Reviews// Sega Toys' iDog - Hands on

So you’re a Sega fan and a gadget lover. You have an iPod but no one’s interested anymore. They’re just so 2001 and even the iTrip in your car doesn’t impress. Showing people the Nomad you came across, well, the less said about that the better.



There is but one (affordable) option remaining. The iDog, an Apple imitating robotic personal music-player peripheral. SPOnG just got hold of one so we thought we’d share the experience with you. We’re nice like that.



Costing the price of a pint of beer in Japan (4,100 yen, around £20) you get what you pay for in the world of robotic canine companionship. Sega Toys’ iDog moves his (and he’s clearly a boy dog – you can just tell) head from left to right and wiggles his ears. And that’s it. There is a moment of excitement you experience getting him out of his box (after the slight disappointment that he’s about half the size you expected) when you believe that his legs might move in some way. This lasts about a minute, roughly the same amount of time it takes you to start wondering – who at Sega thought they’d get away with the iDog’s name, design and packaging.



The heady days of complete disrespect for the IP of the west are long gone in Japan, with that ethos now exported to a more than accepting neighbour across the East China Sea. However, no one told Sega Toys’ designers this. The iDog comprises white plastic and silver mouldings. It comes in a cubic packaging. It’s called iDog and in Japan, its only retail space is within the iPod sections of electronic retailers.



So once you've unpacked your iDog, you’re left thinking – what is it and what does it do? Essentially it's a Tamagochi extension, iDog is designed to be carried around to keep you company when enjoying personal audio. It has a 3.3 mm audio input and will dance to music and offer a lightshow through their cute, if slightly bleak face.

Touching his nose and tail, caressing his ears, talking to him, clapping and waving your hand in front of his face also gleans some reaction.



In fact, one of the more impressive elements of the iDog is the multicoloured LED display offered in frontal view. When you play music through his small, mono back-mounted speaker certain tones result in certain colours, beats resulting in head and ear movement. You know those really expensive noise-sensitive coloured wall lights your boss might have? Sega’s iDog offers this functionality on a small, if dimly-lit budget.



Taking three AAA batteries, the iDog is not something SPOnG would usually cover, though the fact that this is a Sega product does open the way for our long-talked about gadget section which we expect to grow in the coming months.



All of which leaves you wondering whether you should get one or not. Canny shopping will see one imported from Japan for around £48 (after the VAT man has had his 1.175 pounds of flesh). That's a mere 30% of the price a Cream the Rabbit UFO Catcher plush will set you back. There is no way you’ll see this on sale outside of Japan, given Sega’s shareholder-enraging refusal to offer its Toys range to foreign territories so it’s import or be damned.



For Sega fans and Apple enthusiasts, iDog is simply a must. Bound to increase in value as the year’s tick by, he represents a stylish (and Sega-manufactured) addition to any geek space you might want to fill.