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Watch the Pokémon Presents stream at 9AM ET for updates on 'Pokémon Scarlet,' 'Violet' and more
The latest Pokémon Presents is livestreaming at 9AM ET today, promising updates on Pokémon apps and games including Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
Adorable internet-connected bunny Nabaztag is being resurrected
Robot pets have come a long way since the heady days of Tamagotchi -- we've got Sony's adorable Aibo that requires training and Groove X's fuzzy Lovot that follows you affectionately around the house. But none have quite captured the spirit of the delightful Nabaztag, the cute internet-connected robo-bunny released in 2005, which communicated information through color, motion and sound. Now, thanks to a crowdfunding endeavor, Nabaztag is hopping back into our lives.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Nabaztag
If robotic rabbits could multiply, we'd be overrun by "kawaii" (the Japanese word for "cute") by now. Thankfully, Violet's 2005 Nabaztag robo-bunny has kept its socializing strictly to the digital realm. This adorably designed, WiFi-enabled techno-pet was created as a hub for delivering streams of user data through color, motion and sound. In fact, interaction with this "smart object's" ambient notifications and playful exterior aimed to provide a relaxing and peaceful experience. Did we mention it was also programmed to perform Tai Chi (with its ears)?
Korean StarCraft pro among first foreign eSports competitors to obtain athletic visa
Thanks to support from the competitive gaming community, one of Korea's most impressive eSports athletes has found a home in the US. Kim "Violet" Dong Hwan has ben trying to take his competitive StarCraft 2 career stateside for awhile, but a string of visa denials made his tournament schedule pretty sparse. With his country's mandatory military service looming over his head, Hwan was facing early retirement if he wasn't granted US-entry. Luckily that didn't happen. Hwan's manager rallied Blizzard Entertainment (StarCraft 2's publisher), Twitch.tv and Machinima execs, and over the course of seven months, they penned a 500-page application to immigration services. According to The Daily Dot, this tome included every article ever written about Hwan, translated into English. The result? A P-1A pro-athlete visa that will allow Hwan to compete in the country for the next five years. This is only the second time an eSports competitor has gotten an athletic visa, and now, the government may view them on the same level as, say, baseball players. For the full story (including a harrowing tale of how Hwan's house caught fire just after he sat down for a tournament) we urge you to check out the source. [Image credit: Team Liquid]
First pro-gamer recognized as an athlete by U.S. Government
A huge step forward has been taken for eSports as StarCraft II pro Kim "viOLet" Dong Hwan has been recognized as an athlete by the U.S. Government. As his sponsors, CSA, and TheDailyDot report, viOLet was one of the first to apply for the P-1A visa when it was opened to pro gamers five months ago. The visa doesn't allow him to permanently reside in the U.S., but does permit him to enter temporarily to participate in tournaments and the like, and is the same as is awarded to other athletes. While this is undoubtedly a fantastic turn of events for a StarCraft II player whose career has been fraught with mishaps, it is the bigger picture that's really important here. This sets a precedent for eSports' recognition as something on a level footing with traditional sports. It allows pro-gamers to be categorized with traditional athletes, and will only serve to further the reach of eSports and gaming. The normalization of a historically stigmatized industry is nothing but good for gaming and gamers alike. Congratulations, viOLet!
Visualized: Cassini probe gets a glimpse of Saturn's shadow
The Cassini space probe has collected quite a few memories of Saturn in its eight years, swinging by the planet's moons and even listening to lighting storms. Even so, we're being treated to an uncommon sight today: the dark side of Saturn. A newly processed set of 60 images, originally taken in October, shows what the gas giant is like from near the center of its shadow. The slightly trippy color scheme stems from a mix of visible, near-infrared and violet light in the collage. Sitting in the darkness allows for more than just pretty pictures, as well -- it reveals details about Saturn's atmosphere and rings that would otherwise be obscured by sunlight. Just be sure to etch this mosaic in your memory. The last time Cassini had an opportunity for this kind of snapshot was in 2006, which rules out any quick retakes.
