BB-8 is a small droid that was introduced in The Force Awakens movie. He (I'm assigning him a gender because he seems male to me) is unlike the previous droids, R2-D2 or C3PO, in that he is round and rolls from place to place, all the while keeping his head on top.
I have no doubt that Disney created him specifically to sell as a toy, which is exactly what they have done. There are several versions of the toy, but they all use some form of remote control.
Depending on the item you buy, the BB-8 remote control droid can be activated by a hand-held controller or with an app that you install on your mobile device. There is even one version that changes color.
The intended market for this item is children, but plenty of adult Star Wars fans enjoy playing with it, too. Aside from the method of control, the main difference between the one that comes with a hand-held controller and the app controller is that the app controlled BB-8 is silent, while the other one makes the noises you heard in the movie.
