8 iPhone Accessories We Can’t Live Without

I had been an iPhone owner for something like, oh, fifteen minutes when I started to covet some cool accessories to go with it. I didn’t buy anything right away though, first I did a lot of research.

Looking for the perfect case, speakers, headphones, and extra battery for your iPhone or iPod touch?  Look no further.  We’ve done all the legwork for you.

1.  Kidz Gear Wired Headphones For Kids

Price: $16.99
Works with: All iPhones, iPods, and iPod touch
Why buy it: To keep little ears safe from damage

It’s scary letting your kids listen to music, movies, or games on headphones.  Since you can’t judge the volume yourself, you worry constantly.  These child safe headphones limit output to a safe volume, and fit kids as young as two.  Don’t forget to buy a splitter if you have more than one child.

2. Bose® around-ear headphones

Price: $139.95
Works with: iPhones, iPods, and iPod touch
Why buy it: Adult-sized earbuds are really uncomfortable for kids

The headphones listed above are great, but will be drowned out by jet engine noise if you need to use them on a plane.  Plus they won’t fit you.  Pick up a pair or two of these ultra-comfortable ear-cupping headphones for travel and adult use.  We absolutely love ours and fight over them on every flight we take.

3.  OtterBox Defender Case

Price: $30.56
Works with: iPhone 3G and 3G S
Why buy it: To protect your expensive iPhone from your kids

If, like us, you’re going to be handing over your very expensive iPhone to your young children on a regular basis, take the precaution of protecting both the screen and the body from scratches and drops with this almost-bulletproof case. Read more…

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Itsy Bitsy Spider

A fun musical app for the iPhone and iPod touch

Itsy Bitsy Spider takes the song your toddler knows and loves and adds new characters to create a fun, multi-paged, musical activity book. If you already have Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald, you’ll want to add this app to your Duck Duck Moose collection.

What’s Hot: There is so much to do on this app! Your toddler will have loads of fun discovering new things that move or make noise each time he or she plays it. Touch the spider and watch it jump to the next scene. I love the rain drops and making the water rush out of the gutter.  But my 14-month old daughter Cora loves the hidden frog. (I’ll admit, I was excited when she had the iPhone chops to explore this app and jump from page to page)

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SpinArt

A fun and creative painting app for the iPhone and iPod touch

Grade: A- | Age rating: 4+ | Price: $0.99

If your kids love the Spin Art game on NickJr.com they’ll love SpinArt, an app that can travel with them anywhere. Make tie-dye like pictures that you can save to your photo gallery again and again. Or, upload pics from your camera and splatter them with paint.

What’s Hot: There are lots of different colors (and glitter!) to choose from. Pick your color, splotch size, and then  tap the white button and double click on the canvas to start the spinning. Click again to make it spin faster. If you’ve always thought of yourself more of a Jackson Pollock—don’t spin the canvas. Feeling artistically stuck? No worries. Just click on the Star button to access their Flickr Group to see what others have made from their SpinArt app.

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Glow Doodle

A fun drawing app for the iPhone and iPod touch

Grade: B+ | Age rating: 2+ | Price: $0.99

Glow Doodle currently appears in the App Store under “Most Grossing” apps—and it has a ton of reviews to go with it.

It’s a very simple yet fun app where you can draw a picture with your fingers on the touch screen of either an iPhone or iPod touch and your drawing will appear (and light up!)  on the screen.

Use colors red, yellow, green or blue and then click “Glow” and watch your drawing light up.

What’s Hot:
I especially liked the “undo” option. If your kid accidentally makes a mark on their beautiful Picasso-in-progress, avoid a meltdown by clicking the undo (the button to the right of “glow”). It can go back quite a few steps. You can also save your drawings to your Photos Album. One trick to Glow Doodle is that you can make one specific part of your drawing glow while the rest of the page is left in the normal view — just draw and then click the glow item first, then click glow again to “un-glow” the drawing board and continue with the rest of the picture with normal lighting. Great for birthday cakes or rocket ships.

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Build a Robot

A fun educational app that turns your child’s creativity into something to color.

Grade: A- | Age rating: 4+ | Price: $1.99

Build a Robot is the first CREATE + PRINT + COLOR app I ever bought. It opened my eyes to a fun and highly useful type of educational app.

What’s Hot: I like that there are so many different options for the robot to change into – and that you can even change the background too. But the ability to download and print your robots so that you can color them later is the best part of this app. Ignore the negative reviews about this app that complain the robot doesn’t move and think of this as a way for your child to create their own coloring book. I can’t wait to buy more CREATE + PRINT + COLOR apps.

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