Children are growing up in a world vastly different to the one their parents grew up in. Putting technology and toys together makes for some fantastically fun and educational gadgets, but it also throws up some difficult questions for parents, like how much screen time is enough and when is the best age for their first smartphone? Still, sometimes it's the old-fashioned toys that have stood the test of time (and received a modern makeover) that are the best.
This is the place to stay informed about the coolest and cleverest toys in the digital age.
If video of Alexa returning some slightly age-inappropriate results to toddlers' queries has prevented you from welcoming the virtual assistant into your home, then a custom version designed for little ones, along with the new Echo Dot Kids Edition, might address your reservations.
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Everybody wishes they were a kid again sometimes, and that feeling only gets stronger when you look at how cool toys are nowadays. New Atlas rounds up some of the best and most high-tech toys to help you spoil the kids this festive season (or yourself – we won’t tell anybody).
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On the outside, robots don't come much simpler than a ball, but that doesn't do justice to the tech inside the gadgets from Sphero. New Atlas went hands on with the company's latest offering, a tiny app-connected robot ball called the Sphero Mini that's both drivable and programmable.
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Most alarm clocks are designed to get people out of bed, but there are scenarios where you'd like one to keep them in. The Mella kids clock is designed to achieve by using a mix of lights and facial expressions to enlighten toddlers about the bliss of sleeping in.
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Mattel is getting its toys-to-life aspirations on the road with its Hot Wheels brand. The popular die-cast cars have been given a modern virtual makeover with MindRacers, a game that combines physical toy cars and game tokens with digital racing.
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Every parent knows what it's like to buy new clothes for their child, only to find they've already outgrown them by the second wash. A new kind of outerwear called Petit Pli could reduce waste, hassle, and perhaps money by expanding in size as the child grows.
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Star Wars Episode VIII is just around the corner, and you can bet that Disney will unleash a galaxy’s worth of new merchandise. Chief among them is Sphero’s line of app-controlled droids, which has now expanded beyond BB-8 to include BB-9E and R2-D2. New Atlas took the new droids for a test drive.
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Sphero has announced its latest connected toy, but this one isn’t a rolling robot ball or tube, it’s an interactive Spider-Man figure which responds to speech. The silicone toy features voice recognition so that kids can interact with it to hear jokes and stories, or go on superhero missions.
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A startup called Tech Will Save Us is trying to update the classic play dough modeling material by giving it an electronic twist, using conductive dough to teach kids how to create basic circuits with lights, sounds and movement.
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A Danish inventor has come up with a way to get his kids moving around again – by making them punch each other. Jabii pits kids against each other in a hybrid of virtual and real world combat, using padded extendable gloves connected via Bluetooth to an app that tracks hits and scores.
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