Apparently there have been rumors I totally missed: Just today Sony officially announced that their beloved Robo-Dog “Aibo” is making a comback.

Judging from the first looks it moves and behaves much more realistically than the original version. It is also said to use AI to learn about the owners behaviors and preferences and is able to bond with the owner when properly given affection. Images taken by Aibo can be accessed with the “My Aibo” app, which is also used for configuration and downloading of additional programs to run on Aibo.

It looks like this dog is going to take a lot of naps, however. The battery life is only about 2 hours and Aibo will be not cheap with a base price of ¥198.000 and a required subscription for the necessary networking services for ¥2.980 a month. Able to pre-order tonight from 11:01 PM and available from January 11th.

I wonder how he would get along with his predecessor that is still inhabiting our office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJciRIZQTg4