The Original Viewmaster

One of the greatest toys of my past is the Viewmaster.  I remember sitting around for hours playing with the various reels it included.  Finally the day has come and Hasbro modernized the Viewmaster by launching the My3D Viewer. With the MY3D viewer, you can now experience 3D and 360 degrees of entertainment on your iPhone or iPod touch.

A variety of specially-formatted MY3D apps are available for download on the App Store and more are on the way! The process is simple. First, download the free MY3D Presents app to sample a variety of the latest content available (many selections are free!) and even see movie trailers – all in 3D!

Simply insert your iPhone or iPod touch into the MY3D viewer and you are ready to experience 3D entertainment in a whole new way. Tilt and turn your iPhone or iPod touch to experience interactive and immersive 3D entertainment including gaming and 360 degree experiences.

$35 | BUY NOW – HASBRO My3D Viewer

Since the iPhone 4 came out, there are a bunch of lonely 3G and 3Gs lying about these days. What are you doing with yours? Well, with the Fisher Price iCan Play case, you can confidently hand it off to your child. The iCan Play case, out later this year for $20, protects iPhones and iPod Touches from whatever sticky fingers may be poking their way (and hides the home button, keeping kids locked into the app of your choosing.) Additionally, Fisher-Price has three kid-friendly apps ready for download—Where’s Puppy’s Nose, Let’s Count Animals!, and Animal Sounds – to go along with the case, so you are good to go on the software, as well as the hardware.

$TBD

Tags: Baby, case, iphone, toy

Made from 100% natural mountain raw sheep wool, these hand felted small blocks will bring smiles to your baby or toddler. Each soft toy block is made in Mongolia or Nepal, and has a gentle sounding bell inside to intrigue and stimulate your child’s senses and curiosity. Each set contains 6 blocks in 3 different attention grabbing colors and circle patterns.

$35 | BUY NOW

Tags: blocks, fair trade, Infant, natural, wool

Entertain your baby with fun, engaging and educational alphabet flashcards from HAPPYBABY.

The app includes 26 flashcards, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each fruit and vegetable has an illustration and audio file. Choose from the menu, or shake the iPhone for a randomly selected letter!

$FREE | GET THE APP NOW

Tags: Alphabet Cards, Alphabet Flash Cards, Alphabet Learning, First Alphabet, Flash Cards, Happy Baby

The next step in MP3 technology could see music players embedded in Band-Aids. Designers Chih-Wei Wang & Shou-His Fu imagine that these super thin stick-on devices don’t contain batteries, but rather, are powered by human body heat. The Skinny Player will house a single album, with play and pause buttons located in the “pad” of the Band-Aid, and flexible speakers in the wings or flaps will broadcast the music. What is your take on the Skinny Player?

$TBA | Coming Soon

Tags: band-aid, mp3, music, player, portable, technology

As an analog followup to our recent post on the iPad-ready Crayola ColorStudio HD, we also really like the Crayola Crayon Maker. If you have a kid over the age of 1, then you probably have broken bits of half-crayons wasting away in the couch, in one of your shoes, or in your kid’s gastro-intestinal system. Now is your chance to gather them all up and make them useful again!

The Crayon Maker lets your kiddo be the mad scientist of color, turning their crayon pieces into new color-swirled creations. By melting down different crayons in the Crayon Maker, your kids get to make completely original crayons with mixed color combinations. Let the fun begin!

$29 | BUY NOW

Tags: cool kids, crayola, crayon, crayon maker, kids projects, Kids Toys

The squishy, huggable answer to the question on every child’s lips: “Can I play on your iPhone?”

Sure, your iPhone or iPod touch has lots of tempting goodies on it. With hundreds of books and games available from the App Store, it’s no wonder your kids want to play with it when you’re not using it. But how can you let them play AND know that your iPod or iPhone is safe from the perils only kids can dream up for the things they play with? The answer’s simple. Woogie!

Woogie is 50% stuffed animal (for your kids) and 50% protective case (for your iPhone or iPod touch), and 100% fun! A protective pocket velcroes shut to hold your iPhone or iPod touch secure, while a touch-through screen protector lets you choose movies, apps, or music for your child. Woogie’s built-in speaker is powered by 2 (included) AAA batteries, or you can plug in headphones (we prefer MyPhones of course). And Woogie’s six arms (or are they legs?) tuck under to prop it up for viewing, or to sit comfortably in your child’s lap.

• Huggable, squeezeable, kid-friendly audio/video player and case for iPod touch and iPhone
• A great way to enjoy Sesame Street digital books and other great titles from Iceberg Kids
• Kids can watch video, listen to music, and more
• iPhone or iPod is protected by a pocket integrated within a soft plush toy
• Built-in speaker is powered by 2 AAA batteries (included)
• Recommended for children 3 years and older
• Woogie is a Griffin + Iceberg Kids Co-Op Initiative. Iceberg Kids is the leading publisher of digital books for children

$20 | BUY NOW

Tags: Equipment, Griffin, iPhone Player, Woogie

Do you have an “inventor” in the making? My son is always dreaming up different inventions, and got on the kick of creating a robot. A great place to start is with a robot kit. It has all the parts and you don’t have to have an EE degree to put it together.

This Weasel Robot kit has everything you need for your first robot-building project with your son. We built our robot in one sitting and my son, at seven, was able to build most of it himself with me providing guidance (no soldering required).

$24 | BUY NOW

Tags: child inventor, robot kit

One for Dads Room: The New Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air has Apple’s new AirPlay technology built in. AirPlay lets you stream music from iTunes or handheld devices such as iPhone and iPad to Zeppelin Air. All without the need for wires. Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin™ re-wrote the rules for iPod® speaker docks. Now Zeppelin Air provides another seismic shift in audio performance. It retains the original’s classic shape, but internally Zeppelin Air has been completely redesigned. The result is the best sounding iPod speaker ever produced. Compared to the original multi-award winning Zeppelin it has improved dynamics, punchier bass, and a more open, lifelike presentation with a highly detailed, room-filling sound. The new Zeppelin Air is available in March. Interested? Register here for updates on the release of this bad boy.

$TBA | Learn More

Your iPad is a Magic Coloring Book! – COMING SOON

Crayola ColorStudio HD is an entirely new digital play experience, coupling a multi-activity drawing application for iPad (Crayola ColorStudio HD App) with a custom-built digital stylus, called Crayola iMarker™. Together with iMarker, the ColorStudio HD App allows young artists to color and interact with special “live” animated coloring book pages that move and react as they color, combining custom-produced pictures, animations, music, sound effects, and high quality special effects.

$TBA | Learn More