EMERYVILLE, Calif., Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:LF), the leader in educational entertainment, today announced that LeapTV™, its brand new educational, active video game system, was identified as one of the most sought-after holiday toys this year on the prestigious Toys”R”Us’^®“Fabulous 15” list. LeapTV’s inclusion in the “Fabulous 15” on the Toys”R”Us 2014 Holiday Hot Toy List marks the fourth consecutive year that LeapFrog has been included on this list of the most coveted holiday toys.

“After months of traveling the world and testing hundreds of new products, our team of toy experts curated a selection of the best-of-the-best toys – the ‘Fabulous 15′ – including LeapTV, which we expect to top shoppers’ lists as one of the must-have gifts this season,” said Jamie Uitdenhowen, Vice President, General Merchandising Manager, Toys”R”Us, U.S. “LeapTV exemplifies LeapFrog’s legacy of creating incredible educational entertainment experiences. There is no doubt that the innovative LeapTV system will top many children’s holiday wish lists this year.”

“It is a tremendous honor to be included in the 2014 Toys”R”Us ‘Fabulous 15’ list and to have our latest innovation, LeapTV, identified as one of the hottest items for kids this holiday season,” said John Barbour, chief executive officer at LeapFrog. “LeapTV is the best first video game experience for younger children with an extensive Learning Library of world-class games and videos for kids three to eight years old. Our team of talented game designers and our full-time in-house learning experts has created an incredible learning experience that combines three ways for children to play games – classic controller, pointer play, and body motion – making it an educational video game experience that will also get them moving. If parents do not want to be left empty-handed this holiday, they should take advantage of the pre-sale as LeapTV is expected to be a sell-out this holiday.”

The 2014 Toys”R”Us ‘Fabulous 15′ list represents the best new toy introductions of the year that are expected to be at the top of kids’ wish lists for the holidays. By releasing their list in September, Toys”R”Us is able to provide parents with early shopping advice so they can be sure to get that “must-have” gift for their child. Additionally, LeapFrog will be introducing a black version of LeapTV exclusively at Toys”R”Us stores nationwide and Toysrus.com next month. The white version of the LeapTV console (MSRP $149.99) and cartridge games (MSRP$29.99) are currently available for pre-order online at Toysrus.com.

About LeapTV

LeapTV is the first educational active video gaming system from LeapFrog that gets kids into the action while teaching a range of skills across reading, mathematics, science and problem solving. With simple and intuitive user interfaces created with first-time players in mind, LeapTV provides first time players three ways to play, motion control, pointer play, and a classic controller mode. Using LeapTV’s camera, children are put right into the game seeing themselves dance, play sports and more while they experience curricular challenges along the way. Leap TV also includes a transforming gaming controller that has been specifically designed for children’s small hands and limited dexterity. In its regular configuration, it enables classic gameplay, but with the simple press of a button it easily transforms into a motion controller and LED pointer controller.  The LeapTV system includes console, motion-sensing camera, camera mount, transforming controller with wrist strap, HDMI cable, 16GB of memory and built-in Wi-Fi for downloading apps (sold separately).

LeapTV provides access to LeapFrog’s Learning Library of more than 100 game cartridges, game downloads and videos* all designed or approved by LeapFrog’s team of gaming and learning experts. Unique to LeapFrog, the Learning Team includes a full-time in-house team of five learning experts, all with PhDs in various specialties including education, child development and educational psychology. The first major title launches for LeapTV were created through a combination of great game play design and educational input from the LeapFrog Learning Team.

As part of the LeapFrog Learning Library, LeapTV’s first eight major title launches feature many current kid-favorite characters as well as the very popular Tad, Leap and Lily from LeapFrog’s top-selling Letter Factory Adventures animated video series.

