Hasta La Gadget!

At long, long last the iControlPad – a hardware gamepad for the iPhone – can be bought. Well, almost. You can order today for a delivery next week, whereupon you can slot in your iPhone, iPod Touch or any other phone that will fit in the slot and play button-bashing titles like Street Fighter 4 as God intended.

We have followed the on-again-off-again history of the iControlPad here at Gadget Lab, right up until the last setback which saw the iControlpad team pulling the almost-ready design due to cold feet. The fear was that Apple wouldn’t approve of an accessory that hooked directly up to its phone, and would kill the project. The result was a switch to Bluetooth, which has the happy side-effect of making the gamepad compatible with any phone, console or computer that works with it.

The unit has its own 1500mAH battery, which can also charge your phone via USB should you decide that making a phone call is more important than a quick blast on Sonic the Hedgehog. It is also customizable. The main unit is flanked by two “side clamps”. These are plastic bars that clip on and provide a snug case for the following phones, pasted right in from the iControlPad product page:

iPhone 3, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone4, iPod touch (some require padding), Motorola Backflip (needs padding), LG Optimus S, LG Ally, Blackberry Touch (Torch?), Samsung Intercept (may require adjustment), HTC Dream, T-Mobile G1, Era G1

While you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone to get the most from the controller, it “does work on un-[jailbroken] iPhones in keyboard mode.” So you’ll have to wait for

The price? Well, you’d better be pretty serious about your gaming, as it’s $75 with sides, plus $15 for extra sides, or $60 naked. available “now”.

iControlPad product page [iControlPad]

See Also:

• Real Gaming Control Pad Planned for IPhone
• Belkin Readying iPhone Joypad?
• GPad: Another iPhone Gamepad Case
• Stick-On Buttons Turn Smartphones into Game-Pads