marytara's Full Review: Fisher-Price FP3 Song and Story Player
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and my 6 year old son is just like his dad. He loves all things techie and gadgety. So, it came as no surprise that he received this Fisher-Price Kid-Tough FP3 Player for his sixth birthday from his grandmother. I had put it on his wishlist because I'm always looking for portable electronics to keep him occupied while we are out and about and to keep him out of trouble. He's long outgrown his Playskool Videonow Jr. Player, and I was looking for something to mix things up a bit from him constantly playing with his Leapster L-max.
What's the Fisher-Price Kid-Tough FP3 Player?
The Fisher-Price Kid Tough FP3 Player is Fisher-Price's take on making an MP3 player for kids aged from 3-8 years. It comes in either pink or blue and retails for $69.99. This year its one of the hot toys for the holidays so some retailers are charging twice that, and the accessories are sold out on store shelves at most places. Lots of kids will be getting these in the upcoming days. So, if you've gotten one to give as a gift from you (or from Santa) or are considering getting one - this review is for you!
The FP3 Player is a made of sturdy plastic and has rubber guards around it. It doesn't really look like an MP3 player such as an ipod - because its round and a little bulky. But, remember this is made for preschoolers and young children so its a great size and shape for them. The player is a disc shape about 4 inches in diameter and about an inch and a half wide. We have the blue one which is mostly dark blue and white. When you purchase it you get the player, a USB connector cable for it, Kid-Tough headphones, and a CD-Rom with software. The player has a detachable lanyard that clips on it so that kids can wear it around their neck. The lanyard has a "breakaway" clasp so if you have two kids like me, who will fight and tug over something - its a bit safer.
Getting Started
Take my advice and if you are giving this for the holidays, open it up and set it up first. It is a lot easier to set it up in peace and quiet and get everything all loaded (at least to start) the way you think your child will enjoy it. It is not useable right out of the packaging and I had to set mine up with an antsy 6 year old and a little sister who likes to get in the middle of things.. it was not ideal.
Important: The FP3 Player needs 2 Triple A (AAA) batteries in order to operate and these are not included. Some online retailers (like Amazon) state that it uses 2 AA batteries and this is incorrect.
Computer Requirements for the FP3 Player recommended by Fisher-Price:Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP; Intel Pentium III 500 MHz or above; 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM or higher recommended); 150 MB free hard-disc space for full installation; Video Graphics Card with 1024 x 768 resolution or higher; Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with SP1 or later; Macromedia Flash plug-in; USB port; Optional for Online Store: Internet connection (broadband connection recommended).
To use the FP3 Player you first need to install the software on your computer and register it. You'll want to connect the player to your computer using the USB cable so that it can transfer files. The software will ask you to update the software when you first load it and subsequent connections if there's any updates to the program. You'll need to connect and disconnect the player from your machine and start and restart the program. Depending on your machine and set up this could take minutes or quite a bit longer. FYI - You can install and register the FP3 player on up to 5 computers, so if you are going to be connecting it to multiple machines you'll want to put the software on all of them. Also, if you have more than one FP3 player you can register them on a single software program (up to 5 players) and not have to load the software five times.
The software is not real difficult to use and has a FAQ and animated tutorial. Once its loaded the interface is cutesy and pretty dummy proof. By clicking on icons you can access your player's 'library' of songs and stories, make a playlist, load and unload files to your player, copy files from CD into your player, and download additional FP3 content from Fisher-Price.
The player comes pre-loaded with six songs and two stories which are the following:
Songs:I have two cats, Ickily Boo Doo, Me Siento Llena De Vida, Morning Time, Up and Down, This is my hand
Stories: Bramble Beavers Bright Idea, Uncle Filbert Saves the Day
Never heard of them? That's ok. I hadn't either.
What did I think? Well, its a good thing I didn't buy it for the preloaded content, that's for sure. I scrapped the preloaded content from our player (kept it in our file library in case we want it in the future) and opted to add content that would be more appealing to my son. The preloaded content will appeal more to a younger child, but since my son is 6 he doesn't need to listen to baby songs. He listened to them a few times but they aren't what I'd want him listening to, nor what he's interested in. To be quite blunt, they are annoying and enough to drive parents absolutely bonkers. I have no idea why Fisher-Price selected these songs to be preloaded because if this was the only content I owned I would return the player. Or maybe they do this on purpose in order to get you to go and pay to download their other stuff! (I'm sure this is the case..I see lots of dollar signs already).
To put other songs and stories onto your FP3 player it needs to be in their special format. This stinks a bit because you can't just put any MP3 files you have onto it directly. The player can only load files directly from a CD or a special Fisher-Price downloaded file.
