#appcessories

Now even cups can become appcessories! This one will track the contents of what you drink and report back to a smart app. The future is here...

A new Kickstarter that takes sound off any surface and turns it into digital music - so many fun educational possibilities - I'm a backer :)

The latest ways to enhance game play with your smartphone or tablet

The brainchild of iDevices’ CEO, Inventor Christopher J. Allen, iDevices’ 

flagship product iGrill is the world’s first grilling and cooking thermometer 

for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad.  

Revolutionizing the way we cook and grill today, iGrill enables its users to 

multitask between grill and guests with the peace of mind that their food 

is perfectly cooked, at target temperature and safe for consumption.

iGrill communicates with the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad via a secure, 

long-range Bluetooth® connection.

Essentially, iGrill offers its users the most valuable commodity of all:  Time.

The iGrill is the first grilling/cooking thermometer and app for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. iGrill communicates with your device via a secure, long-range Blutooth connection.

Long range bluetooth wireless connectivity

Temperature range of 4°- 204°C (40°- 400°F)

Dual temperature probe support (one probe included)

Integrated probe storage

GameChanger iPad Boardgame

App 4/5 - for quality of the two main games that are included the game changer. The other mini games however are below par.

Accessory 4/5 - for good build quality and ability to just change cards to change games, although these cards are a little thin and can be easily bent.

What

The game changer is consists of three joined board elements that fold around the central one (which also contains the iPad dock) when not in use. To play you simply unfold the side boards, dock the iPad (the app should auto-launch), place the cards on the sides and choose your playing piece.

How 

Each side section contains pressure-sensitive sensors which sit under the corresponding squares of the gamecards and allows the GameChanger to know where you have placed a piece. This is also what provides the interactivity - because your iPad is docked with the board itself, it receives the information from the pressure spots to keep track of each players progress.

Verdict 

The GameChanger is a very good first attempt at melding the digital world of the iPad and of the physical world of board games. One really good feature to note is that the board itself has a docking plug that is adjustable in height so that it works with just about any iPad case. The two main games, 'Magic School Bus' and 'Animal Mania' have large amounts of questions and options. When tested with our family that includes a four year old, we found that she wanted to play the games over and over, a good sign. 

The mini games however are generally very simple and all revolve around the same action of simply tapping on the pressure spots to control something that's happening on the iPad screen. This seems quite unnatural in an age where you've got the touchscreen - why not just tap on it directly?

I did experience one small issue where the board would stop being recognised by the iPad this was usually fixed quite quickly send it by restarting the iPad and this re-establish the connection.

Education Verdict 

Both main games are based around a lot of semi-educational knowledge,  whether it's the Magic School Bus topics of the body or space, or Animal Mania's questions and facts. This gives the GameChanger good potential  to be integrated into the classroom and to curriculum that relates to the same areas, as long as a teacher is able to do this integrating rather than just say letting students use it for reward time.