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How Techie Can Toys Get?

Techstination feature for Friday, February 16, 2007

How techie can toys get? Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. The line up for new toys coming out from the Fisher Price division of Mattel this year includes the kind of technology their parents may not have. There's a Digital Art Studio…. a tablet that plugs into the USB port of a PC…that lets kids draw on screen with a digital pen…and then print their creations or perhaps email them to grandma. Fisher Price General Manager Kevin Curran says the toy was inspired by the types of tablets used by the company's own toy designers….

"And while this is not a sophisticated two thousand dollar tablet that one of our designers would use, for a 49 dollar retail, which is a fabulous price, a child can do this kind of electronic design that is really the future of creativity."

Another new computer connected device….lets toddlers plug in toy figures…such as Elmo or Bob the Builder….and be taken to a Web site for the character. Safety features prevent kids from being able to navigate to other sites…or destroy files on mom or dad's computer. Fisher Price sees its hottest toy of the year… introduced in time for holiday sales….being the Smart Cycle. It's a small stationary bike that connects to a TV and lets a 3 to 6 year old play educational video games….but only as long as the child keeps pedaling…

"I think parents are looking not only for a learning toy, but they want a learning toy that's fun and one that for the first time really gets their kids physically up and going."

The Smart Cycle will sell for about a hundred dollars. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.