The simplest of children’s toys, the ball, has received a technological upgrade. Everyone from Amazon to Walmart now sells “boomerang balls,” spherical plastic cages containing a tiny drone with two counter-rotating propellers. You shake the thing to turn it on, and then you have a ball you can essentially use to play catch with yourself:
They take about 25 minutes to charge, via USB-C, and have a runtime of 8-10 minutes. Prices run $20 to $30.
While they do look oddly compelling…
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…one does wonder whether a flying ball, which might have seemed like magic 20 years ago, is enough to get children outside, away from consoles, social media and screens.
