Hasta La Gadget!

Almost as a dare, Shoryuken (SRK) challenged its fans to produce a fighting game-style controller for Starcraft II. Mauricio Romano took them up on that contest and won with a surprisingly polished arcade stick of his own. Its cornerstone is a heavily modified Ultrastik joystick that’s turned into an on-controller, two-button mouse. You didn’t think a PC gamer would cling to a plain joystick, did you? In the process, the usual 101 keys of a typical keyboard have been pared down to a set of 26 buttons most relevant for Blizzard’s real-time strategy epic. Packaged up in a single, polished USB peripheral, the one-off prototype’s design is good enough to imagine a Major League Gaming pro taking it out on the road. We’d put that idea on ice for now, though: as Mauricio shows in the video below, the learning curve is steep enough that most players won’t be fending off diamond-league marine and zergling blitzes anytime soon.

Continue reading SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video)

SRK contest produces a 26-button Starcraft II arcade controller, probably won’t stop Zerg rushes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If it never occurred to you to plug all kinds of peripherals into your ear cans — including the media player making the sound — a new patent from Redmond’s brain trust might give you pause. The headphones are shown as a catch-all, with receiving spaces for snapping in devices like rechargeable battery packs, storage, Bluetooth or WiFi reception modules and media players — such as the Zune-like one sketched in above. The headset could also have controls to operate those peripherals, as well as an optional boom mic and USB ports, according to the document. All this is claimed to allow for numerous configurations, letting you pimp your headset to fit your own needs, and interface with games, movies or music in various ways. If they ever get to market, you might start thinking of humble headphones as full-blown entertainment centers instead of mere accessories.

Microsoft patent imagines headphones as accessory docking motherships originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When our eyes first landed upon the device from Gigabyte you see above, it took them a few seconds to work out exactly what they were looking at. There’s a reason for that, though, as the Aivia Xenon — as it is known — lives a double life. By day, it’s an ordinary PC mouse, with support for multi-touch gestures. By night (well, and day too, if you choose) it’s a portable touchpad. The hybrid device offers 1000DPI resolution, can be used up to 10 meters away (for presentations etc.) and comes with software that lets you create custom gestures. If you have two birds, but only space for one stone, head down to the source link for more info.

Gigabyte launches Aivia Xenon dual-mode touchpad mouse originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brainwave-guided interfaces are common. Most of the time, though, they’re not what we’d call subtle. PLX Devices hopes to have that licked through the XWave Sport, a brain interface that disguises all its sensors through a fuzzy, exercise-friendly headband. Underneath the incredibly 1980s-retro (but washable!) look, you’ll get about six hours per charge of tracking for concentration, relaxation and other noggin-related data that can transmit over Bluetooth to apps for Android, iOS or old-fashioned PCs. An SDK is available now, but pre-orders for the $100 XWave Sport won’t ship until September 20th. That should give us enough time to perfect our Flashdance reenactments.

PLX’s XWave Sport gives brainwave interfaces a casual look, triggers ’80s flashbacks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 01:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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