Word: toying
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Stranger yet, Uncle Milton's Force Trainer wasn't the only levitational gadget at this year's American International Toy Fair, the four-day trade show that brings a gazillion manufacturers and retailers together every February in New York City. Also on display was Mattel's new Mindflex, which has players move a tiny foam ball through a mini-obstacle course with their thoughts. Or, more precisely, with their brain waves. (See the best toys from the 2008 American International Toy Fair...
...Each toy includes a wireless headset equipped with forehead and ear sensors that read two kinds of brain waves - alpha and beta, naturally - then relay signals to the bases of the toys, triggering fans that cause the balls to rise. Mindflex's headgear comes with earlobe clips, which significantly increase the I-look-like-a-fool factor. The game requires players to move the ball sideways as well as vertically. There's a knob on the base unit that players must turn (the old-fashioned way, with their hands) while focusing to get the ball, for example, through a tiny...
...quick to deny India was violating the international fair-trade standards. "There is nothing protectionist about it," says Anjan Roy, economic affairs advisor at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Roy pointed to a spate of scandals in 2007 over the safety of Chinese-made toys. In August 2007, Mattel, the U.S.'s leading toy company, was forced to recall 9 million of its products made in Chinese factories due to high lead levels in paint and other safety issues. "If it is a very harmful product, India has a right to ban it," Roy says. That...
...India's toy industry, which employs some 2 million people, has been complaining of unfair competition since China joined the WTO in 2001. "Plenty of people lost their livelihoods when the Chinese swamped the market," says Subhash Gorwaney of Khazana, which manufactures wooden educational toys, "They offered similar products, more variety, unbelievably low prices, but also lower quality." He added that the competition has not been without benefit. Indian manufacturers "have changed their methods, introduced innovations, and overall the bar has been raised...
...past, India and China have often worked together at the WTO on issues of common interest such as seeking an end to agricultural subsidies and non-tariff barriers in developed countries' markets. But the current trade dispute may be divisive partly due to the dire straits of China's toy industry. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce last month announced that nearly 1,000 Chinese toy exporting companies in its Guangdong province had closed...