Little Robot Friends

I wrote about Pleo about a year ago when I read about its development in Wired. It's available now, and the Reuters video here gives a pretty good overview. The reviews at Amazon are generally very positive. Some people are really bonding with these little $304 robo-dinos, complaining mostly about short battery life. It's a very interesting product. And it doesn't run Windows, it runs LifeOS.

Speaking of bonding with robots, the Roomba I bought in December has become our dog's best friend. Jackie is odd anyway because he loves vacuum cleaners - get one out and he gets excited and runs to get a tennis ball, because vacuum time is ball chasing time around here. Now during the day, he has Roomba to play with. We turn him (oops, it) on when we leave for work and Jackie follows it around and drops the ball in front of it. Roomba docks itself when its battery runs low, and sometimes Jackie even gets a second Roomba play session at lunch time. He loves that little robot - we can't even say "Roomba" in Jack's presence or he gets very excited.

Technology is getting weirder.