New Florence. New Renaissance.

Digital Toys "R" Us

In its mission to claw its way back from bankruptcy and reestablish itself in the hypercompetitive toy market, the brand has a new high-tech angle. Toys “R” Us, or rather Tru Kids (the company that is helping to manage the brand names left in the wake of the liquidation last year), has teamed up with b8ta, a software company that specializes in immersive retail experiences, and will each own 50% of the new endeavor. According to CNBC, the company hopes to open 10 stores around the U.S. in 2020 and may even bring back its New York City flagship.

FastCompany

 

 

 

Move over, Lego

Collectibles are a $200 billion market on their own, and video games are on pace to be a $300 billion industry by 2025. And Funko sits right in the middle of it all.

The Pop! brand itself is only 10 years old, but it’s become a cornerstone of geek ephemera as Comic-Con has become a major force in mainstream culture. For Funko, it’s all about specificity. The company actively licenses 1,100 distinct brands and characters today. “You might never have watched a show on Netflix, but if you’re a Liverpool soccer fan, we’ve [still] got something for you,” says Funko’s CEO Brian Mariotti.

Fast Company

The new Beanie Babies!

 

The aliens have landed!

I found myself at Trent Bridge in Nottingham last month watching West Indies clobber Pakistan in a Cricket World Cup game. My knowledge of cricket is very rusty so I got lots of strange looks about the questions I was asking. Like I had no clue who Chris Gayle was. I had actually run into him that morning. We did not know it but we stayed at the same hotel as the West Indies team.

So, it is sweet irony that this weekend that a number of Londoners will be asking similar dumb questions, this time about baseball, as the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox show up this weekend just as the 4 best cricket teams in the world - Australia, England, India and New Zealand battle each other nearby.

Of course, some of them are likely to ask questions that come from yet another sport.

What the hell - just enjoy the glorious English summer!

 

Google Stadia

Stadia, as the company calls it, is the official name of a long-rumored service with the code name Project Yeti. It's both a cloud-gaming platform and a new piece of hardware: a Wi-Fi-enabled controller that connects to said platform. And since Google owns YouTube—where more than 50 billion hours' worth of game content was watched in 2018—Stadia is so tightly integrated with the streaming company as to seem nearly inextricable.

Wired

 

 

 

The rebirth of Pinball Machines

What draws folks to play these seemingly antiquated games, especially when free ones are just a button-push away in our pockets? Zach Sharpe, director of marketing at pinball manufacturer Stern (and Josh’s brother), credits phones and video games with driving people to seek out a more tangible, mechanical pastime. “It’s an entertainment device that can’t be replicated,” Zach tells Newsweek. “While video games are fun, you don’t get that same tactile action that you experience with a pinball machine.” Josh says the analog nature of pinball wasn’t special during the rise of video games in the ‘90s, but it brings a wow factor in today’s digital world. A major reason for the rise in the number of tournaments, as well as machine sales, is the increase in Barcade-style drinking establishments featuring arcade games and pinball, says Zach, noting that Stern just saw two years of 40 percent

Newsweek

Here is a “barcade” in New York City

The best toys of the year

One in a series on the best of 2017

From Today’s Parents a wide list of toys organized by age groupings. Here is one for preschoolers

“This little robot needs some work: Some of his screws could use tightening to keep his arms attached.
With a swivelling torso, head and arms, this pal is a great tool for practising hand-eye coordination and
matching skills”  Educational Insights, $20, scholarschoice.ca

The most insane laptop ever built

There are three things you should immediately know about Acer's Predator 21 X laptop. First, it's hands-down the fastest laptop we've ever seen. Period.

Second, it's the widest laptop we've ever seen: 22.4 inches wide, 12.4 inches deep, and 2.71 inches to 3.28 inches high, front to back.

And third: It's the most expensive laptop we've seen in a long time. Sure, at $9,000, you'd think it would be the priciest ever in PCWorld history, but a 1990-era 286 laptop that cost $6,000 adjusted for inflation would be $11,367 today.

PC World

 

How smart is your dog?

Dr. Brian Hare, co-founder of Dognition, has spent his life tracking down clues to the remarkable bond between humans and canines. Now he’s developed a groundbreaking series of scientific tests to see just how well you know your dog.

Nat Geo Wild

  

 

The Apple of Toys

On a Tuesday morning, the group is gathered in a book-lined room just off the pool at the Hotel Trias, in a sleepy town called Palamós, where they’ve met each of the last six years. There are bespectacled dudes in futuristic sneakers, a small cohort of stylish blonde women, and a much larger contingent of techie millennial guys in superhero T-shirts, all filling rows of folding chairs. At the front of the room, Erik Hansen, a tall, professorial member of Future Lab’s leadership team, is running through the week’s planned activities, which include extensive brainstorm sessions and a field trip to Barcelona (visiting the telecom giant Telefónica and some local design firms). He presents the agenda with a sober, vaguely robotic tone that makes what he does next surprising. As he brings the proceedings to a close, he asks, brightening, "Is everybody feeling awesome?" The team laughs and applauds, Hansen hits play on a laptop and, suddenly, every single member of the Future Lab team joins in with summer-camp enthusiasm to sing a song seared into the memory of everyone who made last year’s The Lego Movie a $468 million global hit.

Fast Company

Tech to brighten up your Super Bowl

Electronic House has a list of technologies including the Epson projector and speakers

“If you think that 65-inch Samsung TV is big, then imagine what you could do with this Epson Home Cinema 3500 LCD projector. It can work either for permanent installation, or just bring it out on special occasions and aim it at a temporary screen or a white wall. It includes built-in speakers, so all you need to do is hook it up to your TV box.  With 2,500 lumens of brightness, it will light up any football party.”