The latest offering from electronics giant sony has left gadget reporters stumped about one key fact - what exactly it is that this strange robotic rolling thing does. Sony released an teaser campaign in Japan last week, and has promised to reveal more by September 10th. In the meantime, however, the blogosphere is going wild trying to understand what Sony has in mind for its cutely named "Rolly".




Over at Crave Donald Bell takes a stab at it:

"Of all the rumors, the one I like best (and sounds somewhat plausible), is that it's another Aibo-esque Sony robotic-pet product. This time, however, it looks like a little beer keg and possibly uses cameras and mirrors enclosed under its little animated hinged flaps to look around and interact with you. Sony's not offering up many clues here, but I think the theories on what this thing is are probably more interesting than the reality.

Anybody else want to take a guess? Music player? Wi-Fi-enabled e-mail notifier? Dance coach? Ridiculously expensive companion for your dusty Robosapien?"

The linguistically gifted might like to check out the Japanese Rolly site that has caused all of this fuss.

What do you think Rolly is? And should we care?