After Hours

Desktop toys: The Nabaztag is one lame rabbit

By // December 11, 2006, 10:58 PM PST // markwkaelin

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  • The holiday season is approaching fast. In fact, it seems to approach faster every year. For those of you in the giving spirit around the office, it can be difficult to find that special gift for the person on the other side of the cubicle wall. It cannot be too expensive and it should reflect a certain amount of lightheartedness and fun. I mean, after all, gift giving in an office environment is really about generating smiles and feelings of goodwill with your co-workers.
    With that spirit in mind, TechRepublic has acquired several inexpensive yet tasteful and useful desktop toys for review. One of these fine gadgets or gizmos should appeal to even the most difficult to buy for in your office.
    Next on our gift list is the Nabaztag, which comes to us courtesy of KlearGear.com.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • This is the Nabaztag rabbit. The box claims it is the first smart rabbit. I have my doubts.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • The Nabaztag is from a French company --- You can draw your own conclusions from that.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • Okay, here is where we run into problems. There are four seemingly easy steps as claimed on the box. But the fine print is that the wireless network it is connecting has to have absolutely no security features turned on to have this thing work right out of the box. Granted many more wireless network routers are set up that way then should be, but TechRepublic members know better. If you have even the basic security features active on your wireless network, you are going to have to do some configuration.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

  • One thing nice about it --- there aren't too many moving parts.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • An awful lot of warranty for such a simple product.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • I'm told the Nabaztag is cute. I'll defer to others for that determination.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • You get three choices for sound volume: Loud, not so loud, and mute.

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    Mark W. Kaelin

  • The Nabaztag rabbit has four lights and two ears that rotate. The lights can shine in one of eight colors. And that's about it.

    For the entire Desktop Toys series I have tried to remain lighthearted about any criticism --- I mean after all, this is just some fun stuff. But the Nabaztag rabbit does not get the same treatment. This has to be the worst piece of high-tech gadgetry I have ever had to deal with. On ThinkGeek, this device costs an almost unbelievable $150. That is $150 for a wireless device that has only one function --- it makes noise and flashes lights. It is basically an alarm clock for messages. And those messages have to come from the Nabaztag Web site, which requires that you register and give them junk-mail inducing personal information.

    All of that is bad enough, but get this mind-boggling detail: If you want the Nabaztag rabbit to read your stock quotes or any of the other lackluster premium services, you have to subscribe to it for an additional cost. According to a Forbes Life article in the December 2006 issue, 62,000 of these things were sold in Europe. In my mind that means there are now 62,000 IP addresses being used by a worthless device that is nothing more then a glorified paperweight. No wonder we needed the IPv6 protocol.

    &copy CNET Networks, Inc.
    Mark W. Kaelin

The holiday season is approaching fast. In fact, it seems to approach faster every year. For those of you in the giving spirit around the office, it can be difficult to find that special gift for the person on the other side of the cubicle wall. It cannot be too expensive and it should reflect a certain amount of lightheartedness and fun. I mean, after all, gift giving in an office environment is really about generating smiles and feelings of goodwill with your co-workers.
With that spirit in mind, TechRepublic has acquired several inexpensive yet tasteful and useful desktop toys for review. One of these fine gadgets or gizmos should appeal to even the most difficult to buy for in your office.
Next on our gift list is the Nabaztag, which comes to us courtesy of KlearGear.com.

&copy CNET Networks, Inc.
Mark W. Kaelin

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By Mark Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the IT industry, gadgets, finance, accounting, and tech-life for more than 25 years. Most recently, he has been a regular contributor to BreakingModern.com, aNewDomain.net, and TechRepublic.