sphero

NEW YORK --Sphero rolled, danced, and lit up like a Christmas tree.

In Union Square here on Saturday night, marketers from Orbotix, makers of the ball that owners can control remotely with their iPhones and Android devices, dazzled crowds by showing off how their product can be programmed to move in a sort of synchronized ballet (video at bottom).

If you're thinking this may be the right holiday gift for the gadget nerd who has everything, note that buying multiple balls won't be cheap. On Amazon, the Sphero retails for $130.… Read more

It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.

That's a quote from the movie "This is Spinal Tap," but it could just as well apply to the Sphero, a new high-tech, $130 robotic ball that's well, either pretty stupid or pretty clever, depending on how you look at it. (We first encountered Sphero at CES 2011.)

Let's start with the clever. The concept of wirelessly controlling a ball and steering it around with your smartphone is certainly intriguing, and people's initial reaction to seeing Sphero in action is usually a mix of curiosity and a bit of awe. "Wow, that's cool," is a frequent observation. … Read more

Nowadays, everybody has to work with developers.

Just ask HTC. Not content to build Android and Windows Phone smartphones, the company in June launched a developer-outreach program, HTC Dev. The goal: to give developers access to some of its products' niftier features while drumming up support for the company.

"Android and mobile in general is so competitive, developing mindshare is important," said Leigh Momii, a developer evangelist for HTC. "For developers, it offers them a way to stand out."

Prior to HTC Dev, the company had a developer following its long history of smartphones. But HTC … Read more

LAS VEGAS--From robo-dinosaurs to mecha-masseurs, robots at CES 2011 ran the gamut of wacky novelty products like the Sphero iPhone-controlled ball and the WheeMe back massage robot to practical but funked-out floor cleaners like dancing Mint sweepers.

There wasn't a whole lot that was new, but there were enough debuts and upgrades to keep it interesting.

Japan's Murata Manufacturing, which makes capacitors found in many mobile phones, showed off its robotics skills with Murata Boy (above) and Murata Girl, which cycle along balance beams without toppling over.

Making their CES debut, the acrobat bots can stand upright even when stationary thanks to gyro sensors that control a rotating disk, which in turn corrects their slant. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--It's not that I stagger around CES looking for indicators of man's doom. It's that they accost me with the precision of a pastry chef.

"Hi," said a very charming man (for an engineer), as I stood entirely mesmerized by a little ball rolling between a couple of cones.

Adam Wilson is one of the founders of Orbotix. He told me that half of the folks at Orbotix used to work at NASA. Now they make Sphero, a little ball that rolls between a couple of cones.

Oh, did I mention that the fun … Read more

Tired of playing games using your smartphone's touch screen? Ready to take it to the next level? Then, you might want to take a look at this.

A Boulder, Colo.-based start-up called Orbotix has created a robotic ball, called Sphero, that you can control with your smartphone via Bluetooth. The idea is that the ball becomes the object in a game, and you use your smartphone to maneuver it through the various levels or command it to do certain actions.

For example, you can use it to solve a maze by rolling the Sphero around on the floor. … Read more