This is upsetting. A South Korean couple was arrested for starving their baby to death, reportedly only feeding her once a day after marathon sessions at an internet cafe. What was keeping them so busy? Their virtual baby. Yeah

In today’s Remainders: a celebration. Photoshop turns 20 and reminds us why we love it with laser-eyed babies and an Earth with AT-ATs. We’ve also got possible iPad preorders, definite MobileMe and Chromium OS improvements, PMA bummers and more. RIP PMA Pentax is the latest manufacturer to bail from PMA, joining Canon and Leica who have also announced that they will not be attending the gigantic photography trade show this year. It could be in protest of the show’s relocation from Las Vegas to Anaheim, though you’d think they’d take the vacation anywhere they could get it. [ Electronista ] iPreorder Charge your MacBooks, grab your sleeping bags, and make your peanut butter and jellys—iPad preorder time is drawing nigh

Now here’s how to ensure your child’s Nobel Prize. Babies might not understand the theory of relativity (or words even), but maybe this science quilt will have the little tot thinking early enough to get a jump-start on the competition. I love the way that images representing atomic physics are laid on top fabric featuring dinosaurs riding in a wagon. It’s what I imagine a quilt made by They Might Be Giants would look like. Check out the link for the rest of the images. And good luck, kid.

You know what they say: nothing prepares you for parenthood like a creepy stuffed bearchild that cries real tears. Or something like that. This is Yotaro, the Japanese baby simulator. It looks like a big stuffed animal bear with a baby’s face projected on to it. It’s actually got a lot of complex stuff going on inside it, for better or worse

So you think your baby’s all Twitter -ready with that Kickbee while chilling in the womb? Nah, only practice makes perfect, so the folks at Belgium’s Hasselt University came up with the Twoddler: a hacked Fisher-Price activity board with buttons linked to predefined Twitter messages. Obsessive parents can put photos of themselves on the buttons, so that whenever those buttons are hit the Twoddler tweets something like “@mommy I miss you.” We like this idea, but then again you’ll never know if it’s just someone else’s kids bashing the buttons — you’ll still feel good anyway. Watch some Twoddler action after the break. Continue reading Twoddler lets your toddler twitter and summon the Fail Whale #cute Twoddler lets your toddler twitter and summon the Fail Whale #cute originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

It’s like someone actually thought the adult-sized vehicles in Wall-E were a good idea. Thankfully, like with most things on Yanko Design, this individual baby confinement torture-device is just a concept, but it’s also a scary insight into someone’s mind. That someone being designer Pouyan Mokhtarani, whose baby buggy contains a LED screen so you can gurgle and babble away at your baby from a distance, lest you pick up diseases from it, and the air purification unit ensures your baby breathes nothing but the cleanest oxygen. Auto-rock it to sleep, and even flush away the baby poop with the Auto Diaper function. Actually, the more we look at this concept, the more we wish we could have an adult-sized one. [ Yanko Design ]

Self-heating containers aren’t a new idea, but rarely are they as practical or reusable as the Yoomi baby bottle. You simply push a button on the bottle and wait 60 seconds. The milk will be heated to the perfect, baby-friendly temperature. But unlike, say, those self-heating mocha lattes you can buy at the store, the heating element can be “recharged” by tossing it in boiling water. The liquid inside becomes solid, and the chemical reaction renews for next time

Babies, while cute, can turn ugly at family picture time. Look! A bit of floating dander. Picture ruined. Any little thing can become a distraction. Enter the ingenious—and head-smackingly simple—ShutterBuddy.

The Cry Translator iPhone app is supposed to assist those with little parental instinct by translating the sobs and screams of their children and providing advice. How ever did we all make it to adulthood without apps like this? The makers of the app claim that it is “accurate 96% of the time” in interpreting “the five baby cries universal to all babies, regardless of culture or language; hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed and bored.” I don’t have a baby nearby, nor did I manage to make anyone cry long enough to test the app, but I sincerely doubt the statistic. Definitely hoping that no one makes any serious child raising decisions based on this $30 iPhone app.

When a one-year-old has difficulty with movement, it impairs brain development, since researchers say babies form neural connections through exploration of their environment. How do you get around this? With a bad-ass robotic chair . Physical therapists and mechanical engineers joined forces to create robots that allow babies with disabilities to move around. The robots controlled by a joystick that’s simple enough for a one year old to use