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Handhelds Hardware

PDAs For Kids 197

Posted by Hemos from the get-'em-young dept.
fiftyfly writes "Wired's running a story about the Pixter - a sort of etch-a-sketch/palm love child. At an estimated $50.00 I'm sure someone out there must have had a go at hacking it. No mention of anyway of getting the drawings off, I'd imagine that would be a good place to start. For $75CAD I'd give it a go, eh?"
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PDAs For Kids More

PDAs For Kids

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  • of my first Sony.....
    • If it comes with multimedia support, the Pixter would also be the "My First MP3 Player"

    • VTech Phusion-been there done it already (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I can't belive slashdot actually posted this story. Why is this such a big deal. Look at the VTech Phusion, it's long been discontinued, but it has got a ton more features than this Fisher Price. Phusion has all the features of the Fusher Price, but the Phusion has a built in camera. Get it here for $29.00.
      http://shop.store.yahoo.com/iitemcom/vtec phuspcli. html
      I don't know why slashdot crew has to post this childs stuff. How about some REAL news. Yea Rite.
  • Yes, at last! A palm in Purple...

    R.
  • That's a lot of power for a kid's toy! Kind of reminds me of what Precursor (guy from endeffect.com) does with his Palm.
  • Sounds like my girlfriend's Palm m105. She's got this pastel blue faceplate for it that makes it look like a FisherPrice toy. Don't get any PlayDoh in your PDA!

  • Isn't this the point of the Cybiko? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by AnimeFreak ( 223792 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:04PM (#3427180) Homepage
    http://www.cybikoxtreme.com/ [cybikoxtreme.com]

    This device was released a few years ago and it is basically a PDA for the younger generation. They go for about $100 CDN here ($65 USD).
    • http://www.cybikoxtreme.com/

      This device was released a few years ago and it is basically a PDA for the younger generation. They go for about $100 CDN here ($65 USD).

      No, the Pixter is for like 4 or 5 year olds -- I think this Cybiko is more for young teens.

      R.

    • Re:Isn't this the point of the Cybiko? (Score:4, Informative)

      by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:09PM (#3427204) Homepage Journal
      This looks like it is aimed at an even younger generation. Cybiko appears to me to be aimed at kids who can already read and write. This appears to be aimed at kids who can't yet.

      As there appears to be a modular software interface, I would suspect that this will be a toy that will grow with the kid until he or she decides that it is time to move up to a more powerful PDA, like a Cybiko.

      Also with the modular interface, I expect that a pc interface will be developed within the next year, if for nothing more than to be able to send grandma and grandpa the pictures that little tyke has drawn.

      -Rusty
    • is to figure out how to get this thing to talk to ProE or AutocadLT
    • http://www.cybikoxtreme.com/

      The site won't let me in without a cookie. Buh-bye!

      Though I suppose it won't be long before all sites are like this.
      • csbruce wrote:

        >> http://www.cybikoxtreme.com/
        > The site won't let me in without a cookie.
        > Buh-bye!

        Just delete 'em when you're done looking.

        They must not have marketing department to speak of, because, even after setting up an account with cybiko.com and giving some contact information, I have yet to receive a single unsolicited email message or snailmail.

        But, the support guys are pretty responsive.

        Makes you wish all companies were this way.
    • I'm seriously tempted to buy one. Has anybody bought one? Done anything cool with it?

      *likes buying high tech geek toys*
    • Actually, the real point of the device is to keep kids from walking off with Mommy or Daddy's Palm and dipping it in a jar full of jelly, or putting it in the fish tank to showy Goldie what they drew.

  • The Original Solid State is Better (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Devil's BSD ( 562630 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:04PM (#3427184) Homepage
    ... a sort of etch-a-sketch/palm love child. well, whats the challenge in this if you can lift your pen/stylus? The whole point of Etch-a-Sketch was to create a picture from a single, continuous line. If I had a kid, I'd get him/her an Etch-A-Sketch for $10 rather than this $50 "creativity device", as the article calls it.

  • crayons (Score:5, Funny)

    by EricBoyd ( 532608 ) <mrericboyd.yahoo@com> on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:07PM (#3427193) Homepage
    Man, kids these days! Back in my day, we were happy with pencils. And crayons, man, a pack of those could keep us happy for weeks, until nothing but little stubs were left!

