Toy Wonder - new toys for children

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, June, 2000 by Ian Baldwin

TECHNOLOGY | Finding high-tech PLAYTHINGS these days isn't hard. But finding ones that teach and challenge your child isn't so easy.

EVER SINCE TICKLE Me Elmo sat his bright-red self on the shelves in 1996--and promptly flew off them in droves--technology has crept deeper into Toyland. Last year's top-selling toy in dollar terms was Tiger Electronics' blinking, babbling Furby doll. In 1998 it was Talking Teletubbies. This year's microchip-embedded stars range from Britney Spears dolls that sing full-length songs ($40) to ball-chasing robotic dogs ($2,500).

The challenge today isn't finding a high-tech toy--it's finding one that puts technology at the service of a creative child. Among the tech toys that appeared in the past year or so (or will appear this year), we discovered some promising innovations.

PC means pretty cool. A partnership between chip maker Intel and toy titan Mattel is leading the charge on toydom's new frontier. Their Intel Play brand has already had a big hit with the QX3 Computer Microscope, which was released late last year. The $75 microscope hooks up to a PC and lets you record and edit video of what's being magnified.

In October, two new Intel Playthings will hit the shelves. The Computer Sound Morpher (which, like the QX3 microscope, is aimed at kids 6 and up) uses a digital recorder to capture everyday sounds and a CD-ROM to mix and morph them. The Digital Movie Creator lets kids combine sound, text and visual effects with footage they shoot on a digital movie camera. They can't roam too far: Unfettered from a PC, the camera films for only eight seconds. It's aimed at children age 8 and older, but Intel says that even teenagers like it.

Though it is possible to transfer the movies to VHS or DVD, the Intel package doesn't come with the necessary hardware. That omission, however, will keep the price of the Movie Creator to less than $100. The Sound Morpher will sell for less than $45.

Son of Palm Pilot. Today's children also want the trappings of technology that define their notion of grown-uphood. "Kids have an aspirational nature," says Chris Byrne, who edits the industry publication Toy Report. "If kids see Mom and Dad with a Palm Pilot, they want a Pokedex."

Pokedex is an electronic organizer that keeps track of Pokemon characters, and it looks pretty pokey next to the next generation of toys modeled on personal digital assistants. These toys come with address books and schedulers, but it's the extras, such as infrared instant messaging, that a budding multitasker will hook into.

One word you'll be hearing a lot is Cybiko--if not from kids themselves then from their frazzled teachers. Cybiko takes traditional classroom notepassing to a new level with a wireless-chat feature that links up to 100 users over an indoor range of up to 150 feet. It also has games, a music composer, e-mail capability and a built-in virtual pet called Cy-B. Price: $149.

Cybiko markets itself as gender neutral, but two similar products are trying to break the toy industry's habit of pushing techno toys into boys' hands. Radica's new Pocket Com, a 128-kilobyte PDA with instant messaging, will start selling in August for $70. It's part of a line called Girl Tech, and it comes with a yearlong subscription to Girl Tech's Web browser, Surfer Girl. A $14.99 companion toy, Laser Chat, lets girls send each other short voice messages from up to 35 feet away.

Senario's DigiGirl ($40 to $60; available in August) may be better for a slightly younger child because it has fewer features and a cleaner design. It too has instant messaging, which works over a 15-foot range.

Look for these pseudo PDAs--plus e-mail and messaging devices like Tiger's $60, cell-phone-size Lightning Mail--to become among the hottest contraband circulating in junior high.

Look, Ma, no film. Digital cameras have become another popular hand-me-down from the adult world. Hand-me-across might be more accurate, because these days there's little difference in technology between kiddie cams and low-end adult ones. At $99, KB Gear's JamCam 3.0 (rolling out in July) comes loaded with onboard memory that can hold eight images. It boasts a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which is more than enough for clear snapshots. Polaroid's PDC-640, which isn't marketed for kids, has the same resolution and sells for about $200.

Tiger's Yahoo! (yes, the Internet portal) Cam comes in at just $60. It holds 12 pictures at a lower 360 x 240 resolution. The camera entry from Oregon Scientific (known for its kiddie laptops) is on shelves now. It has a 15-image capacity, at 160 x 240, and costs $60. All three cameras come with image-altering software.

Leggo my Legos. Time was when you could build three things with Lego bricks: towns, castles and spaceships. Anyone who has wandered bedazzled through the Lego aisle at a toy store lately knows that those days are long past: The Danish company now makes remote-control cars, computer games and even wristwatches. The bright plastic bricks themselves have entered the tech world in a big way with the innovative Lego Mindstorms line.