Like the Rolly, it's hard to say exactly why having an RFID-enabled Nano:ztag in your life will make sleeping, eating and breathing each day any easier. In fact, the jury's still out on whether these things are simply novel or primed to take over where the Tamagotchi left off. Starting now, Violet is offering a rainbow's worth of its micro Rabbit devices here in the US, with prices ranging from $6.90 to $12.90 depending on color. Now, if only you could figure out how to integrate RFID into your life, you'd be set.

Looking for a brighter, cuter way to search for those RFID implants the government has hidden somewhere in your body? The Violet RFID Mirror is your gadget, and it's now shipping. Those not running from the NWO will find the $59.99 gadget has a myriad of other uses as well, letting you tag all sorts of things and have them trigger various applications. You could set your keys on it and have it launch a traffic report, or put your wallet on there to bring up your bank statement. You know, useless but still interesting stuff -- a lot like the company's multi-colored bunnies that seem to love to sit upon them.

[Via I4U]

While initially enthused at the prospect of RFID tagging our objects for swipability by a home-based RFID reader -- like Violet's new Mir:ror -- we eventually came the realization that we would never use it for anything, ever. Still, perhaps that's just us: Mir:or, which retails for $59, packs two Nano:ztags (the little bunnies with a tag inside) and three Ztamp:s (adhesive tags), allowing you to specify computer functions to trigger when the Mir:ror is approached by one of those RFID tags. A classic usage scenario involves placing your keys on the Mir:ror, with the device letting your computer know if your keys are resting there or not -- something potentially achieved by looking at the Mir:ror itself, if you're into spoilers, but hopefully hackers can put this to better use. Violet also offers tagged children's books, and a set of 12 extra Ztamp:s, for $8 and $20, respectively. Demo video is after the break.

While we'll always know Violet for its iconic bunnies, the company is branching out into a more direct RFID application. The Mirror RFID reader is a USB-pluggable little platter that can read RFID tags and launch an assigned action on the computer when it spots a tag it knows. Examples we saw included a tagged post card of Vegas launching a corresponding picture on the computer (lame), a tagged toy car bringing up a map (getting warmer), a tagged umbrella launching the weather forecast (now we're cooking with gas), and a cute little mini-Nabaztag figurine doing whatever it wants (en fuego / choose your own tired metaphor). We could see the reader being put to use for the computer illiterate, or children having their first go at a PC, but we're more excited to see what hackers can make of the tech -- old people and children are overrated. No word on price or release date yet, but Violet has a press conferenced planned for Monday, so we should know more then.

The Nabaztag WiFi rabbit learned a new trick at CeBIT: reading RFID tagged children's books. Violet already loosed a book in France at Christmas and now plans to launch its first English language book in the UK within the month. Right, that's one less parental responsibility for you. It's also cooking up "ztamps" which are RFID stickers you can attach to anything you like. When each unique sticker is held to Nabaztag's nose, it responds with a predefined action like playing music, sending an email, reading off the latest headlines, etc. Really, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Check the video after the break -- now that they've fixed last year's service issues caused to overwhelming demand, parents might want to give this critter a second look.

While we typically question the sanity of anyone who would pay $200+ for a talking rabbit (not really, we're just jealous), it looks like Nabaztag/tag fanboys/girls have a reason to be upset. Out of the box, many buyers of the cute little bunny found that they had just purchased a cute little paperweight, since Violet's API was down for days at a time. Now that those server problems have been fixed and the Nabaztag/tag can actually receive info from the service, buyers are finding that Violet expects an extra fee for some services, and completely failed to include other features in the box, such as RFID tags compatible with the bunny. Other features are hopelessly bad in their execution, such as instances of asking tag/tag for the weather, and receiving a response three minutes later. Hardly the virtual pet nirvana most users were hoping for. Violet has indicated that it has heard the complaints of its customers, but still hasn't issued a formal response to address the issues. We'll keep an eye out for such a word, and until that day we'll put our hope in Violet-alternatives such as OpenNab, which promise to help "Unleash Your Inner Bunny" without all the hassle of tangling with the company that gave it birth.

[Thanks, Mark B]

As of midnight in France -- 6PM EST -- the Nabaztag/tag went live, bringing with it RFID, a VoIP belly button and a whole lotta love. We're not quite sure yet if we're most excited to talk into this thing's belly button, allow it to sniff our various vegetables, or observe the RFID functionality at work -- a recent demo of the rabbit showed the Nabaztag/tag reading a children's book based on RFID encoded data. Violet, the creator of Nabaztag and its new successor, is also rolling out a software update that will affect all current Nabaztags, including personalised MP3 messaging and expanded newsfeeds. Sadly, we can't get the Violet site to load right this minute, so you might have to wait a bit for the server elves to do their thing before you can make this bunny yours.