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PRODUCT REVIEW
Plucking a Berry
By Heather Wardell
About this article
This article, by Heather Wardell, looks at a handheld for children. To best test it, Heather gave it to a group of thirteen-year-olds and ten-year-olds and got their very unfiltered feedback. This is exactly the sort of article that showcases our hands-on approach and we're thrilled to have Heather writing for us. We're very pleased to announce that the Computing Unplugged Editorial Board has enthusiastically confirmed Heather Wardell as our newest Contributing Editor.
Heather, thanks for the great articles and congratulations! -- Ed.
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The Berry, from Sakar, is a handheld for children. It comes in four different "flavors", BlueBerry, GreyBerry, GrapeBerry and StrawBerry, and lets children feel just like their parents. Priced at $19.99, the Berry has a Calendar, Address Book, Calculator, password protection, and a built-in telephone.
I'm an elementary school teacher, so I took the Berry to school with me to see what my students thought. I wanted to give it a good trial, so I handed it to the students without giving them any details on how it worked. To assist me in my coverage, I had several thirteen-year-olds, and a group of ten-year-olds, put the Berry through its paces.
First impressions
The Berry is quite a sturdy unit. It was passed around among my students, dropped several times, and still looks just as good as when it arrived. I have the BlueBerry, a soft, dusky blue color with silver accents. The upper segment of the Berry is the phone. It pulls off by sliding it out sideways, and the attachment piece seems to be quite sturdy. Figure A shows a close-up of the BlueBerry with its phone removed.
FIGURE A
 
The BlueBerry is a solid device, and seems ready to stand up to a child's use. Roll over picture for a larger image.
The instruction manual, unfortunately, is quite poorly written. I had difficulty understanding it myself, and it went completely over the heads of my students. It refers to "the Organizer" instead of "the Berry", and not all of the instructions seem to be completely accurate. For example, I was never able to add an email address to my Address Book.
Another problem with the Berry is Sakar's Web site. There is literally no information about the Berry, what the device is, the target market, or anything else. In fact, except for a single picture with no caption, there isn't anything on the product page.
All of my students felt the Berry was interesting and fast. They didn't have a lot of time to work with it, but were generally able to figure out the Calculator and Calendar. The Address Book was more confusing for them, just as it was for me.
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