Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

leap

Boom times for prepaid cell phone operators

Prepaid wireless providers are scooping up subscribers as cash strapped consumers downgrade to lower cost cell phone service.

First quarter earnings reports from MetroPCS Communications and Leap Wireless on Thursday provided further evidence that consumers are flocking toward no-contract, unlimited prepaid services. These carriers, which operate primarily in smaller urban areas, each reported they had nearly doubled their subscription rate compared to a year ago.

MetroPCS said its new subscriber additions increase 51 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier. In total it added 684,000 new subscribers, bringing its customer base to 6 million. This was the … Read more

A variable verdict

We hate to say it, but LeapFrog Software bounded over a step or two while trying to get this kiddie math game off the lily pad. While attractive and cheerful, this basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division equation-maker aimed at 6- to 10-year-olds is too simplistic for the kids we know who fall into the age range.

Number Rumble gives three ways to learn and test addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills. In the Learn It mode, you can spin the wheel to choose two numbers on both sides of a single math function and let the game fill in … Read more

Are expensive, green, ergonomic, office chairs worth it?

We spend lots of time with electronic gadgets and most of it sitting on our behinds. Xbox and iPhone may get all the press, but one of the most important gadgets in your office is your desk chair.

Think a chair isn't a gadget? Have you checked out the controls on any of these ergonomic chairs lately? Some of them are even licensing the technology for use in other markets.

I recently looked into the options and finally settled on a Think chair from Steelcase. The manufacturer markets Think as "The chair with a brain and a conscience." It's supposed to adjust itself to your body. But it isn't cheap.

Here's how I ended up with Think and my assessment of the product. Keep in mind that I don't review products for a living. That said, I am compulsive; my wife says I overanalyze everything. So when it came to the chair for my home office, I took it very seriously.… Read more

LeapFrog to release Nintendo DS competitor: The Didj

I stopped by a LeapFrog event today to at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. I was pleasantly surprised when the company representatives trotted out a new handheld learning/gaming system, the Didj ($89.99), which is due to arrive this summer. LeapFrog doesn't exactly bill the Didj as a Nintendo DS competitor, but the the new device is geared toward 6- to 10-year-olds, an age bracket where the DS currently rules.

LeapFrog also had its upcoming Leapster 2 ($69.99) at the event, which is targeted at even younger children. The idea behind the Didj … Read more

LeapFrog Tag gadgetizes learning for the younger set

Tag is a new gadget for children that does all the work of a teacher: it gives phonics lessons, sounds out works, sings songs, and most importantly, keeps track of the student's progress.

The pen-like device is from the same company that made the LeapPad, San Francisco Bay Area-based LeapFrog.

The demo of the Tag Reading System garnered the most buzz in the morning session here at Demo 08 in Palm Desert, Calif. Using the same technology found in its current product FlyFusion, which is aimed at 8- to 13-year-olds, the Tag gadget is aimed at teaching reading to … Read more

MetroPCS bids for Leap Wireless in stock deal

Regional cell phone operator MetroPCS Communications bid Tuesday to buy competitor Leap Wireless International in a deal worth more than $5 billion in stock.

MetroPCS, which went public in April, said in a press release Tuesday that it would offer 2.75 of its shares for each outstanding common share of Leap. This represents a value of $75.05 based on Friday's closing price and is only 3 percent higher than Leap's closing price on Friday.

MetroPCS also said it would refinance $2 billion of Leap's debt as part of the deal.

"We believe that the … Read more

Is the digital pen mightier?

For decades, tech companies have been trying to create a digital pen that appeals to the masses. But after years of effort, the world isn't exactly overrun with high-tech quills.

A new crop of companies, however, say it's too soon to write off the idea.

This week, Irvine, Calif.-based Iogear announced plans for a digital pen that can work with standard paper. Last month, educational computer maker LeapFrog introduced the FlyFusion, its second go at the digital pen. And later this year, Silicon Valley start-up LiveScribe plans to introduce a $200 device that can not only take … Read more

LeapFrog's FLY Fusion is pretty fly

LeapFrog's original FLY pentop computer garnered some attention when it was announced in late 2005, but truth be told, we kind of forgot about it after it came out. Well, the company has a new FLY--the FLY Fusion ($80)--and, as you might expect from a second-generation product, it's sleeker and has more features.

While the product isn't due to ship until early August, it can already be pre-ordered at Amazon. Here are the highlights, according to the site:

With the FLY Fusion Pentop Computer, everything you write on FLY Paper is automatically scanned and digitized. With … Read more

LeapFrog's new junior computer preps tots for career in blogging

LeapFrog's new ClickStart My First Computer may not run Windows, Linux or the Mac OS, but it's designed to introduce kids aged 3-6 to the whole concept of computing without messing with daddy or mommy's expensive PC. The $60 system features a "child-friendly" wireless keyboard with nice big buttons, a console and a mouse that converts for right- or left-handed play. The console comes with a few built in games and activities, and you can buy additional software cartridges ($19.99) that plug into the top of the console.

Not surprisingly, there's a friendly … Read more