Vtech Mobigo Review

I have always been skeptical of gaming consoles for kids. They're either too complicated (which leads to crying) or too simplistic (which leads to boredom). I have seen kids (and adults) addicted to the Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP as well as other gaming systems which are great fun, but really fail when it comes to education. Frankly, I thought no one could get the right mix of playability and education into one box. And then we tried the MobiGo by Vtech.

Let me begin by voicing loudly my biggest complaint. We were only provided one MobiGo to review and now my kids (5 and almost 3) fight constantly to play with it. In the last three days the MobiGo has had to go in time out a good five times while they figure out how to take turns.

At first glance the MobiGo seems like all other portable electronic gaming systems. It's got a 4-directional button on the left, a screen in the middle, and a big button on the right. It's got a cartridge on the top. Seen it. Done it. Yawn.

Ok, fine. So I plug in the "Touch & Learn" cartridge and turn on the thing. It wants you to put in your name.  Seen that before too, right? Oh wait the whole screen flips up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard! (Those who play with a Sidekick or other flip phones know what I'm talking about). OK that's pretty cool, but come on my kids are 5 and 2. Seemed a little excessive for me at first. But I'll get back to that later.

So then I get to select different games to play from the Touch & Learn cartridge. I can immediately tell there are letter games, number games, and other games to try out (actually 6 games in all). I tried to select one with the directional button but it didn't work. I have an iPod Touch, so my instinct was to touch the screen. It worked! The entire screen is touch sensitive! It turns out that (duh) the Touch & Learn cartridge relies heavily on the touch screen.

So the technology is there, but I was still skeptical about playability and educational value. I tried out what I call the "Squirrel game" first. In this game you simply use the touch screen to help a squirrel get nuts. The game directs you to basically connect the dots to move the squirrel. Pretty simple, but very intuitive especially for a 2 or 3 year old. The graphics are fantastic and the squirrel makes a cute noise every time he reaches a nut.

I moved on to the letter game. The goal of this game is to shoot rubber ducks with a water gun. Each duck has a letter on it and you shoot by finding the letter on the QWERTY keyboard. This is great! After about 10 minutes my 5 year old had a pretty good grasp of the location of many of the letters on the QWERTY keyboard. This game was actually both fun and educational. My 5 year old was reviewing her letters and was learning about the QWERTY keyboard all while being sucked into the fun graphics.

I like music so I had to try the music game. I was shocked to realize that this was Rock Band/Guitar Hero for little kids (except instead of Megadeath, you play Oh, Susanna). The guitar (or more aptly ukulele) has only four strings and a little note falls down each string for you to "pluck" it at the right moment. Brilliant! As I played more, the sophistication of the system revealed itself and you can also play piano and drums.

OK the technology is great, the games are fun and educational, but my last concern was would it hold the kids' attention for more than a day. Each game has an "easy" or "difficult" mode. The "Easy" level was easy for my 5 year old on some games (the squirrel game) and adequate on others (like the letter and number games).  If you do well on the easy level, then you're invited to play the difficult level. Frankly, the games are so much fun that both kids are still having a great time and my 5 year old is really learning her keyboard. She's even making distinct progress with her numbers, something we only recently realized she needed to work on.

The system is marked as being good for kids to 3-8-year-olds. The "Touch & Learn" cartridge supplied with the console won't keep the attention of the older kids for long, but VTech is releasing a large array of affordable games ($20 or so)  to go with the console.We only played with the original cartridge which didn't use any of the directional buttons on the console, but we're beyond impressed with the technology and functionality of the system and we can't wait to test out some of the other games.

So, in short, great game console with amazing potential. I love the fact that some of the mini-games are harder than others so that the kids have something easy to fall back on when they get frustrated with the more challenging tasks. The fact that they've still gone back to try the more challenging tasks after speaks volumes. The fact that they haven't stopped playing for the last three days and have made noticeable progress with numbers, letters, and problem solving speaks even higher to the quality of the educational content of this game system.

Pre-purchase the MobiGo at Amazon for $59.99. (Release date is supposed to be June 7th, though the date there says July 1st.)

Or Purchase the MobiGo at ToysRUs now for $59.99 and games for around $20.

Please note, I did receive a MobiGo console from VTech for review (and we get to keep it thank goodness or there would be a mutiny) however the opinions contained in this post are mine and mine alone, except for the parts written by my husband who was so taken with the device that he felt the need to write this review. His opinions are his and his alone too.

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Disney Netpals Presentation

Months ago I was invited to an intimate presentation by Disney. OK. If we're honest I had a) no idea that it was going to be so intimate and b) no clue that what we were going to see was going to be so awesome.

It was early in the game because the Netpal was still a prototype. A very advanced prototype, but a prototype nonetheless. It didn't matter. It still wowed me.

