Development
An update of Karotz’s OS is available!
Jul 26th
Hi all,
An update of Karotz’s OS is available since yesterday. It will be installed when your Karotz wakes up or goes to sleep, or if you switch it off and back on. This new version improves the system and fix bugs (see below) some Karotz have encountered with the previous version.
If you are encountering one of the following behaviors:
- if your Karotz’s light flashes orange inconsistently.
- if the space allocated to your Karotz is higher than 45% (check this info in “My account”, by clicking on your Karotz icon and on the right part of the “Personalize my avatar” section, you can see the “Amount of space used”).
in order to be sure the new OS fixes those, we recommend you follow those steps to go back to the factory settings first:
- Switch your Karotz off.
- Keep the Karotz’s button pressed while switching it back on. Once the light is solid pink, release the button; Your Karotz is going back then to his factory settings.
- Once Karotz’s light is solid cyan (light blue), run the latest version of the installation/configuration program (http://plug.karotz.com) and follow the instructions to connect your Karotz back to your network. At the end of the installation/configuration program, Karotz’s light will flash green.
IMPORTANT: The Appz you’ve installed before and all the settings you’ve chosen will not be removed with the factory reset, and remain as they were.
Stay tune,
More newz to come soon,
Karotz Appz Developer’s Interview: Barry Corbett
Jul 12th
Hello everybody,
In our Developers’ Interviews series, after Jonathan Yaniv who previously answered our questions, we are proud to introduce Barry Corbett who have created interesting Appz for both the US and the UK Applications Store like Text Reader (US version / UK version) or Crunchy Chewy Gooey (US version / UK version). Here we go:
- Can you introduce yourself in a few lines for our readers?
My name is Barry Corbett and I live in Ireland. My website (under construction 
is http://bcorbett.comoj.com. I have learned Javascript (for app development) and some html, php, etc, just by watching Youtube tutorials!!
- How did you know Karotz? What was the main reason it pleased you?
I wanted a Nabaztag before but with all the Violet problems I decided not to buy one. One day I was looking at the Wikipedia article for Nabaztag and I noticed that there was a new version coming. I have followed the Karotz blog and website ever since the website wasn’t even there! I was motivated when I saw that there was an SDK available for making appz for it and I loved the webcam feature and the upgraded hardware!
- What motivated you to develop applications for Karotz?
I was only new at programming, only just learning from Youtube, and I just thought that it would be fun to make some stuff for my bunny! I just started with some simple things and tried them out as I went along. I knew that there wouldn’t be a premade app for everything I wanted to do with Karotz so I just wanted to make some!
- Can you tell us in more details about the applications you have developed (or that are still in development)?
I have made a Text Reader appz which was originally because I wanted to be reminded of things I needed to do! A simple but useful appz! I am making Crunchy Chewy Gooey, an appz for weird foods of the world (note : this appz is already available) and a kind of fun Virtual Pet kind of thing that you can feed with a flatnanoz, just for fun, a talking clock (still in development), and a Controller which is being validated by Mindscape and hopefully should be available soon!! 
- How much time did you need to make your applications?
They didn’t take too long, whenever I had some free time I would just do a few appz now and then! Easy appz like the text reader took about 30 minutes and some took longer than that like the Controller and the food appz!
- What do you think about the Karotz Lab and the developers’ community?
I think the Lab is Great! I love that the dev team picked Javascript as it’s an easy language to learn and many appz can be made! I hope a simulator comes out soon so I can make appz without being at my Karotz all the time, like whenever I’m away on a bus, train etc.
- What kind of new applications would you want to make or to see for Karotz?
I would love to see a kind of to-do list/calendar kind of thing so that you can add events/to do kind of thing and Karotz will remind you (I think there is a Gmail Calendar appz in the French Applications Store but I dont speak French 
), also some more game type, interactive appz.
- Anything else to say?
I think the Karotz is great; I also love the wide range of accessories in the store (which I bought a lot of in the 30% discount )
We want to thank Barry for his work and involvement, as well as congratulate him for his nice Karotz’ Collection! And if you want to develop Karotz Appz like him, take a look to our Lab!
