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PDAs For Kids

Posted by Hemos on 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?"

7 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't this the point of the Cybiko? by AnimeFreak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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).

    1. Re:Isn't this the point of the Cybiko? by rusty0101 · · Score: 4, Informative

      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

      --
      You never know...
  2. crayons by EricBoyd · · Score: 5, Funny

    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

    --
    augment your senses: http://sensebridge.net/
  3. A little heads up... by Daniel+Wood · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  4. Re:The Original Solid State is Better by qslack · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --
    qslack.com
  5. Re:The trend of PDA's by JWW · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  6. This IS old-fashioned fun... by FaithAndReason · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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? ;-)