Here's a surprising use of 3D technology (sort of). Imperial Toy has released Optrix 3-D Bubbles and says that sales are already brisk. Designed to be used outdoors on a sunny day, the toys lets kids see "magical images" inside their bubbles. They're available in four styles: stars, hearts, lightening bolts, and butterflies.
Each package includes viewing glasses, a bubble wand, bubble tray, and an 8 ounce bottle of Super Miracle Bubble Solution. While this may not be high-quality 3D, you've got to admire the company's perfect timing. 3D films are crushing the box office and they've got an unusual 3D toy. I hope they're working on an Avatar tie-in. Or at least Alice in Wonderland.
GelaSkins, makers of designer prints and skins for laptops, the iPhone, Blackberry phones, the XBox 360, and the Amazon Kindle, unveiled a new series of Marvel Comics designs today featuring superheroes such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the X-Men. Designs feature the Iron Man we know and love from the movies, Spider-Man both in his modern look and battling the Rhino in classic comic-book-cover style, and an X-Men panel that looks as thought it were lifted from an old comic book.
All of the new skins are available for a wide variety of devices, including multiple generations of the iPod and iPhone, and laptops of multiple sizes, including the 13-inch Macbook all the way up to the 17-inch Macbook Pro. GelaSkins was kind enough to send along some advance copies of the new Marvel Comics designs, all available at GelaSkins' site today. Lots more photos, after the jump.
\Nintendo has just released details on the forthcoming update to its popular handheld gaming platform: The Nintendo DSi XL will go on sale in the U.S. on March 28 and have a list price of $189.99. The DSi XL's screens are 93% larger than those of its predecessor, the DSi, and it offers a wider viewing angle. It'll come with two styli: the typical small stylus that slots into the device but also a larger "pen" stylus, which is easier to grip.
The DSi will be sold preloaded with several titles, including Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Math, and Photo Clock. It comes in either Burgundy or Bronze. Upcoming titles for the device are America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking and WarioWare: D.I.Y, among others; those two will launch on March 28 as well. Look for a hands-on report, complete with slideshow, with the new DSi XL at midnight EST tonight on PCMag.com.
Update: According to Bloomberg News, the DSi XL will also include a book reader when it ships:
The player, which has a larger screen than the company's current model, will double as an electronic reader when Nintendo introduces "100 Classic Books" in June, Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for North America, said today at an event in San Francisco.
Hasbro consistently comes up with charming and play-worthy tech toys, and this year at Toy Fair was no exception.
Iron Man 2 will be showing up in theaters this May, and the character lends himself to techie toys so well. Above is Hasbro's Iron Man 2 RC Walking Iron Man, so of course, he walks--really quite quickly and fluidly, too. He also shoots projectiles from his arms and features shoulder rockets, just like Robert Downey Jr. (Fall, $49.99, ages 4 and up.)
Lots more toy previews from Hasbro, after the jump!
It seems a bit weird to say this about the world's largest toy company, but Mattel is really creative when it comes to integrating tech into its toys. Although technology is implemented in various ways, the toys we saw from the company (including its Fisher-Price brand) have in common a humorous sense of fun. Yes, I totally wanted to play with each and every one.
Above: He might look like a cross between a gila monster and a pit bull, but that's Cruncher, a new Prehistoric Pets toy. Sensors make him interactive: He can come when you call him, and he dances, begs for food, and even purrs when petted. He can also go into Attack Mode and charge, and this little guy can really move. (August, $99.99 list, ages 6 and up.)
More Mattel and Fisher-Price previews after the jump.
The meteoric success of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games has led to some pretty cheesy knock-offs, but WowWee's Paper Jamz is something different. Sure, it's probably designed to ride a little bit on the coattails of those two popular video console games, but these nearly paper-thin--and sometimes actual paper--instruments are no game. They're designed to make and play real music.
Each product in the Paper Jamz line is self-contained. The electric guitar, which features three modes: Rhythm, Play and Freeplay, works a little like a real guitar. Air guitar moves won't work. Instead, you touch different points on the fret and actually strum over the guitar string image. Selling for $24.99, the Paper Jamz guitar uses capacitive touch technology to recognize your input.
The prototype I played with recognized which frets I placed my fingers on but saw them as "bar chords", which means your finger is draped over all six guitar strings. WowWee execs promise that the final guitar will allow users to touch individual "strings" and play real chords. Each guitar will ship with three built-in songs that you can play along with.
One of today's biggest play trends is that virtual and toy worlds are merging. So it only makes sense that for the first time this year, Toy Fair and the Engage! Expo are co-exhibiting at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. And who better to kick off Engage! this morning than Will Wright, legendary video-game designer and creator of franchises such as SimCity, The Sims, and Spore.
The keynote presentation, titled "The Evolution of Entertainment, A Toy's Place," was a speculative and entertaining look at the root of human behavior, how we develop world concepts, and where toys and play fit in. His predilection for building model cars as a child, he said, informed his ability to design online. "My favorite toy was the VertiBird," said Wright; at the time, for that time, it was a fairly complex toy, but now, tech toys are evolving on a Moore's-Law track.
More on the keynote plus videos of Wright's speech after the jump!
With every American now carrying three to five electronic gadgets at all times, inventors have had to find other markets to tap. They've settled on our four-legged best buddies.
