My cats have been IM-ing me for sometime now (more kibble, please!), so I’m not that impressed with Mattel’s plan to launch a new high-tech toy called Puppy Tweets. Dogs … always late to the party. Anyway, this sound-and-motion-activated gadget attaches to collars and links to home computers so dogs can issue updates to their very own Twitter pages. The tweets are canned, of course, but with 500 to pick from, it’ll take a little while to cycle through them, especially since most pets sleep about 80 percent of the time. Sample tweets: "I bark because I miss you. There, I said it. Now hurry home." "Guess what I’m licking right now?" (Go ahead, guess.) There are a couple of good pop-culture precedents here. The obvious one is Dug, the squirrel-loving dog from Disney/Pixar’s Oscar-nominated Up. The other is the classic Simpsons episode where Homer’s half-brother invents a baby translator that puts words to infants’ gurgles and cries. One of Maggie’s best lines: "I’ve soiled myself. How embarrassing." Puppy Tweets, one of a zillion new products at this week’s Toy Fair in New York, will show up at retailers in the fall for $29.99. Expect a Facebook war with the Zhu Zhu Pets.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley