Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

If you’ve been desperately yearning for a Sony Rolly ever since you saw how cool they (kinda maybe) are when we saw one perform at CES, it looks like they’re now for sale in Sony Style stores and online for an outlandish $400. I’m still not sure what sort of niche market the Rolly is targeting, but here’s what it can do:

-180-degree horizontally opposed 1.2w stereo speakers and a digital amplifier provide powerful sound performance

-Six moving parts — Rolly player’s arms, shoulders and wheels work with two LED lamps to create a tiny floor show.

-Three motion function settings let you watch the Rolly player analyze and interpret the music, program its moves yourself, or download moves from your computer with the included Motion Editor Software5.

-Bluetooth capability allows you to wirelessly stream music from compatible digital music players, PCs, or mobile phones

-2GB storage capacity means that the Rolly player can hold up to 520 songs and the included Lithium-ion battery can provide up to 5 hours of continuous music playback

More features, and a video of Rolly from CES, after the jump.

Rolly will ship with choreography for three songs: “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (theme from “2001 — A Space Odyssey”), Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and Earth Wind and Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland.” It can create dance routines on the fly for anything else, but part of the appeal is supposed to be that you can program Rolly with specific moves for every song in your music collection. I have no idea who would have the time or inclination to do this, but you can also download other people’s choreography from the Rolly community.

So, who knows… But if you find yourself near a Sony Style store, it’s probably worth 5 minutes of your time to check out Rolly for yourself.

[ Sony Rolly ]