Someone has given Sonia a digital camera from Mattell’s GirlTech product line. It takes VGA photos with two buttons, no preview, and can be used as a webcam for “Video Journal” which is what the product is called. First of all impressed that the camera is a dull grey and not some garish pink, although that might have met with approval from the target demographic.

Two problems: we duly install the software on her ancient computer. It starts up with a great non-rectangular splash screen (which Sonia noticed, I may say: geometry still means something when you’re just eight), and then exits. Nothing. Bang. Gone. Checked the driver status in the Device Mangler. There is a problem with the driver. Sigh.

Go out in search of support - NOTHING! The Mattel support site doesn’t even list GirlTech as a possible brand. Spit. Need to try it on a more uptodate computer, but for heavens sake, are they trying to put girls off?

But that’s not quite all. There are two other objections.

One is that there are two buttons on the camera. One takes the picture, the other one switches it on and changes modes. Yes, modes. About 12 different modes each with a submillimeter icon to show what is set. No try explaining that to the under tens! It would have been so much better to be completely instant - press the take button and it takes a maxres photo, shows how many spaces are left, then switches off on its own.

And then, on the GirlTech website there’s a quiz for what you take most pictures of. Sensible items like friends, landscape, family and pets are joined by “Cheerleading activities”. Yes folks, can’t have girls using a camera unless its for some demeaning activity in skimpy clothes. Sigh. Double sigh.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 10:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.