A couple of fun gadgets have been brought to our attention recently:
The first one is a Blackberry look-alike gadget, designed to get toddlers to start texting when they are young. Read more about the toy here.
In addition, the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences is developing a teaching program using cell phones. The children will receive a specific Chinese character on a cell phone provided by their school, and they need to recognize and write the strokes of that character. It is expected that the program will be beneficial in rural areas where insufficient resources and staff are common in schools as a result of lack of funding. The program can also be useful to foreigners who are learning to write Chinese characters.
Last but not least, for those of you suffering from poor blood circulation in the freezing winter of Beijing, a heated mouse pad might be just what you need. A cute winter gadget in the shape of a whale, it is USB powered (i.e. no batteries needed) and takes only ten minutes to warm up. You’ll never have cold hands again while you are at your computer!