    Now kids got all these newfangled toys with bright color lcd's... it's almost sick! I bet they don't get the preverse pleasure of drawing on walls with 'em thou...

    Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]

  • A little heads up... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Daniel Wood ( 531906 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:07PM (#3427194) Homepage Journal
    For those looking for a cheap PDA, the Visor Basic can be had for as little as $55. Check Pricewatch.
  • Fisher-Price calls it a "creativity system," and its raison d'etre is drawing on the monochrome screen with the attached stylus. The idea for the toy came from watching kids make drawings on their parents' Palms.

    I recall the old pull-back, carbon-paper drawing pads with which I used to play when I was younger. One could purchase them at the toy store for less than a dollar. I suppose that if Fisher Price had called them "creativity systems" back then, they could have charged a lot more for them.

    Gosh. Think about what better marketing could have done for Etch-a-Sketch. They'd be standard issue on university campuses had they that kind of billing a couple of decades ago.

    • Re:They call it progress ... (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I recall the old pull-back, carbon-paper drawing pads with which I used to play when I was younger.

      I believe they were made of a black, wax coated cardboard overlayed by an opaque plastic sheet. Where the stylus touched, the plastic would stick to the wax and the underlying black color would show through. Lifting the sheet would cause it to unstick and "erase" the drawn image.

      How's that for knowing too much about too little?

  • Speak 'n' Spell emulation? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by d5w ( 513456 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:09PM (#3427200)
    Just looking at the device made me think back to the Speak'n'Spell. I'd guess that this new toy has plenty of power to do the emulation if they feel like offering it (or if someone feels like hacking it). It would be an amusing evolution of emulator technology to have even Fisher Price toys digitally emulating their ancestors.
    • What's bugging me...

      Why did they not rerelease the Speak'n'Spell to coincide with E.T. being rereleased? It'd be pretty cheap (they could make it half as thick, on one chip), it would sell like crazy, and it would take one's mind off the fact that it is currently a little dicey to continue having dirty thoughts about Drew Barrymore.

      /Brian
      • DooD i loved my first speak'n'spell..one of the first things i took apart..:p give you an idea i'd grow up to be a hackH^H^H^H^H^Hcomputer tech..... any way back on topic.....

        you may not want to hack this device "Fisher-Price will be introducing a new version, the Pixter Plus, in August. The new model will have more memory, allowing up to 20 pictures to be stored, a silvery plastic case and a flexible plug-in screen light for playing in the dark. There will also be nine new software packs, including a couple of Disney titles."

        If Disney is involved it's DMCA protected and that will just suck, I got interested in computers by taking ALL of my childhood toys apart and figuring out how they worked..my moto was "it ain't broke but i'll fix it anyway"

      • They definately should. When I saw the E.T. rerelease in the theatre and heard that voice I remembered it immediately, and realized that that device single handedly taught me how to spell (I used to think that ' was pronounced "doink"). I leaned over to my friend and told him "if no one is making one of those things any more, I'm going to make one."


        It'd probably be legal. I'm sure the patents have expired, the voice was public domain, and I could clean-room engineer the look and feel. Call it something like "Spelling Speaker" and you'll avoid trademark laws. With so many of the twenty-somethings now married with their own children, I bet they'd sell like hotcakes.


        If only I knew the first thing about manufacturing. Anyone?

      • >Why did they not rerelease the Speak'n'Spell to
        >coincide with E.T. being rereleased?

        They're afraid that kids today are savvy enough to actually make a device that will summon an alien ship.

        >a little dicey to continue having dirty thoughts
        >about Drew Barrymore.

        Well, Erika Eleniak totally stole that show from Drew. And she's still WAY hotter.

    • Emulating a speak'n'spell would simply consist of writing the various spelling games - the speak'n'spell used a common and public available speech synthesis algorithm, and the phonemes are publicly available. You could write a C speak'n'spell to be adapted for a variety of PDAs.

