Official News page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: BABY KARAOKE

by Hazed

Speaking of inappropriate technology, a Japanese toy maker is launching a karaoke machine that's just a few inches big, and is aimed at children. Nooooo!

Tomy Co Ltd said it will start to sell the world's smallest karaoke machine in October, targeting those that are too young to enter the karaoke parlors which are found all over Japan. Good news: the machine comes with headphones, so that only the users will hear the music. Bad news: it doesn't come with a gag, so anyone will be able to hear the wannabe-singer warbling away in a loud and out of tune voice. The horror, the horror!

This devilish device will be priced at 10,000 yen ($100) and owners will then have to buy a 2,000 yen cartridge holding 10 pre-installed songs, or download songs from the net. There are plans to sell it outside Japan but no date has been set for that launch yet.

What a truly terrible idea! Karaoke is bad enough in bars but the thought of it being let loose on the streets makes me shudder.

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