Sony Rolly

Rolly is an egg-shaped digital robotic music player made by Sony,[1] combining music functions with robotic dancing. It has two wheels that allow it to rotate and spin, as well as two bands of colored LED light running around its edge and cup-like "wings" (or "arms" according to the Sony sonystyle USA website) which can open and close on either end, all of which can be synchronized to the music being played.

Sony Rolly
Sony Rolly on display at a trade show in Japan.
ManufacturerSony
Price$399 US

Rolly has several operating modes, including Bluetooth functionality. Rolly can play music streamed directly from any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, computer, or mp3 player. Rolly is able to dance along to streaming music, but the Rolly Choreographer software produces far better results when it analyzes tracks and creates motion files before loading them onto Rolly. The Rolly player uses .mtf files to store motion data along with a particular music track. Pre-made motion files can be downloaded and uploaded from Rolly Go.

Rolly also has an accelerometer which detects if the player is laying horizontally or being held upright. When held upright, the track next/previous can be controlled by the top wheel and volume up/down can be controlled by the bottom wheel. Tracks can be shuffled by holding the unit upright, pressing the button once, then shaking the unit up and down (light color changes to purple). You can return to continuous play (light color blue) by simply repeating this process.

Rolly has 2 gigabytes of flash memory to store music files.[2] In some markets it came pre-loaded with the track Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire.[3]

On August 20, 2007, Sony launched an initial teaser advertising campaign for the product.[4] The product was unveiled on September 20, 2007, and went on sale in Japan on September 29, and was for sale at the Sony sonystyle USA website[5] for $229.99 USD, down from $399.99 USD. It is available in black and white. Sony offers the "Engrave it." option for this item, and a number of accessories, including "arms" in different colors.

Around 2009, the Rolly appeared to be discontinued.[6]

Sony BSP60

In 2015 Sony presented a Bluetooth speaker featuring a similar design and feature set as the Rolly boasted, with the addition of an OLED display and support for voice commands.[7][8]

References
  1. "Tokyo Thrift: the Sony Rolly was peak Sony". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  2. "thewest.com.au, Sony unveils new twisting music player". Archived from the original on 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
  3. Sony BSP-60 vs. Sony Rolly, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2021-03-14
  4. Sony launches Rolly teaser campaign – makes girls chicken dance – Engadget
  5. SEP-30BTWHI | Rolly Sound Entertainment Player - White | Sony | SonyStyle USA
  6. M, Stan. "Sony Rolly is Discontinued? – Sony Insider". Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  7. "Sony Europe". 31 August 2017.
  8. Smith, Dave (2015-03-05). "Sony thinks you'll pay $400 for this bizarre Bluetooth speaker that looks like a Magic 8 ball with wheels". Business Insider Australia. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
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