    • Re:Speak 'n' Spell emulation? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There is, of course, the Speak and Spell Simulator [retrogames.com]. Not really an emulator, but it's quite fun.
    • Check out SASS [retrogames.com] for a trip down memory lane. The creators have sampled both the UK and the US versions of the original hardware and made a (windows only I think) simulator. It's defintiely fun for five minutes or so :)
    • There is a better alternative: LeapPad Learning System [leapfrog.com]. Go to Target sometime and play with one in the store. They're very cool for kids.

  • The trend of PDA's (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CmdrTaco (editor) ( 564483 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:10PM (#3427206)
    Most of the people I know, at least the ones that are in non managerial positions, have at some point in their lives bought a PDA, either a Palm or a Visor. Every single one of these people used the PDA for menial tasks, such as shopping lists and phone numbers for friends. I always argued that the PDA method was quite ineffecient, and recommended the failsafe method of a pen and paper instead. But these people insisted on carrying their PDA with them 24 x 7, and after several weeks of the extra burden of weight and having to make sure the battery was charged, most either gave up or started using their PDA exclusively to play games.

    Thus, from this slightly drawn out anecdote, I can conclude that if mature adults don't have the self control to carry a somewhat burdensome piece of productivity hardware for a significant amount of time, there is no hope for children. Their "PDA" will become a veritable Game Boy in a short amount of time.

    • Hmmmm.. I know someone that's happened to. I on the other hand have one and still use it as much as the day I got it (a while ago), but I use it with a plugged in full-size keyboard for taking notes in my high-school AP biology class. It sure did fix the writers cramp I used to always get. My dad got it for me figuring it would help me learnt to take notes, and was cheaper than a laptop.
      • Hey, AP Bio, i have some notes if you want em. Took them on my Sharp Mobilon TriPad, best damn investment I ever made. Good luck on the test, (when is it anyway).

        courierstuff79@hotmail.com

    • Re:The trend of PDA's (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JWW ( 79176 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:27PM (#3427266)
      I think you're wrong on a couple of fronts. At work my group supports about 50-60 palm users. These people alomst all use the palm exclusively for scheduling their appointments and to-do lists. Games are pretty much a sideshow. My palm is used for (in order), my schedule, to do list, contact list, notes, and then for games.

      My son also has both a pixter and a gameboy. Both devices are remarkably different. The pixter focuses mostly on educative games and in actuallity hoing the skills necessary for using a PDA. The games are fairly interesting an centered on learning mostly. The anamation cartrige enables the creation of simple cartoon style animation. The gameboy is a pure gaming machine and pretty nice at that. My son uses the gameboy more. But depending on his mood and what kind of activity he wants to do will judge which device he picks. The gameboy is definately the higer energy more intense device, but the pixter is the more engaging thinking and creativity toy.
    • The primary use of my Palm is as an alarm clock. I have a bad habit of forgetting to do things/go to events, so my Palm serves to remind me about doing all the little things I plan on doing during the day.

      Battery use on a Palm isn't so much an issue on other types of PDAs. Pop in 2AAAs and I'm good for 2 -3 months.

      Size and weight is still an issue, thought. Even with my thin Visor, it still makes an unsightly bulge in my pockets (no puns please.) Only when PDAs are as unobtrusive as a little black book, will they finally be ready for most people.
    • That's not my experience at all as a PDA user. I found that my first PDA (a Palm III) became an indispensible part of my life in short order. Over the years I upgraded to newer models and still use my for PDA for mundane tasks because it allows me to perform these mundane tasks more efficiently [palmgear.com].
      But I also use it as a cellphone [handspring.com], to keep passwords secure [palmgear.com], to connect to the Internet, read news, e-books, as a desk and travel alarm clock [palmgear.com] and for many more things. I don't know if children will really use the device in this article but this mature adult will never grow tired of his PDA.
    • (Possibly OT question follows)

      Always thought I'd buy one, then got laid off. Now, though I'm working on contract, I still cannot afford one. Not complaining, though I am curious: Are they really that convenient/useful? On the one hand, pen & paper are more convenient, what with the concerns mentioned above. On the other, the memory and connectivity aspects are intriguing.

