Sony Rolly finally brings the party Stateside

Everybody's favorite dancing robot of questionable utility from Sony is finally making its way across that big wet thing that divides the fair lands of Japan and USA. The Rolly, in case you missed it, is tiny little wheeled bot that can blast some tunes out of its built-in speakers, move its cute little appendages to the music and spin around for that full-on dancing robot experience. The bot comes with pre-choreographed songs ("Also Sprach Zarathustra," Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and Earth Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland" -- all particular favorites of the Engadget staff), or you can use the choreography software to generate a dance for own tunes, or even program the dance yourself. The 2GB bot comes in black or white, and is available now online or in Sony Style stores for $400.

[Daniel @ May 20th 2008 8:50AM]

Let me be the first to say... Useless.

[Patrick @ May 20th 2008 10:47AM]

first in this thread? yeah.

first ever? not even close.

[NineT9 @ May 20th 2008 7:54PM]

FINALLY its here!!! I have been looking forward to this little guy forever

Awesome news, this little robot thing looks hilarious, cant wait to buy

[Daniel @ May 20th 2008 10:50PM]

i total disagree coolest gadget in a long time to come out

[karts41 @ May 21st 2008 12:38AM]

This is blasphemy! This is madness!

Madness? This is Sony Rolly!!!

[vdogg89 @ May 20th 2008 8:50AM]

can someone please explain to me what the heck this thing even does?

[Ytril @ May 20th 2008 9:47AM]

It sings... It dances... It gets on your nerves.

[OneLove @ May 20th 2008 10:14AM]

its a toy for people who money to burn. (oh look, he has a rolly)

[Francis @ May 20th 2008 3:01PM]

it's an mp3 player that can dance by moving the two wheels, it can spin around and flap those little arms in and out. when it does, it alters the sound to be more muffled. the arms can move in and out at variable rates and is not just an open/close thing.

[Harry K @ May 20th 2008 8:50AM]

anyone who pays $400 for this stupid thing is a fucking moron

[guerilla779 @ May 20th 2008 9:35AM]

anybody who dismisses stuff without actually seeing it or even using it is a fucking moron !

[Ryan Trevisol @ May 20th 2008 9:34AM]

+1. But I don't think the price of admission is high enough. If you have $400 to blow on this steaming pile of robo-crap, then you deserve to pay twice that much.

However, all proceeds should be donated to help the victims of Myanmar, Darfur, and the like.

[ugg.tryptophan @ May 20th 2008 10:50AM]

@ Ryan AND china, its not hard to remember

[tekdroid @ May 21st 2008 9:50AM]

I see far more than this spent on mobile phones.... often with far less usefulness than this.

[BradVT @ May 20th 2008 8:55AM]

wait, $400? So much for an army of rollies.

[maty @ May 20th 2008 8:57AM]

Wow! So much hate in this place!

[vdogg89 @ May 20th 2008 8:58AM]

honestly.. would you pay 400 bucks for this?

[derspiess42 @ May 20th 2008 8:58AM]

I know the Japanese really like these things, but like most things the Japanese like, I have no idea why.

[d @ May 20th 2008 9:08AM]

u racist

[Ytril @ May 20th 2008 9:44AM]

@ d

derspiess42's comment was not necessarily racist, only that he doesn't understand the cultural reasons the Nipponese like certain things over another.

For instance, some of the fetish interests in Japan are enough to make me recoil in horror. Hating and reviling the "scat love" a small percentage of Nipponese exhibit doesn't make me a racist.

I still like Japan and its people, just not everything they do.

[derspiess42 @ May 20th 2008 9:50AM]

Yeah, that's pretty much it. I don't have anything against the Japanese people at all. But if d wants to call me a racist because I don't like robots, anime, or sushi, go ahead.

I do share their love of baseball, beer, and sake, at least.

[OneLove @ May 20th 2008 10:19AM]

@Ytril
Thanks for making me Google "scat love" :( wtf? (scatslaves.com)

[Ytril @ May 20th 2008 10:24AM]

@ OneLove

yikes, I'm sure that google search wasn't pretty. Sorry! (>

[Elphaba @ May 20th 2008 9:21AM]

Sony brings this SH*T out and yet they canx the Aibo...

Fr*ktards

[Homeboy @ May 20th 2008 9:08AM]

..........and Sony still haven't explained the purpose of it.

[Chris @ May 20th 2008 9:09AM]

every time i look at this thing the same thought crosses my mind: "wtf."

[anabouboula @ May 20th 2008 9:40AM]

Take that Apple!

[Kelly Koch @ May 20th 2008 9:48AM]

Ok, so the Rolly is a bluetooth speaker with 2gb internal memory. It comes with choreography software so you can program in dances, or just let it freestyle to your music. We used the Bluetooth Walkman and played a couple of songs. The ones preloaded are also pretty fun. The sound of the tiny speakers are amazing. It really filled the room up.

Sony Style stores will have it on display starting today in a little bubble. Definately stop by and see it.

[derspiess42 @ May 20th 2008 9:52AM]

If it were just a cheap little gadget, I wouldn't be so perplexed by it. I just can't fathom how anyone would shell out $400 for it.

[hrt @ May 20th 2008 10:17AM]

The price point on this, although ridiculously high, doesn't make sense. Why make it roughly the same price as the PS3? If I'm going to give Sony 400 dollars, I'll certainly want my moneys worth, and to get that, the money should be for a PS3. I don't know what people who already have one would do though, maybe its targeted at them?

[Galley @ May 20th 2008 10:17AM]

Make it $49, and teenagers might buy it.

[Technex @ May 20th 2008 11:51AM]

Ah, good ol' Sony crap. That's why I buy nothing of Sony's now, and the fact that pretty much anything Sony that myself or family/friends have brought have broken.

