miTech P.C. Gizmo

P.C. Gizmo is a peripheral from Blue Box (蓝盒), aka B2Stuf, that notifies you of incoming Skype calls, new emails, and instant messages. It was demonstrated at CES in 2008, and it was released in August that year.

It appears to be the only product from Blue Box that is a part of the miTech line. It's unknown if other products were planned for this line or if anything else for this product line was released. Weirdly, an article from giftsanddec.com (February 2008) mentions something called "PC Pooch", but I think this may have been a tentative name for P.C. Gizmo:

"The debut of the new MiTech Division and the new miTech line features the PC Pooch, an interactive character that connects to the computer and tells users when they have email, IMs and internet calls. The Pooch stands next to the computer and can flip its ears and make other fun movements via USB interface and LED light patterns."

Features

P.C. Gizmo resembles an egg with a pair of eyes and two very long ears that look like floppy rabbit ears. He can rotate partially to the left or right and rock from side to side, while sitting on his round base. He can flap his ears and he has LED lights for his mouth which glow sometimes. He also speaks and makes different sounds.

When you receive a notification, P.C. Gizmo will use sound and movement to get your attention. He also has an email icon (for emails), a phone icon (for calls), and a speech bubble icon (for messages), and any of these icons can glow when you receive a corresponding notification.

P.C. Gizmo can either have blue ears with a mint green base or pink ears with a pink base.

In addition to the robot, the packaging comes with software that lets you install a virtual version of P.C. Gizmo on your PC (the program was apparently available for download from Blue Box's website at some point, but the program itself was not archived, and I don't have a copy of it). The virtual one has a proper mouth, instead of one made up of glowing lights, and it isn’t attached to any base. Like a virtual desktop buddy, it can move around and react to being dragged. Even the virtual version of P.C. Gizmo can notify you when you get a notification, it seems.

System Requirements 

(according to an old listing on USB Brando's website; not confirmed)

Prototypes(?)

  

Screenshots from Jennifer Cisney's video on YouTube

A version with a white base and ears that are mostly white on top was demonstrated at CES in 2008.



There's an official image of P.C. Gizmo with a bright blue base, but I don't know if the image was edited or if the base is actually that color. There's a chance that this could be an edit of the prototype that appeared at CES.

Two images with what looks to be a digital mockup of the box also exist, but one image partly shows a pink one in the box.

Gallery

Product Images

                      

Desktop Pet & Program

Windows

Virtual P.C. Gizmo

Apparently, some things P.C. Gizmo can do include laughing, jumping, bumping into sides of the screen while rolling around, cloning itself to spell "b2" (a reference to the company name), and falling while rotating (after being dragged with the cursor). He can also try to get your attention if you leave your keyboard and cursor alone. Apparently he can also try to dodge the cursor.

      

Videos

Links