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Crayola's ColorStudio HD now available, iMarker at Best Buy
Griffin announced via its Facebook page that its collaboration with Crayola, ColorStudio HD for iPad, is now available. We first heard of it just before CES, when news of the app along with the new iMarker stylus came out. The US$29.99 marker-styled accessory allows kids -- or any other coloring enthusiast -- to color more than 50 interactive coloring pages. A trial mode, available if you download the map but do not own the stylus, allows you to paint three pictures with your finger. iMarker is now available through Best Buy and Griffin's site, and we will be getting our hands on it to give is a good run-through.
Crayola and Griffin unite for ColorStudio HD on iPad, custom iMarker stylus
Guess what just popped up to the top of our "must-see at CES" list? Chances are, if you're an iPad owner with small kids, you too will be enthralled by the promise and the premise of Crayola's collaboration with peripheral maker Griffin Technologies: ColorStudio HD for iPad, including the Crayola iMarker stylus. Coming in "Spring 2011" for the iPad, the US$29.95 hardware and software combo will put the wax-based experience of crayon drawing into a new digital realm. Once the free-with-purchase app is downloaded to the iPad (and I'm curious how exactly that's going to work -- a gift code that you get once you register the product? Or a free app that simply doesn't work without the stylus?), the would-be artist can draw away on more than 50 interactive coloring pages, games, musical environments and the like. The app will be able to differentiate the iMarker's touch point from a fingertip swipe, so coloring and controlling the UI will be distinct operations. This capability would be fascinating if Crayola and Griffin chose to license it for grown-up painting apps like ArtRage, but I imagine that kids will simply grok the difference between a marker and their fingers the same way they understand that distinction in the real world. Good luck getting the iPad out of the back seat during car trips now. One drawback, as Kelly H pointed out today: this increases the chances of other, non-iPad-safe markers being used inappropriately on other flat glowing surfaces. Deep breath and count to 10, parents.
Crave opening big box of virtual Crayolas
The washable-crayon-stylus hybrid thing seen here may still be a dream in our somewhat odd fanboy minds, but it is true that Crayola is bringing its unique brand of waxy, brittle pigment to the DS in electronic form. The company has made an agreement with publisher Crave to release a Crayola-themed DS game.Apparently, the game will be a minigame collection, with all of the minigames involving drawing and coloring with a wide selection of Crayola crayons. We're excited about this if only for the possibility that we may get to color a dinosaur. And because this way we won't lose 33 of our 64 colors within a week.
