specifically say video games are their babysitter. Even worse I find parents that play Mature rated video games with kids that are around 5 years old. It's clear they are selfish and lazy. They want to play these game and don't want to wait for their child to grow up. I find that very upsetting. It's a disservice to your child.
Ultimately each parent can decide what's right for them. But it's amazing how people ignore what the doctors say.
This device is horrible. It not only goes against good parenting and common sense, it also goes against scientific research and the guidelines of expert doctors.
All we need now is an App that changes diapers? Then the baby will grow up to be almost a cyborg! 
