\'Etcher\' turns iPad into Etch A Sketch

When we first landed on the Kickstarter page for \"Etcher,\" a project that bills itself as \"Etch A Sketch for iPad,\" we looked at the initial frame of the not-yet-playing promo video and thought, \"OK, there\'s the Etch A Sketch, but what\'s Etcher? Just some silly app that pops a virtual Etch A Sketch onto your touch screen and lets you twiddle the dials with your fingertips? Show us the product.\" D\'oh (and wow): we were looking right at it. Etcher\'s not some sort of digital-only re-creation. As you\'ll see once you hit Play on the video (embedded below), Etcher gobbles up the iPad and converts it into the classic Ohio Arts dial-and-draw toy, real knobs and all. But it also takes advantage of the iPad\'s 21st century technological magic to bring features to the Etch A Sketch that were pretty much unimaginable with the original toy. You can save your drawings (we wonder how many Etch A Sketch masterpieces have been lost over the years). You can e-mail your drawings to your pals. You can even create Etch A Sketch-style animations. Jeepers. If we\'d had one of these when we were young, we\'d be rich and famous by now. And never fear: you can still shake the toy to make your drawing disappear. Of course, all this comes at a price. We don\'t remember offhand exactly how much the Etch A Sketch was back in the day (we have a vague feeling it was a bit more expensive than the usual toy). But surely it didn\'t cost the equivalent of $60 (seems you can get one for 13 bucks now). Still, there are worse things you can spend your money on than high-tech toys that encourage the creative impulse. And if you contribute early, you can get the gadget for a special discount of $45. These days that\'s the price of a few Avengers action figures. Now if we could just find a Kickstarter project that converts Google glasses into a View-Master, or a Segway into a Big Wheel...