Karotz connects to Facebook and Twitter, waits for Godot (video)
Nabaztag has died many a death, but that quirky rabbit's legacy still lives on in lil' bro Karotz. The desktop-friendly bunny, which just launched in the US today, is what parent company Violet is calling the "first Facebook hardware." It's a strong claim to make, but that superfluous moniker is actually better applied to the device's social networking integration. When connected to the internet, the unit's voice recognition software (processed by external servers) can execute commands to snap photos -- taken via built-in webcam -- and upload them to Facebook. You can even have it read your Twitter feed, in addition to the weather. The company's also released an app, available for Android and iOS, that gives users the ability to send typed messages through the unit -- resulting in a talking Karotz -- or simply manipulate its ears. It's a fun exercise in uselessness -- at least, that's how one rep on the showroom floor put it. Can't decide if you've got $129 to burn? Then check out our video below while you ponder the merits of this pointless tech.
Nabaztag robotic rabbits rise from the ashes at midnight
Twas a sad day when Mindscape was forced to shutter the online service used by its collection of Nabaztag robotic rabbits -- as the tale goes, the domain's demise left the tiny, Linux-running hares inanimate, mute and nearly useless. But just five short months later, things are starting to look up. Via email, the company has confirmed that nabaztag.com will come (back) alive on midnight of December 24th (a timezone was not specified), allowing Nabaztag users to communicate with their coney comrades. "At midnight you can turn your rabbits on without changing anything," writes the bunny builder. That's not all. The company is promising to "enrich" the devic's modules with "community contributions." If you're a Nabaztag owner, step away from that eggnog and put on a pot of coffee... Christmas is coming a full 24-hours early.
Mindscape pulls the server plug on Nabaztag, hands source code to developers
Mindscape's ambient hare progenitors are officially headed off to that matrix briar patch in the sky. Turns out a battle with the server's host has left the company in a sticky financial situation, effectively shutting down support for the WiFi-enabled bunnies. In a recent YouTube announcement, CEO Thierry Bensoussan addressed the community's concerns, offering up source code that ensures a homebrew future for the Little Linux-Bunny Foo Foo forebears. Hobbyists hoping to snag that Nabaztag.com domain for themselves will instead have to accept a url redirect, as the site remains firmly under the software publisher's lock and key. But don't mourn your news reading, weather-forecasting buddy just yet, you can always replace it with the discounted love of lil' bro, Karotz.
Karotz to start shipping, Nabaztag to return from dead for Easter
Cadbury aside, nothing says Easter quite like a good resurrection tale, and this story's got it -- starring a rabbit, no less. Owners of Nabaztag, the email-reading / weather-forecasting / and generally adorable WiFi-enable desktop buddy, have been reporting a massive die-off of their beloved ambient bunnies, a tragic end due to a recent server move. The rabbits' manufacturer tells us that the network issues should be resolved by next week -- something of a belated Easter celebration. The rebirth is also perfectly timed to welcome Nabataztag's second coming as Karotz -- those who pre-ordered should start seeing the glowing woodland creature in their mailboxes next week.
