Strange New World: Picks of the Week

Feb. 21, 2008 — -- You know this Strange New World of ours is getting truly strange when the consumer technology industry no longer leads the pace of development in its own field.

After a rather bland International Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld earlier this year, Toy Fair 2008, the giant show for toy buyers held last weekend in New York, made some actual tech innovation news: Robotics is now a viable market sector.

Suddenly everything from Tickle Me Elmo to Erector Sets is moving, walking and generally acting like it's starring in a bad '80s out-of-control sci-fi flick starring Matthew Broderick. Throw in Google's big moves in the mobile world — its mobile search engine and new operating system are pushing the boundaries of what is possible on a phone — and suddenly what seemed like an off year in tech is getting interesting.

Here are our picks for the top tech stories of the week.

This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was pretty dull. No single technology really brought the "wow factor" of years past. The Toy Fair in New York is suffering no such doldrums. This year's crop of toys are full of the innovation lacking elsewhere. Sure, today's toys are not iPods, but it is hard not to be impressed with how high tech they are becoming.

We were especially impressed by the latest iteration of the Tickle Me Elmo franchise. Fisher-Price has really outdone itself with latest version of this Sesame Street Frankenstein. He walks, talks, tells jokes, sings, dances and can sense and interact with his environment. The fuzzy robot may be more intelligent than the 3-year-old you are buying him for! They should go on sale Oct. 14 for $59.99 and there will be a pre-sale as well. This red monster will be the big holiday toy, so get to the pre-sale and avoid a hellish holiday morning when you don't have one.

Google is now very popular with the iPhone. We know everybody says they use their iPhone Internet capabilities to look up nice restaurants or find a museum. But we have a different theory. The iPhone has become the de facto way to settle a bet or call someone's bluff instantly.