The Tick Talk 5, a $150 kid watch, makes me feel like Dick Tracey every time I tap my wrist. It’s a blast.

Children will love the Mom icon. Tap it to ring her up immediately. Another icon launches a video call. There’s also a calculator, stopwatch, calendar and a wildly generous step counter. With the Tick Talk app, parents can send holiday e-cards to the watch wearer. For the watch face, I chose a cheery blue elephant in a jaunty hat and sunglasses. He nods and smiles, then shows his eyes. 

I love the podcasts and music, though they cause the battery to drain quickly. I don’t mind popping the watch on its wireless charger, as often as necessary, or plugging it in with a wired connection.

My favorite podcast so far is “Grim and Grimmer.” In a recent episode, it asked: “Would you rather wear iron shoes for the rest of your life or suffer a ten-year curse condemning you to silence?” One girl said she’d choose the shoes because she’d never agree to be silent. “I have a lot to say,” she explained. Another said: “Just wear comfy socks.” In music, Disney Classical and Classical for Kids are my favorites so far, though there are pop stations galore.

For safety reasons, a kid can’t call any number that isn’t on his or her contacts list except 911. To send texts to the watch, singular or in groups, parents and others must install the Tick Talk app on their phones. The watch also has location tracking.

Tech support is great, both on the phone and by email. I didn’t have to figure out the setup or any features by myself.

Though aimed at ages 3 to 12, the Tick Talk 5 I received for review will be a great backup for me, since I’m prone to leaving phones in cabs. It’s clunkier than an Apple Watch but makes me smile. 

Adding Contacts to your Apple Watch

A neighbor told me she lost her purse on a shopping expedition. She was wearing an Apple Watch but couldn’t call anyone because she hadn’t added any contacts and couldn’t remember any phone numbers. A friend helped her use the “Find My” app, which told her that her purse was in her car.

I was surprised she hadn’t added contacts to her Apple watch. “I don’t know how,” she said. Here’s how: Open the Contacts app. Tap the Add icon. Enter the contact information. Tap the Checkmark icon. 

AI ART

The same neighbor who lost her purse told me that her art teacher suggested using artificially intelligent tools from OpenAI’s DALL- E as a springboard to creativity. Normally, this neighbor works from photos, but she says the photos aren’t much help. She was eager to try AI, but not half as eager as I was. I was intrigued by her idea of mixing artists. 

I started by Googling the words “DALL-E without ChatGPT.” After clicking the link that came up, I clicked “create image,” then found the “Prompt” box and typed “Mix the styles of Norman Rockwell and Renoir in a picnic scene on a river.” Then I clicked “create image.” The results were beautiful. But my next results were even better. I typed “Mix the style of Salvador Dali with Monet and Van Gogh to create a bedroom scene.” It looked like Van Gogh’s famous painting of an empty bedroom, but with Dali’s trick of melting objects, Monet’s bold colors and some of Van Gogh’s starry night wallpaper. It had a more modern bed than I would expect from any of them. 

You can create 40 images for free and get 50 more by joining Discord, a free app for texting and calling. For 4000 images a month, there’s the DALL-E subscription, starting at $7 a month.

How to Get WordPad Back

WordPad, a nice substitute for Microsoft Word, was removed from PCs in the latest Windows 11 update. Fortunately, you can get it back. Go to win7games.com and click “Classic Wordpad” at the top of the page.

Wordpad lets you create and edit documents with text and images. There’s no spellchecker, mail merge or collaboration tools, and you can’t track changes from one version to the next. But it’s super easy to use.

Shooting the Breeze

What if you could rid your home of all the viruses and bacteria spread by Covid, flu and colds? The Anti-Covid AVS from EcoAir, the world’s first air sterilizer, claims to do just that.

The $403 air sterilizer doesn’t actually kill a virus, because a virus isn’t a living organism. Instead it removes it from the air by reaching a core temperature of 392 Fahrenheit. The results have been verified by the independent research firm MRIGlobal. The sterilizer even has a washable filter, so you don’t have to spend money replacing it. 

On the downside, EcoAir.org, based in Britain, doesn’t ship to the US yet. But a company spokesperson told me they’re planning to do so soon. More info from TechRadar.com.

Internuts

– Doge.gov is now an official government website. When I looked, the only words on it besides an official tagline were “Department of Government Efficiency. The people voted for major reform.”

–HumanProgress.org has dozens of fascinating articles, such as “Your Life in Numbers: How Much the World has Changed Since You Were Born.” Life has improved much more than most people realize.

Filed under: analytics, Apple, apps, art, gadgets, health, Internuts, kids