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Sphero goes up for pre-order, ready to roll its way into your heart
Our favorite iOS / Android-controlled toy ball is coming soon to an annoyed cat near you. You can pre-order Sphero now for $130 through Amazon, and it'll start shipping in December, just in time to remotely find its way into a stocking or two.
Sphero the smartphone controlled ball gets ready to roll out, we go hands-on (video)
The plucky little white ball that first rolled its way into our hearts back at CES is back, and now it's getting ready to continue its journey onto store shelves. Sphero is a little plasticLED-lit orb that can be controlled using a number of smartphone applications. The toy's makers like to refer to it as a "real-world Wii," letting users control it either via a phone's touchscreen or with gestures, using the handset's accelerometer. The ball itself is palm-sized -- it feels like a standard toy ball, until you give it a bit of a shake, feeling its insides jiggle. At present, the company is showcasing three apps -- one for standard driving in real-time, one that lets the user draw paths with their fingers and a third "golf" app, that offers the most Wii-like interaction, with the user swinging their smartphone like a club to move the ball. The apps are straightforward and let you change Sphero's color. All in all, the company seems to have come a ways since first showcasing earlier prototypes back in January. You can expect to see Sphero start shipping before the end of the year, for $129 a pop. It will be compatible with both iOS and Android. We hand fun with the thing, but who knows how long it will take to get sick of it. Thankfully, it will launch with three to six apps, with more coming soon. Hands-on video after the break.%Gallery-133801%
Orbotix Sphero iOS-controlled toy ball hands-on
It's not even close to an AR.Drone, but the Orbotix Sphero should find a way to eat up your precious productivity when it hits shelves sometime "later this year." This 4.3-inch LED-lit sphere connects to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch via Bluetooth, and allows you to remotely control it or change its color... and that's about it. There are two different input modes -- one that uses the built in accelerometers and another joystick mode that utilizes a large virtual circular joystick on-screen. The few minutes we spent with the sphere were mildly entertaining, but the lack of cameras or other sensors makes it kind of pointless. Still, we could see young kids going wild for this and refusing to give you back your iPhone to take a call. Orbotix detailed a game dubbed "QuizTug" in which multiple players connect to the same Sphero and try to "score" while the other player completes a math problem or some other type of question -- an interesting idea for sure. Operation definitely took a little bit of getting used to, and we still didn't have it quite down pat after about five or ten minutes but we're sure with some practice we'd be shredding the half pipe like our demo dude was. The existence of an open API makes us optimistic for the future of this little guy, especially given the sub-$100 pricetag. Check it out in our hands-on gallery or in the video posted after the break, and let us know what you'd do with this thing in the comments. %Gallery-113160%
