We've discussed some of Sony's absurdly priced endeavors recently -- the absurdly priced Xperia Touch projector comes to mind -- and now here is another one. The Xperia Hello, a robotic assistant designed to rival Amazon's Alexa speakers, is now available for preorder in Japan. The price is advertised as 149,880 yen at Sony Stores, which is equivalent to about $1,300. Devices will ship starting November 18th. What do all those dollars buy you with the Xperia Hello?

Sony Mobile Communications Inc. announced Tuesday it will begin selling a new communications robot targeted at families next month, furthering its foray into the trending robot market. "We've developed this product based on a theme of making it a new member of the family," Hiroshi Ito, deputy head of the smart products division at Sony Mobile, said during a news conference in Tokyo. "We'd like to propose a new way of communication with this that makes communication more fun for families." Dubbed Xperia Hello, the robot will hit store shelves Nov. 18 and is expected to sell for around ¥150,000. The 21-cm conical-shaped robot can perform various functions such as using its camera to recognize people's faces and then chatting with them.

That's because this was the fourth and final meetup for participants of "Program N," a project where volunteers tested a hands-free open-ear audio device (called, appropriately enough, Concept N) for Sony for almost a year. Aside from paying their own money for the hardware, Program N participants were invited to attend several meetups throughout the year, where they interacted with Sony engineers directly. Future Lab also attended the Silicon Valley Bike Festival and Bike To Work Day SF in order to talk to cyclists and bike commuters about how N could improve their experience. "The first version of N didn't have a calling function," said Okamoto, adding that most people in Tokyo don't use headsets to make calls, so it was an afterthought.