http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40584671/ns/business-us_business/

Bushels of "Smurfberries" cost parents buckets of cash

12/9/2010 9:23:03 PM

haha, that's pretty fucked up.


I'd probably argue that my 2 year old was unauthorized to use my credit card for these purchases

send that little fucker to jail!

12/9/2010 9:26:16 PM

Quote :

"The warnings may alert parents, but it's doubtful that they'd deter children who can't read and don't understand money. "

How about you don't give a kid who can't read a fucking iPad or iPhone

12/9/2010 9:26:20 PM

in other news, I just realized that I'm going to be a terrible parent

12/9/2010 9:26:48 PM

she got beasted by some fuckin smurfberries? i'd go beast on that kid and show him what time it is!

12/9/2010 9:27:05 PM

Quote :

"I'd probably argue that my 2 year old was unauthorized to use my credit card for these purchases send that little fucker to jail! "

I could see that happening. Parent's friend has an iPad, and the parent/kid wants to see it. Friend loads up Smurf game and gives it to the kid, and then the kid racks up thousands of dollars in SmurfBerries.

12/9/2010 9:29:28 PM

Quote :

"It's quite likely that most of the money pulled in by these games comes from addicted adults who want to quickly build their Smurf villages, bakeries, zoos and zombie farms. But there's a loophole in the in-app purchase process that children stick their fingers through."

12/9/2010 9:34:34 PM

What a smurf-up.

12/9/2010 9:37:00 PM

^^ haha, this guy at work who's office is next to mine.... he seriously sits there and plays farmville 4/8 hours of his work day

no joke

[Edited on December 9, 2010 at 9:37 PM. Reason : carat]

12/9/2010 9:37:30 PM

Apple users are some trick-ass marks

12/9/2010 9:42:38 PM

Quote :

"How about you don't give a kid who can't read a fucking iPad or iPhone"

Try having a kid and an iPhone/iPad and then saying that. It's not nearly as easy as you think.

12/9/2010 9:48:51 PM

The 4-hour long distance phone call of the 20th Century...

move along people, nothing to see.

12/9/2010 10:15:44 PM

Quote :

"haha, this guy at work who's office is next to mine.... he seriously sits there and plays farmville 4/8 hours of his work day no joke"

And that's why we have steep productivity goals with tasks fully tracked, even down to the ones that only take 3 minutes a pop.

THANK YOU MS EXCEL!

12/9/2010 11:20:27 PM

this is why you pay attention to your fucking children

instead of expecting a screen to raise them

12/9/2010 11:27:06 PM

Quote :

"Try having a kid and an iPhone/iPad and being a bad parent and then saying that. It's not nearly as easy as you think. "

fixed

12/10/2010 12:03:39 AM

ahahahahahahaha. Hilarious!

12/10/2010 1:05:05 AM

Quote :

"Try having a kid and an iPhone/iPad and then saying that. It's not nearly as easy as you think."

So your kid can say no, but you can't? Try teaching him the value of the back of your hand.

12/10/2010 1:10:54 AM

It pisses me off that I grew up playing with an NES and my nephew grows up fucking around with ipads.

12/10/2010 1:14:32 AM

Take the iPad away from him and give him an Atari. Teach him what a hard life REALLY means.

12/10/2010 1:18:57 AM

NES was awesome, what are you talking about?

Only thing I'm jealous of is lcd screens in cars and easy access to porn.

12/10/2010 1:20:36 AM

Quote :

""Try having an iPhone/iPad and being a bad parent and then saying that. It's not nearly as easy as you think."

Why exactly do you think letting a kid play with an iPad makes you a bad parent? I agree there are some things that you wouldn't want your kid to do on one, and giving them complete and unrestricted access to it could turn out poorly, but the exact same thing can be said of any computer or even TV and the last time I checked I didn't think anyone that let their kids watch TV was considered to be a bad parent by default.

Quote :

"So your kid can say no, but you can't? Try teaching him the value of the back of your hand."

