iDog
The iDog is a robot dog designed and manufactured by Sega Toys. It is also manufactured by Hasbro which provides the iDog to North American audiences. It is also marketed as the eDog in Germany and the Netherlands.
The iDog reacts to music from an external source, such as an MP3 player. It features seven flashing LED lights on its face and has the ability to 'dance' to the beat of the music. It also has a number of switches on its nose, head and tail which allow it to react to user input. It has various emotions (which change based on user interaction) that provide different color patterns on its LED lights. Made famous for multicoloured lights. The iDog was probably designed to interact with the iPod (hence the name, even though the iPod is designed by the Apple Computer company), though it will work with any 3.5mm audio jack input, and has an integrated speaker. It also reacts if placed near an audio source (such as speakers), and has 70 built-in melodies.
The iDog went on sale worldwide between March and April of 2005. The iDog now comes in several colours including white, black, pink, a Target Stores exclusive red, a Toys "R" Us exclusive lime green, a tiger print, and a dalmatian print with either black or multi colored spots.
Japan also sells iDog Color, where the iDog is available in pale blue with star-shaped lights (Happy) and a pale pink with heart-shaped lights (Lovely).
In 2007, Tiger Electronics released the iDog Amp'd. It was an upgraded version of the iDog with stereo speakers which nodded its head and tapped its foot in time to the music being played on it.
Interestingly a cut-down version of the iDog was manufactured for the MacDonalds corporation, based on the same chasis but with reduced functionality and different styling. The toy has a switch on its underside that turns on the toy and subsequent pressing of the nose button causes the lights in the head to flash varying colours. There is no speaker or movement. The toy is labelled as being made for MacDonalds and features Sega and Hasbro copyright information (2007). The toy was distributed as the gift in MacDonald's Happy Meals.
Personalities and moods
The type of music you play for the iDog affects its personality: