With Nokia ending its mobile division, there have been many new start ups popping up founded by ex-Nokia employees. One of these is Haltian. Haltian is a Finnish company that specializes in helping other companies optimize their products to get them ready to be released. The Basslet is one such project that Haltian helped work on. Now they are releasing their own product, a phone for children. They call it the Snowfox.
How Does it Work?
Here is a promotional video that outlines some of the feature of the device:
As this video describes, this device allows you to feel safe letting your children explore and be independent by allowing for you to keep track of them as well as contact them at any point. According to their Indiegogo campaign, the phone is very simple to set up and use. Supposedly, all you have to do is download their app to your phone, connect your child’s new phone to your account, and then you can start using it.
This phone has many features that make it a more suitable choice for children, as opposed to buying them a smartphone. Some of them are: it is screenless, weather resistant, and the battery lasts a whole week. As a result, your kids can focus more on having fun outside rather than staring at a screen, they don’t have to worry about it getting wet or dirty and you don’t need to worry about their phone dying on them in the middle of the day. This phone is supposedly very intuitive, with only button it simplifies the actions. This button turns the device on, off, answers calls, and sends out a call request.
More Information
As aforementioned, the phone has a built in tracker. This allows you to see where your child is and where they have been on a map built into the app on your phone. It also notifies you when they arrive at a preset location like school or home. Since all calls are done through the app, it also notifies all adults on the account when someone needs to be called. It also tells you if your significant other, or other adult figure on your account, has called your child so that you do not both end up calling.
The Snowfox has a built in plan of only $9.90/month in Canada and the US and €9.90/month in Europe. This plan covers all data and calls for the month. They currently offer their services in Canada, The US, Finland, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. This list will hopefully increase once their Indiegogo campaign is completed and they have gathered information on where interset lies worldwide.
Where Can You Learn More About The Snowfox?
You can learn more on their website or on the article that Haltian wrote about it. They are also hosting an Indiegogo campaign. Their campaign is interesting because their product does not yet have supported functionality in all countries. This lead them to make an option to donate $1.00 to their cause in order to show your interest in their product making its way to your country. As usual, there are many donation amounts that get you your very own device at a discount from market value.
Comments and Opinions
I believe that this is an amazing idea. The children of today will have their whole lives to stare at screens and become technological zombies like the rest of us. But your childhood should be when you learn the habits that we should all have like going outside, enjoying nature and playing in the sun. This device not only gives your children a sense of freedom, but it is affordable, gives you some peace of mind and allows you to be in contact with your children whenever you want. It will help them to grow into responsible, independent adults while you are still able to look out for them.
I believe that in such a technologically advancing world, people are losing the ability to properly socialize without the use of technology. This is an issue that must be rectified from early childhood. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy your children video games, because they are awesome, but I am saying that you should also encourage them to go outside and enjoy this beautiful world we live in. The healthiest thing is to have a good balance in our lives. This product is great because the target demographic are people who don’t really need a phone other than to contact their parents, and six year olds don’t need an iPhone just to call their parents a couple times a week.
