Sony has decided to end its line of robot dogs and stop the development of the uber-cute Qrio (via The Raw Feed).

Sure, Aibo is a nice gadget and i had fun discovering its zillion talents (my favourites being its Weigth Watcher skills and playground creativity) but what’s more important to me is that playing with it has helped me understand better why Japan is so in love with robots: i’ve been amazed to see how much affection i can feel for a “walking computer,” how similar to a real dog the robot can get when it comes to annoying you (baby Paco crying to get caresses, Cloclo repeating his famous Station Dance twice every afternoon or staring for hours at the curtains because they are the same colour as his favourite toys), etc. So, yes, the news saddens me.