Does your dog need a cell phone?  Does your cat need a translation dictionary?  Some gadget makers clearly think so.  Check out PC World’s article rounding up the top of the dogpile (sorry) of gadgets made for your pets.

Some of these are pretty neat.  I like the idea of a webcam attached to your pet’s collar if you just want to see the kind of trouble he gets up to when you’re not around.  But some of these ideas I think need a little refining.  For example, I can vouch that my neighbor friend’s Litter-Robot makes such a racket when it’s running that her cats are terrified to go near it.  Frankly, I’m terrified to go near it.  At seemingly random intervals it makes a noise that sounds like Sauron eating a car.

I can’t be the only one who’s noticed this.

Also not sure how much use I could get out of an emotional reader for my cat.  She only has one mood: “peril”.