Learning the Time by Gwimpy vs Brickify your smart device.

Learning how to tell the time is hard, but Gwimpy has designed a short app to help us on the way. The first important concept is translating the numbers to 'o' clock, then realising that numbers are shaped around a circle, then the time jumps from 12 to one! All this can be hard but Gwimpy makes it simple and then you can try it out as many times as you like to get it right.

Every family ends up with one: an old smartphone sitting in a drawer, too good to throw away, too distracting to just hand over as-is. That's exactly why Brickify exists. My son's school just went smartphone-free — brilliant in principle, but in practice I had an old device in a drawer I'd already promised him, and I wanted him to have one for the walk to school and evenings at home without it becoming a black hole for his attention. Brickify turned this old phone into a "brickphone": nothing but calls, texts and whatever else we agreed, then it switches to a more open profile on a schedule we're both happy with, for the apps we're both happy with. The school's happy. He's happy. I didn't have to buy anything. SET IT ONCE. THEN STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. The best thing Brickify does that your device's built-in Screen Time wont: it runs entirely on its own schedule, moving between whichever profiles you've set up. Set the days, hours and app list once (ideally when your resolve is strongest, not at 11pm when you're too tired to enforce anything) and Brickify takes it from there. No daily nagging, no manually switching it yourself, no relying on willpower you won't have tomorrow. REAL RESTRICTIONS, NOT A SUGGESTION Brickify uses your phone's own Family Controls permissions to actually enforce whichever profile is active — it isn't a honesty-system timer. Moving to a more open profile ahead of schedule needs both a PIN and an optional second factor (an authenticator app or an email code), so a determined kid, or a determined 11pm version of you, can't override it alone. REUSE WHAT YOU'VE ALREADY GOT A dedicated "dumbphone" costs roughly £10–£15 and does one job. Brickify costs a one-off £4.99 and turns a smartphone you already own into the same thing - with the bonus of automatically moving to a more open profile on your schedule, no manual swapping required. As they grow up, you can gradually release more apps, no problem. WHAT'S INSIDE • Profiles — name a set of blocked apps once, reuse it whenever • Automatic scheduling — build different profiles at different restriction levels and schedule them in • PIN + second factor — nobody can override the schedule alone • Recovery codes — for when you genuinely lock yourself out • New app install alerts — know if something new shows up, or block the app store entirely • Emergency calling always works, whatever profile is active • One-time £4.99 — no subscription, no renewal, ever Brickify isn't a monitoring app. It doesn't read messages, browsing history, or location — it does one thing: blocks your apps between the profiles you define, on a schedule you control.