The world is amazing, everything is changing, evolving… and toy technology is evolving right along with it.
While it isn’t something I’d hand over to my 6 year old, the Tankbot by DeskPets is an amusing gadget that pairs with your smartphone and drives all over your office.
The Tankbot has three different modes, obstacle avoidance, light and sound and control. The first two don’t require a smart phone, but let the Tankbot (I’ve named him Tankie) move about on its own. Obstacle avoidance lets him drive around and he automatically avoids things that might get in the way by turning. (And beeping at the object!) In light and sound mode, he wanders around beeping, bleeping and flashing at anyone who will listen.
Then you break into control mode, where you get to attach the remote to the headphone jack of your phone, launch the application, and control where you are sending him and what (or who) you are running him into. At just under 2 1/2 inches tall, with quite a bit of practice you can maneuver him into interesting places like parallel parking under a co-workers desk.
Charging him is easy, and it doesn’t take a bulky cord. Just flip down his “tail” to reveal a USB plug that you can clip into your computer. He makes a myriad of adorable tweets, chirps, snores, beeps, bops and boops.
Check him out on ThinkGeek.com.
