Ok.. First of all - thanks alot! Now I've gone and spent $30 on a brand new robot! That is not like me at all!

Mine showed up on my doorstep (quite literally) this morning. After work tonight, I tore into the packaging (three twist ties - no big deal) and took out my brand new Devil/Angel Chatterbot. It's a lot bigger than I expected and cute as hell - no pun intended (yeah, right! )

My first attempt was to get it installed on my iMac. That go me no where - all the installation file did was to come up and close immediatley. I am going to assume that it is either ecause of the operating system (10.39) or the processor (400 MHz - don't laugh. It does everything that my 2.3 GHz PC does). Too bad, because if it had worked, I was going to back online and get the Dog/Cat (no way I want that Fairy sitting on my desk - can you image my biker customer's reactions!). So I went ahead and installed it on the PC. I always assume that the software included with any hardware is out of date, so I downloaded the software off the WowWee website. Imagine my surprise when that software immediatley updated itself over net - and then THAT version update itself again! For a brand new fresh off the assembly line robot. Oh well.

Everything works great, except that the program that I use to record Coast to Coast AM every night doesn't work as long as I have the sound device set to the Chatterbot. It seems that I can set the audio device to SoundBlaster and, although standard audio comes through the SoundBlaster's speakers (my stereo system), the Chatterbot still talks and responds to trigger events.

All in all, even though it's cute, I think it's going to get old really quick. I saw where the Dog/Cat and the Fairy Godfather move their mouths - the Devil/Angel doesn't. All he does is bob his head and flash LEDs in his eyes and horns. Some of the things it says are cute, but I'll have to let you know in a few months (or weeks) if he's still plugged in and chattering away or if I've thrown it across the room.

Derek Tombrello
www.RobotsAndComputers.com

and because I have to make a living...
www.ShelbyTVService.com