Reality Me

NO! One of my favorite Internet devices, and one of the first Internet of Things, and MY personal (technically my daughter Sarah’s) first Internet appliance, the Nabaztag later renamed Karotz, is dead.

Karotz was the predecessor to Jibo, Philips Hue lighting, and the Amazon Echo doing such feats as reading text messages aloud to you, reading RSS feeds, indicating the weather through color changing LEDs, allowing your connected friends to interact with you by manipulating your rabbit via sounds, spinning ears, spoken words, and flashing lights.

Thank you Philip, the Blue Sloth, for introducing me to the Nabaztag, and for the fun interactions we had from house to house. Two strangers in real life, friends in a virtual world, who met through blogging, and sent spontaneous spoken messages to each other through an electronic rabbit. That connection was severed when support ended for Nabaztag v1. Our digital world has an innate ability to conquer physical, emotional, political, religious, socioeconomic, and other divides. This rabbit did just that.

"Originally launched on the market in 2005 under the name of Nabaztag, Karotz has been a pioneer in the field of connected and communicating devices.
The very active community around this rabbit has widely contributed to make it so popular.

Today, nearly 10 years after its first appearance, Karotz is facing a very strong technological competition: the connected devices are now 4G, mobile and evolutionary. Karotz and its users have not only helped establish connected devices; they have paved the way. New products make a stronger match to market needs, marking the end of Karotz’s great story.

To keep on offering you innovative and endearing companions, Aldebaran is refocusing on our core business: humanoid robots.

Therefore Karotz’s servers and customer service will be stopped on February 18th, 2015.

Bruno Maisonnier,
Aldebaran CEO"

http://karotz.com/

• Philip’s latest works can be found at The Griffin Series.
• Buy the Philips Hue lighting system at Amazon.