      Judging from the comments in general, it sounds like you really only need one if
      1. Lots of other people in your organisation have one too (cf. network aspects in reference to utilities of one fax machine on the phone system v. many) --or--
      2. You need that memory store interacting with that of others, where a laptop is impractical or useless (ie/ at functions, entertainment or otherwise) --or--
      3. Your memory (in your head, that is) is totally hopeless (as mine became on the job!) --or--
      4. You have some other need I haven't thought of (and I'm sure there are many)
      5. To digress -- do people find the Zaurus or other Linux-capable PDAs better or worse than the Windows ones? If I ever were to buy one, it'd have to be a Linux-compatible one. Yes, I know you can sync a Palm Pilot or whatever they're called now to Linux PCs.

        So what do Slashdot readers think? Worth it? Idle minds like mine want to know...

      • In my mind, where a PDA scores big over paper is in a few key areas:
        • You can search the contents.
        • It can beep when appointments are due.
        • You can back it up effortlessly.
        • Physical size. (This is comparing the Palm with the combination of address book, notebook, a paperback novel, diary, newspaper, etc.
        • It can in a pinch do PC type stuff, like read e-mail and play video games.

        Here I refer to a PDA as distinct from a Pocket PC. Those iPaqs are really just attempts to miniaturise a PC to fit into your pocket, so at the cost of size, battery life etc. they do the PC type stuff well, and manage the PDA stuff too since PCs can do that, if you see what I mean.
      • A couple notes:

        1. As someone already mentioned, it's great as an alarm to remind me about meetings, etc.

        2. I'm more likely to actually have it with me when I need to enter a new appointment than I was with pen and paper.

        3. I frequently forgot to update my paper calendar when a new meeting was scheduled on the computer (Lotus Notes), or vice versa. I was usually pretty good about it, but mistakes happened.

        4. Useful as a calculator.

        I've only used a Palm III, so I can't compare it to other OS handhelds.

        One other thing: I collect model railroad equipment in HO and N scale. Since people like me don't like to have the exact same equipment, I eventually plan to use the Palm to record everything I own, down to the numbers on the cars and engines, so that if I'm at a hobby shop I don't buy a duplicate of what I already own. (Yes, it's anal, I know.) Yes, I could do this with pen and paper, but that's just not as cool. ;)

        Another use: I am working on building a music database (ssshh...don't tell the RIAA), and I'd like to see if I can keep a stripped version of the 'most important' data in the Palm for easy access.

        RJ
      • I've used a couple of different ones and really like having a PDA. I mostly use it for keeping my schedule. A PDA really works well in an Outlook/Exchange environment. It's nice to have something that I can carry with me that is always up to date with my calendar at work.

        In addition, I make some use of the addressbook feature (though I find I keep most phone numbers in my cellphone anyway). The todo list gets used quite a bit both for todo things and as a shopping list. I also like having a place to keep notes that I might want while I'm out and about. It's pretty rare that I use the PDA as an information capture device, mostly it's just a data viewing device.

        Maps are another really great PDA thing. I my favorite map software is Mapopolis [mapopolis.com] they have pretty good free maps and reasonable prices of more detailed maps.

        Overall I'd say that it's a good investment, but I wouldn't want to put more than about $200 into one.

    • I agree. I had a Sony Clie (the original S300) for about a year, and what I discovered was that I was spending more time making sure it was charged and synced than time it saved me. By the time you get the thing out, turned on, get out of whatever program it was in, get where you want to be, and find the address or whatever you were looking for, you've been standing there probably a minute. Entering information was even more of a chore. By the time you get something written in there with Graffiti or the on-screen keypad, you could've jotted it on a peice of paper and been off doing other things by then. After a while I found all I was using my Clie for was to play Bejeweled instead of paying attention in my courses. I ended up selling it on eBay and picking up a little Dayrunner thing for much cheaper. It's a little more bulky, but it's ten times more convenient.
      • After a while I found all I was using my Clie for was to play Bejeweled instead of paying attention in my courses. I ended up selling it on eBay and picking up a little Dayrunner thing for much cheaper. It's a little more bulky, but it's ten times more convenient.
        Ahh, and what happens when you put your entire life into your Dayrunner and you lose it? I used to be a Dayrunner user, but after a close call (someone found it and returned it), I lived in mortal fear of losing my Dayrunner again. Being able to backup your data and sync it to a replacement unit (I have a spare in my desk, used Palms are cheap), was the key selling point for me when I bought my Pilot 5000. Besides, you can always load it with a couple of e-texts for when you're on the bus, and it doubles as a calculator.
        • Agreed, I carried around a paper addressbook and a paper 12-month appointment book, one of those cheap knock-offs that doesn't have a memorable brand-name or replaceable pages, for at least four years. (The 12-month calendar had some pages for addresses but then I would have had to copy them over every year, hell with that.) I could not live without them; the calendar did not fit in my pocket (I had way too much going on to use a pocket calendar) and the addressbook would have been a tight squeeze; ergo I could not live without a backpack. During those four years I lost (or had stolen from me) a hat I liked, an umbrella, my best scarf, and the wallet I had made myself in junior high (and of course all its contents)... pretty much every loose article except for my backpack, which is partly due to watching it like a hawk and partly luck.

