They aren't quite ready to ship, but LeapFrog's big-boy-and-girl gaming / learning handhelds are finally up for pre-order over on the outfit's website. For those who missed the February introduction, the firm is hailing the web-connected Didj (pictured) as the "first completely customizable educational gaming platform," and given that it is summertime here in the US of A, this is probably your only shot at getting your kiddo to do anything beneficial for their brain for the next two to three months. Get in line now for $89.99 (Didj) / $69.99 (Leapster 2).

[Via CNET]

Read - Didj order page
Read - Leapster 2 order page

LeapFrog is virtually unchallenged in quite a few of its product lines, but that doesn't seem to be slowing them down any. The company was showing off bunches of new product at Toy Fair 2008, with most of it newly designed to hook up to the computer and help parents keep better track of what their kids are learning with all these "toys." Products like Tag -- a reading pen similar to the FLY pentop -- can tell parents what words kids are reading well, and how much time they spend with a book, while the new Leapster2 and Didj handhelds let parents track the curriculum the kids are running through -- with the Didj even allowing parents to work in custom vocabulary lists or other subjects into their kid's game of choice. Unfortunately, the LeapFrog2 suffers from same screen viewability woes of its predecessor, and both handhelds are quite chunky, but we did like the Didj's screen and software, and that $90 pricetag is quite palatable.

Heads-up kiddos! LeapFrog is out to swipe even more of that allowance with a pair of all new web-connected handhelds. Up first is the Leapster2, which now boasts a sleeker form factor and the ability to upload your totally sweet results to the web for mum and dad to ooh and ahh over. For you older tykes, the Didj handheld -- which is hailed as the first completely customizable educational gaming platform -- enables users to "personalize the look and feel of the games, from designing their avatars to choosing background scenery, color schemes and music." Also of note, the Didj features a 3.2-inch 320 x 240 resolution panel, a 393MHz ARM9 processor and 256MB of Flash memory, which should provide plenty of incentive to hack this thing into a second-rate media player when not beefing up that mental muscle. Both units are set to launch this summer for $69.99 and $89.99, respectively, while software titles for each will run $24.99 and $29.99, also respectively.

[Via I4U News]