Hasta La Gadget!

Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, The Pleo robotic camosaur has reemerged, though without the help of dino-DNA. In a lengthy interview on Robotsrule, Ugobe founder and now COO of Innvo Labs Derek Dotson said Pleo is for sale again at Innvo’s web site. What’s more surprising is that Innvo’s Pleo is not simply an inventory clear-out item. Dotson told Robotsrule that there are actually a number of improvements, including better paint, more durable skin, biodegradable packaging and better battery chargers. Innvo is also planning on improving future Pleos, making better use of its camera and opening up a processing bottleneck so the robot companion can do more with its existing sensors.

One thing that hasn’t change, yet, is the pricing. The adorable bot is still $349. Innvo will want to get to work on lowering that price if they don’t want to Pleo to fade into extinction.

Who remembers when the original Rubik’s Cube first became a global craze? Anyone? That was 1974, and according to Wikipedia, it still sells better than just about any other toy.

But this is the digital age, so techie toy maker TechnoSource decided it was time to make an electronic version of the diabolically challenging cube. Instead of physically twisting slices of the cube to try to turn each side all one color, you slide your finger along the top, and the colored lights make the move for you. You can also ask the Cube for hints, undo moves, and even get it to solve itself. Confused? Just watch the video. 

The cube (along with its charging dock) is out now at some Best Buys; the official on-sale date is October 18th, so you have less than a week to save up the $150 you’ll need to own one of these beauties.

The so-called “rainbow effect,” consisting of brief, distracting red, green, and blue flashes in a projected image, is the bane of some projectors using Texas Instruments’ DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology combined with a color wheel. Our projectors Lead Analyst, M. David Stone, will note this effect and its severity in his reviews of projectors that suffer from it, and perhaps lower their rating because of it. But a projector that “throws” only rainbows–well, that’s a beast of a different spectrum. Rainbow in My Room, from science-toy manufacturer Uncle Milton Industries, is a novelty item for kids of all ages–or at least those 5 and up, according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. It
projects a rainbow on the wall and/or ceiling.

Rainbow in My Room is part of a toy series that also includes Robot
in My Room, Moon in My Room, and Solar System in my Room. It requires 3 AA
batteries, though an optional AC adapter is available. It is sold
through various e-tailers for prices as low as $21.10 (Amazon).
Shoppers seem to love it–it averages a 4-star rating in buyer reviews
in the sites I’ve checked. So although we’ll continue to give the
“rainbow effect” a demerit when it appears in normal projectors, thanks
to Uncle Milton it appears to have a (dare I say) bright side.

Over the past several years, the LEGO brand has grown into something approaching a cult, with fans creating some amazing projects (LEGOs in space, the Woniak/Jobs playset) and other companies incorporating the design-friendly bricks into sometimes surprising  products (iPod speaker docks). PCMag even once commissioned a LEGO artist to build a PC.

Now CE-for-kids maker Digital Blue is coming out with some of the most appealing LEGO-inspired products I’ve seen, including a camera, videocam, MP3 player, and more. Yep, they’re for kids–but I can think of more than a few grownup who’ll crave one or another of these cool products. And yes–they’re stackable!

The LEGO Digital Camera, above, sells for $49.99 list. It has 3 megapixels and a 1.5-inch LCD on the back; 128MB of built-in memory holds around 80  photos.

More LEGOtastic photos after the jump.

For some, rainy or snow days mean parking themselves on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea. For me, it means frantically looking for something to keep my active five-year-old from going stir-crazy. Leapfrog offers parents a solution with its newest toy, the LeapFrog Zippity Learning System ($79.99 list, ages 3 to 5). The device, which looks like the marriage of a Segway and a Dance Dance Revolution mat, is billed by LeapFrog as its new “high-energy learning system.” But does it have the chops to keep my kindergartner interested and active?

The Zippity consists of an interactive mat connected to a large, er, stick controller (think: giant joystick) that LeapFrog calls the Bopper, and a wireless console that hooks up to the TV via the included AV cables. The mat has four raised, pressure-sensitive spots, with an orange spot (with two footprints in the middle), a green spot on the left, blue spot above the orange spot, and a green spot on the right. The spots also act as arrows keys to go up, down, left, and right. The bopper stands approximately 23.5 inches tall, and to the right of its base is a large button with a Home icon.