One of the most child-friendly tablets on the market is getting even child-friendlier with Amazon’s announcement of Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, a new monthly subscription service that dishes out unlimited access to kid’s shows, movies, books, apps and games to Kindle Fire owners. It starts at $2.99 per month for each child (if you have an Amazon Prime membership).
These titles aren’t slouches, either: Kindle FreeTime Unlimited is launching with some of the biggest names in child entertainment on, including Sesame Workshop, Disney, HIT Entertainment, PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Marvel, DC Comics and more. All told, the FreeTime Unlimited section of the Kindle Store lists 1,513 available apps, including full television seasons of many of the most popular kid’s shows around.
Those shows and movies can be streamed over Wi-Fi, of course, but FreeTime Unlimited also allows you to download episodes to the Kindle for offline use. And unlike the Kindle Lending Library program for Amazon Prime subscribers, FreeTime Unlimited subscribers have no limits on the number of free books they can read in a month. All ads, social media ties, and in-app purchases will be scrubbed from apps and titles downloaded using a FreeTime Unlimited subscription.
The “unlimited” part stands on the back of the original Kindle FreeTime, which allows parents to set screen time limits. On other words, they don’t have to worry about little Billy lying on his bed and streaming "Dinosaur Train" all day long. This mode also nixes general Web browsing.
The FreeTime Unlimited update will be rolling out to the 2012 Kindle Fire, the Kindle Fire HD, and the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 in the coming weeks. The original Kindle will not be able to use FreeTime Unlimited.
Activate the feature before January 15 of next year to receive a one-month free trial. After that’s up, Amazon Prime members can subscribe to Kindle FreeTime Unlimited for $2.99 per month per child or $6.99 per month for up to six children. If you don’t subscribe to Amazon Prime, those numbers jump to $6.99 and $9.99, respectively.
Check out Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited page for more details.