FLY Pentop Computer

At Costco this end of the year holiday season they had/have in their “toy” section the newer Leap Pad thingie called “Fly Pentop Computer” –I was aware of this product since it came on the market, but wasn’t sure about it at first, and then learned it was a Leap Pad product, and then finally delved into the website marketing the actual device, and found it probable to be interesting to our family.

That ‘delving into’ was several months ago.

So what was/is in Costco was the actual device and recharging system, and additional product, in the simplest case to just say, it had a full size Fly Notebook, and the Hello Kitty Scrapbook kit (a Flyware product, that is, “software” for the Fly Pentop Computer.) Obviously being marketed towards girls. Another version was same except for having a Harry Potter Flyware Game instead of Hello Kitty. I don’t recall the former price, but it was upwards, high enough for me to say, too bad. I knew that in the stores, when I had LOOKED at it there sometime in the past, the actual device was sold for $99 without the recharging system.

So what did I behold yesterday as I and the childen fooled around in the back aisles of the store for a bit as hubby was gathering a few things to buy as presents, that he didn’t want us to see, of course, –> there in a new demoted spot on the floor was a small pile of Fly/Hello Kitty and Fly/Harry Potter’s –> with a lower price, much lower –> something about $49 …

Standing there I contemplated, and reflected and thought deeper and deeper than that, then proposed something to my newly 8-year old girl –> to use the birthday money she had just received from her Aunt the other day, and pair it with the other $10 I knew she still had … and see what her Daddy would do about making up the rest of it for her, or just going halfies with her, or something.

So it came to the end and yes, we got it for her. I am thrilled with it myself and wish to have one for my own use. 🙂

It’s really cool and it will aide my dear daughter to clean up her writing style and use logic to use functions on the device and the basicness of it, it is an audible reminder and audible aide to things written.

Why do I really like it? It makes “interactive pages” and they are created by the user. The user does have content available that is pre-printed. Also “open pages” of Fly Paper that the user puts on what they want. Writing out functions to work with the “pen” is simple, just find the menu item you want to use, and follow the audible directions to make a “Flycon” shorcut to that item, and submenu sorts of thing from “FlyCons” as well as ‘things’ like a calculator, and a little piano keyboard, for the main starters.

I easily made a simple keyboard when sampling how to use it.

Once you make something on a page recognizable to the “Fly Pen”, it works. It works. Again and again. Turn the Fly off and use it another time, in other words. It really is cool.

I am 40 years old and this is my kind of thing. I am geek-like though. I love computers, but love paper still. I have had two different Palm devices and for little me, THIS FLY SORT OF THING replaces the Palm for much use, and takes over where the Palm doesn’t work for me, and really does stuff that is so really, really neat, and useful and well, I don’t have one though. My 8-year-old girl does, not me. 🙁

My 10-1/2-year-old boy would like one too now. He sees how it is and says “It’s better than my Palm” –he has his Daddy’s old one, a Palm V …

My Palm is a Palm Vx and it sits in my backpack and I do nothing with it. My more resent palm was a new one in the last year, and it lasted just over 6-months, with little useage on my part, the screen got weird orange blob and nothing could be done to fix it. Soonly later the whole screen when “under the orange” ick. I’ve taken it apart and tried this and that fixes people talk of on the Web, but all I did was manage to tear off the speaker wires from the board, with my opening it up and closing it up and later doing more, and later more, and the stress busted that up. And very lately I tried to look at it again, and fooled with it, now it’s totally dead. It was not useable anyhow, being a “visual” thing, with some audio abilities (my main reason for getting it, audio books, Audible.) I did like it better than my Palm Vx, of course, but since the Palm Vx still works fine, the newer Palms I see as cheap crap, yes, that. The “affordable” sort were, and now only one horrid model is on the market. Others are maybe stable, but are ‘out of range’ in pricing.

I loved the color interface, it made it more useful for me, than the monocromatic Palm Vx, so it’s the Vx that won the longer-life race, and it is not very nice, to me, for the lack of color.

The Fly Pentop is the sort of thing that fills in what I thought would be great, but didn’t have, with a Palm of any color or lack thereof.

I am hoping something like this be more adult marketed, there are “digital pens” out there, but they put on your computer digitally what you write on paper. I like the “Paper is interactive” side of the FLY … I love it and must say again, really want one of my own.

I am seeing in my head what my “notebook” would be like, and I could fill it in with color gel pens, make my usual doodles and such, all around my “interactive” stuff.

It’s really easy to figure out for a big person, and a small person needs some help and understanding maybe, but older children would probably do aright from the start with it.

For “right-brain” sorts of people, it’s good practice with the “audibleness” of the FLY (listen and translate to something on a page (directions to make, do, etc.,) “hear” reminders, “hear” the time or date, and so on, and I really think it aides in so many areas of education and life, it’s a really cool thing, but a real tool to use.

My son, whom I said above said he also would like one, said also that he’d love to share his [future FLY ]with me. Nice idea. Don’t know if it’d FLY though. FWIW :LOL: