2026-08

A practical Zeroth M1 review covering its CES 2026 debut, Google Gemini conversation, fall detection, elder care and kids' learning features, pricing that varies across sources, Japan availability cautions, alternatives such as FrontierX Aura and ElliQ, and how it compares with Mia.

A quiet first-person story about someone who lost their longtime dog, Momo, and slowly began speaking to Mia, a small cat-shaped robot sent as a gift by their child.

A neutral guide to Microduck, the 25 cm open-source biped robot from Pollen Robotics under Hugging Face. Covers price, shipping timing, gamepad control, reinforcement learning, sim-to-real workflows, Japan price estimates in yen, buying risks, and how it differs from Mia.

MIO AI is a palm-sized AI partner from Jinwa Shoji Co., Ltd., launched on the Japanese crowdfunding platform Makuake. This review covers its glass, orb-like design, long-term memory conversation, mood-based expression changes, early-bird pricing, how it compares to Gatebox3, CODE27, WEHEAD, and ROLA One, and how it differs from Mia.

Sharp's second-generation Poketomo (model SR-C02M-H) is a conversational AI robot launching in Japan in December 2026. This review covers its blunt, tsundere "ore-sama" personality, the new auto-conversation feature between two units, pricing, and how it compares to the original Poketomo and to Mia.

A neutral look at ChiCaRo, a remote co-parenting robot from Japan's ChiCaRo Inc. that lets grandparents and parents living far away remote-control a body to play tag, house, and hide-and-seek with toddlers aged 0-3. Covers its features, the University of Electro-Communications study, undisclosed pricing, its AI chatbot sister product Kuku-chan, and how it compares with Mia.