Kids have it lucky these days. I grew up on those old Tamagotchi virtual pets, and as a gadget geek, I drool at the new toys that come out recently. Bandai, for one, is launching the "Mobile Communicator Smart Berry" for kids tomorrow, July 19. Smart Berry is a mobile e-mail and chat tool designed for children. It works on a wireless network instead of on infrared like other toys of the same nature do. It looks like a sliding smartphone with a keyboard and a touchscreen LCD.

Four Smart Berry units could be used to communicate and play online games among friends as long as they're within 10 meters of each other. Aside from the main e-mailing and chat functions, the stylus pen could be used to draw images which could be sent to other Smart Berry units with which a user chooses to share his/her profile. There's even a virtual pet simulation game installed! It'll be available in toy stores, in Japan I presume, for $97.