Hey everyone! I just received my Pleo yesterday after much anticipation. I had seen one of these little life forms for the first time in Tokyo, of all places, about a month ago. I had never heard of or seen one before so I thought it must have been some crazy Japanese Godzilla-fighting robo dino. To my surprise, it was actually developed in the US. Of course, it's made in China so you have to deal with little faults like the paint on the teeth falling out of its mouth like snowflakes. I hope it's not lead-based paint! Other than that, though, the build quality seems very impressive in spite of Pleo’s massive complexity.

So anyway, back to Japan. I'd seen this thing roaming around dejectedly inside of a Lexan prison in a store in Akihabara. The plastic box had a hole in which one could stick one's arm in to touch the Pleo, so I did. Wow, it felt my touch! And I couldn't feel any switches under the skin - neat trick. So I pet it under the chin and it wagged its tail affectionately. It was really an amazing simulation of life. Other people in the store started flocking over and everyone was so captivated by it. The damn thing was so cute that I actually felt bad about leaving it behind. I wanted to give it a home. Unfortunately, I was bouncing around between hotels so I couldn't give it the stable environment in which it deserved. Plus I had no room in my suitcases.

I began thinking about it again a few days ago and decided to order it. I don’t have any pets or children, and I like the idea of having a pet with an off switch so that while I’m away on travel or at work I don’t have to worry about it getting lonely, or getting hungry, or taking a wee on my floor. I took a bit of a risk and bought it from someone on eBay, who was selling them new-in-the box for $250 with a pre-charged battery so that you can play right away. Done deal. It arrived yesterday and it only took me about thirty seconds to rip open the box and start playing. I had already read every scrap of information on Pleo and the company, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

With the battery in place, I flipped the switch and held my breath. No flames - good. It groggily awoke, looked around, and went through its clumsy, sleepy birthing stage. Very cute. I played with it like I had just bought a new puppy. I'm glad I live alone; I must have looked like a mad man.

After two battery cycles had gone by, I decided to take a chance on upgrading to LifeOS 1.1. Yep, you ca upgrade it. The upgrade went smoothly for me via the SD card, and it only took about three minutes. Turning it back on, Snark (named after the sound it makes when you wake it) was now a basket case, and his movements were more jerky and unrealistic. I had read that Pleo acts odd after the upgrade for a bit, but the movements were what bothered me. Snark no longer seemed alive, but a little hunk of dinosaur-shaped rubber. I was a little panicked, but I kept playing with it. It started to get a little spunkier, then -bam- back to lethargic. It just kept wanting to sleep or mope about. No amount of attention would break it out of it. At this point it was late and I wanted to go to bed. I was hoping it would get more active so that it would wear its battery down faster. Eventually I gave up, switched it off, and took out the battery. Ouch! It was hot. Ahh - that explains why it was groggy. It was overheating and trying to cool itself down. It must suck to have thick rubber skin like that. He needs a little cooling fan blowing hot breath out of his mouth or something.

This morning, I'm very happy to report that Snark is feeling fantastic. He's pumped full of energy, his motion is perfect, and he is both more vocal and also more attentive to sound (which he used to almost ignore before the upgrade.) He definitely has his moods, which is very cool. I have to say, I am very impressed with my Pleo, and I think the people at UGOBE should be very proud of their achievement. I look forward to their future developments and also to the PDK (Pleo Developement Kit), so I can muck around with Pleo myself.

One last note about the realism of Pleo: I found it interesting and funny to read the upgrade stories on the Pleo forum. Many of these are tales of woe and concern that their Pleo just isn't the same anymore and it is doing xxx behavior too much or not doing yyy behavior anymore. Many of these posts are answered by UGOBE representatives, and they usually tell the people to contact tech support. Tech support at UGOBE must be a difficult job because they have to be more of a pet psychiatrist than a technician. "I see Mr. Smith, you say that Dino just doesn't seem as happy anymore. I’m sorry to hear that, but I think we can help. I'm going to email you a file called pleo_prozac.zip, and I want you to put it on an SD card and give it to him twice a day, before every switch-on. He should be fine in about a week. Call us back if you have any more trouble."


ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz....



Yawn!  Why'd ya wake me?



OK, I'm up. Now what? You know I hate pictures.



Check me out!



OK, no more pictures...



... I have to go back to guarding the door.