Publius
07-15-2006, 01:12 AM
I think that Kidzone is great, but I would like to see a few improvements. I am a bit of an exception in that I have a 12 year-old and a 1 year-old, but hopefully some of these suggestions will stick:
1. Allow each child in the household to have an id to get them into their zone. That would help shows to be tailored to the child's age. I'm sure that's what all of TiVo's patents regarding user identification are for, but even in the absence of proximity detection or the like, the option to have passwords required to enter the TV is good. (And facilitates my next idea.) This could also be disabled by the parents if it became a hassle.
2. Allow time blocks and limits on children. I think it would be great if my TiVo would force tell me how much TV each of my kids watch, and limit their total time and when they watch it. Even though I don't think a machine should be a parent substitute, I think that a machine provides a neutral party with regard to television monitoring that a parent can't. This will stop fights like no tomorrow (e.g., "I only watched an hour today Dad"). Ok, so yes I'm a wimp, but I would pay for this feature. My daughter seldom wins her fights on these issues, but neutral arbitration would be AWESOME!
On a separate note, I would give users the option to close Kidzone automatically after certain hours when the kids are asleep so that the adults don't have to enter the password to get out of the Kidzone.
I don't know what Kidzone usage is like right now. I imagine it is still rather low. But I think these features would increase usage and broaden TiVo's appeal to parents.
Just a thought...
Thanks,
Jamie
1. Allow each child in the household to have an id to get them into their zone. That would help shows to be tailored to the child's age. I'm sure that's what all of TiVo's patents regarding user identification are for, but even in the absence of proximity detection or the like, the option to have passwords required to enter the TV is good. (And facilitates my next idea.) This could also be disabled by the parents if it became a hassle.
2. Allow time blocks and limits on children. I think it would be great if my TiVo would force tell me how much TV each of my kids watch, and limit their total time and when they watch it. Even though I don't think a machine should be a parent substitute, I think that a machine provides a neutral party with regard to television monitoring that a parent can't. This will stop fights like no tomorrow (e.g., "I only watched an hour today Dad"). Ok, so yes I'm a wimp, but I would pay for this feature. My daughter seldom wins her fights on these issues, but neutral arbitration would be AWESOME!
On a separate note, I would give users the option to close Kidzone automatically after certain hours when the kids are asleep so that the adults don't have to enter the password to get out of the Kidzone.
I don't know what Kidzone usage is like right now. I imagine it is still rather low. But I think these features would increase usage and broaden TiVo's appeal to parents.
Just a thought...
Thanks,
Jamie