Hasta La Gadget!

Alright, we got a chance to check out iGUGU’s Gamecore setup, and we’re simultaneously impressed and disappointed. The fact that for $80 you can get all the hardware necessary to beam your PC video to your TV wirelessly and control games with a full QWERTY wireless controller is just plain great. We also love the form factor of the controller, since it’s basically a clone of the Xbox 360 controller — a little shameless, but our hands and fingers don’t seem to mind. Unfortunately, the drawbacks are many. First and foremost, iGUGU’s software is pretty abysmal, and for all its seeming attempts at simplifying access to games and media in a “TV friendly” manner, it only serves to complicate such actions. The second problem is that we’re just not sure a trackball could really serve to satiate the desire of most PC games for a mouse control. We tried out a FPS and would’ve much preferred a joystick nub for aiming the camera, and while there’s an accelerometer built into the controller, it felt overly sensitive in the racing game we tested — and has rarely been proven to be much beyond a gimmick in the console world outside of very specifically targeted software. That said, the Xbox-style triggers and shoulder buttons are great, and the QWERTY keyboard is uncomfortably cheap but very usable. Perhaps for lower-impact games that don’t involve the precision of a shooter or a racer we could see this working, but we’re unconvinced we’d really enjoy the majority of the “27,000 available PC games” at this thing’s disposal. Check out a video of it in action after the break.

Continue reading iGUGU Gamecore hands-on

iGUGU Gamecore hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’ve seen plenty of far-fetched EMG-based input methods, like the concentration-demanding, head-based NeuroSky controller, but Microsoft Research is asking for a patent that involves much simpler gestures — and might actually make a bit of sense. As demonstrated in the video after the break, Microsoft’s connecting EMG sensors to arm muscles and then detecting finger gestures based on the muscle movement picked up by those sensors. It does away for the need of a pesky camera (or Power Glove) to read complicated hand gestures, and can even sense modified versions of the gestures to be performed while your hands are full. Microsoft’s developing a wireless EMG sensor module that could be placed all over the body, and while like all Microsoft Research projects this seems pretty far from market, there’s a small, optimistic part of us that could see some of the benefits here for controlling mobile devices. And boy do we love controlling mobile devices.

Continue reading Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors

Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechFlash  |  US Patent & Trademark Office  | Email this | Comments

Hey, kids. We got your attention? Good. Remember those pink and blue Wii controllers that were quietly launched in the Land of the Rising Sun back in October? Yeah, well it seems that both of those gems are coming to the United States, but it’ll be well after Christmas before you can get your hands on either (without a good importer, anyway). Starting on February 14, 2010, the blue and pink Wiimote will be on sale on US soil, and both devices will come bundled with Wii MotionPlus dongles. There’s no word yet on pricing, but we’re guessing a small premium is in order for those badly in need of some hue variation.

Nintendo bringing pink and blue Wiimotes to America on Valentine’s Day originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Electronista  |  Nintendo  | Email this | Comments

Continue reading DMC champ DJ Rafik puts Native Instruments’ Traktor Kontrol X1 through its paces (video)

DMC champ DJ Rafik puts Native Instruments’ Traktor Kontrol X1 through its paces (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Native Instruments  | Email this | Comments

Hey, it’s just what you’ve always wanted: to use your Xbox 360 controller on your old NES. Using a Cortex M3 processor left over from a school robotics project, Francois Gervais managed to rig his wireless pad to control something decidedly less advanced than a game of Modern Warfare 2. There’s a video of the controller in action after the break, and you can grab some of the code being used in the Google link below — perhaps one of you brainiacs will finally hack the Wiimote to control a Jaguar. A tech writer can dream…

Continue reading Xbox 360 controller ingeniously hacked for NES use

Xbox 360 controller ingeniously hacked for NES use originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hack A Day  |  YouTube, Google Code  | Email this | Comments