LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer
- Puts revolutionary technology at your child's fingertips
- Working pen is a powerful computer!
- Scans and digitizes what kids write for upload to home PC
- Includes special FLY Paper, software for games, math help, and more
Product Description
This is Pentop Computing, the next generation of high-speed digital processing, developed to deliver high-speed homework help in the palm of your hand. With the FLY Fusion Pentop Computer, everything you write on FLY? Paper is automatically scanned and digitized. With the tap of your FLY Fusion Pentop Computer, you can interact with your notes, get instant feedback and step-by-step help, even play MP3s and games, all on paper! FLY Fusion Pentop Computer includes: Rechargeable Battery, Memory Expansion Slot, FLY Fusion Installation CD, FLY? Notebook, FLY World Application, 13 FLY Fusion Games, and USB Cable. The FLY Fusion Pentop Computer only works with FLY Fusion software and accessories, and is not compatible with FLY 1.0 products. *This product is not currently compatible with Macintosh operating systems*
Amazon.com Product Description
Put revolutionary technology at your child's fingertips with the LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer. This working pen is actually a powerful handheld computer! Designed for kids ages eight and up, the Pentop Computer gives them a fun, innovative way to record and organize class notes, get help with math homework, study for tests, and much more! 
The Pentop recognizes anything kids write on the FLY paper. View larger. | How It Works
The Pentop Computer doesn't need a keyboard. Kids just write with the pen on the specially designed FLY Paper, which is provided in the included notebook. The computer recognizes anything kids write on the paper -- from algebraic equations to doodles -- and will read back what was written. Then, the Pentop Computer will scan it, digitize it, and make it available for upload to your personal computer. From there, kids can do whatever they want with the data; for instance, email it to friends or transfer it to a research paper. The computer will store a maximum of 80 to 100 pages of FLY Notes. The Pentop Computer is compatible with PCs. (It doesn't currently work with Macintoshes.) As well as being able to upload to a PC, the Pentop Computer can also download additional programs that are available for separate purchase. High-Tech Homework Help -- or Play
The Pentop Computer comes equipped with a FastComp application to help your child tackle math problems. When your child gets stumped, he or she can simply write out the equation and the computer will calculate it. It also makes a great study partner: Your child can get ready for tests in any subject by using the pen to create interactive "flashcards." The computer will be able to use the flashcards to then give your child customized pop quizzes and will even keep score. But all work and no play is no fun, so the Pentop Computer also comes equipped with several fun and challenging games, including challenging Tangrams, Hangman, a "High Octane Personality Quiz," and more. Additional games are available for purchase and download. Plus, not only can your child download and listen to MP3s, he or she can even compose music with the computer's synthesizer-like capabilities! What's in the Box
FLY Fusion Pentop Computer, Quick Start Guide and Installation CD, USB cable, FLY notebook, reference card, and FLY Fusion Games.
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LeapFrog FLY Fusion Pentop Computer
- Toy: 0 pages (2007-07-07)
- Publisher: LeapFrog
- Label: LeapFrog
- Studio: LeapFrog
- Manufacturers Age: 11 years and up
- Our Recommended Age: 10 - 18 years
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 33 reviews
- Sales Rank in Toys: #2961
Click on Product Listings for Details!
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Fun for the first Week 2008-09-20
Comment: It's fun and seems like an amazing idea for the first week and then you get bored of it. However, I am a teenager. I'm sure younger kids could get a lot of use from it and have fun with it for a very long time, but I got bored of it after about one or two weeks. Some of the apps are kinda fun, which can greatly add to its entertainment value.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Pretty Dern Pleased 2008-05-04
Comment: We purchased this for our 8 year old's birthday. Our purpose was two-fold. One, we need him to improve his penmanship, and we thought if he could see where the computer wasn't picking up his writing as text, it would show him where to improve. Secondly, we were going out of town on a business trip and were going to use the pentop to e-mail his written school and homework to his teacher (we got her approval with a test page first).
I was a bit concerned that since you could use the pen to give you answers to math problems, he would take the "easy way out" and have the pen do the work for him. However, since it is a bit akward (due to size) for his hands yet, he did not want to write with it any more than he had to. Secondly, since he is a little young, and had a bit of difficulty holding the pen, sometimes he managed to cover the small camera in the end of the pen with his fingers, and therefore the pentop did not record what he had written, causing me to have to re-trace his writings in order for the pen to capture what was written. Minor inconvenience for me, major headache for him as he got a little frustrated.
