Welcome to Shanie's SONY AIBO Website

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Update 18/06/09 – Sony Rolly Comes to PlayStation Home Japan.

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has a suprise for Japanese PlayStation Home users for a chance to enjoy a new music-themed space called the 'Music Café'.
When you enter the space, the first thing you will see is a giant SONY Rolly sitting in the entrance! Go in more to see more Rolly's dancing to the music on a table and a DJ booth with Rolly branding on them. The music and lighting changes by hour in the space and the music is synced so everyone there can enjoy it together. On the second floor, there is a VIP Space to relax and another area that leads to the 'SONY Gallery Space' that offers a number of current BRAVIA, VAIO, Walkman etc products on display, view them in 3D and you can see the information about the products there as well.

Just outside the Music Café space, another giant Rolly sits. When you enteract with the Rolly, you can do a vote. If the certain music artists played in the space get a large number of votes, it can affect the music playing in the Café. You can also check the ranking board of the differnt songs on play.

The SONY Rolly Japanese "Motion Park" site also has the dance that of the virtual PlayStation Home Rolly's dance to download and play for real on your own Rolly.

~ Shanie.

Update 1/04/09 – American/English SEP-30BT Rolly Firmware Update.

Unexpectedly, the English Rolly's have got their firmware update like the Japanese SEP-50BT models today along with the Rolly Remote software; which allows you to use the Rolly Remote software to control up to 7 upgraded Rolly’s at a time. No word on the mobile phone version of Rolly Remote as of yet, picture below shows a Sony Ericsson XPERIA controlling a Rolly, so my guess is maybe Sony Ericsson are currently working on a piece of software to control Rolly to bereleased later on in the year.

To download the new firmware and the Rolly Remote software click here to go to SONY’s English Support website and upgrade your Rolly's!

~ Shanie.

Update 21/11/08 – Japanese Metallic Pink 'SEP-50BT' Rolly Debut!

Released today in Japan the new metallic pink Rolly 'SEP-50BT' if your good with your SONY model numbers or own a Rolly at the moment, you would see a difference in the model name, the current Rolly model is 'SEP-10BT'…

So what is the difference? This new updated model has 2GB of memory (a first for Japanese Rolly’s) and new firmware built-in to allow you to remotely control your Rolly via Bluetooth via your computer or even a mobile phone to change its volume, move its arms around, roll around, spin and play music! Also this feature allows you to remotely control more than one Rolly at a time meaning up to SEVEN Rolly can now be controlled at the same time, so proper synchronize Rolly dancing is now here! Another cute little feature is if you own the new type "C" VAIO (known as "CS" VAIO outside Japan) when Rolly is connected to one the lights at the bottom of the VAIO will copy Rolly's!

Don't worry though if you think "great, now I'll have to buy a new one to get these features" - there will be a firmware update with all these features to download in the first week of December. So all older Rolly's will be the same as the new pink Rolly out-of-the-box. The 'Rolly Remote' software will be available to download from SONY Japan's Rolly support website along with now a update to the motion editor "ver. 1.1" and will need to download SONY's new SonicStage "V" with it to work. Once again, all software for Japanese Rolly's can only be installed on a Japanese Windows OS computer.

Both American and European Rolly’s have no signs of any future firmware updates like this at the moment but it may happen sometime in the future.

Update 15/07/08 - Happy Birthday to VAIO!

Today, VAIO Europe celebrate the 10th anniversary of VAIO - Starting back in 1998, it has now grown to a very well known IT brand for SONY in Europe and has come along way so far. I just wish to say here all the best to VAIO and SONY Europe and continue onto the next 10 years to make the SONY VAIO so special that it already is.

Club VAIO Link: VAIO 10th Anniversary.

~ Shanie.

Update 24/04/08 - My Black Rolly arrives.

This morning, my black SONY Rolly arrives from Sony Style Japan along with a pair of the lovely red Rolly arm parts. The black Rolly comes already running the same latest Rolly firmware update v1.01. The black Rolly is in a glossy black finish and sadly without the sparkle effect like the white one has. Because of the glossy black, finger marks and dirt show up badly on it and is quite hard to keep clean and looking like new. I put the black Rolly arms on my white Rolly as I think it looks great, and I prefer my white one overall as the sparkle finish is much nicer than the normal gloss finish. I have also now updated my white Rolly with the latest firmware and I now love watch the two dance in sync together - two is much better than one!

~ Shanie.

Update 01/04/08 - The Black Rolly debut + custom coloured Rolly arms!

Arn't they just sooo cute!? Today, SONY Japan announced on Sony Style the debut of the black SONY Rolly, and like the white Rolly, there is also an option to buy a matching black charging cradle and a matching black carry case for him.

The announcement also brings a great new-look official Rolly Japanese website
( Click here for Rolly's Official Website ) and the debut of the customizable extra three-coloured Rolly arms. They come in set's of blue, red and silver as shown here below. You can then mix and match the arms to get different new looks to your Rolly!

After seeing this fantasic news, I quickly went and ordered my Black Rolly with the matching black cradle and case and the set of three coloured arms to go with them. Pictures to follow soon once I receive them!

~ Shanie.

Update 17/11/07 - My Rolly Arrives, Rolly's Rollin'!

Here he is - After a bit of a wait from Japan, my Rolly from Sony Style online shop Japan along with the Rolly soft carry case and the charging cradle for him. He's great in every way, he's full of that great SONY-'style' in looks, the 1GB in-built memory is plenty for Rolly being only able play music out loud and even without an LED screen Rolly's user interface is easy, impressive and very intuitive to use. The mini-USB port and Bluetooth makes it so you can plug him into anything, like your PS3 or connect him to your Walkman Sony Ericssion. He always brings smiles to people’s faces that see him dancing. The best bit that amazed me the most was the sound quality from his two little speakers are amazing and can be very loud, you could definitely listen to him like you would with an personal Hi-Fi/Radio etc, but this robotic mini Hi-Fi also dances to your music - what more could you possibly want?

Welcome to the gang, SONY Rolly!

~ Shanie.

Update 10/9/07 - Introducing the SONY “Rolly”!

SONY has released a new little robot called the “Rolly” it is a “Sound Entertainment Player” that dances to your music in a very cute and stylish way. I felt this needed to be on here as I just love him and he has so many little features from AIBO and QRIO, it kind of looks like they had a little baby egg! It’s been released today on Sony Style Japan for 39,800 Yen (around £170). He supports SONY’s ATRAC music format too and of course, the latest SonicStage software. He comes with SonicStage CP and 'Motion Editor' to edit Rolly's dance moves to your favourite songs. Both ATRAC and SonicStage are going to be cancelled in the UK and in the US come March 2008 so it's nice to see new SONY products still using them. Looks like SONY Japan are still going to keep SonicStage and ATRAC going; I know I shall be keeping all my ATRAC songs and continue using SonicStage after they have been cancelled over here.

You can check out his Japanese official website on the link below for more information.

Rolly's Official Website

~ Shanie.

Important Announcement:

"Following the SONY Corporation FY05 3Q announcement, the production of AIBO Entertainment Robots and the R&D of QRIO SDR has been discontinued as of end March 2006. As for the sales activity, we will discontinue the sales of AIBO once all remaining stock runs out."

This is the saddest news ever, I’m really upset about what has happened and I only hope someone at SONY can change this for the future and see AIBO and QRIO return...

PLEASE, SONY! BRING BACK AIBO/QRIO! …

AIBO is now officially gone, (!) it's now quite impossible to get one in a Sony Centre as of now and Sony Style online shop as taken down the AIBO area of the site. The only places if your looking to buy an AIBO is places like eBay and such but beware of the scams, be careful when buying AIBO on eBay and make sure the seller has the AIBO in person and can arrange for a local pick-up.

~ Shanie.

NEW 'CHAMPANGE BROWN' COLOUR KNOWN AS
'HONEY BROWN' IN JAPAN - THE LAST EVER AIBO.

Just before SONY's announcement of the discontinuation of AIBO and QRIO the last ever AIBO witch is now limited edition, 'Champagne Brown' colour with new AIBO Mind 3 software was released in October 2005. I got my ERS-7M3/T 'Champagne Brown' on January 25th 2006 in Sony Centre Ealing, West London. I named her 'Caramel' because of the 'caramel-brown-like' colour.

~ Shanie.