Monday, July 6, 2015

Parrot MiniDrone Rolling Spider


Like Sphero this is a Bluetooth remote controlled toy that uses your Android or iOS device as the controller.  And they have opened up the control API for their drones.   Some interesting block based visual coding tools have added support for the Parrot MiniDrone, as well as Sphero and some other devices.

If you need a little more excitement in your coding, and a cool toy it's worth checking out.


Tickle

This iOS app is adding support for more IoT (internet of things) devices every week. and Currently supports quite a few of the devices we've already mentioned.
  • Parrot Minidrone
  • Sphero
  • Dash & Dot
  • Ollie
  • LightBlue Bean (Arduino)
  • Philips Hue


Tynker

Tynker really got my attention when I found out they now support programming devices.  Currenlty they support just a couple, but with promise of adding more.  Tynker is actually a commercial venture offering both a free tool and minimal free tutorials, as well as some premium course content.  It's defiantly got higher production values than many of the other tools which can certainly help keep kids attention.   Another benefit is that it's HTML5 based and runs on just about any system desktop or mobile, and has tablet optimized apps for Android and iOS.
  • Parrot Minidrone
  • Sphero