The buzzy toy of the season crashed and burned over the holidays, as use increased « more than 100x » on Christmas day.
Parents were left scrambling on Christmas day after the hot toy of the season appeared to crash and burn, in a perfect cautionary tale about the era of connected gadgets that can easily brick if their delicate infrastructure is put under strain.
The toy, called the Tin Can, is basically a stripped down landline phone that places calls over WiFi. The devices are styled after colorful tin cans — like an old school tin can telephone, an archaic toy so thoroughly ancient that kids today presumably have no idea it ever existed — with twirly cords just like the landlines of yore.
The pitch is that the Tin Can allows parents to set up a sort of closed network of other Tin Can users, making it a nice compromise for kids who are too young for a cell phone, but who still want to communicate with their friends and family members.
