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Video: Hands-on with Sphero’s Specdrums, a colorful way to make music

If you’ve visited an Apple retail store over the last few years, you’re probably already familiar with Sphero‘s line of educational products and toys. The Sphero robot is a core part of Apple’s coding education in the form of a Today at Apple session where participants must guide the rolling robots through a maze on the floor. For CES 2019, Sphero is refining its Specdrums app-enabled musical rings.

Sphero purchased startup Specdrums this past spring as part of a deeper focus on educational products. Specdrums essentially enable you to make music on any surface by tapping intelligent rings you wear on objects of different colors around you. The rings detect differences in color and motion with an accelerometer.

An iOS app interacts with the Specdrums rings and uses your device as the central hub for creating music. A variety of instruments and sounds are available to choose from. The included colorful pad helps define a surface and instruments to construct your beat, but isn’t required for use.

The Sphero-rebranded version of Specdrums will start shipping on January 15th for $64.99 with one ring or $99.99 with two rings. Sphero isn’t announcing retail partners yet, but the accessory seems perfect for Apple’s toy and education Avenue in stores and for a music education Today at Apple session.

You can keep up with all of the latest product announcements from Las Vegas in our CES 2019 Guide.


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Avatar for Michael Steeber Michael Steeber

Michael is a Creative Editor who covered Apple Retail and design on 9to5Mac. His stories highlighted the work of talented artists, designers, and customers through a unique lens of architecture, creativity, and community.

Contact Michael on Twitter to share Apple Retail, design, and history stories: @MichaelSteeber