• LeapFrog Sports (for children 4-7 years old): Become a mathematics MVP! Get up and get learning with nine exciting sports games powered by active play. Knock subtraction skills out of the park, karate-chop shapes, block goals with number-line power, swim, climb and more while competing with a friend!
• LeapFrog Kart Racing: Supercharged! (for children 4-8 years old): Put the pedal to the metal and race for victory in five tournaments driven by active play. Choose from eight wild karts and tune up pre-race using addition, subtraction, multiplication and early algebra. Then tilt and turn to blast around tracks, solo or against a friend!
• LeapFrog Dance & Learn (for children 4-7 years old): Dance, sing and move to the music in nine games that teach early reading skills. Children will love being the star of their own dance party as they appear on TV to drum out rhymes, slap together compound words, flutter like feathers and dance like dinos. Double the fun by inviting a friend!
• Disney Jake and the Never Land Pirates (for children 3-5 years old): Set sail for an action-packed pirate adventure with Jake, Cubby and Izzy! Twist and turn to navigate the sea, chop vines to cross the jungle, fly high to grab gold doubloons and use swashbuckling mathematics smarts to find the treasure.
• Pixar Pals Plus (for children 4-7 years old): Activate science and reasoning skills in six fun-filled mini-games, and unlock pieces to six challenging puzzles! Team up with Buzz and Woody to toy with simple machines, dive into ocean science with Dory and Nemo, and scare up electrifying new knowledge with Mike and Sulley.
• Disney Sofia the First: Sofia’s Picnic Games (for children 3-5 years old): Join Sofia the First and train for the Tri-Kingdom games in this enchanting princess-powered adventure! Fly on Minimus, tiptoe through woodland obstacles, tilt and turn to sled down a hill and grow royal reading skills in Sofia’s garden.
• Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man (for children 4-7 years old): Swing into action as Spider-Man and restore order to New York! When Doc Ock and his cohorts stir up trouble, it is up to the child to save the city. Run, jump, wall crawl, sling webs and unleash reading skills in 36 exciting stages of active, educational play.
• Bubble Guppies Fin-tastic Field Trips! (for children ages 3-5 years old): Dive into three fin-tastic field trips with Gil and Molly! Explore transportation in Big Bubble City, dig up dinosaur fossils, spring into action to clean up Puppy Park, and dive into learning about people and places, recycling, fossils and more.

Additional games, videos and apps available for download via the App Center for LeapTV.

Availability

The LeapTV system (MSRP $149.99, for children 3-8 years old) is currently available for pre-sale online. LeapTV will be available online and at major retail locations beginning mid-October. Game cartridges (MSRP $29.99) will be available online and at major retail locations beginning mid-October, and downloadable games and apps (starting at MSRP $5.00 and up) will be available via the LeapFrog App Center beginning December 2014. For more information, visit www.leapfrog.com/leaptv.

About LeapFrog
LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. is the leader in educational entertainment for children. For nearly 20 years, LeapFrog has created award-winning learning solutions that combine educational expertise, innovative technology and a child’s love for fun. With experiences that are personalized to each child’s level, LeapFrog helps children achieve their potential through LeapFrog’s proprietary learning tablets, learn to read and write systems, interactive learning toys and more, all designed or approved by LeapFrog’s full-time in-house team of learning experts. LeapFrog’s Learning Path, the ultimate guide for parents on early childhood, is designed specifically to help support and guide their child’s learning with personalized ideas and feedback, fun activities and expert advice. LeapFrog is based inEmeryville, California, and was founded in 1995 by a father who revolutionized technology-based learning solutions to help his child learn how to read. Learn more at www.leapfrog.com.

* Downloadable apps and videos available by the end of the year.

TM & © 2014 LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Well with my oldest son turning 11 in October we have decided that the time has come to get him a phone for his birthday.  Even though many of his peers already had phones, we also know many of his peers had lost or broken them and incurred numerous expenses to have them replaced.  He still has some forgetfulness like when he forgot his Kindle Fire HDX at Olive Garden the other day, but I think the phone will help increase his responsibility.

