How We Killed DS Envy

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Screenshot by Mia  

ALL REQUESTS FOR a Nintendo DS stopped in our home when our four-year-old discovered Moshi Monsters on her mom's iPod Touch. She snapped a screenshot of Hansel to accompany this post.

A cautionary note comes with this new-found activity--Moshi Monsters on iOS flattens batteries faster than streaming video. At least that's what I've concluded after watching mesmerised Mia take Moshi Monsters everywhere with her for two consecutive days.

Mia has not discovered  the official Moshi Monsters site but that's only because she cannot read yet. The site targets kids who are twice her age (that would be her cousin Evan) and it has more than 50m members, many of them paying a subscription fee to keep their own Moshi Monster happy and entertained.

We have pet Moshlings on the iTouch at the moment and walk briskly past the shelves of our local shop where rows of licensed merchandise threaten to drain our current account. Fortunately, Mia is quite content using the screenshot button on the Moshi Monster app to save Moshi Monster creations to the handset's photo album where we show her how to upload the shots into her very own Flickr photoset.

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Bernie Goldbach curates links about apps.