It's not a matter of "can't say no" it's a matter of he wants to play with it, thinks it's another one of his toys, and I have no problems with sometimes letting him play with it supervised. There are plenty of apps that educate and entertain kids and youtube/iTunes videos that can keep him busy. during car rides. At it's most basic level, it's on the same level with one of those portable dvd players.

It's like some of you retards are incapable of any thought other than iPad + kid = bad. Under the right conditions there are tons of situations where it's perfectly fine to let them play with one.

edited to say I just bothered to take the time to reply to someone that suggested that you hit a child that is naturally curious. Successful troll is successful.

12/10/2010 2:03:04 AM

Quote :

"It's not a matter of "can't say no" it's a matter of he wants to play with it, thinks it's another one of his toys, and I have no problems with sometimes letting him play with it supervised."

Sounds to me like you don't know how to set up boundaries between what is a toy and what is not a toy. It also seems like you don't know how to tell him to ask for permission before using it.

Quote :

"There are plenty of apps that educate and entertain kids and youtube/iTunes videos that can keep him busy. during car rides."

How do you watch your child in the backseat to see that he's not viewing shit he shouldn't be viewing on youtube, or that he isn't buying movies and crap on iTunes. That's how these parents got themselves into this situation. They didn't watch their children and they assumed their child wouldn't figure out how to buy stuff.

Quote :

"At it's most basic level, it's on the same level with one of those portable dvd players."

Really? Can you purchase stuff with a DVD player? No. At an iPads most basic level, it is a netbook. It offers far more features than that of a DVD player, almost on par with that of a netbook. You simplifying an iPad down to a DVD player is like simplifying a netbook down to a DVD player. Sure, a netbook can function as a DVD player, but it has many more functions. The more you dumb things down, the more you'll miss opportunities for your child to use the device in unintended ways.

Quote :

"It's like some of you retards are incapable of any thought other than iPad + kid = bad."

No. It's not that. It's that a child really has no business with a fucking iPad. Buy a fucking portable DVD player if you want him/her to watch Dora the Explorer. All you're doing is blurring the lines between a child's toy and an adult toy. Unless you can ensure your child can tell the difference, I would make sure he doesn't use it.

12/10/2010 2:18:35 AM

Quote :

"Sounds to me like you don't know how to set up boundaries between what is a toy and what is not a toy. It also seems like you don't know how to tell him to ask for permission before using it."

Well, it sounds to me like you're incapable of accepting that some people's boundaries are set a bit differently. To me, the iPad IS a toy. I don't use it for work purposes at all, it has shit tons of games on it, and pretty much so only gets used for fun. Why shouldn't kids get to have fun with it as well? As far as him asking for permission, his vocabulary isn't quite up to snuff for that yet, but even as young as he is now, I still have no problems letting him know when it is or isn't appropriate to use it. Even if it means whining or crying for a while because he doesn't get his way. Thanks for your concern on my parenting skills, but I think I'm doing just fine. Certainly better than anyone who's first thought to a kid wanting to play with an iPad is "I should hit him".

Quote :

"How do you watch your child in the backseat to see that he's not viewing shit he shouldn't be viewing on youtube, or that he isn't buying movies and crap on iTunes. That's how these parents got themselves into this situation. They didn't watch their children and they assumed their child wouldn't figure out how to buy stuff."

Well right now he's far too young to be able to purposefully do anything. That might become an issue in the future, but it's nothing parental controls and paying a little bit of attention shouldn't be able to handle. Like I said, I would never give him unrestricted access and assume that nothing bad would happen. And it's incredibily easy to turn off wi-fi which would prevent any purchases to be made and only videos that have been downloaded previously to be watched (he watches the same 3-4 videos right now anyway)

But to address your point(and really the rest of your quotebombed post as you pretty much so repeated your point several times over), yes, of course there are ways to be a bad parent with an iPad. But there are tons of ways to NOT be a bad parent with one. But as I've said before, the same thing can be said for pretty much so anything else on the planet. My kid is young enough now to where practically everything he does needs to be supervised. Him learning animals, shapes and colors, playing with talking Santa, or watching truck videos on the iPad is no different.

