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Hacking a Toniebox

schafe-sind-bessere-rasenmaeher.de

1–10 of 41 posts

Re: Hacking a Toniebox

#4
We have a TonieBox that has been much loved by one kid, and now another. And even though everything in my being is telling me to hack it to make it do cool things (mostly because of all the “you just own a _license_ to content” stuff rubs me the wrong way), I wouldn’t dare. It’s a product so simply designed, a 1-year-old can use it. It’s not for me to mess with. This particular thing does not need hacking.

My brittle smart home setup is hanging on by a thread in the spousal approval department. I can’t handle the fury that will befall me if I fuck with the TonieBox.

Re: Hacking a Toniebox

#5

A different hack I do for my son’s Toniebox is download podcasts using this tool I wrote and add them to his Creative Tonie https://github.com/harryscholes/podcast-downloader

This is what we are doing as well. Can absolutely recommend! Kids are really happy with it and enjoy random Checker Tobi episodes every afternoon. This is what I'm using: https://github.com/alexhartm/tonie-podcast-sync

Re: Hacking a Toniebox

#6
I just bought a Yoto Mini for my one year old daughter, she loves it already. I prefer the format of cards over small figurines, and it seems doable to use standard NFC cards and associate them with content I own.

I'd vastly prefer being able to load an SD card in it instead of having it connect to the wifi, though.

Re: Hacking a Toniebox

#7
We used to have a TonieBox but I found them incredibly restrictive.

Also I thought that the physical design was poor. Because the figures just sit on top of the box, you cant move it around whilst playing it or the figures just fall off and the audio stops. It was very frustrating watching my kid try to use it in the car on a long journery.

Scrapped that and invested in Yoto player, its pretty much the same thing but its so much better in every way. The cards push into a slot and so dont fall out, it has an app which enables full control of the player which Tonies didnt, and you dont have to hit it to change tracks (which we found incredibly violent). Also there are some nice extras like being able to tap the nfc cards against your phone to set the content.

I would encourage any prospective TonieBox buyer to check out Yoto before taking the plunge.

Re: Hacking a Toniebox

#10
post #6

I just bought a Yoto Mini for my one year old daughter, she loves it already. I prefer the format of cards over small figurines, and it seems doable to use standard NFC cards and associate them with content I own. I'd vastly prefer being able to load an SD card in it instead of having it connect to the wifi, though.

Our daughter absolutely loves her Yoto Mini. We have a hundred or so cards, half of them were blank cards that we print and tape pictures on based on the content. This is probably the best purchase we made for long car rides and flights or just a lazy afternoon on the couch.
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