Pleo

Pleo made an appearance at SAAG 2007 (Sacramento Area Aibo Gathering). The video by SAAG member Elly shows Pleo in the beginning of the hatchling mode where it is sluggish and slow. We must say it doesn't look very exciting but if the FAQ on Ugobe's website are anything to go by, there should be much more to Pleo than this video shows. We hope Pleo will be able to move around with a more animated, dinosaur-like gait. We also look forward to the release of the Pleo PC Utility and Pleo Developers Kit that will enable customizations and hacks.

Finally, see a photo of the box Pleo will ship in here.

Thanks Robert Oschler!

If you had some concerns about Pleo's battery life after hearing about Pleo's launch delay, don't. We wrote to Ugobe after the news of the delay broke and they responded that each charge should keep Pleo running approximately two hours.

Ugobe has delayed the release of Pleo according to an email sent out by Caleb Chung, co-founder of Ugobe. During pre-production testing, Ugobe discovered that Pleo suffered from a very short battery life as a result of a problem in charging of the battery. They are now going to make the battery packs replaceable and these will need to be charged in a separate external charger. Pleo will thus not ship in October as was scheduled but according to the email, will make it to homes before Christmas. Finally, Ugobe will not be selling any more Pleos on its website as they are "completely sold out" but Pleo will be available at the retail outlets listed here. See the email Ugobe sent out below ... continued

Hilarious! Ugobe's much-anticipated Pleo is already learning our ways.

Ugobe, a robotic toys startup just announced that it is accepting pre-orders for its new robotic dinosaur toy calleld Pleo. The price has been set at $349 which is quite expensive. Pleo has a bunch of sensors: an orientation sensor, touch sensors, force feedback sensors, microphones, a camera and infra-red sensors to detect other Pleos nearby and detect objects placed into the mouth. Ugobe seem to be leaving room for software updates, providing a mini-USB interface and SD card slot. Ugobe is co-founded by Caleb Chung, the inventor of the famous toy Furby.