Slashdot Mirror
Nabaztag the WiFi Bunny
carre4 writes "A French company named Violet, the smart object company, has come out with Nabaztag, a 23 cm tall WiFi-enabled bunny that tells you about the weather, traffic jams, new emails through flashing lights and moving its ears. They have a Flash demo with Nabaztag's different messages. The company also makes 'La lampe Dal', a lamp that changes colors based on the weather and 'Le Pad Osmooze', a USB device that releases an aroma when you receive an email from a loved one."
"a USB device that releases an aroma when you receive an email from a loved one."
... and when you receive an email from a spammer...
It would go nice with my hammer.
... is the names of their products. I mean "Nabaztag the WiFi Bunny"? It sounds either like a cartoon villain, or a new kind of pharmaceutical. Perhaps a failed idea for Pfizer's mascot? And "Le Pad Osmooze" ... I'm going to hope that sounded better in French. The only thing "Osmooze" brings to mind is 'osmosing ooze.' What the hell was on that focus group's mind?
Anyway, the products are mildly interesting, but their applications are weak. It seems like any time a company comes up with a peripheral, the first thing they do with it is find some way for it to notify you when you have email. For God's sake stop it, there are enough email notifiers out there already. There's got to be something better you can do with a 95-euro, 23-cm tall, talking, WiFi enabled, suspiciously Pokemon-esque talking bunny.
Isn't there?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
merekat technology. That'll kick a WiFi bunny's cottony little arse.
Or how about a cute, plush Tux that burps real rancid herring smell everytime a kernel patch is released? A Hello Kitty the spits up a real simulated hairball when there's a sale at Penney's?
Boy, this technology stuff sure is fun. The future's so bright I have to go barf.
KFG
King Arthur: Consult the Book of Armaments.
Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.
Cleric: [reading] And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu...
Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother...
Cleric: And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."
ok, i believe the connected part. but how is it living and intelligent? because it's got colored lights that change colors?
i dunno, these "smart" objects seem like pretty stupid and useless novelties with very mundane technology that's just hyped up with dumb descriptions for marketing like calling them "smart objects" that are living and intelligent, or a lamp that can blush just because it can change colors.
And yet so far.
As far as I can tell, this is kind of pointless. What it really needs is voice commands. If you have a small cute animal you can ask "What's the weather?" or "Play me a song" and have it follow your commands, that would be on the level of the cell phone, microwave oven, or even television in terms of cultural impact. An actual computer-based interactive device you can set on your kitchen table and ask for current information or to follow basic commands is the kind of near-future sci-fi thing they've been talking about for years. It's the object that we will take for granted ten years from now but will integrate itself into our daily lives.
The thing is, that doesn't seem far off at all right now. Sure, it would be an expensive gadget, but properly designed and marketed it would be bigger than the iPod among the rich, hip gadget people and soon everyone would need one. Sooner or later people wouldn't think anything of spending a thousand dollars on a little toy you can ask for movie listings, headlines, traffic, or just command to call Mom, listen to the radio, or play word games.
This should be possible. Why the hell isn't it already here?
[insert witty quote here]
Does it also tell you when the world is going to end?
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Nabaztag means rabbit in Armenian
'Le Pad Osmooze', a USB device that releases an aroma when you receive an email from a loved one."
Uh oh, I think your ex just sent you an email. This smells bad. Really bad.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
This does look like a really fun idea, but if only I could get it in something other than a rabbit... Maybe a 23cm Hooters girl?
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
A designer from work was beta testing one this summer. I had to troubleshoot the thing because it takes for granted that your wireless network is wide open (but it isn't too bad: the bunny has his MAC address stuck to his rear end).
I didn't have much fun with email and weather notification, but sending audio clips to the thing had its moments. They have a fast selection of stuff on the site, and also pre-recordered female voices with a super cutsy accent saying super custy stuff about love, relationships, etc, it seems like the French interpretation of what Japanese schoolgirls find "kawaï".
What really got on my nerve is that under the oozing fabricated cuteness, they charge you for every audio clip you send to the bunny. You get 10 or 15 free ones to start off with, but after that you have to pay. Basically, all the bunny does is poll a server and download highly compressed audio clips and other data, and play and display them. Paying for simply using the damn thing seems like a ripoff to me (you have to buy the object first). So the mix of pseudo cuteness and greedy commercial behaviour didn't work for me.
I was on the verge of setting up a proxy to analyse the traffic, and possibly create a free gateway as a webservice (blabla), but I guess they probably encrypt the traffic, and it wasn't worth the effort.
In one word : yawn. Then again, I'm certainly not their target.