Everyone wishes they could have an ASIMO or a PaPeRo robot, right? But what about those of us who don't live in Japan or aren't Daddy Warbucks?

The future is now!

The French company Violet has released v.2 of their clever Wi-Fi bunny "Nabaztag" (= rabbit in Armenian), which sells for under $200.

Here's what he can do:
E-mail alerts, talking clock, weather, vocal reading of internet RSS feeds/written messages, reception of spoken messages or musical greetings sent via the internet, communication through colored lights and ear movements, and coming soon: object and person recognition. Friends can send you messages through the main website even if they don't have their own bionic bunny.

Personally, here is what I enjoy most:
+ the subculture of the Nabaztag worldwide community: User profiles, pics of dressed-up rabbits, meet-ups, etc. There's even a Google Earth NabazWorld community where you can see all the Nabaztags as white rabbit icons across the globe. France is especially full of them!
+ the robotic motion of the magnetized (and customizable) ears is fully choreographed and beautifully smooth (like ASIMO).
+ the open API means that new applications can be written by the user community.
+ the ability to receive podcasts and "Nabcasts" from different users. My radio station of cute Toytronic-style IDM is called Electronic.Leporidae

My only complaints are:
- the tracks you upload get clipped to under a minute (well-suited for those brief Skanfrom, Plaid, and "micromusic" tracks, but not so good for anything longer).
- the spoken voices (in UK or US English, French, German, with more to come) attempt to be too "human" and realistic, which can be frustrating for those of us who like our robots to sound like robots (though they still have a decent "SimpleTalk" vibe, and the whole Kraftwerk-esque idea of a multi-lingual robot is pretty irresistible).
- there are still a few bugs, but there are forums for discussing them.

So, fellow robots, it's time to welcome this new species of cute robotic rabbit into our dwelling-units. If you want to say hello to mine, his name is "Duplo"...