We have iPhones, iPads, iPods and enough accessories to choke a horse.
Admittedly, our daughter has been assisting us in curbing our iAddiction. By culling our collection.
We lost an iPod touch and an iPhone 4S to the toilet bowl. To Miss 4's credit, she did wrap them in towels to try and save them. Sadly, they had flat lined and no amount of water absorbing material was going to bring them back.
We lost another iPhone to the front stairs, and I lost the rear glass panel on my iPhone to our lounge room floor.
I'm sure we've lost another iPod touch along the way. I think that one succumbed to the asphalt in a carpark.
Our daughter will never be an olympic ball sports player with her butter fingers.
However, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I lost my first iPhone after I left it on the roof of the car and drove off. But I think I was more upset about losing the gorgeous deep red cover than I was the actual phone.
So she's learnt from the best.
This Christmas just gone we were looking into getting a heavy-duty-will-survive-a-nuclear-explosion case for my iPhone since Miss 4 loves playing the games and watching Charlie and Lola episodes on it. We looked at the Otterbox Case, the Lifeproof Case, the Griffin Survivor Case and even one called the 'Mighty Vault'. All heavy duty, all fifty inches thick and all ugly as anything.
Yes, I know, I'm vain - what do I care for the look of it when it's going to mean I can save my phone from certain death?
Well, for starters, none of them came in pink. Or red. So it was a deal breaker from the start.
In the meantime, we did purchase one of the FisherPrice iPhone cases for babies. This was for The JellyBean when she gets a bit older and might be interested in what her sister is doing with anything iRelated. I like that it protects the phone, but Miss 4 has informed me that it's just for babies.
Right-o then.
So when I received an email from Sophie at Polkadot PR regarding Zimmiz®, I was intrigued.
Zimmiz® is a new App from Big Foot Toys featuring cute, customisable aliens, and you can bring them to life with the specially-designed plush toy which features a pocket to securely house your iPhone or iPod Touch.
A toy that acts as a phone case* appropriate for children from 4 years? Hello answer to my prayers!! The plush also features poseable arms and antennas with a little sleeve on its back to carry Zimmi® with.
"Children today gravitate to smart phones and tablets as much as they do their favourite teddy bear," said Rowan Isaacs, Marketing Director and Co-inventor of Zimmiz®. "Zimmiz® represents the best of both worlds. It brings play to vivid life - and sets the stage for meaningful and rewarding experiences that go far beyond those of traditional toys."
Miss 4 had a chance to play with the App itself before her plush arrived for a road test. She liked it but, looking back, the interaction was a little restricted compared to what she can do with the plush attached.
Once the plush arrived, it was clear there was no way I was ever going to get my phone back.
Miss 4 loved the transformation from App to interactive toy, and Zimmi® goes everywhere with us. I'm no longer terrified of her dropping my iPhone on the ground and it smashing into a thousand pieces- the plush holds my phone in there snug as a bug, and it's so padded and squishy I feel like it could fall from the roof of our home and come away unscathed*. I still fear the toilet bowl, but I've been informed that Zimmi® prefers to wait outside the toilet, so the chances of him suffering an unfortunate flushing are minimal.
I love that Miss 4 has a toy with a wide range of emotions and reactions. Her interactive babies never sleep. They continue to talk, snore or cry unless you rip the batteries out of their backs in a frenzy to get them to shut up! Zimmi® will go to sleep with the simple motion of closing his/her eyes...or hitting the home key and exiting the App. Yay for Mummy's sanity!!
Zimmiz® is developed by a team led by David Smith, an animator for the film Happy Feet. And it shows, because the graphics are brilliant.
There are games to play such as 'Zimmiz® Says' and a memory game, you can customise his face, right down to his birth mark. He laughs when tickled, blows bubbles with chewing gum, burps, almost explodes when you feed him a chilli and, Miss 4's favourite thing of all time, he farts.
He'll also throw up if you give him a whizzee for too long - and then you can either watch it slide down the screen, or wipe it away with a cloth yourself. Miss 4 enjoys both options. I just do my best not to relive my experiences with vomit during my pregnancy with The JellyBean.
Overall Zimmiz® has been a hit in our household, and if you have a iAnything savvy child in your home that could do with a friend who will sing, choke on his food and forget to cover his mouth when he sneezes then this is the giveaway for you!
I have one Zimmiz® plush toy to giveaway to the person who has the most hilarious iTragedy. So share your best iAccident involving a mobile phone, tablet, or iPod before 6pm CST on Sunday 6 March and you could be welcoming Zimmiz® into your home soon! So I can contact you, don't forget to include your email address in your comment entry.
For more information on the App and the plush toy you can visit www.planetzimmi.com, “like” Zimmiz® at Facebook.com/planetzimmi, follow Zimmiz® at Twitter.com/planetzimmi or view their YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/PlanetZimmi
The Boring Bits
- Giveaway will be open from Tuesday 26 February 2013, and will close at 6pm CST on Sunday 3 March 2013.
- The winner will be determined by me as the most hilarious accident involving a mobile phone, tablet, or iPod.
- I was provided with one Zimmiz® plush toy for a road test, and a second plush to giveaway.
- The winner will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.
- All decisions are final.
* The Zimmiz plush toy is NOT marketed as a phone case, and it should not be relied on as such. The phone case properties are simply my own, personal observation.
