Fisher-Price

On the same day that Google officially unveiled its Pixel 6 series — and during an unprecedentedly jam-packed week of major tech events — an iconic manufacturer has emerged to re-introduce a returning champion to the mobile phone market.

You guessed it: Fisher-Price is making a functional version of its Chatter Telephone children’s toy.

Featuring unsettling “wobbly eyes,” a retro rotary dial, and a rainbow colour palette (eat your heart out, Apple) the device uses Bluetooth technology to pair with your actual smartphone to make and receive calls.

In terms of features and tech specs, Chatter sports a handy speakerphone button, is USB rechargeable, and (according to a promotional image shared by Engadget) boasts a 9 hours battery life.

Fisher-Price is marketing this funky little friend as “the first-ever ‘mobile’ phone” — because of the wheels, get it? — and “a real-working phone for a real adult desk.”

The phone will be exclusively sold at Best Buy. In Canada, Chatter is scheduled for a December 1st release and will retail for a ludicrous, if still tempting, $79.99.

Via: Engadget

Health Canada issued a warning to parents about old-style Little People toys. The advisory "strongly encourages parents, grandparents, caregivers who still have possession of any older Little People figures to immediately and safely discard of them."

Health Canada was reacting to the death of a 10-month old baby who recently died after one of the old toys got stuck in the throat. It suggests that "the toys should be disposed of in normal household garbage in such a way that they cannot be used or re-sold. The health agency is also encouraging second-hand retailers to discontinue the sale and distribution of the older figurines."

The older, problematic figures were made before 1991 and have a diameter of 2 cm. Fisher Price modified its Little People toys in 1991 after seven children under three years old died and another was seriously injured.

New Little People figures have a diameter of 3 cm. They are larger and chunkier and cannot get lodged in a child’s throat.

Some of these old figures include a little girl, a train conductor, a dog and a father.