April 7, 2005 Sega Toys has released the iDog, a companion speaker/pet for the Apple iPod that will also work with any audio player, though it is unashamedly aimed at the Apple iPod user with packaging, look and feel all, well, sorta iPoddy. The iDog’s reason for being is basically as a companion in that it takes headphone music from an MP3 player and plays it out loud, and at the same time as dancing and seeking playful interaction – the ideal companion for children, and geeks who spend too much time living in the space between their ears with music as their only companion. The companion robot will play a major role in society’s future and at US$89, this is quite possibly the cheapest companion robot available on the market at this time, narrowly pipping the Robosapien at US99.
Termed a musicbot by Sega, the iDog expresses its feelings by wagging its tail, moving, waggling its ears, tilting its head, playing (stored) musical sequences and by means of the seven coloured LED lights on its head.
Pressing on the iDog's nose will wake it up at which point it will start to play music and wait for you to play with it (him?). It gets happy when you touch its ears and pad on its head, it gets surprised when you touch its nose or wave in front of him and it gets angry when you touch its tail.
The Sega Toys iDog measures 116x107x100mm and an MP3 Player like the iPod can be attached to the iDog via 3.5mm audio cable and although the speaker is only mono, it is good quality.
There’s some great pics available at ASCII24, a review of the iDog at akihabaranews and you can watch a video here.
The iDog even has its own site, and can be purchased over the internet at Audiocubes, which is a site that specialises in selling Japanese-only gadgets in America. the iDog was released earlier this week.
We saw this one-of-a-kind iPod accessory originally at technology blog I4U.