Gadgety News

Check it out gamers!

Logitech has announced that  its G13 Gameboard should be out in a month or so.

Rockin a trio of game modes, a built-in 160 x 43 pixel LCD for stats and messaging, 25 programmable keys, and a programmable joystick, Logitech confidently states that the G13

“offers up to 87 ways for you to control your game.”

It also arrives with pre-configured settings for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as well as other top titles.

You can obviously setup custom button-profiles as you please and even create macros on the fly without having to pause your game.

It’s gonna be costing around the £60 mark.

It also appears that we could get its big brother as Engadget Chinese has spotted the G18 keyboard!

They haven’t got much in the way of specs and tings but they did spot the fast function keys on the left side of the board (some which seem to be numbered G11-G15), and the fact that the full board is also packing a tiny display at the center.

GAME ON!! 

Engadget Chinese

Happy Birthday Mouse!!

The oddly named control device is celebrating its 40th birthday today!

Even though it has since lost its wheels and many have no tails (wires) they’re still pretty much the same as they’ve always been - even though its demise has been predicted.

It was created by Doug Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute in California and was a controller housed in a carved wooden block with wheels on the bottom and a wire out the front which later migrated to its more familiar position.

Someone called it a ‘mouse’ as a joke and the name stuck. He said:

‘We thought that when it had escaped out to the world it would have a more dignified name. But it didn’t.’

His first mouse was up and running in 1968, and was first shown to the public in a demo on December 9 that year. (The vid clip below)

Xerox developed the mouse in the 1970s, launching it alongside the Xerox Star computer in 1981. It didn’t exactly thrill the world but when Engelbart’s patent ran out Apple snapped up the rights from Stanford for $40,000 - cunning huh?

It was then launched alongside the Mac in 1984.

Then the PC users picked up on it and the rest, as they say, is history.

Check out a vid clip of part of the first test

When playing first person shooters (FPS) using a mouse, no matter how engaging titles such as ‘Crysis Warhead’ are - moving your mouse around isn’t much like waving a gun around - unless you have the Novint Falcon pistol add-on.

Alec Meer from Rock, Paper, Shotgun got to grips with Zalman’s FPSGUN concept mouse gun thingy which aims to straddle the pistol and mouse gap.

On the plus side he liked the fact that the sensor is some distance away from the grip - i.e. the part of the mouse you’re holding.  That means you can achieve larger turns with less hand movement.

The colour-changing scroll wheel felt good and chunky but then things start going a bit poor………..

As far as ergonomics - seems that there aren’t any.

The buttons, designed as handgrip-mounted triggers, are angular protrusions that dig into the fingers, the necessity for a constant claw-grip adds its own aches after a few minutes of use.

So, I’m feeling that the idea is strong but the application falls down somewhat.

Well, Zalman are better known for designing PC cooling equipment after all

This is one of the few ‘ergonomic’ controllers that actually looks like it could make a difference.

The oddly named Hippus’ HandshoeMouse was developed at two medical universities in Holland and not in someone’s shed over a weekend of cheap booze and reggae roll-ups.

They have performed “extensive medical studies” that “support the concept” which enables the user to “place the whole palm of their hand on the mouse without having to cling on to it”.

It comes in three fittings so you should be able to find one for you, whether you’re Hell Boy or not.

You can comfortably grab one now in black or white for €120 ($166).

Logitech have just announced a trio of new keyboards starting with its thinnest keyboard ever.

The 9.3-mm thin Illuminated Keyboard (pictured) is said to retail at $80 from October.

It features an adjustable backlight, soft-touch palm rest and dedicated multi-media keys for hot, one-handed night typing alone in the dark. No, that’s not a euphomism!!

They also mentioned the portable, 2.4GHz wireless DiNovo Keyboard for Notebooks ($100 also out in October) that boasts an incredible 3-year battery life and then they outed the Cordless Desktop S520 ($60 buy it this month) keyboard and optical mouse combo.

