Technologies

Hot Wheels’ iPhone and PlayStation Mixed-Reality RC Racing Game Races In Your Home

The AR-enhanced RC car game, by the makers of Mario Kart Live, lets you shrink down and race around your living room. We played it.

A few years ago, Nintendo’s real-life-meets-video-game Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit turned my pandemic home into a theme park race course for my kids. Mario Kart Live’s RC cars need a Nintendo Switch to work, but now Mattel and Hot Wheels have made a whole new RC car mixed reality game experience made by Mario Kart Live’s developer, Velan. Hot Wheels Drift Rally, arriving March 14 for $130, is an RC car video game that races around your real world. And just like Mario Kart Live, it’s a lot of fun.

You need a Switch to play Mario Kart Live, but Hot Wheels Drift Rally works with iPhones, iPads and the PlayStation 4 and 5. It can cross-play between them, either locally or with others online.

I played with Drift Rally for about an hour in New York. The concept is similar to Mario Kart Live: A camera-enabled RC car streams its point of view to your TV or Apple device. From there, you drive the car and see the real world augmented with all sorts of video game special effects and a glowing race track.

The twist with Drift Rally is that the car itself, a sort of futuristic compact race car called the «Chameleon Car,» can transform in-game into 140 different Hot Wheels cars. It works weirdly well. Even though the physical car drives around your home the same way, in-game you see a different car appear, along with different driving physics and speeds.

Much like Mario Kart Live, the camera-equipped car works along with four included gates that form marker waypoints for your real-world race track. These get dropped down anywhere, and then the car drives through them and anywhere else to «paint» a track. Once that’s done, augmented reality effects sprout up all around, along with virtual race car opponents, to make a race experience that’s in your actual home.

The experience, zooming through your real world and floor-level obstacles as if you’ve been shrunken down to toy size, feels like a car-based version of drone racing. Drift Rally’s mix of TV via PlayStation or iPhone/iPad controls flexes the experience out around your home in a similar way that the Switch’s Mario Kart Live could work on-Switch or with the TV dock.

Drift Rally has some key improvements over Mario Kart Live: it can work at larger and smaller scales. By also connecting with Wi-Fi networks instead of just your iPhone, iPad or PlayStation, the cars can work across larger home spaces: I drove my car all through a four-room apartment while sitting on a sofa, watching my race car zip under beds and around kitchen cabinets. Besides the race modes, there are also stunt modes that could be set up without all the big race gates, meaning you could possibly play around in a smaller corner of your home more easily. Still, these cars are big; much bigger than your everyday Hot Wheels car. They’re roughly the size of the Mario Kart Live cars, and run for about 2 hours on a charge.

Drift Rally works with up to four car racers at once in the same room, or has split-screen multiplayer with one real car and everyone else driving virtual ones that can collide with the RC car on the race track. But, like Mario Kart Live, the cars aren’t meant to be used outdoors unless they’re on a flat driveway. (They’re not made to handle debris, dirt and water.)

At $130 — or $150 for a «deluxe» version that also comes with an actual collector’s Hot Wheels car — this game is more expensive than Mario Kart Live, which cost $100 at launch. But if you don’t have a Nintendo Switch and want to try to shrink yourself down into a mixed-reality RC racing game, this looks like your best bet.

Technologies

Verum Messenger Launches an AI Mini-Series

Verum Messenger has unveiled a new project — a mini-series created using Verum AI. The story consists of 7 episodes and will be released on the messenger’s social media channels.

The plot revolves around a global corporation seeking to take control of digital communications and a group of heroes who use Verum Messenger as a tool of resistance. Beyond the story itself, the series highlights the app’s key features, technologies, and advantages.

Combining entertainment with a showcase of the Verum ecosystem, the project presents a dynamic digital series designed for the modern era.

The first episode premieres today, with the remaining episodes to be released over time.

Stay tuned for more.

