Filed under: Features, Gaming, Handhelds

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.

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Filed under: Features, Gaming, Handhelds

Yeah, you know you want one. While we’re rather skeptical about the “carabiner” aspects of this Guitar Hero Carabiner — forget your keychain, we’ve owned cars smaller than this thing — it certainly manages to bring enough of those Guitar Hero rock star vibes along with to make it worth the $15 (just think of it as your present to yourself for not seeing Jumper this weekend). The sound is decent for this type of handheld, and we had little trouble rocking out with the tactile buttons and cheap ass LCD, but we’d probably prefer the Verizon version of this experience just so we could hear some real songs. Video is after the break.

Continue reading Guitar Hero Carabiner hands-on

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Filed under: Portable Audio

LeapFrog is moving on up the chain, and hitting 3rd through 8th graders with a new study aid, the Crammer Study and Sound System. Crammer works basically as a replacement for those annoyingly handwritten index cards, allowing you to enter data for each side of virtual “cards” and run through them on the 2.5-inch grayscale screen. You can also download study aids for a myriad of subjects, or use the included language tools to automatically translate and pronounce words for study. The built-in music playback is pretty straightforward, and lets kids relax with some songs or listen while they study. We spotted a prototype at the 2008 Toy Fair, and while it wasn’t a functional unit, we got to see the iriver clix-style four-way screen clicking controls, which seem friendly enough. Crammer will be out Fall 2008 for $60, and includes 1GB of built-in flash memory.

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’ve gotten a flood of tips that the notoriously miserly Verizon is lining things up to offer unlimited calling plans. Starting Tuesday the 19th (of this month) should see the following plans sprout up:

• $100 – Nationwide Unlimited (voice)
• $120 – Nationwide Select Unlimited (voice, SMS, MMS)
• $140 – Nationwide Premium (voice, SMS, MMS, VZNav, VCAST, email)
• $150 – Nationwide Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and data)
• $170 – Nationwide Global Email and Messaging (voice, SMS, MMS, and international data)
• $200 – Family plan with two lines, $100 per additional line.

That’s not all though. There are even more perks and benefits in store for premium-paying unlimited users:

• 5GB cap on data is out
• No contract extension for current customers
• Available on one or two year agreements
• All plans include Mobile Web 2.0 portal access (skip it)
• No roaming or long distance

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Robots

Famed technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil is on the record about human-machine intelligence parity: it’s going down by 2029, so be prepared to get digital on entirely new levels. Apparently, machines “will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence” by then, but even if it’s not in the form of meatbag-terminating cyborgs, Kurzweil thinks one future of intelligent machines is on the nano scale, with interfaces to enhance our own physiology and intelligence. Oh sure, this stuff is completely pie in the sky — but it’s still absurdly fun to think of what kinds of crazy crap the 21st century’s going to hold.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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