LeapFrog® Tag Reading System (16 MB)
by LeapFrog
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List Price: Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of LeapFrog® Tag Reading System (16 MB)
Customer Review: Initial installation problems - but great fun for my 4.11 month old
Summary: 1 Stars
On the strength of the reviews on Amazon, I purchased this system for my son. I do not yet know how well he will like it, since the installation of audio files (required) has not happened yet. I am a sophisticated computer user and yet I cannot overcome the software's "can't connect to the internet" error message. So I am unable to do all that is required before this toy is available to my son for his use. The FAQ on the Leapfrog site is not great. Customer support is heavily geared to asking email questions. Phone support hours are not consistent with parental working schedules.
I write this simply to warn you ahead of time that you will need to invest some time, hopefully much less than I have so far, to become operational. My wife is now trying to get things up and running on her Mac. It would appear that installation for some is no problem, and I hope that is your experience. I install software and troubleshoot personal computers as part of my job, so my failures here are not entirely user error. In any event, I would recommend trying the install well ahead of your child breathing down your neck to get this working for him or her. Just in case you encounter the same Catch-22 that I did.
UPDATE 12-30-08
I was able to install the audio files from the web, and also from my wife's Mac. My son loves to use the system and is more independently amused than with many other toys/books/games.
Customer Review: Great educational toy
Summary: 5 Stars
We bought this for my daughter a couple of months ago, and she loves it. She is 3 1/2. Very easy to use. After a few times using it with her, she is now using it by herself (nice perk :) ).
The best feature is by far the "games". Throughout the books there are "game" buttons on the bottom of the page that ask reading comprehension questions that the child can answer by selecting pictures on the page. On the last page of the story, the questions are asked about the entire book, so the child has to skip back to previous sections to answer questions. And, after the last page of the story there are several pages of games involving letters, words, and other valuable learning exercises.
Durability has been fine so far, although I would keep the books out of the hands of younger toddlers as the pages could easily be ripped.
I've seen a couple of reviews involving storage space. It would be nice to be able to store more books or have a place for a micro or mini SD card to add memory yourself, but one has to wonder what the extra cost would be. And it's not a big enough deal for me to really care about it. Books can easily be moved back and forth on and off the tag reader from your computer. Unless you're going to be away from your computer for a long period (months), there should be no reason you need to store more than 5 books at a time.
Customer Review: Good device, flaky Leapfrog Connect Software
Summary: 1 Stars
All of the positive statements found in the many positive reviews on the Tag Reader are true--when the device works. Unfortunately, the LeapFrog Connect Software suffers from serious problems that makes the overall package unacceptable. Installing new books and updating the device with new software is essentially a crap shoot that can render the device unusable, because your computer can no longer put new books on it. This appears to happen most frequently when a software update is available. The update appears to proceed just fine by erasing everything on the Tag and restarting it, but after that, LeapFrog Connect indicates that it could not update the Tag and proclaims "Error code 3." A check of LeapFrog's website suggests that you should install the Connect software on a DIFFERENT computer (even a friends computer they say) to solve this problem. Since we had already done this once before, our two computers already had the software installed. They also say you can try uninstalling the Connect application and reinstalling it on the same computer, but that a new computer is more likely to fix the problem! We tried that and it didn't work (as they predict). The real responsibility for fixing this problem is with LeapFrog Connect's programmers! Until they address this issue, I cannot recommend the product, despite the fact that when it works it is really quite good.Customer Review: LeapFrog support stinks. Software buggy / error handling poor.
Summary: 2 Stars
Product isn't working properly. I install the software on my computer and then attempt to connect to my Tag reader. It says that the reader needs to be updated and then that the application that will do the updating hasn't been downloaded yet and that once it is downloaded that I should cycle power on the Tag reader and reconnect. There is no indication of whether this is an automatic download handled by the Connect software or whether it requires user intervention. If it is automatic then it isn't working. If user intervention is required there are no instructions and no utility or files anywhere for manual firmware download, etc. And yes, I know how my computer works and no I haven't got problems on my end that are causing the problem. I am a computer scientist. If I can't get it working then how in heck is the average user going to?
E-mail only support. No phone, no live chat. Stated 48-72hr response time. Crapola folks. In the past I've played a major role in a product support group. I know darn well that results come from real-time communication. I don't have the time or patience for this. It is a mass market product that, after you buy several books, isn't cheap. They should at least have bombproof software or better support -- preferably both.
I will seriously think twice about purchasing a LeapFrog product again.
Customer Review: My 4 year old son LOVES this thing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm so glad we opted for the tag reader with books for Christmas for our 4.5 year old son instead of the leapster. He reads his books with the tag reader several times a day and at night before lights out. My son loves books anyway, this is just a huge plus that this tag reader reads him the stories (since he can't read on his own yet). He really likes the dinosaur book, go diego, and spongebob so far, surprisingly not too interested in the cars one and he LOVES race cars/Nascar...
Now about the tag reader itself...it seems to me to be VERY sturdy and not easily breakable, also it's easy for me to upload and check his progress online and also very cool to be able to see exactly what he has been doing on that thing and to see his progress, love that! The storage case is very sturdy also I'm pleased to say, the clasps seem strong. It is currently holding 5 books and the two activity card sets (animals and mammals). Looks like I might be able to fit one more book but I'm not sure on that.
My only bother is that the reader itself only holds 4 books and the two sets of index cards. (Or five books and one set of index cards). Totally lame but I will work that in my favor and do book rotation with the stories to keep my son's interest (which is what I do with his regular books anyway and it works wonders.)