The Sifteo Cubes are not exactly cubes. The depth is lesser than half the length. That means even by placing two Sifteo cubes one above the other cannot form an exact cube. All must be remembering the digital letter arranging game Scrabble Flash, which was extremely popular during last year. The cubes are slightly smaller than the game pieces of Scrabble Flash.

The game pieces can be gripped, flipped, moved, rotated and rearranged between the fingers. The rear side has two contacts to facilitate charging.

The colour screen of the cube is of 1.5 inch with resolution of 128 x 128, which takes care of the versatility of the system. It is not a touch screen, but a single click of the button will do for the action. A number of sensors are located underneath the screen. The cubes will indicate whenever they touch the other, or whenever they are tilted or flipped or disturbed somehow. The game can be completely changed by loading the cubes with different games.

With the help of relevant software, the computer loads the games onto the Cubes. A USB wireless adapter helps in this. It must be understood that the computer and cubes must be close together, because the computer handles audio output, whereas the cubes are devoid of speakers. On a complete charge, about three hours of play is possible with the cubes.

Sifteo's 'intelligent play' contains puzzles, education, fast reflexes etc as in smartphone games. Even the cost and play value look almost similar. The main difference is that the cubes are played over a table unlike on a hand held device. This paves the way for a better social experience.

One of the games is to rearrange the cubes constantly so that a pathway is formed which leads to a goal or say, away from an enemy. In another case, the cubes are so arranged that an alignment of coloured dots is seen. In 'Do the Sift' certain cubes have to be dealt with leaving some others as they are. But it lasts only for a few minutes and for a maximum of three rounds.

Most of the apps are written by puzzle fans. An exception is that written for children, 'Oogor's day' by name, wherein cubes with different characters are manipulated to create an interesting story. It is not known as to how long the Sifteo games can go on. But one developer has come out with a wonderful music sequencer by name, LoopLoop. Even the day to day customer can introduce new games with the help of a 'Creativity Kit, which creates drills, which will find acceptance by parents and teachers who can utilize them for various disciplines including music.

There is nothing equivalent or similar to Sifteo cubes. According to the manufacturers, it is something in between video games and toy. More and more games are coming up during the holiday season. If the developers are persuaded to pay more attention to it, there will be no doubt that Sifteo will become one of the most popular smartphone games.