
French wi-fi rabbit debuts in the
By Claire Ulrich
A CNN tech report, an article in the New York Times, top tech blogs like Engadget all gush about Nabaztag, a cute plastic rabbit with wifi-superpowers that makes it the first known wifi-toy on this planet. To French technophiles, this is old news. Nabaztag was born in
50,000 rabbits have been sold since in
What does this 9-inch bunny do, exactly? Nothing robotic. Everything wi-fi. With a Nabaztag at home, you don't have to stay glued to your desktop to stay tuned. Your rabbit will flash colored signals, tweak its ears, sing, talk, to keep you informed of what goes on in your online life while you are busy in the kitchen or watching TV in the lounge.
Given a power outlet and a wifi connection, it warns you of incoming mail, activity in your RSS reader, briefs you on stocks price, air quality, weather,trafic conditions in your town (or on the other side of the world). What else? Wake-up calls, text-to-voice SMS and mails, domotic alerts (red cheeks? you forgot to close the garage door! ). And a few fun options, such as Tai-Chi classes for your rabbit, or marrying two bunnies to synchronise their tasks and ear-positions through rabbit-to-rabbit communication. Some services are free of charge, others require a paying subscription.
Nabaztag has a story. It was created by Rafi Haladjian, a French Net entrepreneur. Why a rabbit? “Because, by pure chance, there was a toy-rabbit sitting on my desk when we brainstormed about a non-intrusive object that didn't need a screen to provide information in the home.” Why name it Nabaztag? “Because it's the word for rabbit in
Nabaztag is not Mr Haladjan's first venture. In 1993, he founded FranceNet, the first French Internet provider, then Fluxus (sold to British Telecom), and now manages Ozone, an Internet thought wi-fi network, as well as the Violet company, a design studio of “smart objects.”
Nabaztag is Violet's first release. A test run of 5,000 Nabaztags sold out within a few days in
In running water in homes. At least, in industrialized countries. Screens, desktops, UC towers will then be cumbersome things of the past. Borders between the physical and digital worlds will slowly be erased. Smart objects in your home and life will link directly to a wifi flow of orders and information. Mr Haladjan intends to make those not only intelligent but beautiful, poetic, soothing and, above all, not intrusive.
Right now, cuteness is obviously Nabaztag's main asset. But will the tech-bunny become a mainstream household feature? A survey on the Nabaztag French blog profiles users and their motives for adopting a wi-fi rabbit. One French fan uses it daily to check on weather and traffic conditions in
Source: Ohmy News
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=296953&rel_no=1
Photos:
1- Nabaztag, the wi-fi rabbit
2- Rafi Haladjian takes a break in a