See you soon for other interviewz!
New update of Karotz’ Operating System
Jul 4th
Hello Everybody!
An operating system’s update is now ready to be installed on your Karotz!
It improves the text-to-speech system, and also integrates all the necessary assets for the upcoming Karotz Phone Appz (which will let you call the Karotz you want, using your smartphone).
This update will be installed automatically next time your Karotz goes to sleep or wakes up if any sleep and wake up times have been set. You can also install it manually: you only need to switch Karotz off and then just switch it back on.
It will take a few minutes to download and install this operating system update. The light should then flash orange. When the light flashes green, your Karotz is fully functional again.
If your Karotz wakes up after a sleeping time, it will be functional only after the process is complete, so be careful if you usually use applications as soon as it wakes up.
Stay tuned for more newz!
Karotz Appz Developer’s Interview: Jonathan Yaniv
Jun 28th
Hello everybody,
Each time new Karotz Appz are released, we thank all our talented developers for their great work, and we find it would be a good idea to present them and their applications.
Jonathan Yaniv, who have created numerous Appz for both the US and the UK Applications Store (Wake Me Up, Medication reminder, Flirtz, as well as various Radios stations) is the first developer to answer our questions:
- Can you introduce yourself in a few lines?
Happy to do it! I am a technology enthusiast. I graduated from Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in January 2009 memorial award to support my education. Being enrolled in the Computer Information Systems (CISY) diploma program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) has taught me all sorts of new skills that will help me achieve my long-term goal of working in the IT field. Oh, and hobbies… all my favourite activities are computer related. I currently run and operate JonathanYaniv.com as well as my flagship site, TrustedNerd.com. I am also working on the well-known site, GizmoFusion.com.
- How did you know Karotz? What was the main reason it pleased you?
I found out about Karotz by watching the latest tech news regarding Nabaztag and how that is going, and then one day, I heard about Karotz. I read deeper into it, and I was really attached to this product. It pleased me as it’s a product that has tons of potential. From reading out RSS feeds, to listening to music, to just being plain cute! The Karotz Smart Rabbit could succeed for certain markets, such as the visually impaired market, by possibly going to the Canadian National Institute of the Blind (CNIB), I am assuming it would be a hot seller there.
- What motivated you to develop applications for Karotz?
What motivated me to start developing applications for Karotz was when I met up with Yoann (from the Karotz Team) at CES 2011. He showed me a bit of the API, and I saw how easy it was. After looking what Karotz can do I was like, “I can really contribute to this project and make it boom”. Community involvement is what helps a product succeed, like Karotz. It is so easy to code up applications for Karotz. The only trickier application to code and debug was the Weather Information application, that took me about 3 weeks to develop. If Karotz was used in a classroom setting where students could learn basic programming by developing applications for Karotz, I think another Karotz boom could happen here.
- Can you tell us in more details about the applications you have developed (or that are still in development).
I am thinking about creating more radio applications. I have talked to the man in charge of radiofeeds.co.uk to try and build a massive radio application by pulling all the content from here, but we are looking into how to make it. Future developments I am thinking of are a Nutritional Tracker, similar to that of Nabaztag. Using ASR, it will ask you and listen to what you ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and track that.
- How much time did you need to make your applications?
The radio applications to create were rather simple as soon as I created my framework, which took about a week to create. All it involves now to create a new application is edit a few lines of code. Overall, to make all those radio applications took roughly three weeks.
- What do you think about the Karotz Lab and the developers’ community?
What I think about the Karotz Lab is that it’s good, but more developers need to step on board and code their hearts out! Wizz.cc has made a ton of great applications, along with other developers. Mindscape needs to release the Facebook application, Karotz Phone, and Karotz to Karotz, as well as Wakeup, and any other applications they have going on as quickly as possible if Karotz wants to succeed further in the market. The developer community is good, but I wish there was more correspondence from Karotz in English and other languages from Mindscape and the other developers. I am finding being mostly geared towards French, it is pushing away some developers as they don’t understand the language. More sample applications with source code should be available, along with a Karotz VM for Windows and Mac. A Karotz emulator has been requested by quite a few developers, and I think Mindscape needs to start working on that as well as quickly as possible.
