Hasta La Gadget!

Any parent can acknowledge that your arms are perpetually going to be tired if you have a kid. Children are often the most comfortable being in the embrace of their parents, and for babies, they don’t really have a choice in the matter. As we are only human, having a rocking chair for your little one to hang out in for a while does everyone a bit of good.

If you like having the best of the best for…everything, then the rockaRoo might be a good option for a rocking chair. This is a low to the ground, self-rocking seat with a mobile that has removable toys to distract your little bundle of joy. If that isn’t enough, there’s also the option to plug in your smartphone and let them ‘rock’ out to some tunes. Even though it has five rocking speeds, try to stay away from any form of metal (it probably couldn’t keep up).

The fabric on the seat is easy to remove, and is thankfully machine washable. You only need to plug this in for it to start rocking away, and it can support children up to 25 pounds. This will only be relevant until your child can sit up without help though, so it does make this $180 purchase something you’ll have to think over. If this was also a phone dock, that would make this closer to being worth the price, and also kind of hilarious. Should you need it, there’s also a newborn insert for when you have a teeny-tiny tot.

Available for preorder on shop4moms, found via cnet
[ The rockaRoo Baby Rocker – save your arms from a surprisingly heavy bundle of joy copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Do you think that kids these days have plenty more books to carry to school than you did back when you were a kid? Of course, it makes perfect sense for lockers in schools to be put to good use, since it would mean not having to tote around all of the books back and forth each day, easing the burden on one’s back, especially since a child’s body is not yet fully developed. Well, HappyBird, a new ‘digital backpack’, has been introduced in order to help bring an end to the back problems that has plagued up to 50% of children in the UK due to the fact that they have been carrying schoolbags and books that are way too heavy for them.

The HappyBird concept works this way – it is made up of a tablet, a Bluetooth pen, and a carry case, where the entire shebang would tip the scales at 94% less weight compared to your average schoolbag. All three of these will work in tandem with one another, providing students with access to millions of ebooks and apps so that they can improve their learning performance.

The asking price for the HappyBird stands at £69, and Jackson Anni, HappyBird co-founder, shared,”HappyBird improves both the health of school, college and university students in the UK, as well as their learning experience and performance. HappyBird is the first in a series of products to help us realise our vision of a world where companies and governments work more closely together to improve the education system via the use of digital tools and technology.”

HappyBird’s 8-inch tablet will be powered by the Android mobile operating system, where its Bluetooth pen is also capable of connecting pen and paper to the tablet in real-time, so that the user will be able to annotate work and send messages to friends. Apart from that, the HappyBird tablet is green enough to be recycled, so should one damage the tablet by accident, they are able to send it to a local recycling bank. Other hardware specifications of this tablet include a Mali TM-400 GPU, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal memory which can be further augmented via a microSD memory card slot, a 2MP camera at the back and a front-facing VGA camera.

Press Release
[ HappyBird digital backpack might help kids out copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

If you have kids, it’s likely you have had the debate about when they will be old enough to have a cell phone. And it’s also likely, that part of you really wanted them to have the ability to get in touch with you whenever, and wherever they might need to… BUT, you struggled with safety issues, and billing questions, and never could quite block the image of your tween sitting at the dinner table making phone calls, or worse, getting texts from some weirdo posing as a 13 year old boy.

Welcome the Kurio Phone, proudly calling itself the safest smartphone for kids, the Kurio Phone features amazing parental controls that allow parents the ability to keep their kids safe, and responsible, while using their first cell phones, and it gives kids the cool, full featured phone they crave.

Parents have the ability to manage a kid’c contacts, by blocking, or allowing calls and texts from specific numbers. Kids can add as many contacts as they want… but they won’t be able to call or text them until parents approve them. Limits can also be set according to time, days of the week, or by simply limiting the actual number of calls and texts.

The phone also provides geolocation, letting you know where your kid is every 15, 30 or 60 minutes and includes his current, or last known position. This ability also allows you to set parameters called a geofence, so you know if, and when,  your child leaves, or enters, a pre-determined area.

So, to sum it all up, the Kurio Phone has WiFi, Bluetooth, cameras, GPS, a radio and all the apps a kid desires… and it still manages to leave you in the drivers seat. Aw come on, just go ahead and say yes! The Kurio Phone was unveiled at CES yesterday, and is expected to ship in the spring, no word yet on price, but to keep track of updated info and availability, check kurioworld.com.
[ Kurio Phone it’s a Win-Win for You and your Kids copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

A child’s imagination is truly something worth admiring, that is for sure. The thing is, we adults sometimes work to stifle such imagination, but here is one particular toy that you might just be interested in – the $89.95 Children’s Animating/Projecting Camera from the folks over at Hammacher. This is no ordinary camera by itself, no sir. This particular shooter will allow kids to apply colorful, zany animations to pictures, before these images are then projected onto a wall. Prior to pressing the shutter button, kids will have the ability to line up shots thanks to the 1.75” LCD display, where they have a choice of one of 50 animated effects that are provided by the camera’s built-in editing software.

Among these would include seven overlay scenes, where among them would be a flying superhero, a gyrating disco dancer, or a goal-scoring soccer star. Not only that, children also have the ability to apply for other effects, where among them are an elephant trunk and ears, a viking hat, or even a mohawk. All it takes is a flip of a lever in order to convert the camera into a projector, and when you turn off the lights and hold the camera 24″ from a wall, it will show off a child’s show, where before that there will be the drawback of animated curtains and applause from the integrated speaker. Capable of stashing up to 1,000 JPEG images, the Children’s Animating/Projecting Camera will be powered by a quartet of AA batteries.
[ Children’s Animating/Projecting Camera offers plenty of fun this holiday season copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Having a child can be sort of scary. You have a little human which you need to feed, water, clothe, and teach about all of everything. They learn language, logic, and a myriad of skills from you. Seeing that you can only learn so much so fast, you have to be a bit choosy as to what you expose your little one to early on.

If you want to teach them more than the name of a color, why not get the Light Tech Lab? It’s meant for children ages 8 and up, but if it’s something you’re interested in, I doubt anyone is going to try and stop you from getting it. As we all know, the best way to learn is by doing, and this will allow you to do just that. It’s a light bending and blending kit in which you can do all sorts of neat tricks with colored lights. There are red, blue, and green LED lights included in this kit which are obviously capable of creating a myriad of other colors.

There are also concave, convex, and trapezoid frosted lenses, a diffraction grating, 2 acrylic mirrors with stands, a protractor, and an activity guide. You’ll be able to do ten different experiments with this kit, but keep in mind that learning often leads to more questions, so just prepare yourself. It will cost you $50, which is a hefty sum for something you might only use a few times, but considering how much is spent on toys in general for kids, this isn’t that bad. The ability to understand this sort of thing is not something most children are able to do, or most adults for that matter. Might as well start young while it’s easier to ingrain into their minds.

Available on ThinkGeek
[ The Light Tech Lab will let tiny tots learn more than the name of a color copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]