I recently purchased my son the Happy Feet soundtrack so I stuck that into my CD-Rom drive and copied over a few of the songs to his FP3 library and then loaded them onto his player. The process is easy enough, but time consuming. For any songs you add on yourself you will also want to assign a picture icon for the player menu. There are a whole bunch of clipart images to choose from or you can draw your own, or assign a letter or number. If the files you want to add aren't on a CD you will need to burn them to a playable CD (wav format) and then load it with the FP3 program.
Now, about this Fisher-Price library of kid friendly content from a safe downloadable place. Yes, it is true - they have a content library for you to get more songs by the track, songs by album and stories. The prices range from .99 cents a track to $9.99 for an album or $1.99 per story or $5.99 for a story bundle. There are quite a few titles to choose from but your mileage may vary here depending on what your child likes. For example in the music there's a lot of "kidz bop" collections, and also I saw Laurie Berkner listed too. In the stories, they have Dr. Seuss, Clifford, Curious George, Frog & Toad and many more. You can browse the songs and the stories by genre or by age (they have it split for 3-5 or 6-8 years). The menu shows "Top downloads" and has mini-reviews/recommendations from parents to help you make your selections. Plus, you can sample clips of the downloads before purchasing them also - which is nice. The minimum download is $5 and to download you need to pay with a credit card. A lot of downloads could really add up, considering the player holds 2 hours worth of stuff (and can hold up to 18 hours worth if you add a 1GB SD card!). It might be nice if Fisher-Price came out with some kind of membership subscription to their FP3 library because if my son knew about the download library I sure can see where this could be going!
Using the Player
The FP3 player is easy to use and my six year old figured it out right away. Younger children may require a bit of teaching but should be able to pick it up quickly. The on-off for the FP3 player is a little switch on the back that slides back and forth. On the top of the player on either side of the headphone jack are buttons for making it louder or softer. It doesn't play terribly loud through the provided headphones, and Fisher-Price claims that it plays at a "safe volume". There are two icon buttons over the display screen to switch between stories (a book button), or songs (music notes). If you select the story button then you can flip through whatever stories are loaded on the player. Or if you select the music button you can select from the songs. To select a story or song you use one of the arrow buttons located to the left or right of the screen (forward or backward). For each story or song the title and its icon display on the screen. To play your selection you hit the play button located directly beneath the screen (hit this button again to stop it).
Our experience
My son really enjoys the Fisher-Price Kid Tough FP3 Player and was thrilled to receive it as a gift. He loves to listen to music or stories on the headphones which fit him nicely. The sound quality is not horrible but not amazing either, considering its not expensive as far as electronics go (though it is pricey for a kids "toy"). Note, the headphones don't look cool like grownup headphones or earphones do, so older kids may not be real keen on them. Since the headphone jack is a standard jack you can replace them with other phones of your choice if you want to.
The Kid-Tough construction is great. The player is sturdy and survived a dragging down hardwood stairs by little sister right out of the box with no damage.
Since the display screen is not color or fancy it doesn't eat batteries too bad and we are still on our first set of AAA's after several hours of listening. I feared this would be a battery hog but so far its not proved to be one.
The biggest issue that I have with the FP3 player is that it cannot play the MP3 format and so this makes setting the unit up a lot of work. Its definitely not ideal to have to make a CD from your MP3's and then transfer it to the FP3 format and then put it on the player. That's a big pain in the butt, actually. And if your child wants you to download all sorts of content from the Fisher-Price website be prepared for some hefty download fees. I purchased a couple of Dr. Seuss files which came to $12, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that between those and music files that we already have from CDs and converted files that this will keep my son happy. I don't plan on showing him the download system because I'm sure he'll want lots other content which can easily add up to more than the player cost in itself.
For now, we've not added a SD card our to player. The onboard memory of 2 hours of playtime is sufficient. If we are going on a car-trip I will definitely consider adding more memory and content to the player. (64MB=3hrs, 128MB=4hrs, 256MB=6hrs, 512MB=10 hrs, and 1GB=18 hrs).
Overall, a cool techie toy for kids who want to listen to tunes and stories. I could definitely live with a smoother setup process but now that ours is setup, its hopefully good to go for sometime now.
Happy listening & Good luck loading it up!
Optional Accessories Kid-Tough FP3 Player Case in Blue or Pink - $15
Kid-Tough FP3 Player Speakers - $30
SD Card (price varies based on capacity - not available from Fisher-Price - you can get these anyplace electronics are sold)
www.fisher-price.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60 Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
Digital media player provides preschoolers with a durable and easy way to play songs and stories Import CD tracks or download from the safe, user-frie...More at Amazon Marketplace
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