The must-have new tech gizmo or just a cute little rabbit? Both!

Picture yourself at home. In a corner of the room, on a coffee table, a shelf or a desk, a pretty little white Rabbit, knee-high to a grasshopper, has made his abode. He says nothing, just sits there unobtrusively, silently flashing funny little luminous animations on his tummy. You glance at Nabaztag and, through the color of his lights, effortlessly discover that the NASDAQ is down but that tomorrow’s weather is sunny.

Suddenly, your Nabaztag comes alive and begins talking and moving his ears. He tells you that the important email you were expecting has just arrived, he reads out headlines from the New York Times like you asked him to, or he breaks into “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, a musical declaration of love sent by a special someone. Or perhaps Nabaztag is just enjoying a few relaxing Tai Chi exercises.

That’s Nabaztag: a companion who is often discreet (but loud when he has to be), adaptable and versatile; in turn useful, funny and poetic, or all of these at once. A magical presence in your real world.

Nabaztag isn’t only a Rabbit. He’s also a technological object.

Nabaztag has just one wire, for electrical power. But his true umbilical cord is cordless: he connects to the Internet through a broadband connection and Wi-Fi access point.

Adopt a Rabbit, set him up in your home. Log on to his website (www.nabaztag.com), give him a name and select all the things you want him to do for you.

Nabaztag lives his quiet life, while continually monitoring the net to provide the services you have requested, accomplish the missions you have assigned, give you real-time info and transmit messages from your friends. He’s usually tame, but occasionally voices his own opinions and moods.

Best of all, because Nabaztag feeds on the Internet and because the Internet is boundless, there are no limits to what he can do or could do tomorrow.

What can he do?

INFORMATION

Nabaztag tells you the weather forecast, the level of pollution outside, and the state of the stock market.

He reads you the paper or your favorite blogs, turning any website into a radio (but one that speaks only when there is something new to report).

ALERTS

Nabaztag alerts you when an important email arrives, tells you when your friends are on-line and, most importantly, wakes you up in the morning.

COMMUNICATION

Nabaztag receives and reads messages from your friends, including email or Short Message Service (SMS), musical messages, text-to-speech messages and sound postcards. Plus, he has his own special language of reciprocal ear movements: when you move your Nabaztag’s ears, the ears of your loved one’s Rabbit move accordingly, no matter where in the world.

LET HIM LIVE HIS LIFE

Let Nabaztag express his moods freely. Allow him to relax with his Tai Chi exercises. If he tells the time with a different style from hour to hour, it’s because he enjoys change.

ENTERTAINMENT

Dive into the world of Nabcasts, content channels produced by Nabaznauts (the wider community of Rabbit owners), with games, information, poetry, sound effects, humor and music. Rabbits are eclectic creatures.

OPENNESS

Nabaztag is open to the world, he’s always eager to learn new stuff. If you have developer skills, let your imagination wander freely, create new applications for Nabaztag or hook up your Rabbit to your existing services.

HIS NEWEST TALENTS

Nabaztag/tag is exercising his independence from PCs. With his new sensory capabilities, he can establish a direct and personal relationship with his masters and the world around him.

HEARING: A NAVEL SENSE

Violet gave Nabaztag/tag a navel. It’s a well-know fact that Rabbits hear through their bellybuttons because their ears are too busy doing other stuff. This bellybutton microphone opens the door to new applications: Voice activation: Talk to your Rabbit. Give him orders. Say “Weather!” for the latest forecast, “Footsie!” and you’ll get the FT index, “Play dead!” and Nabaztag will go to sleep.

Say “Radio” followed by the name of a station to hear your favorite tunes, or simply “Radio” to hear a station chosen at random by your Rabbit.

Voice messages: Send messages by speaking into the Rabbit’s navel, answer messages from your friends, or engage in Rabbit to Rabbit conversations with other members of the Nabaznaut community.

MORE TALK: UNLIMITED FLOW

Nabaztag has been re-designed to take full advantage of the vast amount of sound data available on the Internet. He can talk, sing or play sound continuously (stream) from any sound source on the Internet, without limits (or for as long as you let him).