Violet strikes again in the Mystery Next Door: an interactive iOS children's book
Our friend Violet is back in the third original installment of this excellent modern series of interactive children's books from My Black Dog Books LLC. Violet and the Mystery Next Door (US$3.99) is a universal app that looks great in landscape mode on any iOS device. The book tells the story of how Violet finds a mysterious new neighbor, just her age, and goes about finding more about him in the snow. The Violet series has added more play value with each story, and this one adds branching. At two points in the story, you are asked a yes or no question. Depending upon your answer, you are taken to a number of pages that follow that line, eventually ending up at the same place and continuing the story. This adds much more variety for small children since they can follow a number of branches, making the book shorter or longer. Eventually, kids will take all the paths, causing them to spend more time with Violet and her world. This was an excellent design decision and really adds a lot to the book. Another good choice was to put a book icon in the upper left that lets you scroll to any page in the book. In one branch, you are asked if the mysterious boy sees Violet sneaking up on him. Answering no causes the boy to go into his house, where you see that he has a lot of toys. Then he runs outside to make a snow angel and vanishes, so Violet has to find him. When she does find him, they have an interactive snowball fight. If you tell the app that the boy did see Violet, she chases him to his Clubhouse, where you'll find an empty snowman. You can build the snowman by moving his eyes, nose, buttons and some other things onto it, providing even more play value. Violet and the mysterious boy eventually wind up at the snowball fight, and the story takes off from there. %Gallery-118930%
MindScape's Karotz continues the proud Nabaztag lineage
It's been a while since we've heard anything on the Nabaztag front. Violet, the company that built the original "ambient" bunnies, went bankrupt but was snapped up by MindScape a year ago. Now MindScape is ready to show off the latest addition to the Nabaztag family, dubbed "Karotz." The WiFi rabbit runs on Linux, with a 400MHz ARM CPU, 64MB of RAM and 256MB of storage, so it should have plenty of headroom for that vibrant hacker community that sprung up around the first two Nabaztags. Karotz can also run off batteries or be plugged in via USB, and has the same RFID reader functionality of the Nabaztag/tag. The biggest new feature is a webcam, which will purportedly have face recognition (to be paired with Nabaztag's existing voice recognition), along with allowing you to check up on your home from a smartphone app. Karotz will retail in France starting in November for €150 (about $210 US), followed by the UK in December and February in the US. Hopefully Karotz can find a bit more market success than its ill-fated predecessors. %Gallery-105157%
Violet returns to the iPad in a wonderful interactive storybook
Violet is back in the second installment of the Violet series of children's interactive storybooks for the iPad, Violet and the Mysterious Black Dog (US$2.99) from My Black Dog Books. I liked the first one quite a lot, and I found this one to be even better. Once again, Allison Keeme does a phenomenal job of rendering the world of Violet and her family. Violet's world is attractive, colorful, whimsical, and consistent. Any child familiar with the first Violet book will immediately feel comfortable and get right into the narrative. Finding the mysterious black dog that was teased in the first book is the basis of this second volume. The story is simple and quite appropriate for ages four and up. Violet dons her mask and assumes her alter ego as Phantom Girl, going off in search of clues and hoping to find the black dog. When she inevitably does find the dog, a lesson is taught on how children should approach and deal with stray dogs, including a citation from the Humane Society. The 19-page book is a great technical improvement over the previous offering. In the first book, there was scant interactivity and the potential of children getting frustrated by having to tap on everything to get infrequent payoffs. In this book, the important tappable objects are defined by dotted yellow lines, kind of like a treasure map. When an object is tapped, it produces a detailed enlargement of the object. For slightly older or more inquisitive kids, there are unmarked tappable items on the majority of pages that kick off actions or sounds, like a lamp lighting or the buzzing of bees. There are also nice little animations that often appear, such as the bouncing of Violet's little sister's ball, or the mysterious dog popping his head into the page. I especially enjoyed one page where you are told to help Violet find clues, but the child can find a clue that Violet doesn't find, bringing the reader deeper into the story and adding a level of interactivity and involvement that was missing in the first book. Another welcome addition is that there is a speaker icon in the upper left corner of each page. When tapped, it plays a recording of Allison Keeme reading the page, and her reading is excellent.
