Sphero spin-off's Misty II robot is now available for pre-order

Sphero spin-off Misty Robotics has officially announced the mass-produced version of the robot helper it showed off at CES this year. The cute little machine officially called Misty II still resembles its Wall-E like its predecessor, but it can actually do things unlike Misty I. Thanks to developers' work on the original robot, it now comes with a set of capabilities and has a bunch of downloadable skills to choose from. It can move autonomously and respond to its environment, create a 3D map of its surroundings, recognize faces, respond to commands, charge itself and talk. You can also create your own skills if you want: its visual block-based programming interface makes it easy to conjure up simple skills use, but you can also use JavaScript APIs to come up with more sophisticated ones. If you're an experienced programmer/developer, you can add third-party services like Alexa and Google Assistant and modify it to create something entirely new -- maybe even find a way to make it fold your laundry or do your taxes.