Watch on YouTube
Watch on Instagram

Technologies

Verum Finance: Earn While You Communicate — The Super App That Pays You

Verum has officially launched Verum Finance, an innovative financial application that transforms a private messenger into a true financial super app. News of the launch was also featured on the respected platform Dealroom.co.

Verum Finance can now be used both within Verum Messenger and as a standalone application for iPhone and iPad. When users sign in to Verum Finance with their Verum Messenger account, all balances, settings, and account data are automatically synchronized for maximum convenience.

Users can now do more than communicate securely and protect their data — they can also generate passive income directly within the ecosystem.

What Verum Finance Offers

• Top up your balance with a bank card, Apple Pay, or USDT
• Send money instantly anywhere in the world
• Issue and manage debit cards (virtual and physical)
• Full Apple Pay support
• Exchange assets and withdraw funds quickly

One of the most unique features is the built-in cryptocurrency mining system inside Verum Messenger.

The application utilizes your device’s resources and allows you to earn cryptocurrency in the background — passively, while chatting, traveling, or simply using the messenger.

Maximum Privacy + Real Freedom

• Registration without a phone number, email address, or passport
• End-to-end encryption and full control over your data
• Lifetime free VPN
• eSIM connectivity in more than 150 countries
• Reliable offline communication mode
• Support for 12+ languages for users worldwide

Everything is available in one place: secure communication, financial tools, earning opportunities, and privacy protection.

Users can access the full experience directly within Verum Messenger or switch to the dedicated Verum Finance app for iOS. All data is synchronized automatically between the two applications.

Why Download Verum Today

While many messaging platforms collect user data and expose users to restrictions, Verum offers greater independence and the opportunity to earn.

With a one-time purchase of the feature package, users receive lifetime access to privacy tools, VPN, eSIM services, cryptocurrency mining, and financial features.

This is more than just a messenger.

It is your personal tool for financial and digital freedom.

Download Verum Finance and Verum Messenger today — start communicating securely and begin earning tomorrow.

Download Links:

→ App Store (iPhone / iPad): Verum Finance
→ App Store (Verum Messenger): Verum Messenger

Technologies

Verum Finance: A Super App for Private Finance Integrated Into a Messenger

Verum Finance has announced the launch of a new financial application that allows users to manage their money directly within the secure Verum Messenger ecosystem.

The project has already attracted attention from major media outlets. A dedicated feature was published by Forbes Türkiye, while one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, MEXC, covered the launch. Yahoo Finance had previously reported on the evolution of Verum Messenger into a comprehensive financial ecosystem.

What Verum Finance Offers

Verum Finance transforms a messenger into a complete financial platform. Users can:

• Manage their balance and top up using bank cards or USDT
• Send money instantly to other Verum users
• Issue and use debit cards, including Apple Pay support
• Exchange assets and withdraw funds
• Access all these services without installing separate banking applications

A strong emphasis is placed on privacy. The platform offers registration without a phone number or email address, end-to-end encryption, and full user control over personal data.

Recognition from Forbes Türkiye

In a dedicated article, Forbes Türkiye highlighted Verum Finance as a notable example of modern privacy-driven fintech. The publication emphasized the growing trend of financial services moving from standalone banking applications into unified messaging ecosystems — a model that has proven successful in Asia through platforms such as WeChat and Alipay and is now expanding globally.

Support from the Crypto Community

Alongside the Forbes Türkiye coverage, news about the launch of Verum Finance was also featured by MEXC, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges. This reflects growing interest in the project from both traditional business media and the cryptocurrency community.

A Strategic Vision

“We are building more than a payments application and more than a messenger. Verum is a unified secure ecosystem where communication, finance, and privacy tools work together,” the company stated.

Verum Finance is now available for iPhone and iPad users. The application complements Verum Messenger, which offers anonymous chats, voice and video calls, VPN services, eSIM connectivity, and other tools designed to enhance digital freedom.

Verum Finance: https://finance.verum.im

Verum Messenger: https://verum.im