In honor of the 1 year anniversary of the official Pleo website, PleoWorld , Ugobe is offering a steep discount on Pleo’s purchased through the website. By using the online offer code, "PLEOWORLDISONE", at checkout, you can get a Pleo for the incredibly low price of $235. Keep in mind that the sale only lasts through JULY 11th, so order fast.

You may also notice, that Ugobe now offers replacement batteries for Pleo. Be sure to pick up an extra if you’d like extended play (or experimentation time) with you new robotic dino-pal.

Ugobe has also released a new update for Pleo,  Pleosarous Rex, which makes Pleo act like Godzilla.

Pleo is a great toy and is ripe for hacking. Getting one for $235 is a steal, so I highly suggest you take Ugobe up on the deal. Now, I just have to convince my wife that I need two …

Today UGOBE has released initial details on the upcoming software development kit for Pleo. The Pleo Development Kit, or PDK, will allow users to create applications that will run on top of Pleo’s "Life OS". The applications will be written in PAWN, which is … 

The initial PDK release will focus on giving users access to Pleo’s motors, sensors, and other low-level OS features. Future PDK releases will expose all of Pleo’s Life OS to applications, creating a huge array of potential applications.

Applications will be allowed to override built-in Pleo behavior, which UGOBE calls "shadowing", to allow users to take total control of Pleo and his behavior.

Unfortuntely, it will still be a while before the PDK is released (no word on an exact date). In the meantime, UGOBE says to play around with the "My Skit" performance editor for Pleo, and to brush up on your PAWN skills. More information can be found on the PleoWorld website and the new developer section of the PleoWorld forums. If you’re getting excited about writing custom applications for Pleo, you can go ahead and purchase one from our buddies at TrossenRobotics.

 

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Ugobe seems to be facing a bit of controvery over its new Pleo toy. Hot off the heels of a big story on Digg about Pleo, came another, even bigger story, about how the dino wasn’t all that smart after all. Somone took the two released videos of Pleo and compared then, noting that they were almost identical. Were Pleo’s actions scripted? You can see the video and some initial commentary here.

I contacted Ugobe about the problem via PleoBot.com and posted their reply. Apparently both videos were made for DEMO2006 and they were scripted. The real Pleo is still in development and is slated for a Christmas 2006 release.

It’s unfortunate for Ugobe that all of this came up. How about helping them out (and me) by going and digging the story about their response.

Stay tuned to PleoBot.com for more info and pics on our loveable not-fake-anymore robot dino pet.

Here’s finally some video of Ugobe’s Pleo robotic dinosaur. If you’re not up to speed on Pleo, check out our previous post on the little guy. For about $200 he’s supposed to have "life-like" motion with 14 motors and over 40 sensors. From the video, he does actually look pretty life-like. They call it a, "life-form operating system that brings robots to life." They say they’re markting the project to families as a pet, not as a toy.

However, the video didn’t show him actually walking, only moving his head around. But, for $200, I’m still interested.

For more information, check out the official Pleo website.