PDAs For Kids

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?"

Comments

Isn't this the point of the Cybiko?

[AnimeFreak]

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).

Re:Isn't this the point of the Cybiko?

[rusty0101]

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

The Original Solid State is Better

[Devil's BSD]

... 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.

Re:The Original Solid State is Better

[G-funk]

Yeah you're right, better not give your kids any pencils while you're at it.

Re:The Original Solid State is Better

[qslack]

I'd get him/her an Etch-A-Sketch for $10 rather than this $50 "creativity device", as the article calls it.

Hell, I'd get my cow-orkers a $10 Etch-a-sketch instead of a $3000 laptop! Pocket the difference. They'll never notice.

crayons

[EricBoyd]

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

A little heads up...

[Daniel Wood]

For those looking for a cheap PDA, the Visor Basic can be had for as little as $55. Check Pricewatch.

Speak 'n' Spell emulation?

[d5w]

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.

The trend of PDA's

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

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.

Re:The trend of PDA's

[JWW]

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.

Re:The trend of PDA's

[IHateEverybody]

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.
But I also use it as a cellphone , to keep passwords secure, to connect to the Internet, read news, e-books, as a desk and travel alarm clock 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.

hacking and expandability

[Sparr0]

one of the first steps to hacking this would be to get your hands on some of the ROM expansion packs. On the Go and Learning Fun 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.

Why?

[commonchaos]

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...

NOT an etch-a-sketch

[yetiman]

This toy is not an etch-a-sketch, you are thinking of the wrong toy. This gadget is more like the old magna-doodle :-)

This IS old-fashioned fun...

[FaithAndReason]

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? ;-)

Video Game?

[screwballicus]

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?

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!