Hasta La Gadget!

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]

There’s no shortage of wearable fitness trackers on the market right now, but if you’re looking for something that you can wear from the gym straight to the office, check out the Wellograph. Don’t blame me if you stink up its strap though.

The Wellograph’s main components are its heart rate sensor and 9-axis motion sensor. It can keep track of your heart rate, steps taken, calories burned, hours spent idle and active and even show you how fit you are for your age. It can display these stats – as well as both analog and digital watch faces – on its monochrome 1.26″ LCD…

…or you can sync it with your Bluetooth 4.0-compatible iOS or Android device to see and share more in-depth stats:

The watch can even be set to vibrate to nag you if you haven’t been exercising in a while, although I’m not sure how exactly that works. Overall the Wellograph is obviously being marketed not towards gadget freaks or health buffs, but to corporate types with a modest amount of interest in the latest gizmos and in their health. Hence its formal design and watch alter ego.

Even its charging dock is stylish and cleverly holds the watch up using magnets.

Speaking of charging, the Wellograph’s 240mAh battery should last up to 2 weeks per charge or up to 3 months if it’s always in watch mode. The watch also has a stainless steel and aluminum case and a durable sapphire crystal face. Aside from its leather strap it will supposedly come with a NATO strap as well, which is more suited to the outdoors. Here’s a brief hands-on by Mobilegeeks:

In case you didn’t watch the video, the watch will supposedly be released this April for $320 (USD). If I wanted to track my non-existent regimen, I’d just take selfies in the mirror every now and then. But maybe that’s why I’m not in a suit and tie right now. Wait a minute! I’m at home. I could wear a suit and tie to work! I’m too lazy to look for my tie though.

Priced at $490, this is easily the most impractical 1TB hard drive in the galaxy.

Band of Outsiders released a line of Atari-themed apparel this Holiday season. The clothes might as well be adorned with pixel art or random colored blocks to younger gamers, but their dads and moms see cowboys, aliens and car chases there. Unless you look at the Super Breakout sweater, in which case what you see is what you get: a paddle, a ball and a wall.

I chose to feature this sweater not just because I think it looks great but also because it’s not just for Atari or Super Breakout fans. It’s for both Apple fans and haters too. The game you see here wouldn’t exist without Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the same people that led to the iPhone and iPads, which are now home to bite-sized arcade style games in the vein of Super Breakout. If you already know that trivia then this sweater also serves as a reminder of Steve Wozniak’s talent and Steve Jobs’ business acumen, i.e. ruthlessness.

The sweater even has an Apple-like price tag: Band of Outsiders is selling it for $395 (USD). You could do worse: the Super Breakout beanie costs an insane $175.

[via Albotas]

A couple of years ago we saw an unusual camera. It looked like a ball and took 360° panoramic photos, like the ones on Google Street View but completely spherical. Jonas Pfeil and his co-inventors are now gearing up to mass produce the camera, which they’re now calling the Panono.

Panono works much like the prototype we saw back then. It has 36 cameras that together can make a 72mp 360° image.  Panono can be used in three ways. The fun way is to throw the ball up in the air. The camera will sense when it reaches its highest point, and will automatically activate all of its cameras. You can also prop it up on a stick and trigger it using the Panono mobile app or just hold it in your hand and press its button to shoot.

Whichever method you choose, you’ll need a mobile device and an Internet connection in order to get the final panoramic image. That’s because the camera will wirelessly send the images it took to your mobile device. From there you need to upload the images to a free cloud service that will stitch your images together. If you don’t have an Internet connection, you’ll be able to view the images you took via the app, but they’ll be separated. The camera itself can store up to 400 panoramas (that’s 14,400 “normal” images) so you can still use it without a mobile device.

Pledge at least $500 (USD) on Indiegogo to get a Panono as a reward. You can check out the shots taken with the latest prototype on Panono’s website. Now someone needs to come up with a spherical picture frame.