Using your smartphone or a tablet app to control your robot is easy. There are numerous apps for the older NXT MINDSTORMS robot kits; over time there will be several for the EV3. The official LEGO app is called LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Commander, and is available on Google Play for Android and on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPad. When pairing with your smart device, you need to make sure to select the special iPhone/iPad/iPod option on the Bluetooth setting on your EV3 brick.

Robot Commander has controls ready to use for all of the robots from the Home Edition kit. However, you will want to create your own robot and controller. LEGO Commander will control assigned motors. You can create screen-based virtual joysticks, sliders, switches, or buttons. You can see the virtual joystick at the top left of the preceding screenshot. You can also use the accelerometers built into your smart device to control the robot's motors by tilting your smart device. LEGO Commander...