the Design Experience Weblog Archive

Thinking about it for a minute, I realized the ideal platform for a kids handheld PC. It's Squeak. Programs written in Squeak would be similar, if not better than those written in Flash. The interesting part is that the Squeak platform would not only allow kids to write their own programs, but also peek inside and see how the preloaded games work. It could even allow modification of the Squeak platform itself. Of course, you'd want a reset button to restore the preinstalled working Squeak environment.

Now, I just need to figure out what sort of hardware would be needed to do this. Existing systems that might run Squeak are a Linux or PocketPC handheld system.

I emailed LeapFrog to see if they would entertain the idea of 3rd party developer support. I got a quick response, unfortunately they said all development occurs in house.

One thing I found very curious is that there is no demo or screenshot of the Leapster on their web site. The Leapster runs Flash, so one would expect it wouldn't be to difficult to post the in-product demo that runs in stores to the web site.

Interestingly, I found out that the platform for the Leapster is Macromedia Flash.

That lends greater potential to some sort of end user programming, although I still suspect one might have to crack the case. I doubt they included a USB port. From what I have seen the Leapster is closer to an educational GameBoy Advance with a better display than a Pixter.

Here are some references:

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2003/leapfrog.html

http://inmyexperience.com/archives/000490.shtml

http://www.actionscript.com/archives/00000584.html

http://www.leapfrog.com/do/findproduct?id=leapster

I have been looking for a general purpose handheld for kids. Basically a PDA that you can download software to that won't break. There are plenty of small devices such as Pixter, Leapster, etc. They all only use their own proprietary cartridges. Would it really kill them to support a software market like the one around Palm OS? Ideal would be a Palm OS device that was a little bigger and more durable for kids. My kids like drawing on my Treo 90. The great thing about the Treo (and all Palm OS, and even PocketPC devices) is the USB or serial connection to a PC. Being able to download software is such a powerful tool. Kevin Werbach writes about it in The Triumph of Good Enough. What is most important to me is that I can write software for Palm OS. And of course, there is even Open Source software available. So my dream device for kids would run a general purpose OS, not break, and foster an active Open Source developer community around it.