Actually, it’s a movie, not an ode. Since gadgets have kept me duly employed for nearly 35 years, I thought I might spend a few moments reflecting on what gadgets mean to others. Sheer joy or bane of existence? Making life simpler or making it darn complicated? Defining personality or making all personalities identical?
With […]

Nintendo’s Wii is the Barak Obama of the video game world. Nintendo said if you give families a game that’s fun for the whole family they will come. Change will happen. And so we came and enjoyed as the Wii transcended age and gender barriers.

Are cheaply made toys more dangerous than expensive ones? As much as I’d like to say no, the answer is probably yes. After all, we don’t manufacture toys in China because we think they do a better job of creating safe toys. They do a better job of making them inexpensively. Producing cheap […]

The good news is that kids are not just sitting in front of their PC screens in isolation anymore. They’re involved with networks of friends as the Internet has become a social meeting place. This season many Internet sites will require the purchase an offline toy–a stuffed animal or doll—to gain access to […]

As the holidays approach (yes, that would be earlier and earlier each year), those who watch can detect the hot trends in kids’ digital toys. This year I’m betting on four hot areas in the high tech gaming world.

Offline toys with online worlds: Webkinz started it and now every furball and doll in creation has […]

Have toys always been dangerous and we just didn’t know it? Salon author Katharine Mieszkowski recounted the summer’s toy fiascoes and it wasn’t a pretty read.