Jan 17
These days have been marked by efforts to bring to the masses certain products or production capabilities that have mostly been reserved to companies or larger entities. Examples of this … Continue reading
Jan 15
As we reported, Titanfall will be arriving in March for the Xbox One, as well as its older sibling and the PC. To coincide with this, Microsoft will be releasing … Continue reading
Jan 11
Hercules has unveiled a new and reasonably-priced controller for aspiring DJs to learn their art. The device is called the DJControlWave and it is designed especially to work with the iPad. The DJ controller connects to the iPad using Bluetooth and has no speakers of its own.
That means that you will need a set of speakers for the iPad or headphones for jamming out in privacy. The DJControlWave has a wireless range of 33-feet from the iPad. It has an internal rechargeable battery good for up to eight hours of use per charge.
The DJ controller has two jog wheels, two pitch sliders, and buttons for effects, samples, and cues. It also has rotary encoders for EQ settings. The controller works with a free app called DJUCED DJW. It can also be connected to a Mac or PC via USB using the included software.
The DJControlWave will launch this spring for $299.99(USD).
Jan 09
SteelSeries opted to make their upcoming wireless iOS controller as small as possible, perhaps to keep it as portable as the devices it will pair with. A new company called Signal is taking a different route. Its RP1 is about the same size and form as gaming console controllers.
As you can see the RP1 looks a lot like an Xbox 360 controller, except its analog sticks and d-pad have a PlayStation-style setup. Aside from that, it has all the buttons and triggers you’d expect from a console controller, down to the triggers under the analog sticks. Like the Stratus, RP1 will connect to iOS 7 devices via Bluetooth, although Signal has not specified which of Apple’s devices it will work with.
With more and more console and desktop games being ported to iOS, I’m sure a decent number of iOS gamers will want to have a full-size controller like the RP1. But at this point I don’t think you should get one of these just yet, because like all announced iOS controllers the RP1 has a retail price of $100. This is Apple tax at its worst. Hopefully that number will descend from la-la land once more controllers are released.
[via Tom’s Guide & Laptop Mag]
Jan 08
With this ring I thee promise to play on no other console, no matter how next gen she is or how stacked she is in the spec department. I also promise to never blow on a cartridge that came out of another console’s port. In short, I do.
The “Intendo” ring was created by Paul Michael Designs and it is an amazingly beautiful design that Nintendo fans will fall in love with. Look at that gold D-Pad with gemstone buttons.
This is truly the One Ring.
[via Fashionably Geek]
Jan 08
The first two iOS 7-compliant controllers extended the battery of your iPhone or iPod Touch. But they needed to connect to your device to work and were flat out incompatible with iPads. Enter SteelSeries with what seems to be the best iOS 7 controller yet, the Stratus Wireless Gaming Controller.
The Stratus connects to compatible iOS devices via Bluetooth 2.1. It lasts up to 10 hours per charge and has all the inputs you’d find on a console controller, including two analog sticks and four shoulder buttons.
The face buttons and shoulder buttons are even pressure-sensitive. That feature’s actual usefulness is up to game developers though. The controller does have a few drawbacks. First off, it’s tiny. That will be a good thing for some people, but if you have large hands the Stratus is going to be uncomfortable to use.
The image below shows the Stratus in the hands of Kotaku’s Mike Fahey. For the record, he says it “works quite well”, even though the shoulder buttons were too small for his taste.
Mike also mentioned that the controller cannot be used while it’s charging, which he claims can take up to 2 hours. Then there’s its somewhat limited compatibility. The Stratus will work only with the iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, 4th generation iPad, iPad Air and the 5th generation iPod Touch running iOS 7.
But perhaps the worst aspect of the controller is its price. SteelSeries has priced the Stratus at a whopping $100 (USD) for US customers and €100 for those in Europe. I guess I’ll just stare at Bastion’s icon for now.
[SteelSeries via Kotaku]
Jan 07
Tobii’s eye-tracking technology continues to make its way to mainstream devices. We’ve seen it work with laptops, arcade machines and Windows 8 tablets, and now Tobii has partnered with SteelSeries to release the EyeX, an eye-tracking accessory meant to work with PC games.
In case you’re not familiar with Tobii’s technology, its eye tracker uses microprojectors to beam near-infrared light to the users’ eyes. Then the trackers’ sensors analyze the reflections of that light along with the user’s facial features to accurately detect where he’s looking.
In the demo below, Tobii shows three ways that eye-tracking can be used to augment StarCraft II. First is the ability to move the view to a particular location by looking at an enlarged view of the mini-map (i.e. a map). Second is the ability to center the view to the point where the user is looking, and finally the ability to order units where to move, attack and more just by looking at the target. Skip to around 2:45 in the video for the demo:
The EyeX can also be used in e-sports broadcasts and to help developers improve their game by showing where a player is looking as he’s playing. Skip to around 12:30 in the video below to see that function in action:
As you can see the hardware seems quite capable, but it’s not going to succeed if developers don’t integrate it – and integrate it well– into their games.
Tobii & SteelSeries will release EyeX developer kits this year for $195 (USD), but for a limited time they can be bought for a steep discount: $95 for US customers and €75 for non-US customers. Just enter the promo code ‘CES2014′ on Tobii’s online shop when prompted. As with its tablet incarnation, I can see the EyeX being a boon not just for creating better or new ways to play games, but to help the disabled play conventional games as well. I hope developers and hardware hackers will explore that possibility too.
[via Tobii via Destructoid]
Jan 03
Coming just ahead of CES, Wikipad has unveiled their latest mobile gaming device. This one is called the Gamevice gamepad, though it isn’t one we will be seeing next week … Continue reading
Dec 30
At the 2013 Chaos Communication Congress, a group of hackers called Mema Haxx showed off a neat trick: streaming and controlling applications from a PC to a Wii U GamePad. They even played a bit of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker from a Gamecube emulator. Hacker humor folks.
I’m not even going to pretend that I understand what Mema Haxx did to pull this off, especially since you can watch the presentation in its entirety in the video below. Lesser mortals such as I should proceed to around 47:30 in the video to check out the demo.
You can also read Mema Haxx’ presentation on Google Docs. Although the group thinks that the hack is very promising, it’s still in alpha and won’t be of any use to anyone except coders. For now you’d be better off commissioning a Cross Plane. But keep that Wii U GamePad healthy.
[via Engadget]
Dec 20
Just what do you use your smartphone for exactly? Other than functioning as your primary communications device, checking up on your social network status as well as purchasing movie tickets on the go, some of us also use it as the regular alarm clock to wake us up at the break of dawn in order to meet a brand new day. Well, perhaps life for your smartphone could be a whole lot more than that – as with the $199.95 Smartphone Light and Appliance Controller. This particular system would allow you to be able to remotely control both lights as well as appliances even when you are not physically present at home, through the use of smartphone that is hooked up to the Internet.
This particular system will include a plug-in dimmer for a lamp, a wall dimmer for a ceiling fixture, a plug-in on/off switch for a single appliance such as a TV or stereo, and a base station that communicates with each through a home’s existing wireless network. “Smartphone” here, of course, refers to both Android as well as iOS platforms, so Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry OS owners will have to sit this one out. After downloading the app to your device, you will be able to gain access to the base station so that you can adjust each device’s brightness and timer settings, making it the ideal way to fool the outside world into thinking that there is someone at home even where there isn’t anyone.
[ Smartphone Light And Appliance Controller makes life easier at home copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
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