How much would you pay for a hand-made Xbox 360 wireless arcade joystick, with heavy-duty metal casings, rechargeable batteries and millimeter-for-millimeter Street Fighter II arcade cabinet control layout accuracy? If your response is “well, Chris, I’d pay $190″ then keep on reading; the rest of you, move on.
Video demo after the cut
Nothing like a new computer concept to get us thinking, and Guy Ceder’s “Buddy” system certainly ticks the usual boxes of slick industrial design, couch-friendly touchscreen usability and modular components. Buddy consists of three main sections, a small portable touchscreen unit with handy hook, a larger touchscreen display with integrated projector, and a base-station with the hardware grunt and recharging elements.
Video demo after the cut
Logitech have announced a new “unifying” USB receiver for use with its latest wireless keyboard and mice, which allows up to six of the company’s compatible devices to be connected with the one receiver. The Logitech Unifying Receiver will land in the US and Europe in September 2009, bundled with the new Wireless Keyboard K350 and K340 models, the Marathon Mouse M705 in early 2010, and the Wireless Mouse M505 in August this year.
It’s not, arguably, as exciting in pure A/V terms as the company’s Procise PSPHD 7.3 previewed yesterday, but Crestron’s new Prodigy Home Control System is certainly more affordable. CEPro have been behind the scenes with the new wireless automation system, which uses modular ZigBee-compatible components to manage lighting, heating, distributed A/V and more.
Eye-Fi have announced a new model in their wireless SD card range, the Eye-Fi Geo, and it’s aimed squarely at Apple users. Designed to integrate with iPhone ‘09 and ‘08, together with the iPhone and MobileMe, the Eye-Fi Geo offers lifetime geotagging and full compatibility with iLife’s geo-aware “Places” feature.
The 2GB card can also be used with MobileMe and other online galleries and social networking sites for $9.99 per year. The company already offers a free iPhone application which allows for direct uploads from the iPhone together with geotagging.
Sony are tipped to be readying a new ebook reader for August release, which would bring WiFi connectivity, a larger display and more internal storage. Believed to be the replacement to the Sony PRS-505, itself first announced back in October 2007, the new device would slot in beneath Sony’s more recent PRS-700 and lack that model’s touchscreen interface.
Wireless video is one of those things that you really wouldn’t think would be all that hard, but high-profile retreats such as Belkin’s FlyWire are showing it isn’t necessarily as easy as squirting HDTV across the open air of your living room. Everything USB have been testing out IOGear’s Wireless USB AV Kit, and finding that you’re not so much cutting cables as rearranging them.
NEC have announced that they will be supporting Moblin-based mobile devices and in-car PNDs with WiMAX functionality. The company already develops WiMAX mobile broadband modules and has recently unveiled a battery-powered WiMAX router; this new announcement will see Intel’s open-source Moblin OS get native support for the high-speed wireless technology.
Barnes & Noble and Plastic Logic have announced a partnership which will see the publishing house become the “exclusive eBookstore provider” for the 8.5 x 11 inch super-skinny ebook device. Set to arrive in early 2010, the Plastic Logic reader will have wireless access to the Barnes & Noble download store, which they’re calling the largest selection of ebooks available in one place.
Ruckus Wireless have announced a new outdoor access point, which the company claims is the “world’s first and only outdoor dual-band 802.11n with dynamic beam forming.” The ZoneFlex 7762 supports WiFi draft-n along with concurrent dualband 2.4/5GHz and up to sixteen simultaneous SSIDs, inside a heated weatherproof casing.
JP
