Nukotoys

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 18:29:25 -0400

““Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.””

- Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible

Hangin' with my "Toys"

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:49:00 -0400

Guest post by HipMamaB, a.k.a. Beth Avant

July 2011: I had my mind blown. How else would you describe sitting inside a video dome at “The World’s Coolest Office” in the SOMA area of San Francisco with 10ft tall unicorns flying over your head?

Yes, this was my introduction to Nukotoys and their Monsterology and Animal Planet Wildlands games. A cool office, packed with some of the smartest and most talented people that I had ever had the pleasure of being around. And yes, I was very, very impressed. So impressed that I stalked them for the better part of last year, insisting that they needed my blogger-relations help. See, being a mom and blogger with a tech background, I was floored by the technology and the ideas that were in the works to create a whole new kind of toy company. I wanted to be part of it - in any way possible.

When the card first taps the screen and a monster or African animal pops to life on your iPad, you too will want to have anything possible to do with this fantastic game. It’s a moment to remember; you will stare at the card and wonder “How did that just happen?” And while we are trying to figure out the intricacies of such a cool technology, our kids will grab the iPad and just start playing.

We are lucky. Since I managed to talk myself into a blogger brand ambassador position with Nukotoys my kids have been playing with the game through each new stage of development. Each stage brought new awe and wonderment, and a year later they still ask daily to play it. And that was before they ever got to tap a card.

Sometimes something extraordinary comes along and you just need to tell everyone about it. That’s my role - the singer of praises. Being a blogger and having that relationship with my readers and fellow bloggers I hope that I’ve established a trust factor. When I say something is a MUST see, they believe me.

This week I’ll be in New York City attending the largest blogging conference of the year. While I’m going as a blogger to NYC, I’m also helping Nukotoys get the message out about the impending launch of their amazing products. If you are headed to the Big Toy Book’s Sweet Suite on Aug. 2, stop by our booth and say hi. If you are interested in spending a little more time with us, let us know and we will have you for a group brunch or a one-on-one demo. If you miss us at the Sweet Suite, feel free to tweet at us @Nukotoys or@HipMamaB.

Nukotoys Wins the MobileBeat 2012 Innovation Competition!

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:50:00 -0400

Nukotoys edged out all other competitors to take home the Tesla Prize in the MobileBeat 2012 Innovation Competition!

Co-CEO Rodger Raderman stole the stage and pitched on Magic. Three kinds actually. The magic of mobile, of toys, and the unknown. He introduced Nukotoys, the Silicon Valley company that is disrupting the $40B toy industry in an endeavor that will merge retail with mobile and deliver uniquely smart toys for the 21st century kid.

“Toys no longer have to be plastic items with no intelligence, destined to be quickly replaced because they never evolve. Nukotoys is introducing toys as a kind of service, which become more interesting over time, where every interaction can be a surprise… I tap a Cyclops on Monday and it will do one thing, on Wednesday another.”

Read the full VentureBeat article by staff writer John Koetsier.

Nukotoys is a Finalist in MobileBeat 2012 - Innovation Competition

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:07:57 -0400

We are pitching on ‘play’ at MobileBeat 2012 - Innovation Competition!

More than 250 companies entered for a chance to “battle it out” for the Tesla Award. Nukotoys CEO Rodger Raderman will be on stage July 10th-11th. Tune in to hear him pitch how Nukotoys is disrupting and evolving the $40B toy industry by merging physical and digital on the mobile platform to redefine toys and games for digitally fascinated kids and engaged parents.

Many thanks to MobileBeat for the opportunity to compete and looking forward to being a part of a great event with an elite group of participants.

Coming Summer 2012 Nukotoys will introduce a new way to game for...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:37:54 -0400

Coming Summer 2012 Nukotoys will introduce a new way to game for digitally fascinated kids and engaged parents!

"All play means something."

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:07:31 -0400

“All play means something.”

- Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture

iOS Leading the Way

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 13:24:10 -0400

WWDCis in full swing and Apple is announcing to the world staggering new facts and numbers from their beloved products. We thought we would share some of our favorite figures coming from the exclusive developer conference in San Francisco.

Mobile is a clear focus of Apple with 400 Million individuals connecting to the one-stop-shop App Store via their Apple ID. In case you aren’t one of them, these people are continuously connecting, installing and launching apps from a pool of over 650,000.

There have been more than 30 Billion downloads of iOS apps and Apple is full speed ahead with their mobile strategy for iOS 6 which, is expected to have more than 200 new features to wow mobile users.

