That didn't take long. An hour or so into the official opening of IFA and I already feel like a kid again. It was a fleeting feeling, sure, but it was nice while it lasted - and once again, December and all of the Star Wars it brings can't be soon enough.
I was pretty pumped when I first saw the perfect marketing tie-in that was the Sphero BB-8 yesterday, and now, having tooled around a bit with Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awaken's most adorably anticipated droid, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole endeavor.
Like the standard Sphero robotic ball before it, the BB-8 navigation is a little tricky at first, seeing as you're dealing with pointing the right direction using a perfectly round object, but the spherical droid is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
The iPhone/Android app also includes a handful of preprogrammed moves that bring the 'bot's personality to life - and utilize your mobile device's speakers to give it voice. There are a handful of app experiences as well, including one that turns the user's message into a hologram beamed from BB-8 using augmented reality on the device's screen.
As with Sphero's other products, the little ball is durable - which comes in handy when you're first learning how to steer it. The head, meanwhile, is detachable and sticks to the ball with a magnet, moving independently as your drive the little ball droid around.
Sphero promises a lot more in the way of software after the film arrives on Dec. 18 - apparently the good people at Disney haven't given the company a preview of the film yet, so they're waiting for December just like the rest of us suckers.