          Then a friend showed me his Pilot (back in the day). It fit in a pocket and it could be backed up in case in case it grew legs and walked away; I got one myself and never looked back. I have a Visor at the moment. It sings, it dances, it plays reveille when I need an alarm clock at camp. But mostly it earns its keep by telling me where to go and what to do and by fitting in a pocket.

          However, mileage definitely varies. I know someone who loses things really frequently.. got a Palm and lost it in the first week.. that gets to be a bit expensive. I know someone else who (afaik) never used an organizer.. got a Visor but his life really doesn't need organizing.. he uses the address book occasionally, and plays games on it when travelling without a laptop, but I think that's about it. And of course some people just prefer paper because of its physical properties or because it affords fewer distractions.
    • ...there is no hope for children. Their "PDA" will become a veritable Game Boy in a short amount of time.

      Too right! Kids shouldn't be playing games, they should be creating balance sheets for their pocket money and word processing their weekly "What I did at the weekend" memos. I gave a PowerPoint presentation on this issue when I was four.

  • Thieves (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Hyperfrog ( 575345 )

    Recently there has been an increase in mobile phones stolen. OVer 10% of these thefts have been from children - including the children targetted by this device.

    So, is this device just another expensive toy waiting to be stolen?

  • I can't help but think that that toy is targeting a rather small market. Who wants it? Certainly not people over say... 12? Most kids would want it, but who's parents would actually get it for them?

    I suppose some people wouldn't mind spending $50 on a toy for a 6 year old . . . just look at LEGOs.
    • I dunno. I think that young teens and preteens would go ape over a gadget like this, particularly if it has the capability to beam messages back and forth. I know at least a couple of twelve year olds who use regularly old Palm IIIs, passed along from old family members. I will concede that my familiarity with that age cohort is not as great as the marketing wizards at Fisher Price, however.

  • hacking and expandability (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sparr0 ( 451780 ) <sparr0@gmail.com> on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:12PM (#3427217) Homepage Journal
    one of the first steps to hacking this would be to get your hands on some of the ROM expansion packs. On the Go [amazon.com] and Learning Fun [amazon.com] would be too good choices at $10 each. The interface for connecting to the ROMs would definitely be the easiest way to connect to the toy and get info on/off of it. Someone get some software on it that can read my handwriting and ill buy one.
  • $5 to the first person who can port linux to the thing and releases a distro.

    I'd give it about .... um .... 4 days.

    And we can finally say that Linux now has a WindowsXP counterpart, as it's running on Fisher Price, so it must look like Fisher Price, right?

    right?

    ~will

  • Wait a month and all of the progs you see included with the "PDA" will be emulated in MAME. At that point you can teach that special 5 year old niece or nephew about real PCs and software piracy simultaneously.
    • Wrong. Totally wrong. This is flamebait if I ever have seen it.

      MAME is a documentation project for old _arcade_ machines. It does not and will not ever emulate consoles, computers, palmtops, or anything of the like.

      As a documentation project, it serves to show the old hardware that those old arcade machines used and how it all worked together. Playing anything at all is a side-effect, thus why optimizations are rarely used in the code.

      Those who pirate ROM images to use with MAME are perverting the project from its real intended use.
  • So they're not left out from having an overpriced alternative to paper and pencil that they will stop playing with after 2 weeks.