You are acting like playing and watching an iPad with your kid is on the same level as throwing them in the room with one and locking the door. It's just not.

12/10/2010 2:31:08 AM

Quote :

"The 17 highest-rated comments on "The Smurfs' Village" in the App Store all complain about the high cost of the Smurfberries, and two commenters call it a "scam.""

1.) the economy is in the toilet, what do you expect?
2.) pathetic

12/10/2010 8:02:15 AM

Brand new Ipad coming next year. Time to chunk the old ones and spend another $400 for some crappy upgrade.

Or is it Upgrayedd with two 'D's for a double dose of pimping?

Either way, I hate on Apple just to hate.

12/10/2010 8:31:56 AM

it's easy to hate on apple...they produce solid stuff and then charge suckers out the nose every 1-2 years for a "new" model because they know the same suckers who bought it in the first place will buy it again

it's quite the racket, but you gotta give jobs credit...he sure knows how to make a buck

12/10/2010 8:48:02 AM

haha those car companies sure have set a hook in all those suckers who buy a car when they know a new model will be out next year

12/10/2010 8:52:31 AM

12/10/2010 8:57:48 AM

I'll admit, EA has me hooked with FIFA but they are less gay than apple products. Again, just hating on Apple because it is trendy.

12/10/2010 9:02:56 AM

ipad's gonna open the way for a lot of neat educational technology

can't wait for open season on these sorts of tablets

12/10/2010 9:02:57 AM

Quote :

"Again, just hating on Apple because it is trendy."

it was fun to hate on microsoft for such a long time, but now this is all i've got

12/10/2010 9:04:42 AM

My 7 year old loved playing shit on my iPad. But I didn't put him on fucking games that he could max out my credit card on either. Hell, his favorite game was playing Hangman and Tic-Tac-Toe against me.

12/10/2010 9:09:59 AM

I hate those Ipad commercials showing their app capabilities. I mean, it looks cool, but how often are you going to use them after 5 minutes.

12/10/2010 9:15:15 AM

My 6 year old is only allowed to play Atari 2600 games on a Linux emulator.

he needs to know what what it truly means to suffer, before he can move up to 64-bit graphics and touch screens






[Edited on December 10, 2010 at 10:43 AM. Reason : ]

12/10/2010 10:42:04 AM

Quote :

"SMURF BER RIES"

12/10/2010 10:44:50 AM

So the part where it says adults are buying all the stuff reminded me of something.

My sister and I used to play the Superpoke Pets thingy (I think she still does, I always forget to now). Anyway, she started playing almost right after it came out and collected all these items that eventually went away. Well, then she discovered how people go APE SHIT over certain gold items on there... so she would spend only $5 a week and buy this little "mystery box" thing (each were $1). She had someone pay her $20 for ONE mystery box.

Then she decided to make a website (she's a graphic designer/computer whiz) and auction off all her old items (including mine). She made over $1,000!!! (And I made $80, pretty sweet considering I didn't buy anything ) People will buy anything these days, I swear.

I think we'll be doing it again soon.... I'm hoping to make some cash off those suckers

[Edited on December 10, 2010 at 10:48 AM. Reason : .]

12/10/2010 10:48:06 AM

i used to play this one MMORPG (like World of Warcraft) and wrote a program that would locate specific treasure-dropping MOBs, and tell you which direction and how far to go to find them.

sold it on PayPay by word of mouth for $20 a pop. made a few hundred dollars.

At that point I had begun to geek out so severely my wife threatened to leave me so I canceled my account and now i just play Atari 2600 games on a Linux emulator with my 6-year-old.

12/10/2010 10:55:58 AM

Quote :

"Try having a kid and an iPhone/iPad and then saying that. It's not nearly as easy as you think. "

Seriously? It's pretty damn easy. My parents did that all the time:
"Mommy I want to play with ______!"
"No you can't play with that."
"But Mommy, I WANT TOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"I told you no and if you start throwing a fit YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!"
"Okay "

12/10/2010 10:59:42 AM

the iPad should be called the iPacifier

12/10/2010 11:19:23 AM

If you are in here commenting on how to parent a child, and you don't have a child yourself, then stop. You might like to pretend like you know what you are talking about, but you don't. When you have a kid or two one day, then come back and give your parenting advice. Until then, it means nothing and is simply an annoyance to those who actually have kids to parent.

