frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Nintendo's not-AI, not-a-game toy

https://tapestry.news/culture/nintendo-talking-flower/
15•zygon•1h ago

Comments

soared•1h ago
It’s a toy. How is this making any buzz, headlines, etc. Go to any store, go to the toy aisle, and 99% of the toys are not AI generated, etc. Lazy clickbait from everyone.
skeeter2020•1h ago
If this was a hackaday project that was open & extensible it would be a cool post on HN, but as a commercial product it feels like a paid endorsement on the Today Show would be a better fit.
zitterbewegung•1h ago
Yea, it isn't a statement or anything it's just Nintendo just making a good product and you can see the industrial design that it is the selling point. Apple used to have people complaining their AI solutions are sub par but, now since they control the App Store where many AI apps live they are the only ones making money.
CoolGuySteve•1h ago
The article says it starts to repeat after a few days but with flash memory prices being what they are couldn’t they have loaded something like a hundred thousand little voice clips on a $15 32GB micro sd card?

Might require AI to generate them all but the device would still be offline

crims0n•1h ago
One of the things I love about Nintendo is their (estimated) 1.5 trillion yen cash reserve allows them to just... do whatever they want. It frees them up to take risks and ignore market trends. More times than not, their zany ideas have worked out for them.
skeeter2020•1h ago
The "zany" idea of selling their IP for every possible product (I just saw Mario Galaxy sparkling water in the grocery store yesterday) and jacking the price of their back catalogue (some titles now cost more than what I paid for them years ago) sounds more like Disney than mad scientists ignoring trends. The make some very distinctive & cool products, but this toy doesn't seem super innovative and Nintendo is still a giant corporation run by accountants.
airstrike•1h ago
Posted on a website designed by Claude, ironically
libertine•1h ago
Here's my take, this is more of a symptom instead of a statement.

Nintendo is a brand that's loved by millions, and they've been making toys for more than 100 years - and this is just another toy.

It doesn't need to be a missed opportunity to fulfill it's role while it's a safe toy 6+ years old.

As for the price, if you want to have healthy margins, $35 for a custom product isn't anything out of this world if it the COGS is 5$-8$, and distributors buy it with a 40%-50% discount over MSRP, so with marketing costs Nintendo makes like 10$-15$ per flower sold?

Like what do these people expect? Nintendo to make 2$-3$ per product sold?

For it being sold out, it's just a sign of the times - people want to be the first to have something, to show for, to collect (which is insane), to scalp, you name it. It's a consumption disease where people are parting their money for the wrong reasons, and that has an impact on the market.

This is a kids product, and you have grown people hoarding this stuff, and complaining - like these reviews...it's insane.

If Nintendo was like Lego, they would sell this for 65$ and I bet you it would be sold out in a week as well.

Maybe the problem starts with these reviews and to have grown ups leaving room for kids and parents to figure out this stuff.

You can be a Nintendo fan, and enjoy their products, without investing so much into a kids toy.

I think this product is spot on in terms of design, functionality and price for 6 years and older.

It's just that too much people are ruining this experience.

hmokiguess•57m ago
Meanwhile Casio in Japan be like https://www.casio.com/us/moflin/
strogonoff•53m ago
Sensationalising “a simple $35 desk toy” selling out in a week is disingenuous and (in at least one sense of the word) sloppy journalism if we consider that said toy is merch for a product that once won Guinness World Record as the best-selling video game of all time and which has such cult status that a second-hand unopened copy recently got sold for multiple millions of dollars.

Respectfully, and not to detract from Nintendo’s chops in any way, but I suspect almost any genuine product that is Super Mario Bros. themed is guaranteed to sell very well; the bar is very low when a franchise is this well-recognized.

