Further tapping the needs of tech-savvy kids, Mattel has added new brands including Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope and Monster High to its Apptivity toy line that enables screen-safe toys to interact with apps for the iPad.

Additional brands now available include Hot Wheels, WWE Rumblers, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises and Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn.

Apptivity toys, which target the preschool set and up, can first be purchased at retail or online, then Apptivity apps can be downloaded from the App Store at iPad at Apptivity Central or at www.mattelapptivity.com.

The free Apptivity Hot Wheels app features nine mini-games, Cut the Rope, which lets kids swipe popular character Om Nom across the iPad to collect candy, is US$1.99 at the App Store while the Fruit Ninja Apptivity app (US$2.99) allows users to play as Sensei and features a unique two-player mode.

Apptivity Batman: The Dark Knight Rises is a free app along with WWE Rumblers which features three game modes (career, exhibition and training). Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn is also free and features a child-proof iPad case.

Meanwhile, Apptivity Monster High is set for an October release and all Apptivity toys are compatible with iPad, iPad2 and the new iPad.