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My dad got me a FLY pentop computer for my birthday! Basically, it lets you draw your own interface on special paper: draw a box, some numbers, some operators and an equals sign, and you’ve got a calculator; draw a keyboard and some circles for drums, and you can make music; write details of an appointment, and it’ll store it and repeat it at the designated time.
Yes, I knew that they were aimed at 8-13 year olds and I’m… hrm… a couple of years (well, let’s be honest, decades) outside that age bracket, but I don’t think either of us realised quite what “aimed at 8-13 year olds” would actually mean.
It comes with special stickers that will make the pen make a farting noise.
Enough said.
The most annoying thing? The technology is so cool! It does handwriting recognition (albeit only capital case), and can recognise and repeat something like 70,000 words. That’s just with the built-in firmware. And it has a moderate amount of built-in memory. The recharging dock comes with a USB socket. Wouldn’t you think that they’d release some kind of developer’s kit for the budding 8-13 year old hackers? Or that someone, somewhere, somehow, had managed to hack it anyway?
Ah well, at least I can rest assured that it will make me popular (for about 15 minutes) with fellow geeks… and any 8-13 year olds I happen to come across.