UPDATE: Cars 2 AppMATes

Zoom! Now you never know if it is a Hot wheel on a carpet with tracks all over it, or an electric go-kart. But more recently, it could have been a car on an iPad.

I know I mentioned it before and gave it an account, but know that it is actually out, this is a review after I tried out the game (if you do not owe the physical toy, like me, it is possible to play with two fingers and a, icon named “Paper Lightning”). The introduction is here. Also, the MAT in AppMATes is a acronym for “Mobile Application Toys”.

As I was saying, I, owing an iPad, decided to check out the new application by Disney that pairs a physical toy with the iPad. I found it entertaining, but there are a few minor problems.

One, was that the car moves the fastest in the middle of the screen so the backdrop can move. But the problem is that humans have a natural tendency to push objects to accelerate its speed. When you do push the car, a voice tells you to move it back to the center, and sometimes glitches.

Another minor problem is that the game is slow. Because it has to load so many collisions, and graphics, it make the gameplay glitch up a bit when it is loading many tasks. This only occasionally happens, but is still a bit annoying.

Lastly, the arrow that points you to places you want/need to go leads you from A-B directly. It discourages you to use the roads, but go on top of buildings, cars, signs, etc. This is fine, except that I personally like following the road.

This is a great idea and come as a surprise to me that no one really took the advantage of being able to blur the line between physical and  digital objects with the iPad and other iDevices. But then again, it didn’t come to me either. But blurring the lines of reality isn’t new at all. For one, there’s the SMART Board (an interactive white board).

The app is available here (US and CAN, iPad 1 and 2)

The cars are available in the US Apple store, US Toys R Us, and Disney store (20 bucks for 2 cars).

Overall, I like this concept of blurring the lines using everyday products we actually (normal citizens) have. I believe more and more companies will start to do this. I suspect that in 50 years, we won’t know what’s real or what’s fake. I wonder  what life will be like then…

New and Noteworthy Gadgets

These are absolutely the funniest things ever! Have you ever abused the “snooze” button? Well, you will no more with Clocky or Tocky. These adorable robots developed by MIT will allow you to snooze only once. After that, it will jump down from your bedside table and run around the room beeping. Next, it will find a hiding spot and keep on beeping until you actually get up and close it.

I stumbled across it several times, it seems that every time some crazy gadget goes in to the market (or even before), the news goes crazy over it. Well of course not the formal ones like CNN, but rather the unofficial news/rumor sites.

The link is here.

This is only for the ones who love gadgets, I mean, who would risk getting fired just to sleep in? At least, not me.

Here’s another interesting gadget, the Disney AppMATes.

It combines a physical toy with the magic of the iPad. For $20, you can buy 2 Cars 2 Hot Wheels size vehicles which are made to be able to  run on the iPad. With a free app, children can actually use a physical toy to interact with the digital world. The cars can talk to other characters, they can race and run on race courses, plus fly, jump, etc. With add ons such as wings, it is another creative idea coined by Disney.

The only problem I can foresee is toddlers thinking any car can be paired with the iPad and scratching the screen, or landing a jump too hard.

What a difference between the carpets with roads we had back in the times of the dinos!

The video is below.

Update: To see my review, please go here

Post a comment! Do you like them? Why or why not? Really, someone had to make these sooner or later.

Oh ya, and by the way, “New and Noteworthy” was totally not from Apple. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, hope you don’t mind the sarcasm.