Developer Ali Tanis has launched the primary sport for iPhones and iPads that’s performed utilizing Apple’s AirPods as a wearable movement controller. The RidePods – Race with Head gameplay is comparatively primary – you’re simply steering a motorbike by way of oncoming visitors at excessive speeds – however as a substitute of swiping the display screen or tiling your cellphone, you management the bike’s actions by tilting your head from side-to-side whereas sporting AirPods.
The sport solely works with Apple’s wi-fi headphones that assist Spatial Audio together with the AirPods Professional, the AirPods Max, and the third and fourth era AirPods. Spatial Audio depends on the accelerometer and gyroscope included in these AirPods fashions to trace the actions of your head and regulate the place of the audio accordingly. Tanis introduced the sport’s launch on Y Combinator and whereas they mentioned they needed to reverse engineer the Spatial Audio characteristic to make their sport work, Apple does present developers with access to headphone motion data to allow them to incorporate options like health monitoring into their apps.
RidePods isn’t probably the most polished iOS or iPadOS sport I’ve ever performed. There are random graphical glitches such because the street often disappearing, and from the restricted period of time I’ve spent dodging visitors it seems that you’re racing on an ideal straightaway that by no means curves. It feels extra like a tech demo than a completely realized sport, however the controls are surprisingly nuanced. I examined it with the second era AirPods Professional and the AirPods Max and utilizing my head to steer felt each extra pure and responsive than I assumed it might be.
The bike responds nicely to refined actions, even when utilizing only a single AirPod earbud. In case you flip off Computerized Head or Ear Detection in your AirPods’ settings, you possibly can even use your headphones or a single AirPods earbud as a handheld controller, but it surely requires much more finesse together with your actions and positively ups the problem.
The app features a setting for controlling the motorbike’s braking and acceleration by tilting your head forwards and again, however I couldn’t detect that having any discernible impact on the bike’s pace. It’s also possible to toggle between a first-person and third-person view of the riderless motorbike, and for these eager to share their excessive scores with the world, the app features a report perform that captures each the gameplay and a selfie video of you enjoying in a single clip.
RidePods – Race with Head isn’t a sport I’m going to return to often, however I can see the potential of utilizing headphone movement controls for cellular gaming. It’s fully free, however I’d positively pay a tidy sum for a hands-free model of Solitaire that lets me transfer round stacks of playing cards utilizing nothing however refined head gestures and motions.