Rumble your numbers with LeapFrog's iPhone game

I've heard people say that two-thirds of Americans are not good at math and the other half just don't care. I totally agree, and we need to do something about this.

Apparently, the folks at LeapFrog think so, too. The company on Monday released its new game for the iPhone and iPod Touch called "Number Rumble" (hands-on review.)

This is the first in LeapFrog's planned series of learning games. Taking advantage of the multitouch technology, the application lets children spin and tap the devices to increase their math skills.

With the Number Rumble game, they can practice simple math skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division by themselves or they can challenge friends. The game helps them memorize math basics through three modes of play:

• Learn It mode lets the player spin the number wheels to create a math problem, then tap the equals sign to see and hear the answer.
• Quiz Time mode lets the player use their skills by choosing the problem type and spin the wheel to get a random quiz. Then they can shake the phone to select an answer.
• Random Quiz mode lets the player practice all four operations at once. For example, they can shake the iPhone to a fill-in-the-blank style questions, such as "13 + 7 = ?" or "? ÷ 2 = 11." and so on.

Unfortunately, LeapFrog is not all about education, as it charges $2.99 for the application at Apple's App Store, which is rather expensive for a simple game. But at least as far as math is concerned, that's less that $3.