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The Neediest Dolls In The World
captinsano writes "Forbes.com is taking a look at, 'The Needies,' the newest interactive stuffed toys, each one of which is fitted with an internal microprocessor and wireless antenna. They beg for attention (with varying levels of perversity) and when you finally pick one up the others complain loudly ("Throw him! Throw him!"). They're a cool example of the coming wave of wireless toys --and interestingly enough they are being designed for adults, not just children. There's a funny video showing the dolls in action, as well." These toys were originally designed after their NYU student creators and modeled after the horrible behavior they saw themselves exhibiting while trying to come up with a school project.
Guaranteed we'll be hearing about this in a week.
Karma: Dyn-o-mite!(mostly affected by Jimmy Walker reading your comments)
I think the guy ticked off someone cause they kept turning the volume down on his mic. Unless he talks like that normally then I can see why he needed to invent some friends. The girl also looked liked the only thing she has ever slept with is a couple of dolls. Someone give her a shot of Jager stat!! Wow that was an awful video. Anyways the toys look like something I'd want to throw across the room for sure. And was I the only one getting a creepy vibe from him fondling the toy crotch? I do like the marketing idea, cause you can't just buy one to use them as intended. I can't wait for one of them to get a virus. The writer could take patient zero to a couple of malls and have a botfarm by lunch to do his evil bidding.
Well yes, of course.
But just look at video games. No one cares that it's the parent's responsibility to teach children not to mimic the video games. It will be the doll's fault for "instilling bad values into our nation's children".
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
By the way - this toy is NOT original or new. About a decade ago, one of my nieces had a stuffed toy that, if you didn't pick it up every few minutes, would start complaining.
Did it interact with other stuffed toys nearby? I highly doubt it, and that seems to be the main thrust of the concept. There's a huge difference between a toy with a simple timer in it, and a toy that wirelessly interacts with other wireless toys.
That said, these look like horrible toys, and it might just be me, but I couldn't shake the feeling that in the video someone was just sitting offstage speaking into a mic instead of the toys' "technology" being shown off.
why? forty-two.
Who gave that reporter a job?
I have seen/heard better video presence on The Naked News. Even if you turn off the monitor and merely listen to The Naked News you'll get higher quality news, better dialog, more informative reporting, and in general more professional reporting than this crappy Forbes video.
This comes witht he disclaimer that the last time I watched The Naked News was back in 2000 when they still gave out free daily shows.
"I am remembering a cute late night cable tv cartoon with furry animals killing each other."
You mean like this: http://www.happytreefriends.com/
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Jesus, could they have put any more ads in that damn video? Now I remember why I quit watching TV.M
I would not have minded one advertisement. Or, even a couple of very short ones at the beginning. After all, *someone* has to pay for bandwidth. I'll "pay" the price of losing 30-60 seconds of my time if the content is hard to find anywhere else and it's an interesting subject to me. Heck, if it's a quality 1 hour video I'll put up with several minutes (ala PBS) at the beginning but the content had better not disappoint me or I'll have a negative attitude about the products that helped pay for the video distribution.
What I will not stand for is TV-like advertising that interrupts what I am watching. That, and then hearing crappy audio is what made me stop watching the video.
This is not a dream, not a dream...we are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9.
The video was a fake. The toy addressed its creator by name. It was obvious at that point it was nothing more than somebody using a "Mr. Microphone."
Yo forgot "most blatant attempt to get some dumb-ass VC to throw money their way", and "Oops - forgot to update the web site" awards.
From their web site:
Don't send them your email. Go to their site instead http://www.needies.com/contact.php? and enter someone else's email address to get them on the needies mailing list.
And yes, I just did president@whitehouse.gov - hopefully Bush will declare war on them.