forceband
Latest
Sphero's Force Band can now control your home over IFTTT
Sphero's motion-tracking Force Band can now control more than a tiny (and utterly adorable) BB-8 droid. The company has teamed up with If This Then That (IFTT) to integrate the "force" with countless apps and smart home devices. IFTTT, if you need a reminder, is a service that lets you automate pretty much anything with "triggers" and "actions." You can use it to turn on your Hue lights as soon as you walk through the front door, or tweet your Instagrams as native photos on Twitter. With the Force Band, you can now activate these same actions with a force push, pull or stop.
IFA 2016 day one: Battle-worn BB-8 and Acer's new Chromebook
Even though we've been in Berlin for a few days, Friday was actually the first official day of IFA 2016. And, as expected, there's a lot to see on the show floor. Yesterday, we checked out Sphero's "Battle-worn" BB-8 and its companion Force Band, a wearable that lets you control the droid with hand gestures. We also took a look at Acer's new Chromebook R13, a sleek $400 laptop, as well as Withings' first smartwatch with a heart rate monitor. Much more to come from the event, but for now enjoy our recap of day one. We're live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
The best 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' toy gets even better
Sphero's BB-8 quickly became the most sought-after Star Wars toy when it was revealed last year. Now, the company is introducing a "Battle-worn" edition of the droid at IFA 2016, featuring a murky appearance that makes it further resemble the character from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But that's not it. Along with this new rolling ball, Sphero introduced the final version of its Force Band, which lets you control BB-8 by simply waving your hand. The wearable device is also compatible with two other members of Sphero's robot family, the SPRK+ and Ollie.
Sphero's Force Band, battle-worn BB-8 arrive on September 30th
Sphero is ready to start selling Force Bands -- wristwatch-like devices that will give you a way to control its BB-8 droids with a wave of the hand -- and they sure look much better than the toy-like demo unit we tested at CES. Besides being able to control the BB-8 and Sphero's other Bluetooth robots with hand gestures, the device also issues voice prompts letting you know if there are Holocrons (images of Star Wars characters) in the environment that you can collect à la Pokémon Go. They can make light saber sounds, as well, if want to reenact Rey's and Kylo Ren's duel in your living room.