On the first installation of the pentop software to my computer, I am not sure what happened, but no matter how hard we tried, the desktop software would not recognize anything that was written in the 2nd and 3rd notebooks, only the first one. I called tech support for LeapFrog, thinking I had a defective pentop. They went thru all the STUPID scripts, even though we explained to them that we had gone thru all of this on our own. Not once did they ever suggest that I might need to repair the installation of the desktop software (although I finally tried that on my own accord and it worked perfectly.)
One other issue I have is there isn't an easy way to transfer notebook pages that have already been loaded to the desktop onto another computer. Once again, I called tech support and they told me supposedly where the files were located - WRONG!. I managed to locate them myself by searching for "fly" on my computer - they were stored under the "common user" in Windows XP. Once located and copied, they did show up on my new laptop's FlyPen desktop application, problem solved, but with absolutely no help from LeapFrog's tech support.
All in all, this is a fun toy and a fair learning tool. Tech support is useless, so if you have no problems with the pen, it's great. If you do, beware, because you won't get any type of useful information from LeapFrog.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Saved me lots of time 2008-04-24
Comment: I really think this product "saved" me. I am a full-time college student who attends night classes and who works 40 hours and five days a week. I had been having trouble getting my assignments done until this nifty little thing came out.
This product saved me because it really cut my time. I got my assignments done so quickly that I actually got to relax!!!
I do recommend this item for not just for Middle/High School students. But also for College.
There are a few drawbacks, but not terrible.
1. You can't use normal paper, you have to use specially designed digital paper (160 pages). Cost around $8.00 usually.
2. If you make a mistake while writing, you can't fix it. But I have solved that problem by just adding to the right after the undesired word "(Mistake - Change to "whatever word(s)")." After transfered to PC, I just change it while editing the typed text.
3. Sometimes the computer can't read your handwriting. You will have to go through and make sure that its correct after downloaded. Which is what you should do anyway even if you typed the whole thing.
4. FYI: NO MACS
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Great Idea 2008-03-26
Comment: We bought this for our nephew (12 years old). Since then, he does all his classwork in the FLY notebook and his handwriting has improved drastically. He tries really hard to write neat so that the words are recognized (really cool for us because we sound like a broken record "you need to write neater blah blah" He did it on his own). For his age we think it's great. It has it's short comings but overall the value is worth it. I recommend this for kids who are interested in computers, they will truly benefit from this toy and have fun while doing classwork/homework.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Summary: Advertising misleads consumers 2008-02-11
Comment: I bought the Fly Fusion Pen and Journal software to go along with it. I am a writer and I have been genuinely interested in this pen since I read about it in Wired magazine about 2 or 3 years ago. It seemed to have all the features I was looking for. I was particularly interested in being able to write my ideas down on paper and pull them up on Microsoft Word easily. This is not too difficult to do with this device, but after only writing about a paragraph, my hand began to cramp due to the bulky design. It looks like a doctor's pen, but it is actually much more cumbersome than that. I couldn't imagine writing for 1 to 2 hours at a time like I usually do. Also, I felt misinformed due to the advertising of this pen. I really did not realize how much money I would end up spending for such a product. It is NOT all-inclusive. Of course there are separate software programs available for specific applications, but I didn't realize that I would need to continue buying more and more proprietary notebooks and could not use my own paper with this tool. Fly Fusion wants to get you addicted to it's product so that you will continually be dependent on accessories. Even if you want to expand the memory, you will be forced to buy a Fly Fusion memory expansion; no universal memory cards here. It seems very clever and useful, but in reality, it is more bells and whistles than it is functional. I am planning on taking my Fly Fusion back to Fry's where I purchased it. The best bet for a device that records your writing digitally seems to still be the Tablet PC laptop or a PDA. I just don't think this pentop computer technology makes sense for the average consumer yet. When programmers and designers figure out how to put the same concept into action with a normal-sized ink pen that uses gyro-technology or something similar to track and record movement, I will be the first in line to buy one. Until then, I will continue to faithfully buy mead notebooks in bulk.
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