Its not what you can do for your avatar…

BUT! What your avatar can do for you! As virtual worlds strive to find ways to open new doors to your wallet… Zwinky steps up with a unique idea: make your avatar as kick butt as possible, and then take that instruction to enhance YOURSELF. It’s like a road map on looking how [...]

OT: Okay…Okay…Okayokayokay. Lost.

Never watched LOST before? Watched it a little, but didn’t watch much of last season? Then ABC has a deal for you. Tonight you can see the season 3 finale with added pop-ups to explain exactly whats going on in the episode. Disney’s calling it “LOST, Enhanced.” Even though I’m an avid LOST fan, or [...]

A Safety Concern in VW

Normally we report on who’s new to virtual worlds, not who’s avoiding them. But like Yahoo, it’ just odd to see FAO Schwarz without a virtual worlds play. With toy companies like MGA Entertainment, Mattel, Ty, and Hasbro making pushes for toy-based tie-ins, not to mention the recently successful Build-a-Bearville, you’d expect one of the [...]

Parallel Lives: MMO players IRL

This looks like a GREAT movie ahem documentary. I can’t wait to see it:

Kids + Imagination + Ingenuity + Snow = Pure Awesomeness

Forest Pearson is a 10-year-old who saved $500 to build a snow-making machine from scratch.  Forest Pearson is also our hero, who will probably grow to build a 100-person Jacuzzi on top of Everest. This real-world Calvin put together the machine using a 30-gallon air compressor and a pressure washer, with spray noozles that throw [...]

Monday Funny: Predictive Text

 Lolzville.  Many thanks to Jennifer for this gem!

Curious: A Review of the XO $200 laptop

Kate, my neighbor across the hall, brought over her XO for me to try. She had taken advantage of One Laptop Per Child’s $400 “Give One Get One” offer in November, and while a child in the developing world was presumably exploring the donated XO, we now had her matching XO to investigate ourselves.
In my [...]

LA Times on Disney & VWs

Now, Disney is spinning its tales in the newest mass medium — online virtual worlds, where children adopt cartoonish avatars and play games.Disney and other entertainment companies are rushing to capitalize on the latest Internet phenomenon: the rise of virtual worlds for kids. Online haunts for grown-ups, such as Second Life, grab the attention of [...]

BBC’s new community & safe people-less communities?

The BBC is getting ready to launch MyCBBC, an online social network targeted to K6-12, an audience that is not served by competing sites all of which require members to be older, this April 2008. The BBC, a publicly funded broadcast service, is being disparaged for this move, according to This Is London, with [...]

Passing this tidbit along: Ty Inc

Andy asks Ty, Inc., makers of the Beanie Babies line whether they are “evil, selfish, or stupid?” I’m wondering if it’s not all three.
CHICAGO (AP) — A popular toy maker is refusing to pull a lead-tainted doll from store shelves across Illinois, challenging a state law governing lead content in toys, the state says.

Community Guy [...]