Controller - SlashGear

‘Controller’ Stories

Twist & Squeeze interface tested by Microsoft Research

Chris Davies, Apr 21st 2008 Discuss [0]

A team at Microsoft Research have developed a prototype interface [pdf link] for mobile devices that responds to twisting, squeezing, flexing and stretching to control and on-screen GUI. The system, called Force Sensing, relies on very small manipulations of a handheld device - in this case a modified Samsung UMPC - with different gestures mapped to navigation and other controls. Visual feedback, such as interfaces twisting or bending, apparently decreases the learning time necessary for users to adapt to the new controls.

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DIY Electric off-road skateboard

James Allan Brady, Apr 16th 2008 Discuss [1]

Some guy put together and instructable on how to make an electric mountain board or whatever those off-road versions of skateboards are called. It’s pretty ingenious too taking most of his parts from electric scooters. Read The Full Story

SlashGear Week in Review – April 7th through April 13th

James Allan Brady, Apr 13th 2008 Discuss [0]

This was a long week with no major events occurring, but there were some pretty big announcements. For starters we have a new BitTorrent Set Top Box from Myka, no more will you have to waste power by leaving your entire computer running all night just to get the latest screener from FXG or aXXo, and this little set top box will do it for you and then play it right from its hard drive for added ease. Then there were rumors abound of Blockbuster potentially putting out a new Set Top Box to push their movies, TV Shows, and other content out to. Read The Full Story

DIY instant messenger online contact signalizer picture frame thingy – says the creator

James Allan Brady, Apr 9th 2008 Discuss [0]

This nifty little gadget was created in an effort to make it possible to see who was online from across the room, or just in passing. So he took some pictures of the few people who he truly cared when they were online, put some LED lights behind them, and then did a lot of more technical stuff to make the lights light up when that person was online. Read The Full Story

Colorware tackles Guitar Hero controllers

Abby McVay, Apr 2nd 2008 Discuss [0]

Alright it's official, Colorware has to stop releasing new things that they can customize. The last time they announced that they were releasing the DS Lite I spent an hour on their site drooling over the possibilities. This time, I kept it at around a half an hour, so maybe I'm getting better at this. Read The Full Story

Metal Gear Solid launch being celebrated by Konami – ooh, shiny new games and systems!

James Allan Brady, Mar 21st 2008 Discuss [2]

According to Japanese site AV Watch Konami is going to be releasing a few versions of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. There will be a version that is just the game itself if that’s all you care about, and then there will be a couple other surprises. Read The Full Story

SSD drives not so hot after all – told you they weren’t worth the money

James Allan Brady, Mar 18th 2008 Discuss [3]

From a single manager they have seen 20% of their notebook returned on average, and 30% of their SSD equipped notebooks. Not all of those are for failures, but about 20% of those SSD equipped notebooks are being returned due solely to SSD drive failures. Read The Full Story

Digix IXING M1-TM – small yet functional MP3 player

James Allan Brady, Mar 17th 2008 Discuss [0]

You can get this player in 1, 2, or 4 gigabyte configurations. It’s extremely small too packing in an LCD screen, the memory, the battery, and the controller boards into a small 5.6mm thick package. It weighs a mere 20 grams and although the screen is small, its good enough to watch videos on, you just might have to wear it as an eye patch. This player also packs in an FM tuner, voice recorder and text viewer, its almost worth the asking price just for those functionalities, let alone the video and music playing capabilities. Read The Full Story

LucidTouch – now your other fingers get to do something too!

James Allan Brady, Mar 13th 2008 Discuss [0]

LucidTouch is an interesting concept that just seems like it would have a pass or fail type of learning spike. Essentially you get the touchscreen on the front you are used to, the one you use your thumbs on, and then via either a rear mounted camera or some other sort of touch sensor, your other fingers get to help out from the back. Read The Full Story

Buffalo flash drives not coming to US after all – why’s everybody picking on Buffalo?

James Allan Brady, Mar 12th 2008 Discuss [1]

It seems that every time a major lawsuit is launched against a plethora of companies, Buffalo is the first to get hit. Like the one about the WiFi patents from Australia like a year or two ago, Buffalo got hit first and hardest, now SanDisk is suing everyone and their brother in a new flash drive lawsuit and Buffalo gets hit first. Read The Full Story

Wii Crossbow – makes Crossbow Training more interesting

James Allan Brady, Mar 10th 2008 Discuss [0]

Not only does it act as a gun for playing Wii games that could use that type of functionality, such as Link’s Crossbow Training, the game that comes with Nintendo’s Wii Zapper. It also offers up a laser sight and a ping pong ball-tipped arrow that actually fires. Read The Full Story

Corsair Flash Voyager GT 16GB – fast data transfer for all your corporate espionage needs

James Allan Brady, Feb 28th 2008 Discuss [0]

So you’ve made it into the boss’ office and you are transferring the files onto your cheap knockoff flash drive and had you been mere seconds faster you wouldn’t be sitting in a jail cell, well you should have bought a flash drive from Corsair. Their new Flash Voyager GT offers up transfer speeds four times faster than that of a regular USB 2.0 drive. Read The Full Story