Sifteo Inc. has announced the upcoming availability of its Sifteo cubes to U.S. and Canadian customers.

Sifteo cubes are motion-aware 1.5-inch blocks with full-color screens that wirelessly connect with a personal computer during play to create unique interactions when shaken, tilted, rotated and neighbored next to one another.

Sifteo has also announced the availability of the Sifteo Creativity Kit, which is included with the purchase of every Sifteo Pack. The kit enables Sifteo users to customize an endless array of gameplay experiences for themselves and others using their Sifteo cubes.

Parents and educators say that Sifteo cubes and games encourage the development of core thinking skills — for example:

• Spatial Reasoning: Understand relationships between objects in terms of distance and orientation.
• Strategy and Planning: Hone higher-level thinking and problem solving skills.
• Patterns and Perception: Sort and classify items to understand trends and develop hypotheses.
• Cooperation and Collaboration: Build and refine social skills to solve problems with other people.

A software development kit (SDK) will be available at launch, giving developers the freedom to create interactive games and applications for their Sifteo cubes.