PleoBot.com - Pleo The Dinosaur

Don’t forget that today, April 9th, is supposedly the day that Ugobe will announce the winners to their essay contest.
You can check on updates here.
Good luck everyone!

Shortly after my post about Trossen Robotics offering Pleo for preorder, I received the following comment from Ugobe:
My name is Julie Crabill and I work with UGOBE on the PR front. UGOBE has not officially begun any pre-orders for Pleo. The Trossen Robotics pre-order page was put up in response to unsanctioned communication from one [...]

Trossen Robotics is offering preorders on Pleo. They are charging $350 and are estimating Pleo will ship around July 2007.
This will buy you a Pleo, a companion guide, AC charger, “training device” and a warranty card. Also listed are the latest technical specs on Pleo:
Pleo Technical Specs:

Ugobe LifeOS
32 bit Atmel ARM 7 microprocessor - The [...]

Caleb Chung has written to the fans of Pleo to say that our little dino-babe will be delayed. Some of the reasons given for the delay are to improve Pleo’s sounds, “by upgrading the quality of the speakers, boosting the audio levels and increasing the size of the sound library”, adding another touch sensor under [...]

Ugobe is sponsoring an essay contest, and will give away 10 Pleos to the chosen winners. The contest is open till March 3rd.
In order to enter you’ll need to write a 250 word essay on:
“How do you envision robotic life forms influencing or touching your life in the next five years?”
The winners will also receive [...]

Lance Ulanoff from PC Magazine posted a short story about Pleo at CES2007. There’s also a short video of Pleo in action at the event. He writes:
“…this prototype was many levels beyond what we had seen before, The skin looked both more finished and realistic. In addition, Christopher said Ugobe had been tweaking the motors, [...]

Our 2nd Pleo poll asked this question: “Do you plan on hacking Pleo?” The results are as follows:
* Yes: 53% (42)
* No: 20% (16)
* Depends on how cute he is: 27% (21)
Total Votes : 79
For the 42 that voted “yes’, be [...]

Don’t forget that Pleo will be available for preorder starting February 3rd. You’ll be able to start the process at Pleo’s official website - http://www.ugobe.com/pleo/index.html.
Pleo should begin to ship in the 2nd quarter of 2007, which is sometime around April - June.
We’ll keep you posted as the date approaches.

The January issue of WIRED Magazine features an article on Pleo. It’s on newsstands now. Check it out.

CNN Money has listed Pleo among it’s “15 Surprises Ahead in 2007″. Check it out here.