Kickstarter: Pipsqueak Smartphone for Kids

Kickstarter is a decent service I think but it’s sort of like gambling isn’t it? I mean you give them your money with no guaranteed return at all, you just have to trust them to actually use your money and not run off with it.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s all bad, a lot of great stuff has come from Kickstarter but you just have to cautious I think. So anyway here’s a new Kickstarter project for you, or actually for your kids. The Pipsqueak is a mobile phone for the little ones, but not really as it connects to your phone via Bluetooth and they can then make calls from the Pipsqueak. It does quite a bit more than that, like it’s an MP3 player and it can actually be customized by your kids to make it just their own.

Yip Yap, Inc, founded by first-time inventors and parents of four, Angela and Michael Smith, today introduces Pipsqueak^®, the only Bluetooth mobile phone designed for children 3-years-old and older with affordability, durability and children’s safety in mind.  The product, which launches today on crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com (search Yip Yap), also ushers in a new category for consumer electronics: Bluetooth Kids’ Phones.

Pipsqueak connects with any Bluetooth-capable phone on any wireless network and requires no additional fees or contracts.  While it works with both smartphones and feature phones, the smartphone application allows children to make and receive calls only to contacts determined by their parents.  Children may customize the colors and design of their phones with removable faceplates, screen inserts and charms to hang from the phone.  Pipsqueak also works as an MP3 player, walkie-talkie and voice recorder.

The idea of Pipsqueak was born when the Smith’s oldest daughter, Lilah, (then 3 ½-years-old) came into the kitchen saying “goodbye Gramma” as she handed back Angela’s smartphone.  “As I wiped the cheek-jelly smudges from the touch screen, it occurred to me there ought to be a better mobile solution for my kids than my smartphone, which is both very expensive and also easily damaged,” says Angela.  “That’s when I said to my husband, “‘How hard would it be to make a Bluetooth phone for Lilah?”

Michael Smith, who spent the last 14 years in the cellular industry, knew his wife was onto a winning idea. Over the next 20 months they worked on developing Pipsqueak and along the way discovered that kids talking on a Bluetooth phone rather than cellular phones is a potentially safer alternative.

“We learned that children’s skulls aren’t as dense as adult skulls and their brains are still developing.  Doctors can’t say for certain what long-term electromagnetic radiation exposure will do to our kids.”  In fact, some countries are considering legislation prohibiting kids under 12-years-old from using cell phones because of safety concerns.  “As a father of four kids under the age of 7, the unknown long-term effects of cellular are not worth risking their health,” says Michael.  Bluetooth, however, is a wireless radio with a signal output less intense than a cell phone, as little as .001 (1/1000th) the power output. 

For more information or to preorder a Pipsqueak, visit the Kickstarter page at www.YipYap.com.