MAKE pal Chris Ford writes “The FLY pentop computer from LeapFrog is a new toy that Leapfrog is putting out. It is supposed to be released Oct 12. It recognizes handwriting and repeats what is written. I had the pleasure of trying one out last night and was absolutely blown away. It’s writing recognition is exceptional (I have horrible penmanship and it didn’t even skip a beat). It works as a scheduler and keeps your appointments. It does math (basic arithmetic)…It allows you to draw a piano keyboard or drumset and play them. It works on specially designed proprietary paper (small random dots printed on the paper so that the pen can recognize it’s orientation). There is also a Spanish translator coming out for it (it has a interchangeable cartridge system) that will translate what you write in English into Spanish. It’s really hard to explain how entertaining this piece is without you actually experiencing it. I’m sure that this thing will be hackable. It has a set of contacts on the back of it (I’m guessing for a compute!
r link). It will have an MSRP of $100.
P.S. It recognized every word I threw at it. And yes even with my sophomoric sense of humor even “those” words. It repeated every vulgarity in the book except for one and of course that would be the f-bomb which it replaced by saying “bleep” Link.
ADVERTISEMENT
