Its initial run was cheaper, around 80 euros I think.
Nevertheless, this is still a lot of money, especially when you consider that they basically abandoned their previous product (TagTagTag) and the absurd software stacks they use (TTT uses PSQL, nginx, all that stuff on a bare Pi Zero, and "La Machine" runs an entire BEAM implementation).
A friend brought a better looking one 20 years ago at a party: people loved it. The little circle thing that pops up in the one in TFA looks very cheap: I don't remember exactly how it looked in the one saw back in the days but it was better looking than the one in TFA.
It's really nothing new: I can't be the only one to remember those from a very long time ago.
Nevertheless, this is still a lot of money, especially when you consider that they basically abandoned their previous product (TagTagTag) and the absurd software stacks they use (TTT uses PSQL, nginx, all that stuff on a bare Pi Zero, and "La Machine" runs an entire BEAM implementation).
It's really nothing new: I can't be the only one to remember those from a very long time ago.