The FP3 Generation

Q: What’s better than reading Dr. Seuss with Daddy?

A: Having a disembodied stranger read Dr. Seuss to you through your Windows-only, proprietary FP3 DRM format Fisher-Price FP3 Player (blue for boys, pink for girls!).

Think of it as training wheels for the children of iPod-toting parents. Oh, wait, I’m one of those. So why isn’t thing appealing? Maybe because I can’t picture a situation where Miles would be walking around with headphones on not talking to anyone — it’s not like he’s got the morning commute to himself. Maybe because we don’t have any Windows machines in our house. Maybe because the world is already drowning in DRM?

Then again, maybe I’m being too harsh, too hypocritical. I get to enjoy my socially insulating technology. I cave in and buy DRM’d music from iTMS. Why shouldn’t he? Maybe it’s because this thing smells like My First Sony, the name of which made the whole line seem like a bald-faced attempt to get the Sony brand needle under the skin of pre-schoolers before their impressionable young minds were infected by rival logos. Smelled like it because it was.

Music: Thee Headcoatees :: Ca Plane Pour Moi

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2 Replies to “The FP3 Generation”

  1. C-Net says “The Fisher-Price FP3’s minor weaknesses don’t keep it from being the ideal way into the world of portable audio for kids.”

    No, the ideal way into the world of portable audio is with an old tape player. They’ll discover digital sounds soon enough, no need to splash out on a Fisher Price player when an old tape recorder is so much more physical, much cheaper, tapes can be picked up at the thrift store (or recorded by daddy), and kids can record stuff themselves.

  2. Blue for boys, pink for girls… Interesting, that. I always considered it sexist, but do a Google, it opens up a whole can of historical worms…

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