[Jason Collin @ May 20th 2008 11:54AM]

I've used one at the Engadget Reader Meetup in Tokyo last fall. It's a pretty heavy gadget, I was surprised when I picked it up. So at the least, it's not something you'll be able to easily bring over to your friend's house.

It was hard to judge the audio quality as the room was pretty loud.

From my 5 minutes with it I'd say a price of $40 would be reasonable for it, now $400.

[Stan M @ May 20th 2008 12:28PM]

Jason C.: Rolly is not heavy at all....what do you mean by saying :"it's not something you'll be able to easily bring over to your friend's house."? It's not like it is 40 pounds....check out the weight specs....not sure what you were holding at that Reader Meetup....

[Ayle @ May 20th 2008 1:53PM]

Wow... Why so much hate?

[Dexx @ May 21st 2008 6:36AM]

maybe they just WANNA have one :-P
or they hate sony so much, i don't know.
my impression about the Rolly?
i think it's VERY cool :-D. i have one, i'm using the speakers on the notebook thru bluetooth, worx great. but i can't make something with the motion editor :( because i have the japanese version with 1 GIG ram.. and the software will only work on a jap Winxp or vista.. SONY GIVE ME THE ENGLISH SOFTWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)

[eddie_nutritious @ May 20th 2008 6:38PM]

Guys, step back and actually look at this product. It's not meant to replace your iPod, and I doubt Sony really has any delusions of Rolly being a blockbuster seller for them this year.

What it is, however, is a concept piece similar to their OLED TV that says that Sony's willing to think outside the box. You may never buy an XEL1 or a Rolly, but when people see these on display or in the media, they'll stop and think "Hey, that's cool." It's more for brand awareness than anything.

Funny, if you slapped a Nintendo logo on it, I bet people would be swooning over what a fun and refreshing product this is, instead of saying "What's the point?"

[tekdroid @ May 21st 2008 10:01AM]

the first half-decent well thought-out response in this whole thread!

*****

[Cassini @ May 20th 2008 8:47PM]

"The bot comes with pre-choreographed songs ("Also Sprach Zarathustra," Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and Earth Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland" -- all particular favorites of the Engadget staff),"


You're mostly a staff of adult men and you listen to Avril Lavigne? I don't mean to dis, I just find that really amusing. Whatever you guys do, when "Girlfriend" starts to play, just stay away from the pom-poms, OK?

You know I love ya, Engadget! (And of course, I'm just ribbing you a bit :)



On another note, Ytril's comment above is amusing and probably true.

If all this thing does is serve as a rolling, "dancing" speaker, then I don't quite see the point of that. Many people play music while they're working or studying or doing something else around the house. In other words, they're concentrating on what they're doing, not on the music or the speakers - the music is just creating ambiance. So why not just buy a good set of speakers that sit still? Why would people want something that simply serves as a pointless distraction when they're just trying to relax or focus on other things?

People have enough things to distract them in life and devote their attentions to. Do we really need or want this meaningless thing to add to it all? Do I really want to see out of the corner of my eye, some "thing" that's on the floor or table in my home jerking, and spinning, and rolling around, spinning and flapping it's end-caps, when all I'm trying to do is study, or get work done, or have a conversation with someone? That doesn't sound like something that would add to my environment, but rather, take away by serving as another source of stress and distraction. And people need less stress in their lives, not more.

I'm certain there are a number of videos out there of this thing, but I saw one that was a bit longer. So I *am* quite familiar with the product in terms of its function and behaviors. That video really struck me as weird, because the whole time, I was waiting for the clincher that would sell me on why I'd want to buy one of these things, but it never came. I was left thinking, "I don't get it."

[Chris4488 @ May 22nd 2008 1:52AM]

Interesting comments here. The real problem is that whenever something truly new and different comes along it’s usually rejected by the current generation. Does anybody remember the comments about when the telephone was invented? Or the when the first personal computers came out, check your history on such things. Give the Rolly a chance to mature. The Rolly could be just a hint of what might be coming.

[Cassini @ May 26th 2008 8:31PM]

***(If this comment prints twice, blame the unreliable Engadget comment system).


You're comparing a Rolly to modern day worldwide communication systems and computers that have served to further technology and life as a whole? That's like comparing a single person taking one day of pottery class at a local community college to thousands of physicians and scientists around the world networking their research in medical studies for thirty years. The writing is on the wall here. Your analogy hardly stands because it's crystal clear the Rolly is hardly going to serve mankind like the phone and the PC have and continue to. So give me one valid reason why anyone should give any further attention to this thing.

Besides, we already have speakers for our music, which is all the Rolly essentially is. Except for the fact that this thing also distracts and serves no further practical purpose.

We're familiar enough with a technological lifestyle in society to be able to tell that there isn't going to be much more of a future with a device like this. It plays music and rolls and flaps around. It's a toy. What more do you envision there being to *that* story?

[Garrett @ May 21st 2008 2:41AM]

"Everybody's favorite dancing robot of questionable utility"? ExCUSE me? Have we already forgotten the gilded Keepon?!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nPdP1jBfxzo

[dervheid @ May 21st 2008 3:28AM]

This is from SONY?
It's white, with blue illumination.
Looks more like some sort of Wii accessory.
DON'T want one.

[SmoothC911 @ May 25th 2008 10:00AM]

I think I might buy one of these just to piss everyone off--look at what it has done already and all anyone did was read about it being available!

[Jacques @ May 28th 2008 2:15PM]

I'm sure its a cool little device when it was thought of in the lab. Needed?..probably not. Given as a gift?..I'll take it.