Violet for the iPad: an interactive children's book
Violet for the iPad (US$2.99) from My Black Dog Books is the latest entry in the emerging field of interactive books for children. Geared at children ages 4 and up, Violet is the first of a series of stories about a charming little girl with a big secret. The 20 page book tells a nice little tale, along with a moral, and it introduces elements that will be continued in future books. Allison Keeme's illustrations are beautifully drawn, and they take full advantage of the graphic capabilities of the iPad. If you like, you can take a look Allison's process of building the graphics. I'm positive that small children will enjoy reading about Violet and her secret identity. The world of Violet has a consistent look and a great attention to detail. When the family gathers around the breakfast table after one of Violet's exploits, they look absolutely exhausted, but you'll have to read the book to see why. There are two specific tasks to perform in the book, and I think it was a good design choice to have the book do it if the child doesn't. Unfortunately, I found a number of problems with the execution of the app, which may frustrate small children. There is scant interactivity to be found. With many possibilities for interaction, only a small number of things that you can tap on actually do anything. There are quite a few pages that are static. In fact, outside of credits on the first page, the first bit that does anything appears on page five, and you might easily miss it. There is a spider that swings when touched. If the accelerometer was used, as in Alice, it would be much more apparent. I can imagine small kids getting frustrated by tapping on everything and not getting paid off very often. A real design problem is that you need to tap on a page in order to display an arrow that, when tapped on again, gets you to the next page. I think the arrow should be persistent and eliminate an unneeded tap on every page.
Nabaztag can't make RFID cool, has to file for bankruptcy
We always knew that any company courageous enough to take a technology designed to help mega-corps monitor their inventory levels and make it mainstream would face an uphill battle, but we never envisioned Nabaztag caving entirely to the pressure. If a snippet in a recent issue of Les Echos (a French financial paper) is to be believed, the creator of the rabbit-inspired Violet RFID Mirror has filed for bankruptcy, giving any company interested in keeping the brand alive until September 4th to toss out a cash infusion. Not like we're looking at you, Mr. VC, but we're definitely hoping to not be sobbing about this in just under a month. Tick, tock.[Voa Loic Le Meur]
Violet starts shipping Nano:ztags in the US
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.
Nabaztag's Violet RFID-readin' USB Mirror now available
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]
Print magazine + RFID = hyperbole
Adding to an exclusive -- but growing -- list of things that were just as well off before running headlong into RFID technology, the next issue of France's Amusement Magazine is billing itself as the "first ever connected to the Internet!" The PR we received for this bad boy asks some questions: "What if a magazine... could consist of paper, ink, electronic components and digital content all at the same time? What if the contents of a magazine could go on living forever in cyberspace? What if the difference between written and digital text finally becomes one in the same?" May we add one more question to the list? How about, "why can't you just throw in a CD-ROM / DVD-ROM like everybody else?" Or maybe, "What am I supposed to do with this?" If you're a Francophone with a Violet Mir:ror laying around, hit that read link. PR after the break.
Violet brings Mir:ror to the States, let the RFID superfluity begin!
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.
UPDATED: Brew of the Year removed from Brewmaster achievement on PTR
EDIT: Bornakk says that the achievement will be replaced in the meta achievement with one that requires you to simply sign up for the Brew of the Month Club. And for those who doubted my psychic powers: Noblegarden achievements are being added to Long, Strange Trip.Following the pattern of removing achievements that take a while to complete from the holiday meta-achievements, Blizzard yanked Brew of the Year from Brewmaster on the current 3.1 PTR. This means that anyone who was missing it now has yet another fair shake at getting their Violet Proto-Drake for completing all of the other holiday achievements for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. I'm pleased that players who missed that one achievement can still have a shot at the big prize, but man, there seems to be an awful lot of meta-achievement caving lately. It just creates the impression that complaining about something will get it changed, and I don't think that's what Blizzard wants players to believe.To be fair, it was physically impossible for Death Knights to get this achievement until sometime in 2010. This is a good change for them and I'm okay with that. And no, I'm not against Blizzard removing unfair achievements from reward-bearing metas. This was also the only achievement which was impossible to complete during the event itself. We'll see if the pattern holds after people miss another impossible-to-miss achievement in the Noblegarden set. Grats to those for whom this achievement change will make a difference, and early props for your purple dragon.