Siri is coming to the iPad to lend a helping voice and digital hand. Hopefully she can help users comb through the 225,000 apps available for the iPad, which are now over 35% of all apps in the App Store. Integrated Facebook throughout iOS, FaceTime over cellular, a better email experience and combining your phone number with your Apple ID are just a few of the other additions that Apple says will take your iOS experience to another level.

The overwhelming success of the developer community for iOS surely contributed to the rapid sell-out of highly-coveted WWDC seats in under 2 hours. Apple has paid out $5 Billion to iOS developers for mobile downloads in a marketplace that is now available in 150 countries worldwide.

Apple has created an entire economy with iTunes and the App Store as its hub. It’s a brave new world for independent developers —there has never been a better time to be leading the way in innovative iOS applications. Nukotoys is thrilled to be a part of this robust community, bringing a new way to game later this summer.

"The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:27:17 -0400

“The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.”

- Carl Jung

Gaming for Good

Wed, 30 May 2012 19:14:07 -0400

We couldn’t resist sharing this fascinating and compelling argument for games and the gamers who play them, which just so happens to be, nearly everyone. Did you know your surgeon is likely to preform procedures with 37% fewer errors if they’re a gamer? And that games are improving literacy, helping us get over our phobias, treating severe burn victims, even strengthening our marriages!

We’re clearly pro-game at Nukotoys and this infographic illuminates all the more reasons to be so.

Source: Frugal Dad

Nukotoys Lives in an App-Happy World

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:34:16 -0400

Excerpt from: Digging Into Apple’s U.S. Job Creation Engine | NBC San Diego by Stewart Wolpin of NBC News.

“A funny thing happened at Toy Fair this week. Not funny as in funny toys or funny games, but funny as in a sudden but fundamental shift in how we will play from now on…

While retailers don’t get a piece of the action from apps, they will now get to sell new app-enhanced hardware. This is a brand new economic ecosystem creating jobs at the toy companies and at brick-and-mortar stores who will hire buyers, inventory and sales people to stock and sell these app-enhanced toys.

Nukotoys is perhaps the poster child for this new Apple-generated toy economy. Nukotoys is a new company led by former high-level executives from Silicon Valley and the toy, gaming and trading card businesses, who have created a rich conductive touch-card iPad ecosystem.

You buy packs of Pokémon-like trading cards. Touch the information-packed card to the iPad/iPhone/iPad screen running the appropriate app (the first two are “Animal Planet Wildlife,” comprised of a 60-card set, and “Monsterology,” based on one of the popular Ology book series, which is a 100-card series) and that card character comes alive — and can be manipulated via touch — on screen.

In the “Animal Planet” game, you can populate an entire savannah, have lions hunt gazelles as a game while learning about how nature works. It’s sophisticated, immersive, compelling, cool — and completely new.

“As today’s three-year-olds tap around iPads with ease, Apple is powering a revolution in the $21 billion toy industry,” confirmsRodger Raderman, co-CEO of Nukotoys. “Because of Apple’s innovation, we have nearly 100 people actively working on making our vision a reality.”

Source: Digging Into Apple’s U.S. Job Creation Engine | NBC San Diego

"Life must be lived as play."

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:02:34 -0400

“Life must be lived as play.”

- Plato

Another great infographic on Blended Learning: a Disruptive Innovation

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:35:39 -0400

Another great infographic on Blended Learning: a Disruptive Innovation:

Blended learning is a disruptive innovation in education that can take many forms.

Here, we look at what blended learning is, why it’s spreading, and how it works in real and virtual classrooms.

The Gamified Classroom: Still Taboo?

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:55:41 -0400

It’s difficult to argue against the use of technology in education, especially in the 21st Century classroom, where kids must learn to communicate and engage in a globalized world. Internet and tech, at the forefront of educational access and reform, provide an infinite amount of resources, tools, and vehicles for teachers and students alike. The potential is immeasurable, and the innovative examples of teachers integrating iPads and apps flourish across the social networks as we share what works, and sometimes what doesn’t.

Some of the most outspoken critics in the Edutech space center on gaming, frequently correlating violent playground behavior with the violent games kids are playing at home. It is an argument that tends to reinforce the belief that games have no place in the classroom.

While we’re not an educational software company, at Nukotoys we’re focused on bridging the positive effects of both real-world play with the benefits of digital —the collaboration, strategizing, and inherent social benefits of not just play with one another, but the sharing and promoting of each other’s achievements.