Think of a netbook computer that has been reinforced and toughened up to withstand child use. Then imagine software that has been designed with Disney's usual attention to detail. Got it? OK. No imagine something about 50x cooler. Now you have the Netpal.

The true beauty of the Netpal is the proprietary software created by Disney. Bear in mind that I didn't get to spend time testing it out. I just saw what the person showing off the computer showed us, but it was still pretty darn cool.

Basically there are two sections to the software - the parent section and the kid section. The parent section controls everything. The kid section controls only what the parent says it can. Have different kids of different ages? You can have multiple settings. Want your child to have access to certain programs at some times, but not others? No problem, you can set limits according to a calendar.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The entire kid's section is depicted with picture icons. You don't have to be able to read to use the computer. That's right. They can launch their games without. your. help.

OK. I'm going to stop gushing now. Though I can't promise I won't gush again and do a full review if I can ever get my hands on one.

As for you? Well, if you were at all toying with the idea of getting your kids a computer or a netbook sometime this fall, you could do a lot worse than going with this little gem. You can get one for about $350. Oddly it's already available at ToysRUs, but still 'not released' at Amazon. Go figure.

ActiveIon Pro Review and Giveaway

What do Bill Nye the Science Guy and cleaning have in common? Well nothing really, except for the fact that he's the spokesperson for simply the coolest cleaning tool you will EVER own. Even maybe the last cleaning tool you will ever own, the ActiveIon Pro.

Imagine a cleaning product as pure and chemical free as water. Doesn't exist you say? You're right. ActiveIon isn't as pure and chemical free as water, it is water. Yup, water. Nice healthy plain ol' tap water. I'm not kidding. (See? It's so pure that that's a picture of Bill Nye squirting it into his mouth!)

You fill up your slightly E.T. looking ActiveIon Pro with tap water, squeeze the trigger, and through some electrical magic that water becomes ionized. Or rather the electricity infuses the water with positive and negative ions, that attract dirt like teeny tiny little magnets.

That could very well be a completely wrong analysis of what the little magical tool does. I don't know, I was terrible at physics in school. Bill Nye and the ActiveIon people are probably shaking their heads a lamenting the fact that they asked me to blog about this. But whatever, I don't care, and I'm not giving back my ActiveIon Pro, even if I failed the science explanation, so there.

Here is what I do know. I have used my ActiveIon Pro every day for the last week or so and I still love it as much as the day I took it out of the box. I love not using cleaning products and getting a better result than I did when I used them. I love that I'm not exposing my asthmatic girls to more chemicals. I love how clean everything is looking. And I love that I still think this is fun. Oh, and every time I use my tap to fill up the ActiveIon Pro I love the fact that I'm not spending mega bucks on cleaning solutions!

In the last week I have cleaned windows - ActiveIon ROCKS the window cleaning, I have cleaned the stove top - swoon on the easy wiping up of food spatters, I have cleaned the bathtub, I have cleaned the kitchen counters, the kitchen cabinets, the nasty corners on the kitchen linoleum, the TV screen, the computer screen, the bathroom mirror, and yes, the window frames outside the house. The only thing that the ActiveIon didn't rock was the grease build-up over my stove. It's not a huge fan of grease. Then again, neither was the Clorox Greenworks Cleaner.

Armed with my ActiveIon Pro and my brand new 36 pack of microfiber cloths (microfiber cloths! ActiveIon Pro's BFF!) I am making dirt and dust my... uh, I am mastering the cleaning of my home. Ahem. Even better, even M thinks that the thing is fun so the house is getting really clean. (Also, yes, our house is really dirty. There is much dirt to be mastered.)

It's a pricey investment, I won't lie to you, but it seriously will replace most of the cleaning products in your home. Plus, rumor has it that you can also use it to remove your make-up at night. Which I would have tested, except that I tend to forget that step and end up removing it in the shower the next morning. But that's entirely besides the point.

So, if you're very green conscious, or just looking to reduce your family's exposure to cleaning chemicals, if you really like to clean or need a fun gimmick to get yourself cleaning, and yes, if you have a couple hundred dollars lying around, hurry over to the ActiveIon website and purchase one of these babies for yourself! Or, you know, scroll down to see if you can win one.

ActiveIon Pro Giveaway!

To enter:
1) Leave a comment telling me how much you love or hate cleaning.
2) Leave a comment telling me how many times I wrote ActiveIon up there, cuz dude, it was a lot!
3) Visit the ActiveIon website and come rave about how cool and revolutionary this is and how you would use it.
4) Subscribe to this blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
5) Subscribe to my other blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
6) Tweet, email, blog about this giveaway.

That's a grand total of 8 ways you can enter! Please remember to leave me a way to contact you. And please, please, please, leave a separate comment for each of your entries. I can't credit you for each of them if you don't.

Giveaway ends Friday, June 19, 2009 at 10pm PST.

