Nabaztag: Wi-Fi Meets Impossibly Cute Toy

When the good folks at Violet told me about Nabaztag, I didn't quite know what to think. I didn't know how to pronounce Nabaztag. And frankly, I didn't quite know what it was at all.

Here we have a kind of stylized bunny, about eight inches tall, with lights embedded into his torso. His ears wiggle. He makes noises. He's powered by wall power, but that's about all I could tell.

Well here's what Nabaztag is: It's a Wi-Fi-enabled curio that exists somewhere between toy and television. After configuring him to access your wireless network (which can be a little tricky, but some trial and error gets the job done), you name him (mine is "Zipper"... it seemed like a good name for a rabbit), then tell him what you want to do on the nabaztag.com website.

You can have him light up and wiggle and chirp at random, which is an interesting distraction, or you can have him report on the world around him. He can tell the time verbally (and even though he's French, he has a British accent), and he can signal how the stock market is going. (If it's down, his belly lights up with the bulbs running to the left. It it's up, his belly lights go toward the right. The faster they go, the bigger the swing.)

Today I have Zipper configured to let me know whenever I receive an email. It's not just charming, it's actually useful.

The Nabaztag is huge in Europe (especially France, of course), and he's just now starting to make his way to the States. You can find them online for about $150. I assure you, from a conversation piece standpoint, it's worth every penny.