The iTeddy is a media-playing teddy-bear for kiddies, funded by Dragon’s Den. The bear comes in two options; either as a standard MP3 player, or offering image and movie playback. The entry-level £35 MP3 player offers 128MB of storage and a USB2 connection to drag and drop files on to the player. The slightly more expensive £49 media player features a 2-inch colour LCD screen, a built-in rechargeable battery and 512MB of memory to store songs and videos.
Both teddy bears feature a speaker to share the music rather than having to rely on wearing headphones. Available in brown or white, the UK company behind the idea is hoping that tying in the bear with a website – iTeddy.co.uk – will help boost the appeal and offer additional content to download like movies, music and games. Although no content providers have been yet announced Imran Hakim the MD for iTeddy stated that a deal with Disney was in the works.
The company is also planning accessories such as a Webcap that features a webcam, iSpecs which features a digital camera and iBelt which would allow wireless communications with a PC to save having to connect and wires when transferring songs to and from the player. In a gimmicky move at a press conference earlier this week, taking advantage of its’ audio abilities, iTeDDy became the first toy to launch itself.
The UK-based critter is all set to launch today, and will be available in the Argos catalog for a respectable £59.99 ($123). The bear itself comes with a built-in LCD, integrated speakers, 512MB of internal memory, a rechargeable battery, detachable media player, an SD expansion slot, and a USB cable to load ‘er up. (source: engadget)