Again, we would like to thanks Jonathan for his answers and all the Appz he has developed. If you want to join Karotz developers’ community like him, do not hesitate and click here!
See you soon for other interviewz!
Update on Karotz’ system – Sound Bug fix
Jun 15th
Hello Again!
We would like to inform you that an update of Karotz’ operating system is now available. It fixes the sound issue – detected since the last update – that causes Karotz to remain silent once Karotz wakes up from a scheduled sleep time.
It also proposes a new text-to-speech voice: a female voice. Please, do not hesitate to let us know your comments about it.
This update will be installed automatically next time your Karotz goes to sleep or wakes up if any sleep and wake up times have been set.
You can also install it manually: you only need to switch Karotz off and then just switch your Karotz back on.
It will take about 10 minutes to download and install this operating system update. The light should then flash orange. When the light flashes green, your Karotz is fully functional again.
If your Karotz wakes up after a sleeping time, the smart rabbit will be functional only after a few minutes, so be careful if you usually use applications as soon as it wakes up.
We deeply apologize for all the inconvenience caused by the previous update, and we hope you’ll enjoy this one.
Stay tuned!
Karotz: new Email notifier Appz available for the US and the UK!
Jun 15th
Hello!
For all Email lovers, some new and very useful services are now available in the Appz section on both the US and UK Karotz website:
- GMail Notifier (already available for the US, added for the UK here)
- Hotmail Notifier (US version here, UK version here)
- Yahoo! Notifier (US version here, UK version here)
All those applications alert you when there are messages (read or unread) in your mail box. They also indicate the date, time and subjects of the received messages. No more excuse if you miss one of them!
See you soon for other newz!
Update on Karotz’ system
May 20th
Hello!
We would like to inform you that since Wednesday an update of Karotz’ system is available.
To install this update, you only need to switch your rabbit off. You can unplug your Karotz from the outlet or you can scroll the knob in its back completely down. And finally just restart your rabbit.
The LED should then flash orange, which means that Karotz is about to download and install the update. When the LED turns green, it means that your rabbit is running normally again.
New OS has been updated this week -This update contains the following corrections.
- Updating a configuration of an application will not interrupt anymore this application if it is running.
- Applications and sounds (radio, podcasts, music, etc.) will interrupt when Karotz enters sleeping mode.
- Improvement of the voice control for Music Player Appz.
- Improvement of the update of the listing of MP3 music files contained on an USB key when pluggin/unplugging it from Karotz.
- Automatic management of different time zones on Karotz’ website, such as for the USA and Canada.
In the next update we will try to integrate an automatic management of the system’s update. This means that every time Karotz enters standby modus, it will check if there is a new update available. If this is the case, Karotz will restart by itself, will download and install the update, and finally it will enter standby modus again. If a Karotz owner did not set up a standby modus, he must restart his Karotz manually.
See you soon!
Update on the Karotz Lab
May 20th
Hello!
This article is particularly meant for all application developers. We would like to inform you about an update on the Karotz Lab.
This update concerns the validation process of your applications and will be done this Friday 20th of May.
To connect to the Karotz Lab, please accept the end user license agreement and the services’ functioning conditions.
Please visit the Karotz Lab home page http://www.karotz.com/lab/home.
Please read the document “Third party Karotz applications developers contract” by clicking on “this agreement”. If you accept the agreement, check the box “You must accept this agreement”, and then click on “Let’s go!”, to access the Karotz Lab.
Once an application has been accepted, it will be published online, compliant to the conditions of the agreement.
In the course of next week the applications available for purchase will be published online, between Monday the 21st of May and Friday the 27th of May. In the meantime we continue to receive, to present and to publish your free applications. Thank you again for all your ideas!
If you ever run out of ideas for the developments of applications, we advise you to visit the Karotz Forum in the section “Astuces, conseils et idées” (Tricks, tips and ideas).
We will try to answer all your legal and technical questions.