My wife and I still have not completely decided on what model of phone to get him, though we could just get him a cheap phone that can do basic calls and texts, I am leaning toward getting him a full Android phone like the LG G2 which won’t have any cost as I have an upgrade available through Verizon right now.  I certainly am not willing to pay any money for the phone itself, and the extra plan cost for an iPhone 4S even if it is free makes me not inclined to choose that model.

I also didn’t want to get a 5.5 inch phone for him, since he will likely keep it in his backpack and I didn’t want such a bulky phone, whatever phone I get, I need to make sure a strong Otterbox Defender or similar case is available for it to keep the screen and phone well protected from drops, impacts and general mishaps.

I think he would benefit having full access to Android and experimenting with the various apps, he is already very familiar with the similar Kindle Fire OS, and has used full Android on a tablet so think this would be beneficial.  I just hope he doesn’t lose the phone.

Note the LG G3 is a really nice phone, but even with subsidy and upgrade, it was far too expensive to consider.

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Most people who love taking action camera footage of themselves riding a bike or doing crazy stunts while wearing a GoPro know the value of being able to capture the action while leaving your hands free.  For those of you who want unique pet perspectives on Frisbee throws, Stick fetching or perhaps even a dog chasing someone down the street, you have Action Cameras for dogs.

GoPro ADOGM-001 Fetch

Of course GoPro Makes an Action Camera for dogs, and it pretty much is a light body harness with a camera that mounts above it.  This is a brand new product and though there is only one review on Amazon and it isn’t positive, this is not necessarily a good benchmark when a review shows up before the product is even available.  This is also the only dog camera harness I can find that sports 2 camera mounts so you can capture the same action from 2 point of views at the same time from your dog.

My prediction is the dog viral action videos with POV are going to be swarming around the holidays when this camera goes on sale.

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Sony Dog Mount

The Sony Dog Mount is the other available right now action cam for dogs where readers and reviewers say it is perfect for mid sized dogs but a little loose for small dogs.  This is a single body harness with a camera mount in dead center top.

Again with these dog mount harnesses, it doesn’t come with the camcorder you have to use your own and you may want to experiment with your least expensive one and spare first to make sure you are comfortable with it.

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Kurgo Tru-Fit Smart Harness with Camera Mount,

The least expensive on the list and also contains 2 points where you can mount the camera from (top and chest) so that you can take different POV or mount 2 cameras for 2 POV at the same time.

Again with any mount like this that you are trying out for your dog, read the details and know the size/weight of the dog and if it is a good fit.  It is always a good idea to purchase something like this from Amazon which has a great return policy if the mount just doesn’t fit well or hold the camera well for your dog.

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Sometimes you just don’t remember your YouTube Channel Profile name or exactly the URL shortname so you can leave it in a profile somewhere.  There are several ways to find your YouTube profile URL and name but we will cover just a few of them.

YouTube DashBoard Link

If you go to YouTube.com/dashboard you will see your View Channel link in the center, simply hover over and look at the URL or click it and you can see your YouTube user URL.

https://www.youtube.com/user/dragonblogger

This is the simplest and fastest way in my opinion to find your YouTube Channel Name, but another method would be to go to any of your videos, then click on the channel under the video.

But you can see if you run channels tied to a Google Plus Business Page, this can lead to a pretty ugly looking channel link https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnnoVEXsgW98gt0hxszklZQ but this technically is the same channel as https://www.youtube.com/dragonblogger just what it looks like behind the scenes without the “alias”.

I love IZEA services and how they bring brands and bloggers together, but have literally become so frustrated with the IZEA Marketplace as of late, that it is practically unusable for me.  The problem is I have a lot of social media properties and blogs, and each one has opps that show up that I can bid on, the problem is many opps are not a good fit for my properties and simply should be declined, the bad news is that when you have over 250+ opps that you should take action on, and you can only manually click on each one to Bid/Decline, and it takes a good 10-15 seconds for the Decline to pick up and in many cases doesn’t actually even remove the opp from your Bid queue, you end up with a giant list of opps and having no easy way to sort them by specific social media property, price…etc.

