2006 Holiday Tech Gifts for Kids
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-11-27 15:24:00-05:00
With the holiday season fast approaching, you probably already have a good idea of what the children in your life have on their wish list, but here are some ideas of what is hot, new or educational in tech toys you may want to consider.
Elmo T.M.X™, a furry red monster with big googly eyes, is the popular Sesame Street character that has topped the list of must-have Christmas toys for 2006 (the T.M.X. stands for Tickle Me Extreme). Touch any one of Elmo's three tickle spots and Elmo will laugh uncontrollably, slap his knee and fall down. Then he gets up so you can tickle him again and again. You can expect this toy to sell out fast in stores, so finding an Elmo T.M.X may not be easy.
Fisher-Price has created the Kid-Tough™ digital camera. Designed for kids 4 years of age or older, it has large buttons, nice grips, and easy icons that children of all ages should be able to understand. The camera has a colorful rubber shell that can take lots of dropping and punishment. With 640 x 480 pixels resolution, it's best-suited for beginners and can save about sixty pictures to the 8MB of internal memory. There's a built-in flash that works automatically, plus a USB connector for downloading the photos to a computer. The camera comes with simple software to load onto a computer so you can help your child download and print their photos.
The Bratz™ Cyber Style Laptop is a learning toy loaded with lots of school-time activities designed for 5 to 12 year olds. There are eleven game categories that include spelling, grammar, vocabulary, math, art, science, geography, music, Spanish, writing, touch typing, puzzles, and brain games. This learning device looks like a laptop. Its backlit LCD screen with graphics, sounds and real-sized keyboard makes learning fun. This lightweight portable learning tool is sure to entertain and instruct for hours on end.
For ages 12 and older you might consider the Fly™ Pentop Computer. Developed by LeapFrog Enterprises, this gadget is a talking computer hidden inside a large pen-shaped device. Kids will use this cool pen as a calculator, to keep a calendar, create and record music, or play logic games. The pen, which contains an actual ink pen, uses special paper and can “see” what you write, read it out loud, and respond to written commands. There is a tiny camera near Fly's writing tip that reads dots printed on the special paper you need for this device (the dots are invisible to the eye). The dots tell the pen's camera exactly where it's located on the paper.
The adolescent, teenager and 20-something, with their tireless love of music, will no doubt enjoy the new Apple iPod® nano. In addition to the five original colors, the nano is now available in red. And the re-designed iPod® shuffle is now a cool clip-on device that can hold up to 240 tunes.
And be sure to check out the new Zune™ digital media player from Microsoft. This device comes pre-loaded with videos and music, plus it has a unique social feature: the ability to wirelessly swap video and music Zune to Zune.
There are so many more great gadgets that your search for childrens' holiday gifts may turn out to be as much fun for you as the gifts will be for their recipients. So, enjoy the adventure of finding just the right gift that will provide hours of entertainment and learning for those special youngsters in your life.
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