Etch-A-Sketch Wired Displays on TV

I share Oh Gizmo's skepticism about this "Etch-A-Sketch Wired," which emulates the function of the traditional toy on your television screen right down to the "shake to clear." It is a little sad to see something as simple as an Etch-A-Sketch go digital, especially when no additional functionality seems to have been added. (But then again, what would you want?)

It's only $13, though, so no big whoop, I guess, especially since I always sort of hated Etch-A-Sketches anyway, being just as impatient as a toddler as I am as an adult. It just always seemed like a gimmicky way to produce drawings with less fidelity and more finickiness than with a pencil. I guess it does seem like if you're going to make a modern version you should either add something new, like a print-out function, or just do it in Flash and make it collaborative.

Catalog Page [LighterSide.com via Ubergizmo via Oh Gizmo]

[#1 posted by Tommy , January 21, 2008 6:48 AM]

So, the point of this post was what?

[#2 posted by Joel Johnson , January 21, 2008 6:53 AM]

To note that this product does indeed exist.

[#3 posted by dculberson , January 21, 2008 8:22 AM]

Joel, I'm right there with you about Etch-A-Sketches - as far as I am concerned. But sometimes, limiting your options can lead to greater creativity, and I've seen some amazing stuff done on an etch-a-sketch.

[#4 posted by Dezro , January 21, 2008 8:49 AM]

I remember when I was a kid I had this gray LCD Etch-a-Sketch. So this isn't the first time the toy went digital. Anyway, the cool thing about it (or the problem, depending) was that you could lift the 'pen' off the 'canvas' and then draw somewhere else. This thing probably has the same feature.

[#5 posted by Anonymous , January 21, 2008 12:58 PM]

The article was posted so that Boing-Boing readers will know it exist. You know, the people with the disposable income to blow $13 on this thing to try and figure out what kind of chip runs the E-A-S software. The kind of people who will do something interesting with the hardware, if they can, the ones we will be reading about on Make in a couple months.

[#6 posted by claud9999 , January 21, 2008 1:43 PM]

HDMI 1080p? :^) Better be, with a screen that big. And don't sit so close, you'll get eye cancer!

[#7 posted by HarshLanguage , January 22, 2008 11:10 PM]

Are we supposed to believe that kid in the photo did the drawing on the TV?! He's a freakin' Etch-a-Sketch prodigy if so!

And "lifting the pen" is SO cheating! Hehe.