That plastic ball up there might look like a simple plastic ball, but it is in fact a simple plastic ball packed with tech. Inside the Orbotix, as it’s known, are robot guts that let you control the ø74mm (2.9-inch) sphere with an Android or iOS device.
About 40 years ago, tech legend Alan Kay invented the idea of a lightweight tablet computer that children could use to learn programming. Apple’s iPad delivers on the tablet part of that vision — but the company has blocked a kid-friendly programming language based on Kay’s work from getting onto the iPad. Apple last week removed an app called Scratch from its iPhone and iPad App Store. The Scratch app displayed stories, games and animations made by children using MIT’s Scratch platform , which was built on top of Kay’s programming language Squeak, according to MIT. John Mcintosh, a software developer unaffiliated with MIT, made the Scratch app for iPhone on his own and announced its removal in a blog post last week. Though the Scratch app wasn’t made by Kay (pictured at right), he wasn’t pleased about the news when contacted by Wired.com last week