    Every 6 months I vow to get organized and pick mine up for a week... but It's just not that hard for me to remember:

    2pm: Wake up
    2:01pm: Sit down at computer
    6am: Go to bed.

    Don't be gay, Sparky...
  • ...minus the drawing stylus.

    The Etch-A-Scetch animator was released in the '80s, and you can do frame-by-frame animation with it. Used the same 2 knobs just like the original.
    • The Etch-A-Sketch Animator 2000 even had a stylus, no less. But the screen wasn't touch-sensitive; the stylus area was a seperate pad, like on a notebook computer.

      Expensive as hell (unless you got lucky and Target sent you a raincheck good for 50% off any toy in the store: note to Target, not a wise financial move giving an 8-year-old 50% off any one item he wants). But a cool little toy though.

  • Hey for people who has a handeld with Palm OS, there is a very similar freeware. Here's the url if you want to download it. It's called "Pen Draw". And plz note that it doesn't work if you have a color handheld. http://www.freewarepalm.com/graphics/graphics.shtm l

  • For God's sake (Score:2, Funny)

    by v23 ( 560913 )
    Give the kids paper and pencils.

    • Re:For God's sake (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by cscx ( 541332 )
      The last thing we need to do is geekify kids even more. It's a sad trend... what we need to do is give these kids members of the opposite sex. Let them have some old fashioned fun, instead of becoming attached to their computer, etc at age 4+ and never leaving the house (yes, that is a bad thing). WTF ever happened to lincoln logs?

      • This IS old-fashioned fun... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by FaithAndReason ( 112179 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @12:49AM (#3427484)
        It's just a MagnaDoodle(TM) that allows you to save pictures to your PC. As for geekifying kids, my own (ages 8, 5, 3 and 1) are already attached to the computer. One of these gizmos would be a clever way to actually give them some "old-fashioned" fun: say "hey, it's your very own computer!" when all they're really doing is drawing. Sure, it costs more than pencil and paper, but my kids probably go through $10 of paper, crayons, coloring books and markers a month, and that's not even counting the time and cost of cleaning off the 3-year-old's "artwork" from our apartment walls! I'd rather give him a stylus than a pencil any day - less damage that way...

        (He's also already trashed the MagnaDoodle I got him for Christmas -- it seems that with enough use, the "writing surface" becomes magnetized, so it doesn't "wipe clean" any more... Another reason why the digital version is better than the analog one...)

        As an aside, did you really mean to suggest that the best thing for children aged 4+ is to "give" them "members of the opposite sex" for "old-fashioned fun", or was that just some odd Freudian slip? ;-)
        • I meant pencil and paper in a more general way. It is generally a good thing to expose our kids to non-virtual things. Pencil, paper, wooden swords, play balls, backyard houses, you name it.

          Show them the nature. Not on screen. they should not get scared of a sheep at age of ten.

          They can (and will) learn computers anyway. But at least, give them a chance.

          Let them use their hands AND brain.

          A friend of mine's cellphone broke down and he suddenly lost all his contacts. He could not recall a single phone number by heart, tho he was using to call those numbers daily.

          Scary.

          I also am lost without my PDA. But since that cellphone failure I making sport of memorizing the important phone numbers. It was really difficult at the beginning. Now it's getting easier.

          There is hope. :-)
          • Memorizing poetry is a good thing. Memorizing phone numbers? Sounds like memorizing IP addresses (isn't that why we have DNS?). Perhaps PDA's and their ilk make us dependent on them by remembering numbers for us, but how much independence have we really achieved when we're so locked into the telecommunications paradigm that we memorize seven or ten digit numbers to keep in touch with friends?

            Perhaps it's a bit less dependent on systems and technology just to walk over to friends' houses and speak to them. The same with our kids -- why buy them $50 gadgets to train them to use PDA's later (to train them to consume) when they could be visiting friends (of either sex, for heaven's sake -- children should socialize with both) and playing games, perhaps even outdoors.
        • From the economical point of view, you are right.

          I just want to avoid making our kids dependent on the technology.

          They should master and understand it, but if we going this way they will never learn to write, only to type.

