No, that's not the escape pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey — it's the latest gadget from Sony. On the heels of the Apple iPod Touch debut last week, Sony has unveiled its new digital audio player called The Rolly. (The name is a combination of "friendly" and "rolling.") Shaped like an egg with internal speakers that flip out, The Rolly is more than just a music player. Taking advantage of the technology used to develop the discontinued Sony robot dog Aibo, The Rolly can be programmed (using Sony's Motion Editor) to spin in pre-sequenced rhythms along with the music playing through its speakers. Rolly knows which side of its surface is facing up at all times, and you can stream music wireless via Bluetooth from your computer to The Rolly.

You can get an idea of the kind of "hip" people the device is aimed at by checking out this extremely odd commercial that shows the Rolly only for a few seconds (look away if dancing nerds offend you). The device has 1 GB of memory, holds about 500 songs, has five hours of battery life, retails for 40,000 yen ($353), and is set to go on sale in Japan on September 29. A U.S. release date hasn't been announced, but Sony expects to start shipping them overseas sometime in 2008.
— Adario Strange

Via Sony