I received an ActiveIon Pro for review, but I was in other no way compensated for this giveaway. All opinions included in this post are mine and mine alone.

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Sandisk Micro SD Memory Card Review/Giveaway

Odds are if you have kids you don't have a shortage of photos or video of your precious little ones. However, I bet you frequently run out of storage space for all that footage.

The little camera I carry around everywhere can barely hold a couple hundred pictures before I have to empty it out. That's fine for a day out here and there, but when we're on vacation it's nowhere near enough.

Of course I could try to take a couple fewer pictures, but where's the fun in that? Instead I'm going to turn to SanDisk for help. See, SanDisk knows that we mamas and papas have a little trigger finger issue and they know we're craving for space. Not just personal space (though if they could fix that too we'd be forever indebted!), but storage space.

See that picture up there? Yeah, so, the actual SanDisk MicroSD card is actually 1/8th of the size of that thing. It's pretty much the size of the fingernail on your pinky finger. But don't be fooled by it's size! It can hold 16 gigabytes of information. That's room for 4,000 songs, 14,000 photos or 16 hours of video.

Now, if you're not techy at all like me, that doesn't mean a thing to you. You might even be wondering where you would even stick that tiny card. Well if you have a smart phone odds are it already has a MicroSD card, albeit one with a much smaller capacity. And if you don't have a device that can support a MicroSD card you can get a handy little converter that will allow you to use your SanDisk 16GB MicroSD card instead of your usual smaller memory card.

Before you head off on your summer vacation consider upgrading your memory card. You'll be able to pre-load tons of entertaining tv shows to keep your kids happy on the way and still have room to spare for the photos and video you want to capture once you arrive.

Win a SanDisk 16GB MicroSD card!

To enter:
1) Leave a comment telling me about a time you ran out of storage space on your camera/music player/anything.
2) Leave a comment telling me what you would do with 16GB of storage.
3) Visit the SanDisk website and tell us about a product that might make your life easier.
4) Subscribe to this blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
5) Subscribe to my other blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
6) Tweet, email, blog about this giveaway.

That's a grand total of 8 ways you can enter! Please remember to leave me a way to contact you. And please, please, please, leave a separate comment for each of your entries. I can't credit you for each of them if you don't.

Giveaway ends Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 10pm PST. This giveaway is now closed. Please visit my other giveaways for more great prizes!

I received a SanDisk 16GB MicroSD card for review, but I was in other no way compensated for this giveaway. All opinions included in this post are mine and mine alone.

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LeapFrog Giveaway to Celebrate National Reading Month

I've mentioned it before, my children are both avid readers. We have books everywhere and we're always looking for new ones to join our standbys on the shelves. Since neither girl can read yet, they're at our mercy when it comes to enjoying a favorite read. At least they were until we got a LeapFrog Tag reading system!

We still cuddle in the evening to read our usual stack of books, but during the day the girls can "read" to themselves with their amazing Tag Reader.

I'm not going to do a full review of the Tag because I want to get to the exciting part of this post, not that the Tag isn't exciting, it is, really really exciting, but so is National Reading Month, and LeapFrog's 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge. But I do want to say that the Tag is hands down the coolest thing we've ever seen.

The Tag Reading System

It's shaped like a chunky pen and it reads to you. No joke. You touch the tip of the reader to any page of any Tag book and it will tell you what you're pointing at. It will read words, it will describe pictures, it will give the characters voices. It's like a 3D reading experience. Walter the Farting Dog and The Little Engine That Could have never been so alive before. As if that weren't enough each Tag book has games embedded in the pages, brilliant games disguised as pure fun that test reader comprehension and attention to detail.

National Reading Month and the 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge

In honor of National Reading Month, kicked off by the National Education Association's Read Across America event, LeapFrog is holding a huge event to help get everyone reading more. You can participate in the 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge and help LeapFrog reach their goal - children reading with their parents for 1 million hours during the month of March.

Tag Reader and Book Giveaway

To celebrate this exciting event LeapFrog is allowing me to give away one Tag reader and two Tag books to go with it (a $60 value). To help you win this awesome prize I'm going to give you a ton of different ways to enter:

1) Make a 1 Million Reading Hours Pledge and come back here to tell us how many hours you pledged to read with your child.
2) Check out the LeapFrog Tag books and come back and let me know which two books you have an eye on.
3) Tell us about your favorite book as a child, or about learning to read.
4) Tell us about a special reading moment you've shared with your child.
5) Subscribe to this blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
6) Subscribe to my other blog's feed. Leave a comment telling me you subscribed.
7) Twitter, blog, or email 3 friends about this giveaway and come back to tell me what you did.
8) Come back at the end of the month and let us know if you met your reading pledge.

This giveaway will be open until March 31st at 10pm. Good luck and happy reading! This giveaway is officially closed! Thank you for stopping by, make sure to check out all my other great giveaways.

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