Tamagotchi creators Bandai have plans to turn iDevices (iPhone or iPod Touch) into robotic pets with Smartpet-- a clunky yet cute robot dog with an iPhone for a brain.
Controlling the robot is a free app, making the Smartpet to react to touchscreen gestures, voice commands or movements in front of the Facetime camera. The "pet" can learn various tricks, as well as make facial expressions, sing and even dance with other Smartpets via Bluetooth.
And when the games are over the Smartpet also doubles as an alarm clock and a handsfree set.
It will be available in either black or white in Japan from April 24. Sadly enough, we have no word on international availability yet.
The Gatwick North store (in the main concourse) is the first Dixons pop-up store-- a 50 sq m "Add" store supplementing the existing Dixons Travel outlet. Designed with a warm colour palette (to attract female customers, Dixons says), it sells aspirational devices such as headphones, tablets and SLR cameras.
The news follows the suspension of trading in GAME Group shares.
"Combining these two entities will rationalize HP’s go-to-market strategy, branding, supply chain and customer support worldwide," a HP statement claims.
Over the years, Google has created a rich seam of user-related data... data it can potentially (and very extensively!) mine, as seen in this illustration from Slovakia-based security vendor ESET.
