Pink iDog is a Lovely Version
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Look out! There's a new dog on a musical rampant in town! Sega has unleashed the Pink i-dog - Lovely Version!!! It's not often one gets a little slice of robotics worth $40 in their Christmas stockings but that's what happened to my kid this year when he got a Sega i-dog for a present from Brando. This unique combination of geeky technological wizardry has everybody cooing over it. We have four breathing dog pets in our house….but this one is the most unique! Although it doesn’t breath, it’s the only pet dog who understands the ‘sound of music’. Since the box states, ‘i-dog- my pet loves music too’, my little one immediately connected him to the music system with Do, re, mi, fa….song to start with! i-dog is about a billion times more bright than the previously mentioned robopet. More importantly i-dog is a music lover! In fact i-dog can't live without a few decent toe-tappers. That's because this cute little bow wow feeds on the tunes you play him and develops personalities according to the music he hears. The clear plastic ears wag as the swiveling head moves along to whatever music you're playing. He even functions as a portable speaker for your audio player. Simply plug his connector cord (3.5mm ) into the headphone jack of your audio device…..CD player, stereo, MP3, computer, etc. and watch the mutt dance to your tunes. It also works with ambient music from a stereo or boom box speakers. Toggle his tail to turn off the speaker and listen to music via headphones. He can also use his built-in microphone to listen and react to music from an outside source. i-dog begins life in Puppy Mode but as you feed him he will begin to react to the tunes he hears. You have to get it just right because i-dog really is a discerning little digi-dog. Rock and punk make him rebellious, pop and R&B make him happy and dance music makes him excitable. A series of multicolored lights on his face also exhibit how he is feeling. A blue light on his forehead shows when he needs a musical fix, but you need to get it just right; play too much music and the light patterns will indicate that he is ecstatic; ignore him and they will indicate that he is bored. The i-dog is capable of changing its feelings from happy to angry by moving its ears and rotating the head and by changing the color of the 7 LED lights on its head. Green is happy, orange less so and red unhappy. Plus the lights circle round faster if the i-dog is playful and slower if he is resting.
Sound definitely isn't this puppy's forte, but personality is. Stroking his head or touching his nose will make him happy and you can also discipline him by touching his tail - although this will make him growl. Any dog would! It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the i-dog is quick to flatter! As it switches to mimic mode, speak to him for a few seconds and the centre light on his nose switches first blue and then red to indicate he is listening. Then he proceeds to mimic you in a rather garbled electro dog language and with a shake of the head. The four-legged automaton features a number of switches located on its nose and other parts of its wee body that are used to create and play music. This state-of-the-art interactive pooch is an ultimate entertaining desktop companion and his sleek, up-to-the-minute styling will complement any audio set-up. Regardless of the i-prefix and its predominantly pink color, don't be fooled into thinking the i-dog is meant purely for Apple's ubiquitous iPod. With only mediocre sound value but with interesting "mood" features, the i-dog definitely falls under the classification "toy" rather than full-fledged music player accessory. I genuinely hope that this canine was equipped to download, record or store music too. The mechanical beast from Sega Toys measures 116x107x100mm. The batteries hold for 3 hours. The small box that the i-dog ships in cutely complements in pink and white combination. All we needed to do was to insert 3 AAA batteries into the chest of our little canine with a small Phillips screwdriver and our i-dog woofed into life.
