Ask HN: Devices to allow children to listen to podcasts on my local network?

2 pointsjareds7mo ago2 comments

Does anyone have advice for a device I could lock down that would allow my children to listen to podcasts I've downloaded to my local network using Audio Bookshelf? So far the best I've been able to come up with is to buy a cheep Android phone, install the Audio Bookshelf app, and configure my network to not allow the device to access the internet. The only issue with this plan is that as far as I can tell there's no easy way to only install the Audio Bookshelf app, and remove all other apps. While if the device does not have internet access I'm not concerned about them poking around in the email, calendar, etc it'd be nice if there were fewer distractions. I'm an iOS user so may be missing something involving Android and third party launchers or device controls.

2 comments

toomuchtodo7mo ago

Not sure if this meets your needs, but I bought my kids Yoto Minis and we built some scaffolding around it to enable them cutting their own RFID cards to listen on the devices to non turn key content from the Yoto platform. I can track what they listened to based on the storage blob request logs where the content is stored (and served over HTTP).

https://us.yotoplay.com/

sandreas7mo ago

Don't bother too much. Remove all possible apps, set do-not-disturb and block Internet after installing audiobookshelf.

TALK to your kids how and when to use it. They'll understand.

My daughter can use an old Samsung phone with audio jack to listen. I installed LineageOS but this is not required. She can only use it when one of is with her ATM and has to give it back after. I also installed the apps Vlc, PaulWoitaschek/Voice and Lissen because ABS has some bugs and crashes from time to time. Voice / Lissen are also native apps that increase battery life.

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