Witness the Dog-e-Minder, an electronic dog tag and pet minder. Use it to record the last time your pup was walked, fed, and took his or her medication. It could be a real help for busy owners or multi-pet homes. The Dog-e-Minder has a simple three-button interface; when you do one of those three activities, simply hold the appropriate button for three seconds. The casing is durable and waterproof. Pick it up for $19.95, currently with a buy-one-get-one special.
Next up is Mattel's Puppy Tweets, one of the hits of this year's Toy Fair. This device also attaches to your dog's collar, but its purpose is to let your furry friend express him or herself. It monitors your pooch's movements and turns them into tweets, such as "It's not the catching of the tail, it's the chase," and "Guess what I'm licking right now." It has a library of over 500 comments so the novelty shouldn't wear off for a couple days, at least, and will cost $29.99 when released in the fall. Mattel doesn't have a page on it yet, but here it is on Fast Company.
Updated: An image Carol Mangis took of Mattel's Puppy Tweets from Toy Fair after the jump.
OK, forget Rock Band: The Beamz is here. This remarkable device takes interactive music-making to a whole new level. You make music on the Beamz by passing your hands through six laser beams, each of which sets off "a stream of musical notes and sounds." These can be preloaded sounds or ones you assign yourself. And you can download and use ever-increasing "Beamz Songs" from the company's site.
Someone who's not adept at playing a musical instrument (like me, for example) can jump right in and play--it's incredibly fun and engaging. And I can imagine DJs and musicians using the Beamz (which retails for $299.95) in performances--the possibilities are nearly endless.
There's a lot more to the Beamz, which you can read about at the company's site .And to get a better idea of how it works, check out the video after the jump.
This raptor-bot has three play modes: Search and Destroy, when he'll explore and hunt down his prey; Guard, in which he'll frighten off intruders; and Direct Control, which lets his human direct his moves. And like his iloveRobots siblings, Blazor can detect motion, avoid objects, and interact with other bots (including facing off with Prime-8). We'll see him ship this fall, retailing for $40, for kids 4 to 8.
Yesterday was the first day of Toy Fair 2010, and Disney kicked things off with an celebration at New York's Gotham Hall that was all about the upcoming sequel, "Toy Story 3." In attendence: none other than John Lasseter, chief creative officer of animated features for Disney/Pixar and creator of the Toy Story franchise. The night before, Lasseter had been inducted into the the Toy Industry Hall of Fame, and with good reason. Since the first "Toy Story" premiered in 1986 1995, the franchise has generated over $8 billion retail-merchandise dollars.
After a tribute video, Lasseter spoke about his love for toys, playing, and the primary role of characters above special effects in the "Toy Story" movies. The new film begins as "Andy" is leaving for college, and the toys are donated to a day care center. "We had to think about how the toys would react, what causes them the most anxiety about this" he said. More than anything else, he said, they want to be played with.
This will be Pixar's first movie in digital 3D. As director Lee Unkrich said, it'll be like "watching the movie through a Viewmaster."
Lasseter was surprised on stage with a LEGO version of himself, which seemed to completely captivate him; he posed with it happily for quite a while. Also announced was that Toy Story 3: The Video Game comes out in June for all major gaming platforms.
Check out more pictures of the event--and some of the new toys--after the jump.
Mattel's iconic doll has had lots of different jobs in her 50-plus years, including babysitter, cowgirl, ballerina, and ambassador for
world peace. Now she's added her 126th: computer engineer. It's not
like Barbie's never had a professional-level occupation before (she's also
been a surgeon and an astronaut) but this is her first foray into the
land of technology. Even more encouraging: This particular profession
was a fan pick.
Anything that encourages geeky, mathy girls this way has to be a good thing, right? Nora Lin, President, Society of Women Engineers, seems to agree. She's quoted in the press release:
"All the girls who imagine their futures through Barbie will learn that engineers -- like girls -- are free to explore
infinite possibilities, limited only by their imagination."
Computer Engineer Barbie comes with her own (pink, naturally) laptop, a smartphone, a Bluetooth headset, and a "binary code patterned tee." I don't know what Tim Gunn would say, but I think she makes it work.
Looks like he's real after all, and actually, pretty cute: Fisher-Price is bringing Imaginext Bigfoot the Monster to Toy Fair 2010 in New York, which opens Sunday the 14th.
This remote-controlled big boy is intended for kids ages 3 to 8; with the included remote, kids will be able to have him walk, express emotions, do somersaults, and perform lots of other actions. And he'll have "interactive touch points" on his mouth and tummy that evoke sounds and actions, as well.
You can expect your own personal sighting of Bigfoot some time this coming June, when he'll ship to stores; the price is expected to be around $100.
Old-school gamers will remember Nintendo's Power Glove, which essentially had a controller on top of it and a number of sensors on it that were supposed to make motion-controlled gaming a reality. As awesome as the Power Glove was, it pales in comparison with the Peregrine Gaming Glove, a touch-sensitive glove with over 30 points of contact that respond to touch or movement.
I saw the Peregrine in action at CES, and watching gamers who were experienced at using it play games such as Defense of the Ancients, Starcraft 2, and World of Warcraft was an incredible sight. Most of them used the glove in place of the keyboard entirely, using the glove on one hand and the mouse in the other. The speed at which they were able to toggle actions, chain movements, and attacks and micromanage their in-game units was impressive.
Here's a surprising use of 3D technology (sort of). Imperial Toy has released 
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With every American now carrying three to five electronic gadgets at all times, inventors have had to find other markets to tap. They've settled on our four-legged best buddies. 
