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| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 15 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
89 of 90 found the following review helpful:
 A Competitive Alternative to Tag Reader Dec 08, 2008
By Seteger
As the dad of a three-year old book lover, I want to focus on what the Poingo system does differently than the Tag Reader, for those debating between the two systems.
The Poingo system is certainly cheaper than the Tag Reader (and you'll find it even cheaper than amazon elsewhere, like Target). The books are more affordable, too. So for price, Poingo wins hands down. That includes the books it comes with--Finding Nemo and Cars--as opposed to the one story in the standard Tag Reader set.
The Poingo books are physically better, too, in my opinion. Although both systems offer hardcover books (EXCEPT the one book the standard Tag Reader comes with), the Poingo books are larger in size. I personally prefer this. Each page also includes more story, more text, which I like.
Tag Reader beats Poingo, however, when it comes to book selection. Tag has easily two dozen books to choose from, including some beloved classics like Cat and the Hat and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I also like some of the breadth of the Tag choices, like dinosaurs and pirates.
Poingo seems to be exclusively Disney--besides Finding Nemo and Cars, I've seen a Pooh story, bought Cinderella and Lion King, and I know they make Sleeping Beauty (though I've never seen it). For my little Disney fan, this is wonderful. But be aware that Tag also has Disney licenses, like Cars, a Princess story, and so on. So the Disney-only selection may be a turn-off for some of you.
Both sets of books seem to include mini-games alongside the main story, which I love.
The Poingo pen is larger, easier to hold than Tag, but really, my little one has no trouble with either. The Poingo pen has only three settings--off, on, and on with more volume. Tag has on but more volume options in between. Poingo pen seems to auto shut-off pretty quickly--which is both good and bad (good for batteries, bad for a kid who wonders why he paused for a minute and the pen won't work).
Both pens connect to the computer via USB cable. I find Tag's system easier to handle and navigate, and the Tag system of tracking usage and rewarding game wins isn't a huge deal for me, but still, it's nice to have it. Poingo's system seemed much clunkier, harder to use, with no online rewards or tracking as far I am aware of.
Then again, I've always hated how the Tag pen only can hold five or six books at most at one time (this puts a dent on all that selection I mentioned before). Meanwhile, Poingo holds it all easily.
Tag is more of a word recognition system for early readers. Put the pen on a word, and only that word is "read" out loud. There's an option for reading the whole thing, but really, this system obviously focuses on word recognition and sentence-level learning. With Poingo, point to almost any word and that whole page gets read, not the one word only. Poingo is therefore either more of a story-telling system or for someone who can read along more easily, a more advanced young reader.
Poingo does have vocabulary, unlike Tag, for key words printed in green. These words do not include EVERY word--just some--but still, that seems like a nice option.
I notice that the Tag games are more phonetic (word building) and basic, while the Poingo games are more advanced (geography, species, etc.)
So which should you buy if you are debating between the two? I'm happy with both, myself; they are just different enough to not compete with my son's attention. If you are a happy Tag owner, I would recommend this Poingo system as a supplement.
But if you had to have just one, I think the main factors to consider are:
-price--Poingo is cheaper
-book selection--Tag has more (more expensive, but still more)
-age of your child (if younger, I'd pick Tag, if a little older or more advanced, pick Poingo)
-your own comfort with computer software (if you are a pro, Poingo is no biggie. Otherwise, Tag is a lot easier to use)
Hope this helps--have fun.
21 of 21 found the following review helpful:
 Great reading system Nov 04, 2008
By Mom of 2 boys
My 4 year old son received this as a gift for his birthday. Both he and his 3 year old brother love to play with it. I had never heard of it before so I didn't know what to expect. The child can use the pen to read the story to them, and they do not have to continually hold the pen onto the paper to do so. Just a quick stroke across the first line will read the entire page. The "pen" can do more just read the story, they can also play games on most of the pages, similar to an "I spy" type of game. I love that it has 2 different volume levels and also comes with earbuds so the parent doesn't have to hear all of it! Regular headphones also fit into the jack if a child doesn't want to use the provided earbuds.
There are a couple of things I wish were different about this reading system. I wish the pages in the book were tear-resistant because I can see eventually the boys will end up ripping a page. Also, the selection of books available now is limited, but I'm sure as the Christmas season approaches, more will become available.
