Educational Software

This comprehensive package includes flash cards, a workbook, CD Roms, and printed storybooks to make up a unique, complete teaching system to help children learn to read. We found the step-by-step teaching approach and completeness of the package to be extremely valuable. The system emphasizes learning building blocks of reading to help children progress from letter recognition and letter sounds, to phonics and building words, to sentences, and finally to reading comprehension. The included storybooks reinforce the sounds and words introduced in earlier lessons. The system includes a Parent's Guide with instructions on using all the materials and options for customizing the system for child4en of different ages. The Learning Company will donate 10% of its online sales to the nonprofit organization First Book.

The Complete Learn to Read System can be played in two different ways -- in a mode called "Road to Reading" that uses step-by-step instruction, or in a mode called "Pick and Play" in which the child selects among activities, books, and songs. During the "Road to Reading," the child joins several colorful characters in their quest to bring words back to Wordville. Children are periodically rewarded with songs and certificates marking their progress as they gain more and more reading expertise. "Pick and Play" contains the same books, songs, and kinds of activities, but items can be chosen from a menu in any order. We found this package to be extremely well-thought-out and comprehensive. Children learn many skills including phonics, letter recognition, rhyming words, identification of sounds, vowels, simple punctuation, vocabulary building, spelling, reading comprehension, and much more. This is certainly a top reading package and well worth its price.

Keyboard Redesign

Ever wonder what the 'F' keys on your computer are used for -- or wish that you could use them without having to look? You are not alone. In a survey done by Logitech, the leader in computer peripherals, 35 percent of participants who use their computer most often at work wish they knew how to use their function keys. Forty percent wish it were easier to find important keys without having to look at the keyboard.

Why, you ask, should such small details matter? Who really cares? With more than $20 billion spent each year on workers compensation costs that are directly attributable to poor computer ergonomics, corporate America cares. Ergonomists are now employed at most Fortune 1000 companies, and looking for technology improvements that boost worker productivity, eliminate lost workdays and improve the bottom line. Every detail of a worker's environment is considered by ergonomists, right down to the keyboard. With more than two decades spent designing PC peripherals, Logitech has found that when ergonomic principles are addressed, comfort naturally follows. A case in point is the recent redesign of the company's keyboards. The 'Home' and 'End' family of keys were redesigned from a horizontal arrangement to a vertical layout, decreasing the distance between mouse and typing area. The numeric pad is actually detached from the main typing keys on the Logitech(R) diNovo Cordless Desktop(TM), creating more space and flexibility on the desk. In isolation, each adjustment seems small, but together they create a far more intuitive and efficient work environment. The new design greatly improves comfort.

Ergonomic studies play an important role in influencing design decisions. For example, research indicates that reducing keyboard height and thickness reduces the risk of wrist extension, which can lead to hand, forearm and upper extremity discomfort and disorders. Logitech's new keyboards feature a flatter, thinner, ergonomically beneficial zero degree slope, and introduce the concept of two-handed navigation. By positioning navigation tools on the left side of the keyboard, such as a scroll wheel, Internet Forward and Back buttons and more, both hands work together to make light work of tasks, improving comfort and reducing fatigue. The devil is in the details, according to many ergonomists. Although thousands of computer-related medical problems have been prevented through workplace ergonomic programs and intervention, the issue is far from contained. As the PC continues to morph into a powerful tool that people of all ages use for work, school, entertainment and play anytime and anywhere, the threat of problems is on the rise.

DOCUPEN SCANNER

The DocuPen is an excellent portable scanner for scanning newspapers, magazines, books, notes, photos, receipts, contracts, court documents, sketches, maps, reference materials, etc. Some flatbed scanners are light enough to carry around, but even the smallest are larger than a notebook PC. Planon's DocuPen RC800 is a portable pen scanner that's easier to take on the road. It weighs under 60g and is as long as a sheet of A4 paper is wide. It can hold over 100 pages of scanned text.

Planon has introduced the DocuPen RC800 color handheld scanner which is the latest technology breakthrough from their R&D efforts. The DocuPen RC800 achieves full color 24 bit scanning in a remarkably compact and lightweight form that gives great convenience. Planon Systems Solutions, Inc. DocPen series has unusual mobility and flexibility and can be used in the mobile office. The RC800 is capable of storing 100's of pages into memory and it takes just seconds to scan a page. Choose the mode you want to scan: black and white, standard color or high 24-bit color and the resolution from 100 to 400 dpi. Now you can scan your letters, color documents, pictures and bring them into Paperport software (included with the Docupen). The DocuPen is different from other pen sized scanners in that it scans a FULL PAGE width and therefore scans the entire page including text and graphics in as little as 4 seconds. Other handheld and pen scanners only scan single lines of text or records handwriting and some scanners need to be attached to your computer whereas the Docupen overcomes these limitations. The need for convenient out-of-office scanning is enormous but has not been satisfied because the products to date did not fulfill that need adequately.

The DocuPen R700 and RC800 includes PaperPort from Nuance, which provides the capability to find, organize, and share digital documents. PaperPort also offers seamless integration with Microsoft Word, Outlook, Notepad, Wordpad and a variety of graphics programs. With automatic OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capability, the software will convert scanned documents into editable text.