Joel Johnson

Exclusive: Leapfrog Crammer, an MP3 Player for Students

Although Leapfrog had recently shown off their two new handheld gaming systems, the Leapster 2 and Didj, one new product they haven't yet announced—until now—is the "Crammer," a 1GB portable media player with the ability to integrate pre-programmed flashcards and machine-pronounced vocabulary words. While it's far from the most advanced music player out there—it's got a low-rez monochrome screen, for one—it's not meant to kill the iPod, but to instead give middle schoolers and teens a way to listen to music while they cram for tests. The Crammer's interface is navigated using a rocking screen (like the iRiver Clix) as well as two buttons on the top—pressing on the corners of the screen itself like a giant D-pad moves the cursor. Vocabulary and flashcard questions are programmed in using a Windows- or Mac-based software interface.

There is only 1GB of storage on the Crammer, which isn't a ton, but it's plenty for a few albums. (Leapster's booth rep said they may consider a future version that can accept expanded flash memory chips.) But the MSRP is only $60—an easily sell by kids who want to give their parents an excuse to purchase their first MP3 player.

The Crammer will be available in the Fall. Curiously it appears to transcode all music into Ogg Vorbis for native playback on the device. (At least I presume they transcode; surely they don't expect 3rd to 8th graders to be sitting on a big collection of Ogg files.)

Full press release and another picture of the interface after the jump.

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Joel Johnson

Galley: New York Toy Fair '08

Here are several photos I shot this morning at the New York Toy Fair. There's a lot of LEGO in there, as well as some generic shots of products from around the floor.

It was amazing how full Javits was with vendors—easily the largest expo I've ever attended there. There was a lot of junk: heaping piles of cheaply molded figurines, rows of dolls and stuffed horses, and all manner of strange building blocks. On the whole, though, a recommended show for those interested in toys, especially toys that with more of a turn toward the toddler. (There was a serious lack of action figures, for one.)