LeapFrog intros "smartphone" for your little one (or you)
By Laura June 
posted Jan 28th 2009 8:09PM
posted Jan 28th 2009 8:09PM
LeapFrog's been very busy of late -- they recently added Tag Junior to their line of edutainment products for the wee ones --and now there's this. The Text and Learn children's "PDA" hasn't been officially announced yet, but details are slipping out from the U.K. Toy Fair, so here's what we know about the must-have device of the year: boasting a full QWERTY keyboard, the Text and Learn has a calendar (for learning dates), phonics functions (for learning... phonics) on the keyboard, and games to teach spelling and basic computer skills, as well. There's also some "texting" -- the child can interact with their onscreen buddy / guide, Scout. The Text and Learn is set to launch in August for about $30. Man -- armed with this and our totally sick laptop, we're going to be the talk of the town.
I am getting my kid this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good thing they decided to focus on a corporate setting with ur toddler by clearly rubbing off Blackberry, instead of touch gestures for the less business minded crowd of babies, a la iphone.
Because blackberry doesn't have any touchscreen devices.
soon, our kids of today will grow up not knowing how to write anything in english.
It's so sad but kids these days can't even do common math problems in their heads without a calculator. Soon, everyone will be obese like the cartoon characters in WALL-E.
Sometimes I think back and wonder if technology really does benefit mankind. Blackberries, iPhones, sidekicks, we don't even write letters with pen and paper anymore :(
I don't see how not doing math leads to obesity.
I also don't see why we shouldn't let kids have early access to the technologies they'll be using when they go into fields like business or engineering.
And we don't write letters with pens and paper anymore because sending an e-mail is much, much, much, faster. How is that a bad thing?
But think of it. One day, when you're old and grey, you can pull out a pen and show it to your grandkids and say, "This is a pen, an elegant writing implement for a more civilized age."
....said as they post on a tech blog
"I don't see how not doing math leads to obesity."
Makes counting calories hard.
...damn pen and paper, soon no-one will be chipping letters into stone anymore.
Sometimes I wonder why people keep bitching about the ability to
scribble crap on paper, much less the ability to physically send your
paper messages to someone and wait days for a response.
Kids that can't do math or write essays have only themselves to blame.
Until, I read the title I thought this was the new Amazon Kindle 2.
To bad..... it would have been an aesthetic improvement....
/sarcasm
Any word on Exchange ActiveSync support?
This is totally going to be my new phone when my contract runs out.
Everyone will be jealous of me.
can anyone say iPhone killer?
And if you don't like this phone (and why the hell wouldn't you) I hear the early termination fee is half of your PB&J, 3 Oreo's, and a juicebox.
Wow this makes my G1 look like crap.
Set me up with this and let me sync it up to my new Leapster Laptop that i just ordered and I wont need anything else.
If only I had this when I was a kid. Imagine the things these kids will be coming out with 20 years after they get this phone!?
http://www.techbower.com
Now this is the real iPhone killer
Frog Inside
I guess the kiddies don't deserve a backspace key.
"as he posts from a tech blog"
Write that in your letter and mail it.
Reminds me of the video on YouTube titled "YouTube in the 80's"
Waiting for Apple to sue over some random patent...
its clearly a ripoff of apples IP
I will tell you this...when this thing teaches spelling...well, let's just say a certain company is the reason that A stands for Apricot in the latest pre-Beta firmware.
Nah mean?
well, at least it's still a better smartphone than the iPhone.
Coming from a 3g user who can't edit documents on the go, nor go 5 minutes without crashing safari.
OK, I am going to buy this for my son, but I know one day I will arrive at an important meeting only to take that thing out of my suit pocket, whilst my son is at home texting on my Nokia E71.
Phonics? Texting?
"LOL. Prounounced L-O-L. LOL.
STFU. Pronounced S-T-F-U. STFU."
Leakfrog? Woot!!!!
This thing probably has the same crappy phonics sounds that all the other Leap products have. Yes, that's right, I'm a phoneme-pronunciation nerd. If I'm paying money to have some machine tell my kids what sound letters make, I want 'P' to sound like 'P' not 'Puh.'
They opted to ditch the microSD slot after test subjects (aka brats) stuffed potato chips inside.
My will love this!!!!!
Check out the Text and Learn in action on Toy Whimsy. Out Tiny Toy Testers were the first to review this new toy. It received a 4 out of 5 star rating:
http://www.toywhimsy.com/2009/04/leapfrog-text-and-learn-tiny-toy-testers-review.html
-Enjoy!