That said, my 4 year old has games on my iPod Touch that she plays probably 2-3 times / month, if that. The first thing I did when in app purchases were introduced was go turn that junk off. I don't play any games that have those features and I didn't want to risk anyone else buying crap unknowingly either.

12/10/2010 11:29:23 AM

If parents are dumb enough to not pay close attention to the things their small children are doing, they deserve to lose money over it.

My four year old nephew got into some porn on one of his parents droid phones via an ad on angry birds because they left him unattended with it for extended periods of time. Smart phones and iPads are not a child's toy, and treating them as such is just asking for trouble.


[Edited on December 10, 2010 at 12:02 PM. Reason : ^ bc it's impossible for a non-parent to have ANY common sense ]

12/10/2010 11:57:12 AM

Quote :

"bc it's impossible for a non-parent to have ANY commen sense "

1.) it's "common"
2.) no, it's impossible for a non-parent to know what it's like to be a parent

12/10/2010 11:59:47 AM

^ a fucking typo renders my point invalid? and it's not impossible for a non-parent to know that young children shouldn't be left unattended with ANYTHING they cannot understand, smart phones and ipads being a prime example.

12/10/2010 12:03:47 PM

^^stop trolling and think about it... so a childless teacher, or someone who spent plenty of time baby sitting, or had a younger sibling by more than a couple of years- they wouldn't know


your statement is ignorant because you assume people who don't have kids wouldn't have spent time with kids

12/10/2010 12:06:52 PM

Quote :

"The 17 highest-rated comments on "The Smurfs' Village" in the App Store all complain about the high cost of the Smurfberries, and two commenters call it a "scam"

yet they spent their money on the overpriced iPad/iPhone...

12/10/2010 12:45:38 PM

Quote :

"a fucking typo renders my point invalid?"

not at all...but it's amusing when you're calling someone out for common sense and you have trouble with a word you should have learned in elementary school

Quote :

"stop trolling and think about it... so a childless teacher, or someone who spent plenty of time baby sitting, or had a younger sibling by more than a couple of years- they wouldn't know your statement is ignorant because you assume people who don't have kids wouldn't have spent time with kids"

it's not trolling to point out how hysterically pathetic you people are that think babysitting is the same thing as being a parent

i am NOT a parent, but it's precisely BECAUSE i've spent time as a teacher that i know they're not the same thing...i never once said that a person MUST be a parent in order to have an IDEA of how to be one...but i'll call any of you a complete and utter dumbass if you assert that you can know what it's really like to be a parent just because you had a younger sibling, babysat when you were in middle or high school (or hell, college), or are/were a teacher

it's like saying you can play pro basketball because you used to play HORSE

[Edited on December 10, 2010 at 12:57 PM. Reason : .]

12/10/2010 12:57:22 PM

I don't have experience with little kids, but I've raised a few puppies in my day, and its probably the same damn thing. Tell it 'no' and be stern. Exert yourself, show confidence, and be the leader of your pack.

12/10/2010 1:00:27 PM

Quote :

"I don't have experience with little kids, but I've raised a few puppies in my day, and its probably the same damn thing. Tell it 'no' and be stern. Exert yourself, show confidence, and be the leader of your pack."

and beat it when it pisses on the floor?

12/10/2010 1:01:42 PM

Yes and then put it outside...er in the bathroom. Attach a set of bells to the doorknob that you hit whenever you take it to piss and eventually it will learn.

Above all be calm yet assertive.

[Edited on December 10, 2010 at 1:03 PM. Reason : lkj]

12/10/2010 1:02:38 PM

i'm not going to be drawn into another quagmire argument... he's wrong, we all realize it, and it's time to move on

bye!

12/10/2010 1:04:51 PM