Slashdot Mirror
Domain: leapfrog.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to leapfrog.com.
Stories · 6
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Learning Game Consoles for Young Children?
revco_38 asks: "My wife and I are looking into purchasing a game based learning console for our 4 year old boy this Christmas. The two front runners are the VSmile from VTech and the Leapster from Leapfrog. Does the Slashdot community have any experience with either of these products? Are there any other products similar that should be considered? We also have a 2 year old boy so something that lasts would be nice." -
Leapfrog Talking Pen
AndroidCat writes "Leapfrog has just announced their Fly pen computer for children. It talks, giving feedback as they write and draw, and with special Fly paper, you can draw a calculator, press the 'buttons' with the pen and it will read the answers. Cute, but is this a real working product? Let's see. If they included a 1 GB USB drive, it would be an interesting product for geeks too--just don't write fdisk. And remember to turn off the voice when making notes during meetings." Here's a picture of the device. -
MS Seeks To Patent Education-Feedback Software
theodp writes "The USPTO disclosed Thursday that Microsoft is seeking an early childhood education-related patent for Providing instructional feedback to a user, which the software giant says covers the use of computers to teach little tykes to form the letter 'b', make a 'ch' sound, and divide 321 by 17. Let's hope LeapPad-toting preschoolers are indemnified against Microsoft lawsuits." "Unstructured" is the key word in this patent, which (like most) is written in language that does more to obscure than illuminate. Just how structured was Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing? How about GCompris? -
Education Arcade Brings Learning Experience, Will Wright To E3
Thanks to Water Cooler Games for its in-depth report on Day 1 and on Day 2 of the Education Arcade, an E3-related conference which discusses "the development, the use, and the marketing potential of games in education." Among the highlights: the contention by the Leapfrog CEO that "Video games are a trojan horse -- a way to get better educational content into the home", and Maxis' Will Wright discussing how his titles educate, pointing out: "As game designers, we're trying to build a model in people's head. And that probably has a lot to do with education." -
Leapfrog Launches GBA-Style Educational Handheld
Thanks to Yahoo/Reuters for their story on the launch of Leapfrog's educational handheld, the Leapster. The article says the handheld is "aimed at giving parents an alternative to Nintendo's GameBoy system, [and] plays educational games and interactive videos." It retails for $79, with game cartridges costing around $25, and a Leapfrog spokesman commented on the reasoning behind today's launch: "A half a million GameBoys were sold last year for kids in the 3-1/2 to 6-1/2-year-old age group, but try to get parents to admit that in a focus group. This is a completely untapped market." -
Leapfrog Launches GBA-Style Educational Handheld
Thanks to Yahoo/Reuters for their story on the launch of Leapfrog's educational handheld, the Leapster. The article says the handheld is "aimed at giving parents an alternative to Nintendo's GameBoy system, [and] plays educational games and interactive videos." It retails for $79, with game cartridges costing around $25, and a Leapfrog spokesman commented on the reasoning behind today's launch: "A half a million GameBoys were sold last year for kids in the 3-1/2 to 6-1/2-year-old age group, but try to get parents to admit that in a focus group. This is a completely untapped market."
