SONY :: AIBO :: On Magazine.com -- Reviews : Look Out for the Trojan Dog
Retooled version of the famous metallic mutt is sturdier, cheaper and packed with more features than its predecessor. Future add-ons will make it more than a toy.
By Chris Taylor
[...] the Sony strategy of convergence: seed the device using its attractiveness as a plaything, then build on its central place in home life. Sound familiar? "It's like PlayStation 2 with four legs and a voice," says Takeshi Yazawa, vice president of Sony's Entertainment Robots division. "This is very much the beginning of robots in the home. The hardware is there; future applications are to come."
In other words, make way for the Trojan dog. Remove AIBO's limbs and head (and starting later this year, you will indeed be able to customize them — wheels for legs, a head with a better camera) and what you're effectively left with is a computer. His torso already has a powerful CPU and a slot for memory sticks. What's mostly needed for the all-singing, all-dancing future of AIBO to kick in is more storage. Right now, for instance, he would only have enough memory to store seven digital photos. But anyone who has ever bought a PC knows how fast that changes. Think Moore's Law. [...]