A connected toy that keeps families in touch.   I’m Fred Fishkin with technology BootCamp, a report on gadgets and gear.     I’ve been a fan of a company called Toymail that arrived on the scene last year with little rubberized mail box shaped toys that connect to WiFi and let kids send and receive short voice messages with distant family members and parental approved friends.  This year, there’s more competition.   A company called Jay at Play makes plush toys called CloudPets…that use Bluetooth to connect to devices that provide an Internet connection.   That extra step may make the connectivity a bit trickier at times,  for that same kind of two way communication.  Brand Manager Nicole Rohrer…

“So we like to say that CloudPets are keeping families connected one toy at a time.  So with a CloudPet, a friend can record a message to the cloud and send it to the app.  Then the parent or the loved one gets the message and can then send it to the child through the plush toy.”

CloudPets sell for under forty dollars and work with both iOS and Android devices.   You can find us at BootCamp.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.