After a 10 year hiatus, Star Wars returns to the big screen across the world with a new movie from super director JJ Abrams and Disney. The star of the trailers released so far have been a cute little droid with the designation ‘BB8’. The droid has captured the hearts of almost anyone who has seen the shorts, with the spherical droid impossibly rolling around the desert. Now, thanks to toy and robotic company Sphero, you can purchase the little droid for yourself.
Priced at $249 in Australia, you can grab BB8 from JB Hi-Fi, Myer, Harvey Norman and even Apple Stores, the price includes a charging stand to make sure your droid doesn’t run out of power. So why would you want one? Well, just look at it! He’s cute as a button, but he’s also able to be controlled from your smartphone. The app runs on Android (or iOS) devices and has a delightful start-up when you launch it.
The droid is absolutely fun to control and drive around. The setup on your smartphone or tablet is easy and intuitive to use. Once you’ve loaded the app and BB8 is ready to go, you can drive him around the room using the controls on your Android device, or spin his head around. There’s a voice control mode andyou can even put BB8 into an autonomous mode and he’ll rove around on sentry duty.
There’s another funky mode which the designers have added which borrows from the hologram concept in Star Wars. You can use either neat holographic pre-recorded content to display on your tablet or phone as an augmented reality playback, or record your own using the front-facing camera and have it play back:
This little droid has already sold out at a number of stores in Australia after it went on-sale on Friday, so expect to have limited availability if you’re thinking of getting dad one for Fathers Day. There is a few months left until Christmas though, so probably add this one to your Christmas list.