The IZEA Marketplace is also woefully slow performing, so a single action could take a long time to register, has no filters whatosever in the marketplace and therefore will end you leaving you scrolling indefinitely looking for the 3 or 4 good opps that may be worth bidding for, but when you click bid you are taken to another page to pitch your bid, only to have to go back to default open bids page and scroll to find the opps all over again.

Though the opps you bid on do get moved to your Pending Bid screen.

As I have a @dragonblogger and an @dragonbloggers Twitter account, two separate properties, I can’t see which property this opp is for without clicking on the Bid and seeing the full Twitter account name as well.

IZEA desperately needs to implement filter options, so you can simply filter and only see opps for specific properties in a drop down or check list, they also need a “select all” or multi select option for being able to mass decline, I can understand if Bid itself needs more info, but at least decline you should be able to check mark as many as you want in a long list, then just click decline once and mass decline them.

I don’t know if other bloggers in the system are having the same frustration with the mass open bids, or it is a result of just my social media properties having so many opps available, but I can barely use the system as it is now and it is more unwieldy than SocialSpark or SponsoredTweets as a result.

Lately I have been playing Card Hunter when I can on my spare time, the combination of card game with Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing elements, make the game more fun than your basic turn based card game where you merely use your cards to defeat your opponents cards or hero.  In card hunter you have player characters who collect equipment and the equipment provides cards that your characters draw during turns in combat, the intricate types of spells, weapons, attacks, ranges, armor, blocks and more make the game very entertaining, it reminds me of playing the old board game Heroes Quest except with cards used for actions in combat.

The game is completely free to play and there is no time limits on how much you can play for free, you simply can enjoy it as long as you have a browser that supports Flash which is the crux of the problem.  The new 64 bit Chrome browser doesn’t support flash, nor does any Android or iOS browser natively.  The game simply only works under PC browser and they really should update it to HTML5 or make an iOS and Android compatible version of the game, it is well worth it and easily adapting the right click functions to double click or depressing the finger should be fairly intuitive to port.

Overall, when I am not playing Hearthstone or want something that is more of a cross between an RPG and a card game, I turn to Card Hunter and if you haven’t had the chance to play it yet, then it is worth checking out.  I love how you can go back daily and do the quicker dungeons, some of which only take 2-3 minutes to complete so you really can play in small time chunks which is all that I have available lately.

Learn more and play now at http://game.cardhunter.com/ it is worth checking out, trust me.

For those of you who follow my different blog channels, you know I have talked about the Image Elevator for WordPress already when I first reviewed the free version, then bought the single license and did a full review of that one.  This included a full video demonstration which I will also include here in case you missed it.

Well, the creators of the plugin were so appreciative of my review and detailed coverage that they contacted me and upgraded my license to the extended version free of charge, which means I get to use the premium version of Image Elevator on all of my blogs instead of just DragonBlogger.com which was the primary site where I found the best use for the plugin since I do a lot of screen captures for software and freeware tutorials…etc.

But I also thought how beneficial it would be for my Poetry blog when I need to capture some images/photo’s…etc from the creative commons without having to go through the hassle of saving and downloading them, then uploading them.  There are tons of other uses as well, but there are risks when using this plugin that bloggers should know.  Those are that images are still copyrighted, and when you have the ability to so quickly and easily cut/paste an image from the screen directly into your WordPress blog you may be tempted to just cut/paste an image from anywhere including Google Images or other image searching sites.

You still have to be concerned with image copyright, so make sure you stick to creative commons, public stock images and other things to cut/paste if you are going to use Image Elevator to cut/paste stock photography.  You don’t have to worry about it if you are cutting/pasting portions of software, or your own screen captures, game footage…etc however so unless you are using stock photography specifically you should be OK, though remember you shouldn’t poach an image from another site if you don’t know the source of the image.

This for example was ruled a public domain image because the monkey took a photo of himself!  So cut/pasting this image is fair game.

