Hands on With LeapFrog's FLY Fusion Pentop Computer

Wednesday July 25, 2007

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Computer Accessories, Gadgets & Gizmos, Tech Toys

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Us nerds at Gearlog were very excited to get our hands on the brand new FLY Fusion Pentop Computer from LeapFrog. We looked at their original digital pen back in 2005--just the "Fly", and absolutely loved it. The Fusion comes packed with super-fun features as well as some excellent practical updates too.

For those new to the digital pen world, these handy gadgets take your handwritten notes and turn them into documents that you can then e-mail, print and save. The FLY Fusion has a very handy feature--it can read your handwriting. (Provided you have nice penmanship.) Once you're done taking notes and back at your PC you can upload your notes via USB, and turn them into editable text. Brilliant! If only I had one of these back in the school days.

Our esteemed PC Magazine Editor Steph Chang is impressed so far. In her words: "So far, I'd just say that it's super easy to install and quite intuitive. And the Music Studio is ADDICTIVE. I think I played Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" for just about every person who wandered into my office yesterday." (More about the Music Studio later.)

But it's not just students who will appreciate this tool. I immediately brought the pen and notebook (you have to use the special FLY Paper) to all of my vendor meetings and quickly transferred my notes when I returned to my desk. This is great for people like me who don't have a laptop at work. (Sigh.) I have absolutely terrible handwriting, so I needed to train myself quite a bit not to run my letters together. Leaving a blank line between lines of text seemed to help a lot. That said, the Fly World software made few mistakes considering. [More about the fun stuff plus images after the jump.]

This pen ain't just for writing. You can retract the pen's tip and use it essentially as a stylus. Each notebook comes with a Control Panel under the front cover and the Music Studio on the back flap. With the control panel you can set reminders, use a calculator, play MP3's--yes, you can store a few in the pen, and browse through available apps on your pen. The Music Studio is just plain fun. You can play and record music and rhythms on what's essentially an image of a keyboard and various buttons you might find on an electronic keyboard. There's even a turntable which emulates the sound of scratching records.

The kicker of all this is that you can draw all of these applications yourself. I was able to draw a keyboard and drums in my notebook, and play music right on the paper. That's just wild! It all starts with what's called a FlyCon. You draw a FlyCon--usually two letters inside a circle, and then you can browse through menus; the pen will literally talk you through drawing an application. Very cool stuff.

Please stay tuned for our full review of LeapFrog's FLY Fusion Pentop Computer on PCMag.com

FLY Fusion Music Studio

FLY Fusion Control Pad

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Posted By: Blogging Molly

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