          Writing is good. Reading a book is good. Playing outside is good.

          Meeting with the opposite sex is good. (Doing things with them appropriate to the actual age of the parties, of course... :) But it IS good :-)

  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by commonchaos ( 309500 ) on Sunday April 28, 2002 @11:31PM (#3427274) Homepage Journal
    I've seen one of these before, they are huge.

    I can't see any use for these except perhaps a wacom tablet emulator... even then, you can get a wacom 12"x12" on ebay for $40, older palms sell for less than $40...
  • I got one for my four year old at Christmas. It's fun to doodle on.

    Someone should buy Ozzie one.
  • I want my Pixelvision.

    My childhood best friend and I both owned PXL-2000 camcorders. I'd rather have one of those than one of these; the Pixelvision was easily the coolest toy Fisher-Price ever cooked up, and it's rather a shame they didn't last very long. We all used to think we were TV producers back in the day -- parodies of Star Trek and 20/20 were the big thing.

    /Brian
  • We need a dissection. Or at least to find out a> what kind of CPU it uses, and b> how much ram it has, of what kinds.

  • Etch-A-Sketch Animator (Score:2, Informative)

    by sig ( 9968 )
    Etch-A-Sketch made something just like this back in the 80's. It was called the Etch-A-Sketch Animator [inthe80s.com] and as I recall, it sucked. Maybe they've got something better here, but I feel that for my money, you can't beat a tablet of paper and a 64 pack of Crayolas.
  • That's not a PDA. It's a stupid drawing thing.

    <mocking>What CPU does it have? How about a BASIC Stamp 2?</mocking>

    Furthermore, I'm very tired of having these underpowered, stupid, etc., devices with colorful cases targeted at children and teenagers, as if they needed colors and didn't need a real OS.
    • The creators were going for "smart toy" instead of "computer." Are you saying that your toaster must run an OS and be capable of playing Quake?

      Embedded devices are sort of important. IMO, simple is good. It is worth noting that things without an OS often run faster and more reliably.

      Feh.
      Justin

  • NOT an etch-a-sketch (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yetiman ( 262330 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @12:11AM (#3427386) Homepage
    This toy is not an etch-a-sketch, you are thinking of the wrong toy. This gadget is more like the old magna-doodle :-)

  • just imagine (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by moosesocks ( 264553 )
    Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these! *smack* sorry! sorry! I won't say it..... *zap!* ouch! what did you do that *smack* for?
  • It's interesting the way americans force materialistic attitudes on their children at a very early age... So many toys represent items those kids tend to purchase later in life. Toy guns for boys, silicon implants (barbie) for the girls.

    Now it's PDAs...Before too long yuppie parents will be buying their kids minature working BMWs... wait. [tinyonline.co.uk]

  • Video Game? (Score:3, Funny)

    by screwballicus ( 313964 ) on Monday April 29, 2002 @01:38AM (#3427590)
    Is this a video game? If so, will my scribbly pictures of pretty houses and pretty trees be a protected form of speech under new legal precedent? [slashdot.org]

    Think about it people! Kids could draw anything in this video game. They could draw offensive words, or lewd sexual acts. They might even hack the device to install a free operating system that in every way contradicts the principles on which our capitalist nation is based. They could visually depict violent acts and criminal behaviour! Are these the kinds of things we want our kids seeing? Hell, no. Expose your kids to this kind of medium, and they'll be sexually retrograde serial killers in no time. Censor the art of drawing! Now!

  • Using the stamps, replacing them with circuit elements, and adding in a circuit analysis tool could make it an effective tool for teaching physics/Electrical engineering, perhaps digital logic too.

    p34nu7 6u773r.
  • I just assume that children dont get spoiled to death by electronic equipment. Makes a kid lazy, I'm the perfect example. Give that kid a baseball and a bat let him get outside and play ball, and not Homerun on nintendo.
  • These corporate-types would do well to include Slashdot in their product-release marketing plans. Think of how well the slashdot effect would server them. But then again, it would be sort of bastardizing this sacred site.

    Then again, think how much the SlashCrew could charge companies like Mattel, Fisher Price et all by having a geeks-first preview of upcoming tech toys. Kind of like serv-u ads but more profitable?

