Endearing robo-dino Pleo may have faced a second round of extinction earlier this year, but the autonomous robot has weathered the storm and gone on sale again this week. PleoWorld are offering the dinosaur for $349, with shipping to the US, Canada and the UK, together with those all-important accessories such as replacement battery packs and chargers.
Intellectual property for the Pleo robotic dinosaur was tipped to be hot stuff when creator company Ugobe filed for bankruptcy, and that seems to have turned out to be true. Jetta Company Ltd have acquired not only the IP and assets from Ugobe’s bankruptcy sale on May 21st, but since they’re already the company responsible for physically manufacturing Pleo they’re apparently set to resume production imminently.
It’s been a week of mobile device reviews, along with the Bluetooth accessories that go with them, here at SlashGear, with Samsung’s Tocco Ultra S8300 and Instinct S30 showing up for playtime. We also gave our opinion on the big news in Bluetooth headsets, in the shape of the Plantronics Voyager Pro and the Aliph Jawbone PRIME. Finally, HTC’s Touch Diamond2 flaunted itself in a video unboxing, while the Mophie Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 3G got its review.
Pleo’s fate may be decided by a bankruptcy sale, but the robot dinosaurs already out in the wild are too busy being hacked to worry about IP. Modder Andrey has developed a system which allows him to remotely-control his Pleo via a Wii Nunchuck, with the head, tail and basic movements all mapped to the Nintendo controller’s buttons and motion-sensors.
Video demo after the cut
Further details of Ugobe’s bankruptcy have emerged, including hints regarding whether the Pleo-maker’s dinosaur robot will be scooped up by a rival toy firm. According to CEO Caleb Chung, the financial collapse came about when European and Asian customers – who made up 90-percent of Ugobe’s business – failed to secure their own funding, leaving Pleos sat in crates across the world without the money to pay for them.
Robot dinosaur maker Ugobe have confirmed that they are filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, as rumored earlier this month. The company, responsible for the Pleo dinosaur toy, dismissed all employees on Friday, but still owes $353,500 in unpaid royalties to the Pleo and Furby creator.
Despite rumors to the contrary, it seems Ugobe, the company that manufactures Pleo, the robotic dinosaur, is not going out of business after all, and are merely downsizing and relocating their web hosting to a different location.
Ugobe’s Pleo robotic dinosaur may be a cute toy, but it’s also a useful starting point for messing about with robotics. A team at Otto-Friedrich-University in Bamberg, Germany, calling themselves GRIP (Group for Interdisciplinary Psychology) have posted two tutorials designed to wirelessly connect Pleo to a remote computer and give him the ability to recognise faces.
Latest rumor on the MacBook block is that these innocent slabs of aluminum are in fact casing parts for the upcoming Apple notebook refresh. Marked “MacBook”, suggesting that the entry-level Apple notebook will finally make the change from plastic to metal, the images showed up at Mac accessories store AppleOwner and Taiwanese site Apple.pro.
We’ve learnt to expect great things from WowWee’s ever-increasing robot range, and while their next creation – the Alive Cub – might not be able to wander your house or play games of laser tag with you, it’ll probably be a hit with a new, younger audience. Basically a robotic version of a baby animal, the Alive Cubs are plush and interactive; RoboCommunity have unboxed the White Tiger version, and you can see their demo video after the cut.
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