The other reason not to preorder a JJP game is that it doesn't guarantee that you will get the pin any sooner than somebody that doesn't preorder. In fact it usually works the opposite in that preorders are moved to the back of the line for distributors behind "new" money. Still preorders out there for Hobbit right now while several dealers have new stock.

If you play with your phone you basically lose the ability to nudge which is a major component to playing pinball. That's why I can't see it being anything more than a gimmick. Now what would be cool is if you had the ability to pulse some of the magnets of the game using your phone during multi-player games to mess with your opponents ball when you aren't playing.

That would be a fun way to play for CO-OP/Tandem play! One person controls the flippers and the other one does all the nudging. I'd imagine you'd lose a lot of control though doing it through a touch screen. Probably not easy to do things like flipper passes, tap passes, etc. I think it would have to be 2-3X scoring for it to be worthwhile. At least with Demo man you still get great response with the triggers and can still nudge well.