    But don't sell out!
  • Anybody know of a sturdy little digital camera for kids?

    My five year old loves to take pictures, but a roll of film disappears in about 20 minutes.

    A little digital camera would be perfect - no film, zillions of pics.
    • Try the L'espion. It's a keyring sized digital camera, CIF format, it's not going to win any prizes, but the pix are ok.

      20 shots @ 352 x 288 resolution
      80 shots @ 176 x 144 resolution

      http://www.digitaldreamco.com/shop/espion.htm

  • Old story (Score:2, Informative)

    by PatSmarty ( 135304 )
    This has already been discussed before [slashdot.org].
  • Some kind of design use for this. Give it a grid of metric graph paper and some basic drawing tools (line, curve, angle) as well as add note capabilities (put the cursor on part of the drawing and see the author's design notes on it). It would be great in 3D too, but even straying from that add graphing calculator abilities to it as well. Alright, so you can do that stuff with a full-fledged PDA on a smaller screen, but I know when I was a kid I would have definitely enjoyed something where I get to design things. Even as a kid I knew I couldn't draw worth crap, but I loved graph paper, rulers, compasses, and protractors. Hell, I still love that stuff.
  • ...and to clear the memory, simply turn it upside down and shake.
  • I think the main problem with most geek-child toys, such as consoles and this PDA too, is that the children are mostly just playing on their own when they use such things. This means they miss out on competitiveness, social awareness, companionship (so they don't feel lonely, I mean) - and above all closeness to human beings.

    I'm not anti-tech, and to those who would say for example that they don't like their children watching tv all day because it's bad for them, I'd say - watch it with them then. Sit with them, enjoy the thing together, laugh, or even teach stuff about what's being watched if you think that won't be boring and ignored.... If nothing else, it's a chance for the child and the rest of the family to snuggle up together and do something they all enjoy. Or it can be a horrible box that breeds alienation. They are tools...

    So anything tech-wise that doesn't allow others to join in (if the child wants: you have to leave them their space to be alone too!) - is going to be limited, and potentially limiting, for your child. With hardware like the PDA, we can adapt and help, but can't change the overall structure. I think with software we can go a lot further, and actually create things which by default encourage this sharing and companionship.

    With regard to this, and this generally being an open source related forum, I think there's 2 software areas where children could benefit from the connectivity you get from the internet:

    1) a mail reader - same as the article featured, kids draw simple sketches, can send to friends. This is much the same as any mail client, except the interface would be child friendly, and have pictures of the intended recipients, rather than their email addresses...

    2) a peer to peer game - some way of exchanging drawings and sounds, or even "objects" made up of drawings and sounds together, all though a first person perspective.

    But these are just my views on possible projects. There are already loads of children's games on linux, usually written by parents while the child had the age the game was intended for, and abandoned later. There's no larger scale project that I know of that directly addresses the child's "linux"(or any open source) desktop. I think it's my responsibility as a programmer and parent to do something about this. Can anyone help or inform me about what's currently around in terms of software projects?

    Ale
  • I don't know if anyone has priced an LCD display to use for a headless PC display or MP3 player but when I saw this, I thought it would make a good display and it's inexpensive. Has anyone hacked this thing (or a cheap Visor/Palm device) as a display for a PC?

  • I bought One (Score:2, Informative)

    by Chrome-Dragon ( 140684 )
    For my seven year old a Christmas time. I was rather unimpressed, the pixel size sucks so all your lines (when you are drawing) are fat and nasty plus the tracking (angled lines, direction change) when you draw just isn't as good as even the cheapest PDA. The ROM packs that you can load into the top have some fun games but the base unit grew boring quickly. As a hack / mod it might be fun but the issues with the screen make me think its not worth the effort.
    • You have to start somewhere. In two years we may see something thinner, with a bigger (folding?) screen in higher res and color. Every since my kids used to beg to draw on my old palmpilot personal I knew this market had potential.

      At ~$30, it is cheaper than any PDA too.

  • Mentioned before (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Tha_Zanthrax ( 521419 )
    mentioned before
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/22/173425 5&mode=thread [slashdot.org]

    nothing new to see here

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