You can already get beloved board games like Monopoly on your tablet that provide a somewhat similar experience to the original cardboard sets. But they’ll never fully replace those old versions, because they lack the tangible satisfaction of grabbing a pair of dice, going through your shaking ritual and tossing them across the table — oh wait, what’s that? Scosche just released a set of wireless dice that work with tablets and smartphones? (Throws Monopoly in the garbage.)
Known as the smartROLL electronic gaming device, the wireless accessories connect to your device via Bluetooth — up to 10 at a time — and thanks to a built-in motion sensor they automatically translate the number you roll into the game you’re playing. So if they fall off the table and roll under a chair, the game will still know how they landed.
Battery life is pegged at around a year with casual boardgaming and a ‘shake to wake’ feature that helps conserve juice. And to ensure everything is on the up and up, the dice are internally weighted so that every roll is truly random — unless you can find some really heavy cell-sized batteries and figure out how to use that to your advantage. An exact availability date hasn’t been nailed down just yet, but in the interim Scosche is looking for developers with ideas on how to take advantage of its creation. Milton, Bradley, do you have a minute? [Scosche]