With his extensive speech capacities, Nabaztag can play any WebRadio in MP3. He will effortlessly let you hear all the Podcasts you so often download but never actually listen to.

Plus, you can stay up-to-date on the latest news with RSS feeds through your Rabbit. You can combine Nabaztag’s WebRadio, Podcast and RSS feed services to create your own play-list.

SCENT: OPEN TO THE WORLD OF OTHER OBJECTS

Nabaztag/tag’s most revolutionary new talent is undoubtedly his ability to “sniff” other objects with the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader in his nose.

Beginning in June 2007, Violet will release NabZtamps, stickers embedded with an RFID chip that can be affixed to any item in order to make it identifiable or recognizable. With NabZtamps, Nabaztag can perceive the presence of objects and you can decide how he should respond.

Wave your house keys under Nabaztag’s nose to tell him you’re home and he’ll instantly alert your partner by email.

Let him smell a deck of cards and he’ll play games with you.

Dress up your Rabbit in Samurai garb and he just might start speaking Japanese. In fact, you can assign a Nabaztag action or behavior to each of your everyday objects bearing a NabZtamp.

NabZtamps will fundamentally change the way in which man, Internet and objects interact, with a range of new uses to be revealed and invented in the near future.

AUDIO OUT

Nabaztag/tag has an audio output (mini-jack plug) to connect to headphones or external speakers for even more sound.

The plug is also a way to connect Nabaztag/tag to objects that react to music, but are not smart. For instance, you could connect a Hasbro / Sega iDog to Nabaztag/tag to enable your friends to send messages to your dog too.

WPA ENCRYPTION

Nabaztag/tag supports WPA as well as WEP encryption, and can securely connect to your protected home Wi-Fi network.

Adopting a Rabbit is very easy. Just take him home. Place him somewhere in your everyday environment where you can always keep an eye on him.

Connect your Rabbit to your home Wi-Fi network. Nabaztag uses the Internet to access the Rabbit server (Nabaztag.com) that continuously feeds him. He is a stand-alone animal: he does not connect to your computer and works even when your PC or Mac is turned off.

Once you have connected your Rabbit to the Internet, you just have to go to my.Nabaztag.com. Register your new friend and give him a name so that the rest of the world recognizes him and can send him messages. Then use Nablife, the directory of services, to select and personalize your Nabaztag’s services to your tastes and needs.

Fed in real time through the Internet, your Nabaztag will continuously provide the services you request, updating information, reading received messages, alerting you when something happens, etc.

HOW DOES HE DO ALL THIS?

Nabaztag enters the world with all of the new technical capabilities described herein. They constitute his vast range of expression. Violet, its partners, and the wider community of users continuously develop and offer new services to make full use of Nabaztag’s talents.

Unlike regular objects, smart communicating objects are endowed with the ability to learn, to become instantly capable of providing new services, applications or contents designed for them, to perpetually feed on new ideas. The only limit is imagination. Once a new service is created and added to Nablife, the directory of services, it is available to all existing Rabbits.

So please bear in mind that any examples of how Nabaztag’s new talents can be used are merely indicative.

LANGUAGES

Nabaztag offers full services in 6 languages: US and UK English, Spanish, German, French and Italian.

Nabaztag can speak 16 languages (reading messages and written texts): US and UK English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Flemish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Suomi, Islenska, Swedish, Norwegian, Turkish and Polish.

USER INFORMATION

On the Web: www.nabaztag.com Via email: hello@nabaztag.com

WHEN? WHERE? HOW MUCH?

Nabaztag is available in the US, Canada, France, Benelux, Switzerland, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain but may be ordered on-line from anywhere in the world.

Recommended retail price: $190

TECHNICAL DETAILS

A. Nabaztag requires a broadband Internet connection and Wi-Fi access point

B. A computer fitted with a Wi-Fi card may, in some cases, be required for Nabaztag’s initial set-up

C. Nabaztag works even when your computer is shut down.

D. Nabaztag is fully compatible with any kind of computer, including Mac, PC, Linux

E. Nabaztag/tag supports both WEP and WPA encryption of Wi-Fi communications

F. Nabaztag uses 110/220 Volts power supply

G. Any single Rabbit can be used anywhere in the world.