Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Unlock your kids’ inner game builders with LittleBits’ Code Kit

littlebits code kit
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
LittleBits, the Lego of the tech world, is out with a new kit to help teach children how to code. The aptly named Code Kit focuses on having kids build hands-on games with blocks, and then programming them to fruition via the LittleBits app.

LittleBits offers various kits for children that aims to bring out the inner inventor. The Rule Your Room Kit, for example, allows kids to build items like a buzzer for their door — the whole process is completed by following guides via the app. Children can also make their own designs and objects, and upload their creations to the app with plans for anyone else to follow.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The new Code Kit features four games: Tug-of-war, Ultimate Shootout, Hot Potato, and Rockstar Guitar. Inside you’ll find 16 modular circuits including two new bits — the codeBit and the LED Matrix. Bits are usable with other kits offered by LittleBits. There’s also a rechargeable battery and 30 other accessories to help build these games.

The company said the block-programming interface in the app is based on Google’s Blockly, a drag-and-drop interface to make programming more visual and less intimidating. Setting up and using the Code Kit in curriculum is also easy, even for teachers not in the computer science field. There are more than a hundred activities and lessons that conform to computer science standards for children in grades three to eight.

These can be uploaded as lessons via Google Docs, in case teachers want to utilize the Code Kit in the classroom.

The Code Kit is available for purchase for $300 via various retailers (there’s a discount for educators), but it won’t ship until June 2017.

Amazon Little Bits

Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
This crazy headband uses music and brainwaves to make you a better athlete
A person wearing the Alphabeats headband.

This company wants you to put on a headband and listen to music while the device's sensors in it read your brainwaves to help you focus and to increase your sporting performance. It’s called Alphabeats, and the electroencephalogram (EEG) headband combines with your choice of music and an app on your phone to help train your brain to either stay in its top-focused state or concentrate on its requirements in the moment, whether that’s relaxation, recovery, or sleep.

Aimed at professional ahtletes or highly motivated amateurs, Alphabeats won a CES 2023 Innovation award and is now available for pre-order. It costs $499 at the moment, but the price will increase to $689 after the promotional period ends. You probably won’t be surprised to learn (given the recent growing and  unfortunate trend) that this price includes a year’s subscription to the service, but at the time of writing, there’s no information about how much the subscription will cost after the first year.

Read more
Here’s how Apple could change your iPhone forever
An iPhone 15 Pro Max laying on its back, showing its home screen.

Over the past few months, Apple has released a steady stream of research papers detailing its work with generative AI. So far, Apple has been tight-lipped about what exactly is cooking in its research labs, while rumors circulate that Apple is in talks with Google to license its Gemini AI for iPhones.

But there have been a couple of teasers of what we can expect. In February, an Apple research paper detailed an open-source model called MLLM-Guided Image Editing (MGIE) that is capable of media editing using natural language instructions from users. Now, another research paper on Ferret UI has sent the AI community into a frenzy.

Read more
OnePlus’ next foldable phone may get a huge camera upgrade
Digital render of Oppo Find N3 Flip in pink color.

Oppo Find N3 Flip Oppo

OnePlus' merger back into its parent company, Oppo, has been both good and bad for the "Never Settle" brand. While OnePlus has seen a dismaying downfall in the quality of its previously distinctive interface, it has helped make up for that in camera performance -- thanks in large part to Oppo's partnership with imaging stalwart Hasselblad. That collaboration is rumored to bear fruit once again, this time in the form of a flip phone with a robust camera.

Read more