The folks at the Parisian ubiquitous computing firm Violet are, well, a bit strange. I’ve never met them in person, but their Wi-Fi bunnies — the Nabaztag and its successor the Nabaztag-tag — rank at the top of my list for peculiar network-connected devices. That plastic-sushi molded USB memory drive you have? Not even in the same solar system of oddities.
The Nabaztag is named for the Armenian word for rabbit, making the second model Violet released, the Nabaztag-tag, the “rabbit-bit.” And it doesn’t get any less weird.
The idea of the Nabaztag is that it’s a communicator with a microphone, speaker, colored lights, and servo-motors that drive two rabbit ears that can be used to read email, speak Twitter messages, handle instant messaging and two-way voice calls, and create a kind of personal interaction with others as a mediator that it becomes part of normal life instead of just another computer accessory. I tested the current Nabaztag-tag model, which retails at ThinkGeek for $179; the original Nabaztag has no microphone and costs $99.
Small, round, with the two aforementioned rabbit ears, the thing is pretty much the epitome of Japanese-inspired cute. It’s darling. Plugged in and powered up, you have to connect to it via Wi-Fi to configure it to connect to your own Wi-Fi network, and then bring it fully to life by registering its birth on a custom Nabaztag site. I had some difficulty in being Dr. Frankenstein to my bunny, but with some help from technical support ultimately got the electrodes in the right spot, and it lived, it lived!
The My Nabaztag Web site is the remote control for the rabbit, allowing you to subscribe to music and news feeds, set up customized local information like weather, and tie into a handful of social services like Twitter.
The Nabaztag requires attention, even though it’s meant as a device that does not. Twitter messages being read every few minutes, weather reports, news, and so forth, all distract from my ability to focus on work. As a home device, I could see it being useful, partly because the rabbits are designed to work socially: It’s much more fun when you’re not trying to get something done and a bunny is chirping away, twiddling its ears, and flashing colors near you.
For instance, if you move the rabbit’s ears, the ears move in the same way on those of a friend you’re communicating with. The Nabaztag can handle instant messaging and pass along recorded messages, too.
Tech support has a ways to go in my testing. Even though they knew I was a press person, I still received poor care. I was trying to set up local weather forecasts, and failed. To get weather, you hold down a button on the top of the device, speak the word “weather,” and a local set of information should be read.
I contacted tech support, and followed their suggestions, but had no luck. Despite my attempts at follow-up, the situation was never resolved. Every few weeks, I receive email from Violet asking if the situation has been fixed, and I reply that, no, it wasn’t, and do they have additional advice? And then nothing until the next message which has no connection with the previous one.
The Nabaztag seems like a pretty interesting holiday gift for a gadget obsessed youth, especially one that has friends who own them or could convince their parents or relatives to buy them one. For adults, well, it’s a bit too fey for day-to-day use.
