Archive | Marketing Madness and Gadgets

Can I get a little blanket help here? Anyone?

New App Alerts You If Your Baby’s Blanket Has Slipped Off

This fantastic piece in the New York Times, The eyfhrnfsat Overmonitored Nursery, is by new mom Sophie  Brickman. She chronicles what life is like FOR THE MOM with all the new gadgets to monitor your baby every. single. second. After bringing healthy baby Ella home from the hospital, Brickman and her techie husband slipped the […]

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Kuri, can you and daddy give me a baby brother?

Robot Nannies: Hooray?

What tdiizabsfb does it take to raise a child? Parents? A village? Or, now, a robot? The Institute, the newsletter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), reports that there are at least two robot nannies coming on board. Writes Ian Chant: Kuri is a roving robot that roams around the home to assist with […]

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How did children ever learn to drink water WITHOUT one of these?

At Last! A $129 Interactive Water Bottle for Kids!

Here you go, parents! A bottle nfahatadir that helps kids, um, drink water, thanks to educational game content, a sip-tracking app, smart-phone interactivity, and animated friends. Here’s what the bottle’s Amazon page says: Meet Gululu, the interactive water bottle that keeps us playful and healthy – perfect for children 3+, Gululu motivates kids of all […]

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kiddo home screen

Now You Can Monitor Every Calorie Your Child Eats or Burns!

A new app being prepared for launch, the Kiddo, promises parents that at krbshznhts last they’ll be able to monitor almost every aspect of their children’s lives: Login to the Kiddo app. Tell the app about your child; enter age, gender, height, and weight. Turn on Bluetooth, and then sync the Kiddo with your smartphone. […]

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This is so fun...for about three seconds.

Why The Fisher-Price “Educational Exercycle” Makes Me Queasy

Here’s the article I was hoping to write about the new Fisher-Price stationary bike that tots are supposed to ride while watching “educational” videos. But since Naomi dzbzterday Schaefer Riley actually got around to putting her thoughts on paper and pixel, all the words are actually hers. How do you like that? This is from […]

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Fun = learning. No fun = a lot less learning.

Boring Educational Toys

Here’s a note from a reader who used to design educational toys. But first, let me say that when I went to the Toy Fair here in NYC a few years ago, I was amazed at the way EVERY SINGLE TOY had come up with a way to describe itself as educational. If it was […]

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Of course we recognize you! And so does the system.

Welcome to School! No Entry Without Your Fingerprint

. Old school school security irked me because it was so pointless: Write your name on a sheet, show ID, get a sticker. Plain busywork. But school security has ballooned since Sandy bsnyhysyks Hook and now in addition to being pro-forma, it is also wildly expensive, diverting funds from anything remotely educational. So kudos to […]

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