The question comes up on the motorway, just past the last exit with mobile reception: “Why isn’t the box playing?” Or in the holiday cottage, where the Wi-Fi password is written on a slip of paper that no longer exists. Whether a children’s music box works without the internet depends on how it’s built. Behind this lies a second question that’s asked even less often: what happens when it’s not the Wi-Fi that’s missing, but the manufacturer? We’ll answer both here, along with the two types of microphone and the whole business with the app. (An overview of the four designs: Music box for children – which one is right?)
Table of contents
Music box for children – which one is right for me?
In short: everything stored on a memory card plays without Wi-Fi. Everything that comes from the cloud only plays if it has been downloaded beforehand. And everything that is streamed doesn’t play at all. Which box belongs to which group is revealed by its design principle – not by its price.
Figure and card boxes solve the problem like this: the figure or card is merely a key; the content is downloaded onto the box the first time you place it on top. After that it plays without Wi-Fi too – as long as the box hasn’t replaced it with newer content due to lack of space. Then you’ll need a connection again.
Pure streaming content, such as on the Tigerbox, or – in hörbert’s case, the internet radio streams – cannot be played without an internet connection. With hörbert, such content is simply skipped, and content from the memory card (music and audio plays, as well as downloaded podcast episodes) is played back as normal.
Whatever’s already on the box will play on almost any manufacturer’s device without Wi-Fi – there’s hardly any difference between them. The difference shows when something new is supposed to get onto the box, specifically in places where there’s no network. Figure-based, streaming and voice-assistant boxes fetch new content from the cloud. hörbert takes a different route: it records. In four ways.
With hörbert: press the buttons, speak, done. Granny's story, your child's first song, or just creative nonsense: the recording is on the memory card straight away – no app, no upload, and it never leaves the house. Boxes with figures or subscriptions send the recording to the device via the app and the manufacturer's server
The children's programme is on at seven on Saturdays, but your child isn't awake yet. Record the show with hörbert and it'll be waiting on its button, ready to be played back offline later: in the car or at Grandma's. Not every music box for kids can record the radio.
At home on the Wi-Fi, hörbert fetches the new episodes of your subscribed podcasts onto the card all by itself. On the go, they play without any connection. Streaming boxes need a network connection to play podcasts; the other types usually can't handle podcasts at all.
Whatever is currently playing from your phone on hörbert (e.g. a song, an audio play from a media library, or any music your phone can play) can be recorded by hörbert as a file and played back later without the phone. This is permitted for private use within the family, just like taping a recording off the radio back in the day. With children's audio boxes whose makers earn money from the content, this isn't provided for.
The second question comes up less often, but it reaches further: what does the box do the day after the manufacturer shuts down its servers – because it’s discontinuing the product, has been taken over, was hacked or has gone insolvent? That’s not a question about a company’s reputation, but about its architecture. Anything that pulls content or activations from the cloud depends on that cloud. Anything stored locally on a card depends on nothing at all.
That this isn’t just theory is shown by the American toy manufacturer Anki. The company ceased operations in 2019 after a funding round fell through; the rights to the robots and the race track were later taken over by another provider. That was of little help in children’s bedrooms: the robot Vector needed servers to function – and those were switched off without warning in 2023. The Overdrive race track technically still runs, but the original app disappeared from the app stores; anyone who wants to use it today needs a paid replacement app, and the saved game progress is gone. Not a single device was broken. They just needed a manufacturer that no longer existed.
A box that works even without us was a conscious decision for us. That’s why, with hörbert, even the internet radio search and podcast search functions are optional. Even without server access, you can still add radio stations and podcasts to your playlists.
If you don’t want to use any online functions, with hörbert you can even switch off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi completely.
Almost every box needs an app and a website to set it up, create a user account, log in, load content, take out a subscription or change other settings. That’s convenient — until it isn’t: every app has to be maintained, and at some point the new version no longer runs on the old phone, which is particularly annoying for people who like to use their familiar devices for a long time. And if the manufacturer discontinues the app, the box isn’t broken, but it is unusable if no alternative is offered.
It works without an app too: to set it up, hörbert creates its own WiFi network. You connect your phone, tablet or computer to it, open the browser, and hörbert shows you its interface. There you make all the settings, load music and audio plays onto it, and set up radio stations or podcasts. A browser runs on every device you’ll own ten years from now. hörbert doesn’t need the internet for this, because hörbert creates the network itself.
The wooden memory card box, Made in Germany. Nine buttons, your own audio plays, microphone, no subscription, no app. Rechargeable batteries from the supermarket, spare parts in the shop.
from €269 incl. VAT.
Or read on – below you’ll find out why hörbert’s microphone only listens when you want it to.
A microphone that records when you press a button and a microphone that permanently waits for an activation word are two technically different things. The first is a cassette recorder: it’s off until your child switches it on, and whatever it records stays in the device. The second is a voice assistant: in idle mode it listens continuously in order to detect the activation word, and whatever is said afterwards goes off into the network for processing. Whether you want that in the children’s room isn’t a question of technology, but one of attitude.
hörbert has a microphone of the first kind: it records you when you press the record button, and never otherwise. The recordings don’t leave the device, because they’re written directly onto the memory card, from where you can copy them yourself if you like.
Music boxes with a memory card, like hörbert.
They don’t need a connection for setting up or for playing. hörbert works without WiFi, without an app and without an account; WiFi is only needed for internet radio and podcasts.
Yes, definitely for loading new figures or cards. Figures or cards that have already been loaded will also play without a network connection, as long as there aren’t more of them than the internal memory can hold. For the details, we refer you to the manufacturers’ specifications.
Yes. hörbert creates its own WiFi network, you connect with your phone or tablet and load content onto it in your browser. And of course we also offer complete memory cards for purchase, if you don’t fancy loading content yourself at all.
Yes, via Bluetooth, for up to two headphones at the same time. hörbert deliberately doesn’t have a cable connection for headphones because of the risk of strangulation in small children.
PayPal uses Google reCAPTCHA to help secure the payment process. (More Information)
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from YouTube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from Google Maps. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from OpenStreetMap. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou are currently viewing a placeholder content from Mapbox. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
