The iDog is a robot dog

Robot dog

Robotic dogs are robots designed to resemble dogs in appearance and behavior, usually incorporating canine characteristics such as barking or tail-wagging...

 toy designed and manufactured by Sega

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 Toys, marketed by Hasbro

Hasbro

Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...

in the United States. iDog receives input from an external music source, such as a MP3 player, lighting up and "dancing" to the rhythm of the music. It is also marketed as the eDog in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

Although the original iDog was designed by Sega, the iDog Amped, iDog Dance, iCat, iCy, iTurtle, and iDog Soft Speaker were all designed by Hasbro.

Basic iDog

The iDog reacts to music from an external source, such as an MP3 player. It features seven flashing LED

LEd

LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 lights on its face and has the ability to 'dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

' 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. The iDog was designed to interact

Interaction

Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect...

 with the iPod

IPod

iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

, though it will work with any 3.5mm audio jack input, and has an integrated speaker

Loudspeaker

A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

iDog variations

As a promotional tie in with Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...

, Sega manufactured iDogs resembling Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

. In 2007, Tiger Electronics released the iDog Amp'd, 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. The iDog Pup, a puppy version of the iDog with poseable ears and a moving head, was released in 2007.

In 2008, three new versions of the iDog were released. The iDog Clip is a fully functional mini-sized iDog which can be clipped onto a backpack

Backpack

A backpack is, in its simplest form, a cloth sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders, but there can be exceptions...

. The iDog Dance is a larger version of the iDog that stands up and dances in time to the music. In 2009, Sega released the stuffed iDog Soft Speaker and the iDog plush puppy, which did not require batteries. Now there is a version of the i-dog known as the i-dog amp'd it is a well modified version of the i-dog.

Personalities

Different kinds of music cause iDog to develop different personalities, as displayed through the color of LED

LEd

LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 lights that flash and blink on its face.

iCat

The iCat is a feline

Felidae

Felidae is the biological family of the cats; a member of this family is called a felid. Felids are the strictest carnivores of the thirteen terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, although the three families of marine mammals comprising the superfamily pinnipedia are as carnivorous as the...

 version of the iDog. Similar to the iDog, it reacts to music from an external source, such as an MP3 player. It features seven flashing LED

LEd

LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 lights on its face and has the ability to "dance" to the beat of the music. It also has switches on its tail, head (nose), and 6 touch sensors which allow it to react to user input. Like, the iDog, its LED light color patterns display various "emotions" based on user interaction and the music played.

iFish

A piscine

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 version of the iDog, the iFish plays music and moves in a swimming

Aquatic locomotion

Swimming is biologically propelled motion through a liquid medium. Swimming has evolved a number of times in a range of organisms ranging from arthropods to fish to molluscs.-Evolution of swimming:...

-like motion. The iFish also has an internal selection of music. The iFish comes in white or black, with a 3.5 mm audio cable for audio input. Like the iDog, it is touch-sensitive.

iCy

The iCy is a penguin

Penguin

Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...

 version of the iDog. In addition to playing music, it dances and the LED

LEd

LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 lights on its stomach flash in time to the music. Unlike its predecessors, it has only two touch sensors for user interaction: its tail, which is designed to annoy it rather than reward it, and its beak, which is used to pet it. It has various "emotions" which change based on user interaction and music played.

Hasbro sells decorative clothing for the iCy, called the "Chill" series, including hats, flipper-warmers, feet-warmers, and scarves.

iTurtle

The iTurtle is a turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

 version of the iDog. It also comes with a plug cable (3.5 mm) with 2 touch sensors on its tail and head. It moves its shell up and down, shakes its head side to side, and taps its foot. Has the same things as others except his moods are modified.

Viral Marketing

In 2006 in the popular podcast Daily Source Code

Daily Source Code

The Daily Source Code is a podcast by Adam Curry, often considered a pioneer of podcasting. Curry talks about his everyday life and events in the podcasting scene or the news in general, as well as playing music from the Podsafe Music Network and promotions for other podcasts...

 host Adam Curry

Adam Curry

Adam Clark Curry is a broadcasting and Internet personality well known for his stint from 1987 to 1994 as a video jockey on the music video channel MTV. In the mid-1990s, Curry was a World Wide Web entrepreneur and one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer a Web site...

 spoke a lot about the iDog and UK musician Jesta was inspired to write an entire song about it titled "Me, My Music & My iDog" which featured on the show and numerous other podcasts in the following weeks.