Rolly update: Sony's not saying a thing

Elaborate viral hoax or next-gen viral ad, that Sony Rolly video has pretty much everyone talking but Sony. We asked Sylvia Shin from Sony Corporate Communications Europe about the Rolly, and while she confirmed she had seen it on Engadget, she of course would say nothing of its actual existence. She did say that rumors of such a device showing up at IFA or being associated with the new Walkman players were not true, so it looks like we'll have to play the waiting game on this one -- we certainly asked to be the first to know if Sony does indeed decide to announce such a product.

[Homeboy @ Sep 1st 2007 10:17AM]

Will it go berserk and begin to hallucinate thinking it is being chased by a herd of Aibos in a neon green tunnel, if fed with WMA files?

[MacGuru @ Sep 1st 2007 10:58AM]

I would be to, if fed with WMA files.. Yuck!

[ralphg @ Sep 1st 2007 10:18AM]

In January I saw a demo of a music robot at an industry event. It was designed in Japan, and looked a lot like this one.

The two wheels move independently, and so it is able to "dance" to music that is provided by an iPod that plugs into the unit, or from music streamed over its wireless internet connection.

I wonder if this new Sony device is licensed from the Japanese robot developer ZMP.

Here's what I wrote about it back in january:

"Yoichiro Dan of Japan’s ZMP gave a live demo of their Miuro robot (short for “Music Innovation based on Utility RObot technology”), the sixth of a series of educational and consumer robots developed by the company. Miruro is a music player with wheels – and speakers in the wheels. It gets its music from an inserted iPod or other MP3 player, or wirelessly from the Internet. It has a half-dozen dance modes, where it wheels and jitters about in time with the music. Sensors keep it from falling down stairs, off tables, and bumping into people."

[AC @ Sep 1st 2007 10:18AM]

I bet Sylvia's been in the office all day laughing about the amount of people calling up about it :P

[Eric @ Sep 1st 2007 10:29AM]

Sony is finally doing an amazing marketing job with one of their products. This could probably be one of the dumbest pieces of technology but with the hype they will have people around the world trying to figure out what this thing is. This is, what, the 4th post in 48 hours about this? They must have stolen some of Apple's marketing team.

[nick @ Sep 1st 2007 2:18PM]

Finally? Sony's ad campaigns are pretty well known. Whether it's the awesome bravia adds, or the creepy ps3 adds, Sony has done a good job with adds.

[Hawkman @ Sep 1st 2007 10:42AM]

You know what's not helpful? That your link to "Sony Rolly" is just a link to the tag, which only appears on this one post...

[akijikan @ Sep 1st 2007 10:48AM]

that's better than the PSP-2000 post which contained a link to all PSP-2000 tagged post, of which there were none, not even the originating post!

[theCardinal @ Sep 1st 2007 10:52AM]

I find tag links is general to be a bit of a pain. The could be a different colour to other links. I would find that better.

[Hawkman @ Sep 1st 2007 10:53AM]

Genius! I love tags, they really help make content accessible. ;-)

[ark_v2 @ Sep 1st 2007 12:01PM]

So there's not news, therefore no need for a post about it.

[Andir3.0 @ Sep 1st 2007 12:10PM]

@theCardinal: Agreed. I normally have to mouse over the tags to find out if the link points back to a story I just read a day ago or if it actually has some merit in clicking pointing me to some actual information on the web.

[Andir3.0 @ Sep 1st 2007 12:11PM]

I could have swore I hit "Reply"

[spacegravity4me @ Sep 1st 2007 12:51PM]

I haven't seen anyone else say anything about this yet so I will, battery life! I'd love to have something like this but how long is the battery gonna last? Woo hoo! look at me, I'm having fun, woo! 5 min later.... Woo hoo, I'm having fun! woo Ho.....aweeee. It's not fair! I want better battery tech now!!! Wah!!!!

[nick @ Sep 1st 2007 2:21PM]

People don't "need" most of what we have today. So what if someone takes interest in a product, civilization has allowed us to develop luxury items. Why not enjoy them?

[Dave @ Sep 1st 2007 2:34PM]

Awww, you don't want us to waste our precious money... You really care! That's so sweet. I like the way you show compassion and utter disdain all at the same time, IT'S SO CUTE!!!!

[bakachin @ Sep 1st 2007 2:49PM]

point is.. you won't enjoy them.. you will just stare at them for a 15 minutes and realise what money you wasted.. then move onto the next thing.. admit it!

[bakachin @ Sep 1st 2007 2:51PM]

wait.. let me add something else.. you'll stare at it for 15 minutes.. realise it's a piece of junk then join some support forum that'll eventually convince you that you spent your money's worth.. yeah.. that's usually how it goes..

[Mike Salem @ Sep 1st 2007 6:59PM]

this article is so lame. talking about how everyone is talking about sony. yea that helps.

[Steelwurm @ Sep 2nd 2007 12:28AM]

We've seen from Sony's ads that the PS9 is something you snort and PS8 is a pill. Which most likely reveals this as the as-yet-unannounced and inevitably unsuccessful Playstation 7 insertable console*.

*now with Rumble

[Sean DL @ Sep 2nd 2007 3:31AM]

I heard that September 7th is the launch for this..but that was before that video leaked...

[Randy @ Sep 2nd 2007 7:14AM]

Thanks for the Rolly update telling us there is no update.

[David @ Sep 2nd 2007 1:38PM]

They see me rollin'... they laughin...

[T . W . G @ Sep 2nd 2007 5:38PM]

I just hope it is NOT a fake.

I want to buy that thing - whatever it is :-)

[keithwwalker @ Sep 2nd 2007 5:47PM]

rolly = mobile ipod raper