The following infographic illustrates our optimism for the potential of games in the classroom. What if we can bridge the educational and enriching games kids play in the classroom, with what they take home? The world spends 3 billion hours a week playing video and computer games. As parents, caregivers, and educators, let’s make those hours count.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

THE STATE OF THE TOY INDUSTRY AND BUZZ ON NUKOTOYS

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:26:15 -0400

We have had fantastic showings throughout the 2012 Toy Fair season, beginning in Hong Kong and moving through London and Nuremburg to New York. The overriding trend at each of these international toy fairs is the merging of Apps that interoperate with physical toys:

“A funny thing happened at [New York] Toy Fair this week. Not funny as in funny toys or funny games, but funny as in a sudden but fundamental shift in how we will play from now on. Toy giants such as Hasbro and Mattel, middling companies trying to find profitable new niches and new companies all are creating a new type of product — apps (some Android, most Apple iOS) combined to interact with some sort of physical real-life objects to create a new virtual play experience…

Nukotoys is perhaps the poster child for this new Apple-generated toy economy. Nukotoys is a new company led by former high-level executives from Silicon Valley and the toy, gaming and trading card businesses.”

Source: Digging Into Apple’s U.S. Job Creation Engine | NBC San Diego

For all of the excitement around Apps and toys, Nukotoys won the day at each of the fairs, as perhaps best expressed by a Sr. Marketing Manager of Flair, one of Britain’s largest toy distributors (owned by Giochi Preziosi, Europe’s largest toy company):

“Nuko had an unprecedented reaction at Toy Fair. I’ve never seen a product range which has universally been received in such a positive manner in the ten plus years I’ve been in the toy industry. Both retailers and licensors cannot wait to start working on this range as the potential for Nuko is almost unlimited.

With ‘app toys’ being the vogue of 2012 and it seems like almost every toy company having one; Nuko is really a cut above the rest. Standard ‘app toys’ seem clunky and outdated by comparison. The relationship between Nuko and the smart device has been really well thought through aiding and increasing play rather driving it.

With pricing being set at such a low entry point Nuko knocks the socks off the competition. The average app toy starts at £20 and the targeted retail is only a tenth of that! This allows children to spend their pocket money on Nuko driving massive potential for repeat purchases rather than just be a ‘special occasion’ gift.”

Nukotoys CTO, Mike North interviews at Screenburn Arcade at SXSW...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:23:20 -0400

Nukotoys CTO, Mike North interviews at Screenburn Arcade at SXSW 2012!

Best in Play 2012!

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:19:55 -0400

After meeting with Nukotoys at the New York Toy Fair, Parenting Magazine awarded Monsterology NUKO™ “Best in Play Toy Fair 2012”

Photo

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:38:07 -0500

@AnneCollier is a member of Nukotoys's Parents@Play!

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:32:43 -0400

@AnneCollier is a member of Nukotoys's Parents@Play!:

Check out @AnneCollier (Anne Collier)! She is part of #Nukotoys’s Parents@Play advisory board. Anne is a wife, mother of two sons, an esteemed new media journalist, and co-chair of President Obama’s “Online Safety & Technology Working Group”. NetFamilyNews.org is a news site about kid-tech for parents.

You can learn about Nukotoys at Nukotoys.com, and read more about Parents@Play on our blog: http://www.nukotoys.com/news/parents-play-success-2/

We’re so happy to have Anne as part of the team!

@DadCentric is a member of Nukotoys's Parents@Play!

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:51:33 -0400

@DadCentric is a member of Nukotoys's Parents@Play!:

Check out @Dadcentric (Jason Avant)! He is part of #Nukotoys’s Parents@Play advisory board. Jason is a social media-man / writer-dad living in Southern California with his two children and writer-wife (@HipMamaB). Dadcentric.com is a site for the modern father and filled with humor and fatherly insights.

You can learn about Nukotoys at Nukotoys.com, and read more about Parents@Play on our blog: http://www.nukotoys.com/news/parents-play-success-2/

We’re so happy to have Jason as part of the team!

@HipMamaB is a member of Nukotoys's Parents@Play!

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:04:28 -0400

@HipMamaB is a member of Nukotoys's Parents@Play!:

Check out @HipMamaB (Beth Avant, co-founder of @SDMOMfia)! She’s part of #Nukotoys’s Parents@Play advisory board. Beth is a mommy blogger extraordinaire who stays happily active with her fun family and husband (@Dadcentric). SDMOMfia is a great site for family activities, insights, and tips (especially for those living in San Diego)!

You can learn about Nukotoys at Nukotoys.com, and read more about Parents@Play on our blog: http://www.nukotoys.com/news/parents-play-success-2/

We’re so happy to have Beth as part of the team!