tamagotchi

iPhone hack can bypass password

Thursday's CNET Update is reliving the '90s:

Apple is addressing two iOS bugs mentioned in today's tech news roundup. But one isn't so much a "bug" as it is an exploit to bypass a lock-screen passcode through a series of steps. Once bypassed, it's possible to make calls and listen to voice mail messages. Another fix is coming for those that use Exchange Sync. Some iOS 6.1 users were seeing batteries drain faster because it was excessively communicating with Exchange servers.

Also in today's report:

- Research firm IDC breaks down which smartphones dominated … Read more

Virtual Pet Shelter founder finds solace in Tamagotchi

Kacper Jarecki, a librarian at Queens Library in New York, has 10 other life forms living with him. They just all happen to be electronic toys.

Jarecki's Virtual Pet Shelter is one of the more unusual projects on Kickstarter. It has a modest $250 goal and no backers yet, but there's a certain charm to the concept.

Digital-pet revival In case you missed the fad, virtual pets are little electronic toy creatures that require "feeding" and care--and sometimes, as in the case of Webkinz, have alter-egos in the form of online avatars. Jarecki is looking to … Read more

Tamagotchi 15th anniversary pet can still die

Fifteen years is a pretty good life span for many pets. Tamagotchi is celebrating the birth of its digital critters with a limited-edition anniversary model.

In case you missed the Tamagotchi craze, they are little egg-shaped gadgets with small screens that house electronic pets. Each one starts from an egg, and has to be fed, cleaned up after, and disciplined as it goes through its virtual lifecycle.

Bandai's Tamagotchi spawned the sale of 78 million units and taught a lot of kids about the virtual joys, tribulations, and sorrows of digital parenthood.

Tamagotchi may be 105 in dog years, but it has learned a few new tricks along the way. The Tamagotchi iD L 15th Anniversary Model features a full-color screen with new characters and games.… Read more

Tamagotchi forced to deal with family issues

Alas, the Tamagotchi is no longer the passive digital pet that made it famous. Bandai, its creator, has been forcing it grow up.

First it had to enter its terrible teens, then learn how to socialize and even party with the Wii. Now its learning how to be part of a family. The "Tamagotchi Familitchi" lets you raise three of the virtual charges on one screen, generating up to seven families. (We're not sure about their parentage, however, and we don't care to know.)

Learning more life lessons, they can then earn points that can be … Read more

Virtual ant farm will preserve your karma

Finally, an ant farm that even PETA wouldn't protest.

No ants were harmed in the making of the "Ants Life Studio" from Japan's Bandai for a good reason: They're not real. Instead it's a colony of virtual ants that presumably do all of the same slave labor and other functions of their living counterparts, allowing you to satisfy your entomological curiosities without risking any arthropodic karma in the afterlife.

The viewing takes place through an LCD that includes backlighting so it can be used as a night light too. As OhGizmo notes, it seems … Read more

Gadgettes 79: The Feel-Good Episode

EPISODE 79

Polaroid digital photoframe makes them weirdly desirable http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2008/02/polaroid_digita.html

Barf no more with ReliefBand http://www.popgadget.net/2008/02/barf_no_more_wi.php

Stink-free compost right in the kitchen http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9881204-1.html

USB Wireless Finger Mouse http://www.popgadget.net/2008/02/usb_wireless_fi.php

Tuck Your Cell Phone into The Tare Panda Holder at Night http://chipchick.com/2008/02/ tuck_your_cell_phone_into_the_tare_panda_holder_at_night.html http://www.dreamkitty.com/Merchant2/ merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=T-MK41901&Category_Code=NEW

SweetPea3 MP3 player for kids http://www.popgadget.net/2008/02/sweetpea3_mp3_p.php… Read more

Gadgettes 78: The Last Gadget on Earth Episode

If that one missile that was shot at that one satellite was to, oh I don't know, miss that satellite entirely and redirect itself at the earth and blow everything up except for one of us and a small handful of gadgets...Well, let's just say you'd NEVER see us using them. Not even if they were the last gadgets on earth. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 78 Why didn't I think of that? What the HELL?! This Week in Hello Kitty

Toy chick joins USB bubble life

Shades of Silent Running. As USB mania has gotten out of hand, everything from coffee mugs to cigarette lighters has found a way to hook up to the ubiquitous port. That's fine for novelty items, but there's something kind of sick about living things attached to it like an artificial umbilical cord.

That's why we were disturbed to see this little chick in yet another USB bubble. OK, so it's not real, but it comes close: In the tradition of the Tamagotchi, Segatoys has created the "Dream Chick," an animated toy that's a … Read more

Tamagotchi morphs into Mr. Roboto

Lest you think the Tamagotchi has suffered an untimely demise (or a timely one, depending on your view), witness the Japanese icon's latest incarnation--as a robot.

Well, sort of. The "Roboco" actually looks more like a wind-up toy with a Tamagotchi's guts. Takara Tomy's new brainchild, as it were, virtually eats, sleeps, gets sick and generally follows the same path as its needy predecessors, according to GeekSugar.

And why not? We've already seen the little Mr. T go enter its teens, go virtual and even get its own Wii game. Besides, morphing into a … Read more