If you find yourself having to save images, click Add Media in the WordPress editor, click upload just to add images to your posts, you will greatly benefit from the Image Elevator plugin which is well worth the $13 for a single site license.  It also means with this plugin there is almost no reason to use Windows Live Writer anymore vs directly writing your articles in WordPress now.

It is over the course of the last week and participating in a few surveys, campaigns and seeing some interesting new interactive commercials on video on demand stations that had me thinking on how advertising is evolving not only for an Internet generation but a Internet Media Consuming generation. I found that some of the most engaging types of advertising were not simply static commercials like traditional TV spots but interactive ones that inspire or creatively provide information with teasers to engage and learn more.

This can be from what looks to be a video commercial that interrupts your TV Show watching on a VOD network from the TV stations, where the video mixes with information, text and links as well as questions and accepts your input/answers, even spawning a new tab so that you can check out the advertisers product later at your leisure. I think potentially tying this further into where you are signed up for the service, and your email or social network connected and if you have interest, you can simply opt to receive a notification later so you don’t have to interrupt your show watching and play it later.

There was even a clever commercial I saw by Red Robin where they introduced a “Skip This Ad” button that rolled out during the commercial, but the button would just spawn a popup window to their advertising page in a new window and not actually skip the commercial. It is a clever ploy for sure, though maybe not one to repeat too often as fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

For brand marketing, we already know that if someone who is a friend of yours recommends, likes or is show to be affiliated with a brand it is more likely to influence you to be favorable toward that brand as well, or check it out or ask questions from your friend about the brand. You see Facebook leveraging this by showing who you know that likes brand pages and ads, and it is effective. You also see more brands partnering with Social Media personalities and influencers to help raise brand awareness and run campaigns that arent simply point and click promotions, but established relationship and branding that takes place over a duration of months much like a celebrity who was hired to do a series of commericals or be a spokesperson for a brand in traditional commercials.

How often now are we seeing product placement as well now, in both TV Episodes and Webisodes of shows but also product placement in games are starting to make an all time high. For the people who envy their hero character or favorite games, sometimes getting your brand shown especially tied to a memorable experience in the game can be something that leaves a lasting impression.

What are some of the more creative advertising campaigns you have seen online that stopped and make you think favorably about the company or brand?

Apparently people don’t either remember they agree to be added to the Dragon Blogger Newsletter, or just don’t like that we send out 1 newsletter per month with a list of giveaways we are running and other useful info because the last Newsletter that went out in July got my account banned for having too many people click Junk/Spam and flagging the SendInBlue shared IP potentially damaging the trust by ISP’s. 

As a result, to reactivate my account I now had to pay for a dedicated IP, $145 for the year which is not a fun fee to pay, though it pales compared to the full $400 plus per year I would have to pay to send over 20,000 email entries per month for other providers, and now it does give me the option to send more emails more frequently.

It was a little bit of a complicated setup, but I am very comfortable modifying DNS Zone Records and they give pretty good instructions on how to manually configure, plus they will host the subdomain for you as most hosting providers don’t let you set custom NS (Name Server) records for a sub domain, only for a primary hosted domain.  So in this case with Bluehost, I had to have news.dragonblogger.com hosted over at SendInBlue and then have various ZONE records setup so that SendInBlue was in charge of that subdomain.

Meanwhile, I also registered for DKIM and authority for my email so that it added assurance and maybe my future newsletters won’t generate so many junk email flags to hurt the reputation of this IP and subdomain which is starting from scratch.  Seriously though, don’t know why I had to shell out so much extra money just to send newsletter to the fans to remind them of the giveaways and some articles, is like paying twice just to help give stuff away.  The newsletter has to have an ROI where it brings more visits and potentially more clicks to our sponsors or else it won’t pay for itself and will be a negative asset instead of a positive one for the site. 

