When you bought Sphero’s BB-8 last September, you might have wondered how much playtime you’d get out of the little rolling droid. He races around and makes sound effects and constantly makes me want to pick him up and hug him (incidentally, trying to cuddle a hard plastic toy doesn’t work so well), but those activities have a limited shelf life. Over time, there have been updates to the app giving the astromech new messages and noises… but the ultimate upgrade was only just implemented, to coincide with the Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Your new and improved BB-8 can actually “watch” the film with you and react to everything that happens. I’m sure he’ll have a thing or two to say when the onscreen BB-8 gets tossed around the Millennium Falcon in Rey’s first flight.
All you have to do is update the app on your mobile device and go into the “Watch With Me” mode. Then you’ll have to place BB-8 in his charging station and have the Sphero app running while you watch the movie. Sphero’s app will access your microphone and feed the sounds from the film to BB-8, so make sure your mobile device is positioned to catch everything from your TV.
Chris Taylor of Mashable filmed his BB-8’s reaction to Finn and Rey escaping from Niima Outpost:
It’s a good thing I’ve seen The Force Awakens several times already because all I’m going to be doing when BB-8 watches with me is clapping with joy. This is such a clever idea.
How soon will you be making a date with your BB-8—a BB-DATE!!—to watch The Force Awakens? Please grab some video of BB-8 reacting to the screen and share it with us on Twitter at @nerdist and @amy_geek.
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HT: Gizmodo
IMAGES: Lucasfilm, thosee619/Tumblr
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