Have fun developping Appz for Karotz!
Available applications for Karotz
Apr 29th
Hello!
We are excited that Karotz has arrived in many homes and we hope that all of the new adoptive parents are enjoying the new bundle of joy! Thanks to everybody for your support!
Karotz will continue to evolve in the following months, and new applications will be available each month. We would like to give you a summary of all available and coming applications.
Today several applications are already available on www.karotz.com:
- @Home: Receive an e-mail with or without photo, when you show a RFID accessory to Karotz, f.ex. a Flatnanoz or a Nanoztag.
- Weather: Gives you the weather forecast of your choice.
- Tai Chi: Karotz plays zen music, flashes and moves its ears.
- Demo: Karotz explains it’s capabilities.
- Horoscope: For your sign.
- Divers RSS feeds: Read the news about sports, culture, technologies, people, etc.
- My RSS: You can add the RSS feeds that you are interested in.
- Webradios: Default and included radios.
- My webradio: You can add the webradios you like, but they must be in MP3 format and not in Flash!
- Music Player: Plays the MP3 files that are saved in Karotz’ USB tail.
- My podcast: You can add the podcasts you like.
- Moods: The same as for Nabztag, you can change the Karotz LED to fit your mood.
- Karotz Controller Apple: Control your Karotz from your iPhone / iPod / iPad. Take photos, send text messages, listen to MP3 files in the USB device, change the colour of the LED, or move the rabbit’s ears.
Applications coming in May:
- Twitter: Choose what you want to hear (mentions, private messages, tweets).
- Facebook: Choose what you want to hear (notifications, private messages, etc.).
- Smartphone to Karotz: Call Karotz from your smartphone, with Wi-Fi connection.
- Eyes@Home: See on your computer what happens at your home.
- Karotz Controller Android
Applications coming in June:
- Family Quizz: Play with your family and answer 2,000 questions.
- Stories and songs: Save stories and songs on your computer for your children.
- Karotz Community: Can be accessed from iPhone / iPod / iPad.
Applications coming later:
- Alarm clock: The development will take some more time, because we would like the alarm clock to work even when Karotz is not connected to the Internet.
- Reminder: We still have some work to do to get Karotz able to store messages. This is an embedded application that needs an additional development.
- Karotz to Karotz: We are working on the sound to make the communication easier.
- Karotz Wedding: We need to define what this application should do. We would like it to do more than just synchronize the ears and the LED. If you have any ideas please post them in the comments section!
- Rabbitcasts: We have to define the options of this application.
- Traffic: We are currently working on the options of this application, because we want it to provide a richer service than just a colour code for the national highways.
- Stock Exchange: We are working on the specification of this application’s options.
Karotz is facing the future with courage, and new applications will be added before summer. There are even more applications coming created by the developers of the Karotz Lab. We will talk about them later.
Have a nice evening!
PS: You have a lot of technical questions about Karotz. To answer them all, we will try to be present on the official forum http://community.karotz.com/forumz.
The Nabaztags’ servers are moving on Tuesday
Mar 31st
Hello everybody!
Before moving the Nabaztags on the Karotz’ servers, we will first move the Nabaztags’ servers and its platforms to a new place, and that from nine o’clock on. Our provider renovated his datacenter and he invited us to move our entire equipment to a brand new modernized place. This place is called “Isolated cold hallway”.
If this all works fine, the Nabaztags will be knocked out for the whole day, as long as the team will be reinstalling all the machines. At the same occasion we will also add more free disc space, because actually there is not space enough. Then the Nabaztags should already work better.
On your side you don’t need to do anything, except keeping patience. Everything will be done on our side.
We hope that thereby all Nabaztags will work better. Afterwards, in a second step, the Nabaztags will move again from their servers to the Karotz’ servers. But this will only be done once the Karotz have been released and the Karotz’ servers have been installed, and actually we don’t know yet when this will happen.
We don’t forget about the Nabaztags! They are the second point on our “to do list”.
Have a nice evening!
P.-S. We are always present in the Karotz chat. If ever you have questions, come to see us: http://community.karotz.com.
