Hasta La Gadget!

So you pulled out the big guns and you got your son (age 27 or otherwise) a console. You’re justifiably excited about the Christmas morning surprise, but there’s one thing you must absolutely remember to take care of before you wrap that gadget gift: Day one updates. Trust us.

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There are already plug-and-play third-party devices that let you play previous gen consoles or a PC using any of their controllers. For instance, you can use a Wiimote with your PS3 if you want. There’s no equivalent product for the PlayStation 4 just yet, but Marcos Mori de Siqueira of Softfactory is onto something here. He hacked a Dualshock 4 controller to send input from a mouse and keyboard to the PS 4.

I’m not even going to pretend that I fully understood what Marcos pulled off, but from what I grokked he used a microcontroller (plus two digital-to-analog converters for emulating the thumbsticks) to turn signals from his keyboard – in this case a Logitech Gameboard – and mouse into signals that the PS4 understands, sent via the Dualshock 4′s circuit board. All in all it took him about $50 (USD) of materials and a ton of solder to make the mod. Skip to about 1:55 in the video to see the mod in action.

Check out Marcos’ post on Softfactory for more details on his mod. Seeing as FPS and MMOs are still popular, I wonder why Sony and Microsoft don’t just add support for keyboards and mice on their consoles. They can probably earn extra from certifying third party hardware if they did that. It’ll make it way easier to search for content on their online stores too.

[via Hack A Day]

It was back in 2010 that we saw the PlayStation Move controller which basically allowed gamers to interact with the PlayStation 3 much like how gamers interacted with the Nintendo Wii with Wiimote and nunchucks. It’s been about 3 years since, so shouldn’t it be about time that the Move controller got updated? While it remains unknown what are Sony’s plans for Move, a patent discovered by CVG revealed what appears to be an updated version of the Move controller. While on the surface the controller looks like its predecessor, the main change would be what appears to be a touch surface on the side of the handle.

According to Sony’s description, “In a traditional joystick, it’s hard to keep a user’s thumb still while the user provides input by engaging various motions with the joystick. This is due to the fact that in the joystick, the thumb’s support moves. However, using a touch input surface, the thumb can be kept still while continuing to provide the user’s input by pressing on the input surface. The pressing of the user’s finger on the input surface causes friction that is recognized.”

While it’s hard to say if this patent will see the light of the day as an actual product, some are speculating that it could be a new Move controller designed for the PlayStation 4. After all the DualShock 4 controller features a similar touch pad, so it doesn’t really seem like a coincidence that the Move controller could be getting the same treatment as well, doesn’t it? What do you guys think?

Sony Patent Suggests Updated Move Controller original content from Ubergizmo.

If its predecessors are any indication, the PlayStation 4 will eventually be released in a variety of colors and finishes. It probably won’t be released in faux wood though. That’s where dbrand comes in. The Canadian company sells gadget skins made from 3M vinyls. One of their newest products is a mahogany skin for the PS4.

I don’t like how the vinyl looks on the Dualshock 4, but the console looks sweet. If you’re of the same opinion, don’t fret because the skins for the console and the controller are not bundled. In fact the skin for the PS4 is actually made of several pieces, which again can be bought separately.

You can order the mahogany vinyl for the PS 4 from dbrand. It will set you back $45 (USD) if you choose to buy skins for the entire console and one controller. You can also mix and match your order with other types of skins, such as carbon fiber and several metal finishes. Dbrand doesn’t have skins for the Xbox One yet, but I don’t think that will be the case for long.

[via Reddit]

The weekend is nearly upon us, which means for those of us who have a regular 9-to-5 job, spending every waking moment with our video game consoles is almost here. If you plan on gaming on any Sony consoles or handhelds, which of course means the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, get all of your gaming in this weekend because when Monday comes, Sony is going to be running a scheduled maintenance on the PlayStation Network for eight hours. (more…)

8-Hour PSN Maintenance Taking Place On December 9 original content from Ubergizmo.