Toys

AUSTIN, TEXAS--Joseph Pred is carefully eyeing the giant rolling ferris-wheel-like carnival ride as it begins to head down the first hill it has encountered since being built three years ago.

Known as the Star Wheel, the bicycle-technology-powered ride is glorious fun. But since it carries three pedaling people in its interior, Pred is very interested in making sure that the Star Wheel's creators are in control of it as it starts to head down the hill.

Pred is the safety officer for Maker Faire, the weekend-long celebration of do-it-yourself culture that's wrapping up here today. He's in … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--With all the high-tech in evidence at Maker Faire here, it's hard to believe that one of the most amazing things I've seen was purely analog: drawings in dirt on the side of a car's window.

This is Scott Wade's Dirty Art Car.

Most people, when they see cars with dirty windows, just use their finger to write "wash me" on the glass.

But Wade is taking that basic idea and turning it high concept. He takes a drawing tool and etches wonderful, detailed drawings into dirt on the windows of his simple … Read more

AUSTIN, TEXAS--Who doesn't like watching the chemical reaction that happens when Mentos come in contact with Diet Coke?

Well, I can't prove that everyone in attendance at Maker Faire here Saturday loves the resulting fountains of soda, but several hundred people surely did.

That much was evident by the giant crowd that gathered for the show put on by Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe, perhaps better known as Eepy Bird, who clustered 128 Diet Coke bottles and hundreds of Mentos and put on one heck of an exhibition.

The two have now been doing their show all over … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--OK, that was a lot of fun.

I'm here for Maker Faire, and one of the things I'd been most looking forward to after spending two days watching people set up things was seeing the folks from the blog Toolmonger.com rip down the shack they'd built just for that purpose.

According to Chuck Cage from Toolmonger.com, they built the shack to showcase just how easy it is to, er, deconstruct something using the latest tools.

In this case, the tool is Stanley Tool's forthcoming FuBar III. And if you don't love the … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Last night, with just 16 hours to go before the gates to Maker Faire were set to open here, there was a whole lot of empty space where the exhibitors, or "makers," were supposed to be. One crew member told me less than half of the 300-plus makers had signed in yet.

So, I wondered if it was all going to work out as planned.

Well, the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes, and it turns out I should never have worried. By the time I arrived at the Travis County Fairgrounds here this … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Every so often, a product comes along that just changes the game. The iPhone. The Segway. The Roomba.

Get ready to add the Pleo to that list.

The animatronic dinosaur Pleo is hotly anticipated to hit the market next year and it's already possible to pre-order one for $349. What makes this toy such a game changer is that it is so amazingly lifelike that it's hard not to treat it like it's real.

I first saw the Pleo at Demo '06. Back then, the toy was expected to be available by the 2006 holidays and … Read more

Any parent who's walked in on a kid playing Jackson Pollock on a wall in the house will appreciate this. Rather than bottle up that creative energy--not to mention the fingerpaint--it might be worth investing in one of these digital camcorders made especially for children, complete with 18 special effects and audio tracks that they can incorporate into their first noir classics.

Don't expect any full-length features with only 32MB of built-in memory, though it can be expanded by up to 2GB with an SD card. Once done, you can view the clips on the TV or computer … Read more

AUSTIN, TEXAS--I'm in the Texas capital for the first Maker Faire to be held here, and the gates will open to the public in 16 hours.

Yet, even at this late date, after nearly two full days of setup, less than half of the exhibitors, or "makers," have shown up yet.

Which means that as you walk around the spacious grounds of Austin's Travis County Fairgrounds, it feels empty. Sure, there are dozens of makers already on hand, some of whom have put up some truly wonderful stuff.

But everywhere you look, there's space that, … Read more

Google is going green with its online store.

That means the company is selling organic cotton T-shirts, pencils made of recycled blue jeans, and other recycled and eco-friendly materials. And instead of plastic polybagging, it is using recycled wraps and stickers when shipping items. This is great news because plastic bags are a HUGE ecological problem. (Read about how plastic bags are killing birds and sea animals and have created a toxic floating debris island in the Pacific Ocean in the San Francisco Chronicle.)

Some of the items are kind of zany and fun.

For instance, this $39.95 zippered hoodie … Read more