Hasta La Gadget!

Ah, ha! There it is! Way back in March, we had a sit-down with folks from Seven45 Studios about their plans for Power Gig: Rise of the SixString (for PS3 and Xbox 360), focusing mainly on how they intended to rival the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises from a peripheral standpoint. The six string guitar accessory that ships with the game bundle today is already leaps and bounds better than what RB3 is packin’, but an instrument we were keenly interested in at GDC was also one we couldn’t photograph at the time. The company made clear that it was looking at releasing a real-deal, bona fide guitar in the future — a full-size First Act axe that could be used with the game or with a legitimate amplifier. Now, that limited edition piece is on sale for both of the aforesaid consoles, boasting a single cutaway basswood body, humbucking pickup, and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. Each one is available for $249.99, but there’s no telling how many will be produced. We’d also prefer to see these in larger music shops in order to give consumers an idea of the fit, finish, feel and sound, but those into taking chances can get one headed their way as we speak.

Continue reading Power Gig’s full-size, handmade guitar / controller now on sale for $250

Power Gig’s full-size, handmade guitar / controller now on sale for $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Discover DJ from ION Audio is a portable digital DJ controller that connects to your PC via USB, and along with the included Cross DJ software from MixVibes, allows you to load your own music, beatmatch it, blend your own mixes, add scratch effects, and record the whole thing to share with friends or play back at parties later. The Discover DJ isn’t a professional device; meaning you won’t see it in the DJ booth at your favorite club, but you may see it in your favorite house party or amateur DJ’s setup at home.

The Discover DJ is clearly aimed at those DJs who are more comfortable recording mixes at home and doing live sets for their friends at a house party than a DJ that’s going to take their gear with them to a club or a large event. That doesn’t make it bad or lacking however, the features you get for the price you pay for the Discover DJ make it a great buy for at-home DJs looking for good bang for their buck. That doesn’t mean it’s without issues though, as we’ll see behind the jump.

Look at this thing, now scope out Logitech’s Speaker Lapdesk N700 and come back to tell us the difference between the two. Not that we’d ever dare question the sanity of having two Speaker Lapdesk SKUs, but you’ve got to admit Logitech hasn’t really differentiated its new N550 — a two-speaker, heat-shielded pad for treating your thighs with more kindness and less calefaction — from its admittedly pricier predecessor. After doing some fine investigative journalism (i.e. reading the press release after the break), we’ve discovered that the N550 is designed for laptops with screens sizes up to 14.1 inches, and it also omits the USB-powered fan of the bigger N700. Good to know. Now if someone can explain to us why Logitech is announcing this game changer a whole three months ahead of its January 2011 release for £50 ($80), we’d be all set.

Update: Looks like the Americans will see it in October for $59.99

Continue reading Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N550 wants to protect you from netbook heat, tinny audio

Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N550 wants to protect you from netbook heat, tinny audio originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like it or not, the capacitive touchscreen just isn’t cut out for use with a stylus. We’ve seen foam-tipped pens and meat-injected tubes have a go at it, but we’ve yet to really find an option that we were truly satisfied with. It’s not hard to imagine why having a legitimate capacitive stylus would be beneficial for creative types; doodling on a tablet, a Magic Trackpad or a mobile device (just to name a few) would be killer if we had a reliable tool to doodle with. Enter the oStylus, a limited run (for now) product that aims to shift the paradigm and make drawing on capacitive touchpanels just as easy as drawing on resistive ones. Creator Andrew Goss was kind enough to send us what appears to be the sixth finalized unit from the production line, and we were able to test it on the iPad, Apple’s Magic Trackpad and an iPhone. Read on if you’re interested in our two pennies.

Continue reading oStylus capacitive pen review

oStylus capacitive pen review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s supposedly already headed into production, but it looks like the iControlPad is still undergoing a few last minute changes. The group behind the iPhone game controller peripheral has just announced that the device will actually use Bluetooth instead of an Apple dock connector — a change that’s apparently being done in part due to Apple’s recent litigation with Hypermac, and to avoid any actual licensing issues. As you might expect from such a small project, that’s also put the team in something of a bind, and they’re now looking for help from folks experienced with using Bluetooth in iOS. Of course, while the device is being pitched as an iPhone peripheral to start, there’s also been support for other phones promised, and it’s now been officially confirmed that those other phones will include Android phones with Bluetooth.

iControlPad to use Bluetooth instead of dock connector originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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