GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Instead of buying the kids in your life some cheap plastic junk this holiday, why not make them something awesome?

Better yet, take a classic toy, fix it up, and give it a bad-ass custom paint job. What six-year-old wouldn’t want a working Easy-Bake oven with orange flames and racing stripes? Or a pink, Barbie-themed Tonka truck? Beats the pants off this all-plastic Squinkies Cupcake Surprize Bake Shop that doesn’t actually bake anything.

To help you refurbish those old toys, open-source gadget manual site iFixit is recruiting people to create toy repair manuals. And they’re doing it with a contest. Write a toy repair manual, and you could win a prize from iFixit.

It’s similar to the teardown contest iFixit and Gadget Lab cosponsored last year. And like last year’s contest, Gadget Lab staff will help judge the winners of this contest.

The contest begins today and runs through December 11.

Ifixit’s goal is to build a useful repair manual for each of 40 classic toys, from the Atari 2600 and Barbie doll to the View-Master and yo-yo. But if you have another toy you’d like to write up, go for it.

The prizes include a few cool tool kits for cracking open and fixing consumer electronics, and they’ll be awarded to the three individuals who contribute the most to the toy repair manual overall.

Here are the rules in summary:

• Take apart a toy.
• Post photos of the repair process using iFixit’s guide editor
• Add the tag fixatoy to your guide.
• The teardowns will be judged by the entire iFixit staff (during our annual Christmas party), with some help from Gadget Lab staff.
• Contest ends Sunday, December 11 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Check these links for more information:

iFixit Toy Repair Manual Contest Announcement

How to write a repair guide on iFixit

Photo courtesy iFixit

Dylan edits Wired.com’s Gadget Lab blog, and likes to write about technology, science, gadgets, and their impact on society and culture.
Follow @dylan20 and @gadgetlab on Twitter

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Pleo, the lovable, green robotic dinosaur, is getting a second lease on life. After going through a bankruptcy that nearly killed it, the dinosaur is set to be reborn with a new skin and upgraded features.

The revamped Pleo will be called Pleo RB and will come in new colors such as purple and blue with slight variations across all models.

“We’re going to change color on the production line and eye color, so two Pleos coming off the line at the same time will look different,” Derek Dotson, CEO of Innvo Labs told the BobThePleo forum.

Each Pleo will now be seeded with a “personality” on the assembly line so off the shelf some Pleos will learn faster, while others get happier faster, says Dotson.

“It will be not only how you treat it that will affect it’s personality, but it is actually born with certain characteristics,” he says.

The new Pleos will have a battery life of up to two hours and an RFID-based “sense of smell.”

Pleo’s comeback will be mark a new chapter in the robotic dinosaur’s rocky history. Pleo launched in January 2007 for about $350. It’s range of motion and ability to respond to human interaction made it a favorite among robot and toy enthusiasts. In two years, Pleo maker Ugobe sold about 100,000 Pleos.

But in April last year, Ugobe filed for liquidation. While that signaled the end for the road for Pleo, a Hong Kong-based company Jetta stepped in to buy the intellectual property rights and other assets for the Pleo. Jetta spun out a company called Innvo Labs, which is now in charge of the Pleo.

The new Pleos are expected to be available later this month but there’s still no word on how much they will cost. It is also not clear if Pleo RB will be sold in the U.S. as Dotson says so far they have tied up distribution for the Asia market only.

Check out the video to see what the reborn Pleo looks like:

Photo: Pleo (Steve Rhodes/Flickr)

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If I popped open a Christmas Cracker and this tiny little camera-kit dropped out instead of the usual crappy plastic novelty, I’d be a very happy boy. As the Mini Model Camera actually costs $28, more than a whole box of the traditional exploding British tubes, this is unlikely. That hasn’t stopped me from writing to Santa about it, though.

The teeny SLR is made to 1/6th scale and the body measures just one inch by one half inch. Yes, the body: this miniature camera actually comes with three interchangeable lenses, complete with lens-hoods and, on the telephoto, a little tripod mounting-ring in case things get a little to heavy.

The knobs and dials don’t actually move, but they are all represented in Oompa-Loompa-sized detail (only with less orange). The brand isn’t specified but the models are clearly based on Canon gear, with the monster-sized telephoto lens in Canon’s signature beige colorway.

Yes, it’s just a trinket and no, it won’t actually shoot pictures, but it is cute as hell, and could also double as a marker in that other Christmas family-favorite, the game of Monopoly. It would certainly be better than that stupid old boot, or worse, the clothes-iron that I always seem to end up with.

$28, available now in time for my Christmas gift.

Mini Model Camera [Photojojo]

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I’m sure I’ll get slaughtered in the comments for posting about this piece of plastic junk, but it’s so damn cute I’m going to do it anyway. The plastic tat in question is the USB Mail Box Friends Alert from beloved crap-vendor Brando.

The little dongle looks like a tiny red US-style mailbox, and hooks up to a free USB port. Companion software monitors you mail account, your Twitter or your Facebook and lights red or green up to tell you there is an update. You can even have your computer play a little sound at the same time, and the plastic flag on the side will actually raise.

The software is Windows-only (Window 7, Vista and XP) but I’m sure some clever hacker can put together a plugin for the Growl notification system on the OS X. If I could have this hooked up to the Delivery Status app on my Mac dashboard, which monitors real, meatspace deliveries, and have it pop up a warning when a package arrives, then my $18 would already be on its way to Brando’s magic crap-factory.

USB Mail Box Friends Alert [Brando via Oh Gizmo]

Source:wired.com

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