App-based toys

It's very nearly Christmas day. I've just returned from a trip to our local recycling centre to dispose of all the cardboard we've been collecting over the past few weeks. I was also sad to take a toy my son was given last Christmas, which he never used.

The gift was an app-based toy. When we came to try it out, we were both sad to find that the app it required was no longer available on the App Store. Without this app, the toy did very little; it was just a 20x20cm white slab of plastic with lots of buttons that flashed a few times when turned on and then sat awaiting instruction from an iPad.

If you aren't a technology enthusiast, it must not be easy to adequately assess potential gifts when browsing in a shop or online. You see the box and the promise of educational fun and would never consider that you might be buying something useless if the company which made it either decides to withdraw support - or stops trading. Apps on the App Store will disappear if the company that publishes them stop paying Apple's annual fee. Products which need that app to function will stop doing anything worthwhile if the app is no longer available.

This particular product was an Arcade Coder from Technology Will Save Us. A thoughtful present destined for landfill (or hopefully recycling if where I took it does its job) shortly after it was purchased. What is quite egregious is that the company which made this toy went bankrupt in March 2021, probably months before the toy was bought. The Arcade Coder can still be purchased from some online sellers - and there is no mention of it being unusable.

I love to see innovative products being developed and making it to market. We need to think more carefully about the life span of products. In this case, releasing the code for the app would have allowed the toy to be used by those with the proper technical ability.

Hopefully, any gifts my children are lucky enough to receive this Christmas don't suffer the same fate.