Leapfrog doesn’t want to leave anyone out of the latest wearable tech trends and has unveiled a smartwatch for kids called the LeapBand. The device is designed for children from 4-7 years old and features an activity tracker while taking care of a virtual pet.
The LeapBand is water-resistant with a high-res color display, built-in accelerometer to track activity, a rechargeable battery and also has a watch in either analog or digital mode. Kids wear the smartwatch to take care of one of eight different digital pets – dog, panda, cat, monkey, robot, dragon, unicorn, or a penguin. The device encourages healthy activity using the accelerometer to track challenges giving to them such as jumping, wiggling, hopping, etc. where they earn rewards and treats to care for their pet.
The LeapBand from LeapFrog comes in colors of blue, green and pink, and will retail for $39.99 later this fall.
It's time to rethink the way our children learn. It's all a bit overwhelming, attempting to restructure the age-old classroom model, particularly in a system as bogged down in bureaucratic red tape as education. This month, however, we packed up our things and toured the country to find out how educational institutions are adopting new models to help reinvent the learning process -- rather than sitting idly by, waiting for the system to change around them. Naturally, technology is playing a huge role in that shift, moving from models of teaching to models of learning, where students can explore, express themselves and learn at their own speed.
We kick things off in Chicago, where Jackie Moore, a former systems programmer, is teaching inner city students how to build robots in a shopping mall basement at LevelUP. Next up, we head Miami and California, to see how technologies like the iPad, Google Chromebook and One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop are being implemented in three schools, including interviews with educators, students, OLPC CEO Rodrigo Halaby and Google director of product management, Rajen Sheth. We'll also talk to component retailers SparkFun and Adafruit about the initiatives those companies have implemented to help kids learn electronics at an early age, and then we sit down with American Museum of Natural History president, Ellen Futter, to discuss the ways the New York City institution is redefining itself for the 21st century.
We've also got an interview with Ali Partovi, a serial entrepreneur, who is working to make computer science an essential part of the elementary-level STEM program, through Code.org. Richard Culatta, the acting director of the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology discusses how devices can help target the learning process for individual students and LeapFrog CEO John Barbour tells us how his company is rethinking the educational toy. All that plus prognostications from John Roderick and some really sweet moose dioramas can be yours to enjoy after the break.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Laptops, Robots, Tablets, Science, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Alt, Google, Acer
LeapFrog's latest tablet just couldn't wait to show off for the camera, making its on-screen debut over at the FCC's site a few weeks back. The kid-friendly tech company was finally ready to show the thing off for real this week, almost exactly a year after letting us take a look at the previous-generation device. The slate, naturally, maintains the kid-friendly software and rugged design that have become customary across LeapFrog's hardware offerings, while adding enough new features to let the company confidently refer to the LeapPad Ultra as "the ultimate kids learning tablet." Though they might be just a tad biased when it comes to such overarching statements.
The Ultra's got a 7-inch, 1,024 x 600 touchscreen display that works with an stylus to help kids learn to write with something other than their fingers (making it not too unlike the LeapReader in that respect). There are front- and rear-facing cameras for its built-in imaging programs and 8GB of storage for downloading some of the 800-plus LeapFrog-approved apps downloadable from the company's App Center (which wasn't ready to demo when we looked at the hardware). The choices include proprietary apps and selections from partners like Pixar and Sesame Street. The tablet's got all kinds of parental protection, including secure WiFi and a four-digit code for updating. And while there's an included chat app (Pet Chat), communication is limited to other LeapPads, using a limited number of canned responses.
Filed under: Tablets
If you've got kids, or just like pretending you still are one on weekends, then you're probably familiar with LeapFrog's infant-friendly LeapPad. We might suggest that you hold off buying one for the next few weeks, thanks to a listing for a LeapPad Ultra that meandered through the FCC today. Given that the LeapPad 2 hit stores last August, we'll expect to learn a lot more about this unit over the next couple of weeks. That said, if you can't wait, or are just curious about what lurks beneath its green plastic shell, check out the teardown gallery below.
Filed under: Tablets
Source: FCC
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
