Answers to questions submitted to the makers of Nabaztag...

#1. Customer support. Will Violet be implementing a 24 hour, 1-800
number for support. Or, any phone support at all?

Currently we don't plan to offer phone support. The support has been internalized and we think it's much better now. We sometimes call some users when the problem is too long or too difficult to resolve by email.

#2. When will the balance of the features shown in the flash video be
available, including the ability to speak to one Nabaztag and have
your voice play on another, as well as RFID detection?

We are working on a version of PushToTalk that will work with voice recognition to setup the recipient. This should be available before the summer. A simpler version that will "talk" to the married Nabaztag could be implemented sooner if we have a lot of requests for it. Do we?

RFID will be available beginning of May with a beta test beginning of April 2007.

#3. When will the API support all listed parameters, including choreography?

We plan to release a new (but compatible) API by end of April.

#4. Do you plan to release documentation on the internal architecture
of Nabaztag V2, as they once did for V1?

Yes we plan to do this, but later this year as the bytecode is not stable yet and we may change it or add some functions.

#5. Whenever you decide to activate RFID. Will you send RFID labels to
existing customers? Will you sell label packs?

As RFID tags will be sold separately (packs of 3 tags). We have no plan to send tags to existing customers.

#6. When will we be able to delete our own accounts? It would seem
easier to delete our own account instead of emailing violet every time
we need an account deleted.

Currently, we are working so that you don't have to delete accounts because of bugs during the registration. Expect a new and cleaner registration process in a month.

We will add the ability to delete your own account later.

#7. How will the limit on messages for free rabbits work when the
restrictions are put into place? Will this apply to receiving messages
via the API as well?

The limit is a number of messages per months. Historically, this limitation was not applied to messages sent through the API. The API is limited in terms of messages/second so that developer does not clog up the bandwidth.

#8. Will we be able to communicate to our rabbits directly through
wifi/local network, rather than use the nabaztag server? Are there any
plans to update the firmware on the V1 Nabaztags?

No plan to build a local server (OpenNab is a great product that we use for demoing the rabbit in shops :-). The V1 firmware won't be updated.

#9. When will there be a distribution center in the UK? The company
I'm getting it from in France is HORRENDOUS at packing the goods.

I am sorry for that. Usually they are not so bad and we did not have any complaints.

#10. Will we be able to set our own Radio stations up so that we can
verbally request a certain station from the rabbit?

Yes! Soon!

#11. What is the likelihood of being able to use the Bunny as a Skype phone?

To do that, we need to go further into the voice command by enabling "private grammar" for users. With this feature, you will be able to say "send messages to bunny456787" where bunny456787 is one of your friends and thus recognized. With this feature (available first for the web radio, where you define a word to trigger a specific radio) you could imagine building an SIP phone.

#12. (Long message from Sache). Basically, would Violet consider
making updates to the code to allow easy substitutions for the 'home'
server that Nabaztag communications with, for support of servers such
as OpenNab? Basically, slight modifications to locate.jsp?

Not in the very near future but we think it's a very good idea.

Before giving a very easy switch to all the users, we need to see how alternate servers like OpenNab can scale to dozens of thousands of simultaneous Nabaztags (we know we have been bad at Christmas! We have learned a lot that the solutions are not trivial at all and require, unfortunately, a significant amount of resources).

The other point regarding alternate servers : We would like to be able for people connecting on different servers to be able to communicate and, for this, we may have to change our directory also.

We are following, very closely, all the developments and believe this is a key direction for our platform. In other words, we do not have a walled-garden mindset at all !

#13. Include temperature for all cities at some point?

Currently, we are adding cities on request (and we think it's a great service :-)

#14. Include a way to see a summary all all time-selected values on
the my.nabaztag.com website, instead of having to open each one? Also,
the ability to choose which voice reads an RSS feed.

Yes, this is a functionality on the roadmap : a timeline of all the events related to your Nabaztag. Planned for this summer, because we need to work on a very clean UI to modify/add services.

#15. Would like the ability to set the default voice for Nabaztag.

You mean the text to speech voice? (By the way : we will add 13 languages in about a month).

#16. More control over the LEDs via the API, for defaults, ambient,
special signaling applications.

In progress.

#17. Better multiple Nabaztag support on the my.nabaztag.com website.
Cleaner logouts to switch between Nabaztags (deleting cookies
automatically).

This is filed as a bug, so it should be corrected soon.

#18. Better indication of which services are for Nabaztag V1 and
Nabaztag V2 (so you don't subscribe your V1 Nabaztag to a V2 service).

Filed as update. Should come with a small revamp in the design of the pages.