Harry Potter is finally bringing his magic to the world of eBook readers.

The publishing empire that is JK Rowling has reached a distribution deal that will allow you to carry all 4,176 pages of the Harry Potter series around in your coat pocket—provided that your coat pocket is holding an Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook or one of the handful of other compatible device like the Sony Reader.

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Board game purists beware: board games are becoming more commercialized and more high tech. Monopoly now comes in a version in which players electronically pay their rent using a pretend credit card. Rather than visiting a bingo hall or a chess club, you can now play online on sites like FoxyBingo or PlayChess. And an assortment of board games now incorporate a television and a DVD.

Does that mean these modern board games are less fun than their predecessors? We say no. Or, at least, not necessarily. Here’s a selection of three fun, modern board games:

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Spot Cool Stuff is freshly returned from the 2012 International Toy Fair, a huge trade show where games, puzzles, scooters, trinkets, action figures, squirt guns, building blocks, mini robots and all manner of other playthings are put on display—and then taken way too seriously.

Here’s our annual roundup of the new toys we spotted at “The Fair” that seemed especially worthy of highlighting. Keep in mind that, at least for this website, Spot Cool Stuff has a bias towards products that adults can enjoy playing with as much as kids; you won’t find any dolls, baby rattles or toddler toys on our list.

Each of these toys has either come out in the last few months or is launching sometime this year:

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Users of Apple iPads and iPhones downloaded more than 5 million mobile applications from the iTunes app store last month. About that many apps were downloaded by users of Android tablets and smartphones. A million or so more went to Blackberries and devices running other operating systems.

Among the people who were struck by the high—and fast increasing—popularity of mobile apps: toy makers. Increasingly, toys are either designed to be used with an app or are inspired by them. Here’s our review of five especially cool ones:

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