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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 th

by alt227 1y ago

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.

rawgreaze 1y ago
Yoto seems marketed towards older children. I don't think my one year old is able to put the cards in the Yoto by himself, but he can easily stand a figure on top of the TonieBox.
kleiba 1y ago
> Also I thought that the physical design was poor. Really? Huh, that's interesting because I find them exceptionally well designed and very sturdy (i.e., kids-ready). > 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. The figures are magnetic and stay on the box when you move it. > It was very frustrating watching my kid try to use it in the car on a long journery. Do you have a different version, perhaps, than me?
dwayne_dibley 1y ago
If you’re interested there’s a home assistant plugin for Yoto.
alias_neo 1y ago
Wholeheartedly agree. We have 2x Gen 3 Yotos and 2x Yoto Mini, my children (3 and 5) use them every night and my 5yo in the day time, the Minis are stored for when we travel. We were aware of Tonie before Yoto because our children's friends had them and we decided to go Yoto instead, they're amazingly simple, the app is great with well thought out features, and we've even convinced some of those families with Tonies to switch to Yoto and they've also been very happy. There's a pretty good market for second hand Yoto cards too in the UK though don't expect much in the way of deals, many of them sell for RRP or higher, though we have found some cards our 5yo really wanted but are only available in the US by buying them second hand. When my 5yo was about 3 we gave her a CD player and bought lots of CDs, funnily she grew to think that was the height of cutting edge technology and digital (virtual) audio was the old tech. Needless to say, the CDs didn't last in the hands of a 3yo, then followed by a little sibling, they ended up scratched to pieces and wouldn't play any more, the card based approach of Yoto is much more suitable for young children, and the kids are learning lots, they particularly love the audio adventures. As much as I'd love to hack the thing, I feel the same way another commentor does, that it shouldn't be touched, though I did manage to grab the URL from my OPNSense for the night time radio so I can stream it in my office because it's pretty good. I am a little cautious that the cards only contain a URL and we don't actually have copies of any of the audio for the cards we've bought (other than what's in the device's cache); we have somewhere in the region of 200+ cards now; which is quite an investment, and it's very much at the mercy of Yoto and their servers remaining active and accessible.

by alt227 1y ago

rawgreaze 1y ago

Yoto seems marketed towards older children. I don't think my one year old is able to put the cards in the Yoto by himself, but he can easily stand a figure on top of the TonieBox.

kleiba 1y ago

> Also I thought that the physical design was poor. Really? Huh, that's interesting because I find them exceptionally well designed and very sturdy (i.e., kids-ready). > 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. The figures are magnetic and stay on the box when you move it. > It was very frustrating watching my kid try to use it in the car on a long journery. Do you have a different version, perhaps, than me?

dwayne_dibley 1y ago

If you’re interested there’s a home assistant plugin for Yoto.

alias_neo 1y ago

Wholeheartedly agree. We have 2x Gen 3 Yotos and 2x Yoto Mini, my children (3 and 5) use them every night and my 5yo in the day time, the Minis are stored for when we travel. We were aware of Tonie before Yoto because our children's friends had them and we decided to go Yoto instead, they're amazingly simple, the app is great with well thought out features, and we've even convinced some of those families with Tonies to switch to Yoto and they've also been very happy. There's a pretty good market for second hand Yoto cards too in the UK though don't expect much in the way of deals, many of them sell for RRP or higher, though we have found some cards our 5yo really wanted but are only available in the US by buying them second hand. When my 5yo was about 3 we gave her a CD player and bought lots of CDs, funnily she grew to think that was the height of cutting edge technology and digital (virtual) audio was the old tech. Needless to say, the CDs didn't last in the hands of a 3yo, then followed by a little sibling, they ended up scratched to pieces and wouldn't play any more, the card based approach of Yoto is much more suitable for young children, and the kids are learning lots, they particularly love the audio adventures. As much as I'd love to hack the thing, I feel the same way another commentor does, that it shouldn't be touched, though I did manage to grab the URL from my OPNSense for the night time radio so I can stream it in my office because it's pretty good. I am a little cautious that the cards only contain a URL and we don't actually have copies of any of the audio for the cards we've bought (other than what's in the device's cache); we have somewhere in the region of 200+ cards now; which is quite an investment, and it's very much at the mercy of Yoto and their servers remaining active and accessible.