[0] Possibly in more than one way…

Optimal Elevator Placement

https://jslandy.com/elevators/
1•efavdb•39s ago•0 comments

Improving AI-generated tests using mutation testing

https://blog.senko.net/improving-ai-generated-tests-using-mutation-testing
1•senko•3m ago•0 comments

MAUI Is Coming to Linux

https://avaloniaui.net/blog/maui-avalonia-preview-1
1•DeathArrow•4m ago•0 comments

Oil prices to rise further on Monday as Mideast war escalates

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-prices-rise-further-monday-mideast-war-escalates-2026...
2•tartoran•4m ago•0 comments

A visual guide to DNA sequencing

https://press.asimov.com/articles/dna-sequencing
1•fanf2•5m ago•0 comments

Compiling C to a custom architecture: my experience

https://github.com/ChristosMaragkos/Sharpie
1•NeverBugFree•6m ago•1 comments

Are API providers serving us lobotomized models or just burning VC cash

https://twitter.com/CDerinbogaz/status/2035733613216436517
1•textcortex•7m ago•0 comments

Pinball in My House, 2026: Alice Goes to Wonderland

https://nicole.express/2026/nicole-in-blunderland.html
2•jandeboevrie•11m ago•0 comments

3Blue1Brown — This picture broke my brain [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldxFjLJ3rVY
1•bryan0•11m ago•0 comments

Show HN: BidWix – I built a sealed-bid tool where honesty is your best move

https://bidwix.com/
1•audiosampling•12m ago•1 comments

Two Studies in Compiler Optimisations

https://www.hmpcabral.com/2026/03/20/two-studies-in-compiler-optimisations/
1•hmpc•12m ago•0 comments

AI hallucinations haunt users more than job losses

https://www.ft.com/content/e074d3a9-7fd8-447d-ac0a-e0de756ac5c5
2•cs702•12m ago•0 comments

I'm rebuilding Markdown editing in VS Code (would love feedback)

1•kamransethi•13m ago•0 comments

Tinyspec – A spec for tinygrad (ML compiler)

https://github.com/tinygrad/tinyspec
1•ronfriedhaber•13m ago•0 comments

Atlassian Says It Had Right to Fire Engineer for Suggesting CEO Is 'Rich Jerk'

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-16/atlassian-defends-firing-worker-who-suggested-...
10•FiddlerClamp•13m ago•0 comments

TINA: Circuit simulator for analog, digital, MCU and RF circuits

https://www.tina.com/
1•teleforce•13m ago•0 comments

You Are Not Your Job

https://jry.io/writing/you-are-not-your-job/
3•jryio•16m ago•0 comments

A $25B Moonshot: Tesla Prepares to Launch Terafab in Four Days

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/03/17/a-25-billion-moonshot-tesla-prepares-to-launch...
1•surprisetalk•19m ago•0 comments

Spyware once used by governments is now spreading to cybercriminals

https://www.axios.com/2026/03/21/iphone-spyware-is-everyones-problem-now
2•Brajeshwar•20m ago•0 comments

Common Package Specification

https://cps-org.github.io/cps/
1•kergonath•24m ago•0 comments

An AI trainer for difficult conversations and social skills

https://nerveless.app
1•bugigas•25m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Actufeed

https://actufeed.com
1•dancode7•27m ago•0 comments

Reddit is weighing identity verification methods to combat its bot problem

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-is-weighing-identity-verification-methods-to-combat-...
2•pseudalopex•28m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Weekend Project, Built a Vanilla JavaScript Online Code Editor (2022)

https://codeeverywhere.ca/post.php?id=73&title=Weekend-Project:-Online-Code-Editor
1•coevcan•30m ago•0 comments

A Coherent Vision for the Future of Version Control

https://bramcohen.com/p/manyana
2•c17r•31m ago•0 comments

Micron says AI-driven memory crunch is unprecedented

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/micron-says-ai-driven-memory...
1•teleforce•32m ago•0 comments

Show HN: ClawRun – Deploy AI agents into secure sandboxes with one command

https://clawrun.sh/?hn
1•afshinmeh•33m ago•0 comments

Nvidia to sell 1M chips to Amazon by end of 2027 in cloud deal

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/nvidia-sell-1-million-chips-...
4•teleforce•35m ago•0 comments

The Longevity Scam

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/02/longevity-medicine-profit-oversold/686049/
1•bookofjoe•37m ago•2 comments

People are selling their identities to train AI – but at what cost?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/21/ai-trainers-identity-cost
1•Brajeshwar•37m ago•0 comments