It appears to be official - The Sony Rolly has been discontinued, at least in the United States. Going into a Sony Style store I was told the only way to get them now is in outlet malls. They're not even carrying accessories. Ouch.

I'll check on the Japanese version when I go to Japan later this year.

You can still buy Rollys on eBay, in outlet malls (apparently), and from friends.

Best,

-Auri

Sony's been listening, and Rolly Firmware 2.0 has been released.

• Download it here.
• Installation instructions here.

Review from Sony Insider:

Rolly owners in the US….your prayers have been heard! A new Rolly firmware 2.0 and Rolly Remote software have been released. Once you perform the firmware upgrade, you will be able to do the following with Rolly Remote software:

Rolly Remote Software Features

The Rolly Remote software makes it possible to establish a Bluetooth connection between the Rolly player and the computer and perform the following Rolly functions from the computer:

• Open the “Rolly Track List” to view the track titles
• Select and play music tracks
• Control the Rolly player movements in conjunction with the music
• Connect to up to seven Rolly players at the same time

Head over to Sony Support page to get the needed files. * Software for your mobile phone to remotely control Rolly has not been announced. Hopefully Sony Ericsson could issue one?

Anyways, I am off to the upgrade my two Rollies.

While not nearly as compact as a Rolly, there's something to be said about a 2.4" tall dancing robot that straps any music player to its back and dances a jig... Oh, and it will chase you around the house, too. Anyone have the COPS theme? It's the Hasbro Ampbot, coming this summer for $500. I wonder how you program it?

There's a writeup about it on Engadget, too...

Cute :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T32y7emwWL0&feature=related

Do you have any videos to show us? Talk it up in the forums! 

In case you never saw it, here is an interview from last year with a Sony engineer discussing the motivation behind the Rolly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1cRmnJX_aU&feature=related

I started using the Rolly Go site so I could download some of the cool motions Sony has created for all of us to use. Unfortunately, when I downloaded Feist's 1234, it came down with no file extension. Thus, Rolly Choreographer wouldn't recognize it as a motion file.

To fix the problem, I simply added the .MTF file extension. So, now instead of just 1234, I have 1234.mtf. Problem solved!

I hope this helps anyone else having this issue :)

If you are having any other issues with downloading and applying motion files, please visit this topic the forums and everyone can help you out!

Do you have a suggestion for the next Rolly? Sony wants to know!

Post your comments and suggestions in this forum and I'll forward them on to Sony's Rolly team!

Thanks!

-Auri 

Are you annoyed by your Rolly only dancing for the one song and then stopping? Is your finger tired of double tapping after every song? Want your Rolly dancing all night at your party? Ok, I got it figured out!  

Here's what you do:

1. Connect your Rolly to your PC via USB.

2. Download the DEMO.INI file from the forums.

3. Copy that folder into the RSF folder on your Rolly. You'll also see a Rolly.ini file, although you might not see the .ini part on some systems. No worries!

4. Unplug your Rolly from your PC.

5. Start your Rolly dancing and it won't stop until you tap it again!

6. Party like a rock star!

Comment about the new hack here. 

This hack does not affect any other Rolly functionality based on my testing. If you want to disable the new functionality, simply delete the DEMO.ini file.

Enjoy!

Best,

-Auri 

Enjoy!

(if you can't see the video, which is probably my fault, click here) 

Ok, I received my Black Rolly today... the SEP-30BT... so here are my impressions so far after charging it:

• Overall I'm impressed - it's a black Rolly with good storage space and English software. Way cool.
• The songs that come with it are different than the Japanese Rolly. It comes with more songs than sound effects. The first song from the Japanese Rolly, the one with the woman singing, is gone. So is the sound animals sound effects track.
• The new songs include the 2001 Space Odyssey song - pretty cool, as well as Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend, and Earth, Wind & Fire's Boogie Wonderland. The 2001 rendition is cool when the Rolly studders its ears... The other two songs are pretty entertaining dance pieces. The Music is a Language song from the original Rolly is still there... way cool.
• The packaging is different than the Japanese Rolly. Instead of coming in an easy to flip-top box, it comes with a more complicated box. It also doesn't have the really neat fabric on the inside. See my photos below.
  
• The Motion Editor + Soundstage software combo from the Japanese Rolly has been replaced with the Rolly Choreographer software. You can choose to install Choreographer for either USA or Canada, but not both. I'm not sure what the difference is.
• By the way, the name of the singer for Music's a Language is Mr. Ray, and it's on his Start Dreaming album from 2001. You should find it in the Kids section of a music store.. I couldn't download it on Zune - bummer!
• In addition to instaling Rolly Choreographer, the installer throws in OpenMG Secure Module and OpenMG Limited Patch. I don't know what these do... They're related to Sony's copy protection technologies and are not an optional install. As long as it doesn't mess up my CDs like the Sony BMG copy protected CD rootkit fiasco from years ago... I know some people are paranoid about this stuff, so you can find out more info about OpenMG here. It's understandable that Sony would want copy protection, but I don't understand why this is necessary if the device plays MP3s, which are "open."
• Note that the OpenMG software takes almost 10 (!!!) whole minutes to install. I don't know what it's installing, but that's a long time. The entire software installation took about 20 minutes.
• I don't recall the Japanese version installing OpenMG... Does anyone recall if it does/did?
• After installing the software it wanted me to restart, so fyi before you install :)
• The Black Rolly is WAYYYY cool looking. I need to change its ears to Red, though ;)

 

The full size versions of the photos can be found in the Photo Gallery. 

 

More info is coming after my system comes back up since I can't keep posts open in between restarts <grin>...

 

I modded my Japanese Rolly today. It now has BLUE ears! Those interchangeable ears are way cool :)

Check it out: 

I'm trying to figure out how to do this... A problem many of us Rolly fans have had is the Rolly stops dancing after one song.

Well, at the Sony Style store today, THEIR Rolly wouldn't stop dancing! They wouldn't let me see it to figure out the config file and told me it was their "special software". Anyway, I know it's just a config file setting, and it's time to play around, because the continuous dancing is a big deal!

Has anyone else had theirs continuously dance? 

I visited a Sony Style store at the Fashion Mall here in Indianapolis... Way cool accessories for the Rolly abound. Here's what they had for sale:

• Replacement Ears in Silver, Red, and Blue
• Carrying Pouch - They only had Black, but I know I've seen White ones in Japan. They told me the pouches only come in black - but that's not true! I'll watch out for the other color(s).
• Charging Base - Available in both Black and White. I bought a Black one.

Note that you have to be logged in to see the photos! If you don't have an account yet, get one! It's free! 

Best,

-Auri

I didn't post the link to Rolly on the Sony Style store a couple days ago... whoops!

Click here to buy a Rolly directly from Sony! 

I've already ordered a black one! I can't wait to try the software! Thanks, Rolly Team!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/20/sony-rolly-finally-brings-the-party-stateside/

Everybody's favorite dancing robot of questionable utility from Sony is finally making its way across that big wet thing that divides the fair lands of Japan and USA. The Rolly, in case you missed it, is tiny little wheeled bot that can blast some tunes out of its built-in speakers, move its cute little appendages to the music and spin around for that full-on dancing robot experience. The bot comes with pre-choreographed songs ("Also Sprach Zarathustra," Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" and Earth Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland" -- all particular favorites of the Engadget staff), or you can use the choreography software to generate a dance for own tunes, or even program the dance yourself. The 2GB bot comes in black or white, and is available now online or in Sony Style stores for $400.