Meanwhile, I do think if you run a massive newsletter a dedicated IP is an eventual thing, I run a dedicated IP for all of my hosting, so it was inevitable I would run for my news and email mailing list too.  I just was hoping not to have to have done it yet.  I do like how SendInBlue will auto blacklist emails that flag and unsubscribe so they won’t ever be contacted again, you can’t even re-add them accidentally since they are listed in a special blacklist.  This prevents accidentally getting a repeat offense, but it means people who sign up for the giveaways and give permission to join the mailing list, only to flag it as spam can never be re-added to the mailing list.

Oh, well I am going to add another clause to the giveaways that says all emails will be scanned in the mailing list and if your email is on the blacklist, you are ineligible for being a winner.  I still like SendInBlue and am not faulting them for the junk rate, it wasn’t their problem that readers did that.

They still have great rates, easy to use Newsletter configurations and very easy to work with support.  Their rates are fantastic and they actually provide a dedicated IP to anyone who subscribes to the Gold or higher plan anyway.  I just happen to be the Bronze plan where I can send 60,000 emails per month.  If I ever get large enough to send 120,000 emails per month, I will upgrade the plan.

So when I arrived Sunday in CA I knew that I would have to go nearly an entire day with no Wi-Fi and unfortunately the cell phone signal is very weak around this area which means mobile hotspot is virtually unusable and even the normally fast LTE network on my Verizon cell phone is sputtering at an alternating 1X and 3X signal.  This means very very limited Internet access with brief ability to respond or status on FB, check an email or two and text/Skype a message or two to my kids back in Arizona.

Sunday was not so bad, and I was almost ecstatic when one of my neighbors gave us the password to their Wi-Fi only to find out that it was turned off, and they didn’t know how to turn it back on and get it online while their son was away.  This meant I was back to virtually no Internet access, mobile hotspot would get page cannot be displayed even trying to load Google to search for Cox website to try and bribe them to come out in an earlier time slot to repair the line.

I am about as Internet addicted as they come, showing all the classic signs and stages of addiction when losing access to my Internet life line.  It isn’t just that I need Internet for my day job (I telecommute, therefore I always need an active Internet connection for work) but I also consume and generate so much online activity that I feel empty and bored without having access to it.

Denial

This can’t be, how can the Internet not be working?  I scanned all Wi-Fi networks in the neighborhood in the hopes that some poor schlub wasn’t securing theirs and I could piggy back off of it, no luck everyone is at least bright enough to use WPA2 and not use the default router name/passwords in this neighborhood and I won’t stoop low enough to try and brute force my way into another’s Wi-Fi network.  I retraced all cox lines, tried everything possible to get some sort of online light on the router.  Heck, if I had enough Coax cable, I would have crimped new heads and ran a new line out to the box.

Disbelief

I can’t believe I can’t get online, I simply am like shocked that there isn’t a way I can connect, unbelieving that the mobile hotspot is so damn slow and just like “I can’t believe this” repeatedly.  For the first time in years I went to bed at 8pm just because I was bored (I happened to have an ear infection and lung infection too) but hoping sleeping the time away would make my Internet come back faster.

Anger

Frustration and anger sets in, I can’t believe stupid wall jack won’t give me Internet.  Anger that my Verizon phone signal is so weak in this house that the mobile hotspot is like a 300 baud modem, can’t even load 1 email every 3 minutes.  Clenching and unclenching fists in frustration on how to get back online.

Acceptance

Finally the acceptance comes and I start to think about how much productivity and what I can do while I have no Internet, like finish writing my mid year reviews at work, write several blog posts and queue them as draft for when I get online again (like this one) and eat breakfast and talk to my wife a bit before the contractors come.

By the time this is publishes my Wi-Fi would have been restored, but this is obviously a problem with me and I recognize this.  Actually had I not had to work today and this Internet connection reducing me to being only able to join conference calls and limited email responses, I would have probably been fine, I can take a PTO day, go for a 1 hour job, enjoy the beach, but it is mostly because I have to work that this really frustrated me so much.