M&S Toy Laptop

[BearintheBigBlueHouse]

anyone got the above - it's £29.95 and as well as a keyboard and a little lcd screen it has a writing recognition pad on which DD/DS writes with the attached pen when prompted to write individual letters (small and caps). DD (4) likes her letters and my Powerbook (and I'm jiggered if I'm letting her near it) so is this a snesible addition to her Christmas list or should we wait and tot up her Christmas money and get her a new Leapad with the writing stuff in the new year? TIA

any chance of a link?

I've seen it BITBBH and thought the QWERTY keyboard was a huge plus, but there seemed to be quite a time lag between writing on the little recognition pad and the letter appearing on the LCD screen - long enough for a child to get impatient, maybe...
A colleague has bought it for her 3 year old and is very pleased with it.
Personally (and I'm probably the only Mner who feels this way) I find the whole Leap Pad concept a bit creepy and hothousey and have never wanted them in the house so I'd go for the M & S Laptop in your position...

I like the sound of this but can't find it - is it on the website?

Not sure FD. Colleague used the low-tech solution of legging it to a local branch in her lunch hour. It seems to be readily available in bigger M & Ss.

It's not on the website. Thanks Marinativity - I feel similarly re Leapads (we've got one tho LOL) and think that if DD's grandma buys her this with no pressure to do anything but what she wants on it then she can do as much or as little as she likes. BTW she sits next to me on the kitchen table while I'm emailing on my laptop and sets table mats up at an angle and types away herself, so this will be a step forward in her eyes I'm sure. Thanks again.

D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!

Grandma called to say every M&S near her has sold out - All the ones round here likewise. I should have bought it when I saw it, but I thought that I'd got everything off DD's list so left it and Grandma said she'd get it at her local store.

D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!D'oh!

Does anyone know of a store which has these in stock?

Bear - will keep an eye out for you.... but wanted to ask if you saw my iPhoto comments on that thread a while back... I think you weren't on much at that time so the thread may have disappeared from your radar.... anyway, hope the app is behaving for you.

working a treat for me now, thanks. Sorry if I didn't thank you profusely back then. Got myself a new Canon ip5200r printer which I send to print via the wifi set up - brilliant photo printing and super cool wireless rolled into one. bliss. It may as well have an illuminated apple on the top it's so good.

I did sob for days. But have now recovered.

That printer looks nice. Would you guess the prints look equivalent to the online print shops (like photobox) or visibly worse ? (I suppose 'brilliant' says it all though).

Very glad it plays nicely with your Mac. Was considering picking up a Pixma...

Have you ever been tempted by an Airport Express ? Wireless printing to any printers you may have knocking around which don't have WiFi capability, plus a free wireless bridge / base station, PLUS audio output from itunes... a very neat box of tricks...

Got one mate - tried to get it to work with my previous Epson, and it did, but it took a lot of hard work, which is why when I upgraded I went fot the Pixma wifi setup. I do use it to stream iTunes from the Mac to the hifi in a different room (when I've not got the iPod connected or using the iTrip).

I think the prints are the best I've seen from an inkjet and up there with Photobox prints at first glance, but somehow 'proper' photos on fuji paper feel more longlasting - you're not so worried about splashing them etc.

Have you tried Comic Life - top app - turns your photos into Marvel (or Jackie, apparently) type comic strips - great fun with captions and speech bubbles and POW! and BAM! exclamations - works a treat with iPhoto5 and Tiger, letting you use hand-painted filters. Great fun. I'm doing the odd spot of graphic design (very amateur - but Macs make you look great) and DTP for mates and it's really impressing them.

LOL, yours sounds like an equally Mac-addicted household as my own !

Thanks for the info re: print quality, will check out this printer range. Fab to know it plays nicely with our Macs.

Very impressed at your blossoming DTP career, LOL. Yeah, I'd seen that app and spent quite some minutes looking at it and scratching my head and trying to figure out if I'd ever use it or enjoy the style of its output (have never really been a comic fiend IYSWIM)... might be cute now dd can star in stuff though.