penguin

Girl Ambition is a social-networking site on a mission. The site, which is aimed at 7- to 13-year-old girls, does more than provide communication tools. It also teaches values. Girl Ambition's CEO, Hilary DeCesare, says it's about boosting girls' self-esteem "to help promote positive female role models, going forward." In an interview, DeCesare says some activities focus on "liking yourself and your limitations." The site also teaches online safety, which makes it, in a sense, training wheels for teen social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Crazy Penguin Catapult Lite is a free game with cartoony graphics and sound effects in which you pilot catapulted penguins onto their cruel polar bear overlords. In the Lite version, you only get access to a few levels from the full version of Crazy Penguin Catapult, but that's enough to get a good idea of the gameplay, in which you navigate a map (by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch, or by using your touch screen) and face off against the hated polar bears in progressively tougher battles. Each battle is essentially divided into two parts, with a simple … Read more

Crazy Penguin Catapult Lite is a free game with cartoony graphics and sound effects in which you pilot catapulted penguins onto their cruel polar bear overlords. In the Lite version, you only get access to a few levels from the full version of Crazy Penguin Catapult, but that's enough to get a good idea of the gameplay, in which you navigate a map (by tilting your iPhone or iPod Touch, or by using your touchscreen) and face off against the hated polar bears in progressively tougher battles. Each battle is essentially divided into two parts, with a simple one-tap … Read more

We're revisiting a long-standing tradition here on Crave with this one: a gadget in the shape of a penguin!

It's been entirely too long since we've had aquatic-bird-inspired audio equipment. So herewith we present the Mini USB Rechargeable Penguin speaker. It stands just under 3 inches high, connects via USB to your computer, and has a 3.5-millimeter audio jack so it plugs into most MP3 players, CD players, or stereos. Your tunes of choice emanate from the back of the little guy.

DealExtreme has it for $9.90 with free shipping.

The alternate-reality game genre has a new friend, and a new format, thanks to Penguin Books, the famous British publishing house.

On Tuesday, Penguin and startup Six to Start launched their new ARG, We Tell Stories, a new-style game that its creators say is a hybrid of traditional story-telling, Web 2.0-style mashups, interactive games and classic novels.

We Tell Stories is actually a seven-part adventure, said Jeremy Ettinghausen, the digital publisher for Penguin. It will begin with six weekly installments, each of which is based on a classic novel--and written by a different Penguin author--and which tasks participants with … Read more

I've been writing (parent.thesis) for about six months now, and the New Year seems like a good time to reflect on the themes that have developed. I love technology, and at the same time, I am cautious when it comes to kids and tech. Here are the three issues that are really bugging me right now:

• Disconnect between product design and online safety • Commercialization of kids online • Information control, privacy, and data mining

… Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--I was walking around the Virtual Worlds conference here this afternoon when I ran into Jerry Paffendorf, the co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap report and the current co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld.

Paffendorf knows all, and so I eagerly asked him what was the best thing he'd seen at the show.

Without hesitating, he pointed me over to a small corner of the expo floor and to the little booth of a skunkworks project called inDuality developed by a company called Pelican Crossing and another known as IBM.

Well, when I finally found … Read more

Recent Walt Disney acquisition Club Penguin isn't the only Antarctic waterfowl in the news on the youth social-networking front this week.

Venerable publishing house Penguin Group has just made a tech-savvy move through a partnership with teen-oriented community site Piczo, in which young Piczo users are encouraged to design covers for a selection of classic books and submit them to a competition pool.

The contest, called "Piczo My Penguin," runs for the next four weeks. It offers up six book titles, each one chosen by a trendy music act such as Razorlight, Beck or Goldspot: Alice in … Read more

I suppose it's unofficially Modernist Monday here at Crave. Yes, I know that's not quite as thrilling as Party Friday, but you have to admit it's still kind of cool to learn about household items that resemble abstract art. With the surrealist power strip earlier this morning and now this wacky air filter, you certainly could say that we're on a bizarre-appliance kick.

A few weeks ago we looked at an air filter that resembles an iPod wrapped in wallpaper (in a good way), and now here's another one to add to the mix of … Read more