Sphero BB-8 Toy Will Watch "The Force Awakens" With You

Today is the big day for Star Wars fans, the latest film in the franchise "The Force Awakens" is landing on video today. If you happen to own the Sphero BB-8 toy based on the new droid in the film, there is a cool update for that toy designed to keep kids playing with it and to make you want to watch and enjoy the film at the same time. It's a nice bit of marketing for the toy and the film.

Sphero has pushed out an update to the smartphone app that goes along with the toy giving it the ability to listen and respond to movie action as you watch the film on TV. Before you start watching that movie, users need to launch the iPhone or Android version of the app for controlling the BB-8 toy and sync it to the toy.

Apparently, you have to keep BB-8 in his charge cradle during the movie or he will roll around too much. After launching the app and getting the toy into the charger just start the movie, it can be on TV or a laptop. As you watch the movie, the BB-8 toy will respond to the highs and lows of the action on screen. The little bot toy gets excited and beeps and boops away when he sees Han and Chewie for the first time on screen.

BB-8 will get shy and scared when Kylo Ren turns up on screen. As you might expect he gets really excited when he sees himself on screen. The bot will move its head with the action on TV and beeps a lot presumably offering robot commentary, if only we spoke robot. Sphero plans to add more features this year to keep the toy fun and interest piqued.

SOURCE: WSJ