20 of 23 found the following review helpful:
When Mom Doesn't Want to Read it AGAIN Nov 22, 2008
By Nicole Brady
"Nicole (SAHM Reviews)"
When I became a mom, my brain found itself cluttered with children's songs and stories ad infinitum. It's fun to be able to sing along with the kids, but when you read the same book for the thousandth time, you just want to scream. "Sorry, honey. I'm not sure where that book went. Are you sure you put it back on the shelf last night?" Knowing good and well that I've accidentally misplaced it in a really good hiding spot. Don't shake your head at me... you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Thankfully, I had the opportunity to try out Poingo, a new product from Publications International, LTD. Our last excursion into this type of reader gadget was with the LittleTouch LeapPad that I thought we would use more than we really did. It was hard enough to keep track of the booklet, but worrying about the cartridge and the booklet was a pain. (Which would explain why it was the last time we purchased something like this.) Anyway, the girls are older and needing things that encourage independent play and the Poingo fits this to a T. Their motto is "Fun right out of the box" and it's very accurate. When the package arrived, my 4-year old daughter was on hand to check it out. I literally opened it up and sat down on the couch with her to show her how it worked. From the very first time I turned it on, she impatiently awaited her turn repeatedly stating "I can do it, Mom." and "I can do it myself." So I handed it over to her and the rest is history. At least it was until her 5 1/2 year old sister showed up and wanted to try it too. Then it became a battle of "My turn!" comments.
Oh, I haven't told you what it does. It's a book and a pen. NOT CONNECTED to each other. There are a variety of books, including Cars and Finding Nemo that come with the box set. Other titles sold independently are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and soon to be released High School Musical and Hannah Montana. The pen already has several programs in it's memory so once you purchase a new book, you can just open it and go. For newer stuff, there's a download feature, doing away with the concerns of keeping track of related cartridges. The pen uses a mini-scanner to "read" microscopic symbols on the pages of the Poingo-enabled books. Touch the box containing the story and it recites the story. Touch the underlined words and it gives a definition of them. Tap the pictures of the page and be surprised by music, trivia related to what was just recited, general trivia related to items or characters in the story and even interactive games.
To be completely balanced, I need to explain that this IS NOT a word recognition program. It tells the story out loud, but isn't actually reading the specific words on the page. You can't click on a word and it tell you what it is - unless it's underlined. So for my 5 1/2 year old beginning reader, she kept resetting it while following along. Whenever the pen would near an underlined word or a sound box, it would start over at the beginning of that story box. She finally got the hang of it and now manages to follow along without bumping those. And she really enjoys the interactive question/answer sections.
Poingo can be purchased for around $34.99. Individual books are available for $9.99 each.
I want to thank Publications International for a wonderful product that pushes the envelope in children's edutainment. Moms (and dads) everywhere will be thanking you for providing a product that allows kids to read these stories by themselves!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Don't bother with cutomer service! Oct 20, 2010
By ihatepoingo
Well my daughter is now on her 4th poingo pen! They have all broken after not very long. Finally this time I had enough and decided instead of just buying a new one I would try and get the issue resolved. That was like 8 months ago. If you try and send an email to them they say someone will contact you within 48 hours... in fact, they actually have no intention of contacting you. Then you get fed up and decide to call. All they will do is say they can take a message. I've sent 3 emails and called 6 times and still I wait for someone to call me back or send a replacement pen. The most frustrating part is that if I'm going to get blown off and my satisfaction as a customer is not important then just tell me, don't give me the runaround. The people who are in charge of customer service must not know what it's like to have a disappointed little girl patiently waiting for their fun product to arrive. My recommendation... Don't buy the product, it won't last. And when it does break a month after you buy it don't even bother trying to get ahold of customer service because PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL DOES NOT CARE ABOUT IT'S CUSTOMERS
-Erik Thordarson
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Here's the fix for error opening poingo.jnlp file Jun 08, 2010
By Khoa Tran
I bought the reader myself and was frustrated how it didn't work first time like most of you. So I figure out the computer needs to install Java Runtime Environment (JRE) from Java website. You do need to install this to open the jnlp file, after that you can put all the content you want to the reader. Here's the link to download JRE:
[...]
Hope it works out for you guys!
See all 15 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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