The latter features more of that same impressive power management capable of squeezing out 8 months of usage for the mouse and 15-months for the keyboard.

There’s been word for a while that the big M would be launching a SideWinder-branded keyboard by Autumn this year and the Redmond-based folks are keeping the hype alive with an all new September-bound board and mouse 1-2.

The SideWinder X6 is hailed as the “first gaming keyboard created by Microsoft from the ground up, and the only gaming keyboard on the market with a switchable key pad.”

 When not being used for hardcore gaming the key pad transforms into a fully programmable macro pad.

It’s also packing two-colour adjustable backlighting, mode switching and a $79.95 price tag.

The X5 mouse has no less than nine buttons (five of which are customisable), a 2,000DPI laser tracking engine, six DPI settings (totally adjustable on the fly) and a $59.95 asking price.

Engadget

This striking gadget isn’t the future of inner-city transport (more’s the pity) it is, in fact, the aptly named “Alien Mouse” concept from the crazy designery head of Mizanur Rehman.

The brief was to design a mouse that would strictly adhere to the principles of ergonomics so that it would provide maximum comfort.

This is acheived by molding itself to the user’s hand as it has a body constructed from soft gel and cellulose. It’s even got a throbbing central core that vibrates through the frame to help relieve stress.

Now, the important bit of a controlling device is….well…..the controlly bit.

A central joystick is flanked by right and left click buttons, but the layout of the controls means that the mouse never needs to be physically moved.

The Alien Mouse is only in the concept stage at this point which is a shame as we might not even be using a mouse in 5 years.

Alien Mouse via The Design Blog

Could this be bye-bye mousey?

Well, that’s what Gartner analyst Steve Prentice has predicted.

His opening gambit was that the mouse

“works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it’s over”

He does reckon that the keyboard is here for a long time but

“the idea of a keyboard with a mouse as a control interface is the paradigm that I am talking about breaking down”

In the mouses stead Prentice sees things like facial recognition systems, multi-touch, and even devices like OCZ’s mind-reading Neural Interface Actuator.

 

Via TrustedReviews

I’m a big fan of Razer’s gaming mice and use their Krait mouse every day but I’m slightly confused by this latest addition to the range.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s not that many games out there for the Mac family is there?  I can’t be certain (being a PC user) but I can’t recall seeing things on the shelf……..

Yup - I’ve had a look and there are games for the Mac!!! I think I just spend too long in recording studios and automatically equate Macs with session work, music and not seeing the outside world for days at a time!

Razer obvioulsy knew better all along as they have launched the Lunar White Razer DeathAdder, an ergonomic right-handed gaming mouse specifically built with the needs of Mac OS X gamers in mind(?)

It features their renowned Razer 3G Infrared Sensor technology and 1800 DPI with 1000Hz Ultrapolling/1ms response and a tracking speed of up to 120 inches per second.

With 3200dpi gaming mice becoming the standard, Razer needed to step it up.  Personally I find my, now standard, 3200dpi mouse plenty much enough. I4U reviewed Razer’s 4000dpi Lachesis as being ”….very accurate and tracking is great, particularly in Crysis”. Keep in mind though; this review was performed whilst playing on a 30-inch screen!

If you’re on a considerably smaller screen, you’d probably find yourself in the case of the missing cursor. Fortunately, you can adjust the resolution on the fly, and profiles are stored in the mouse’s 32KB of onboard memory. The major drawback’s actually the scroll wheel, which he wishes was more like the one on Logitech’s G9. That aside, it pulls a pretty solid 9.0 rating.

This mouse costs $80US so you’d probably benefit from a test-drive before parting with your hard earned. 

I4U, Razer

Pic and lead from Engadget

There’s a fair amount of head-scratching going on at Engadget and I can totally see why.

This is the unholy spawn of a randy label printer and a submissive mouse (or vice-versa).

You can have one of these freaks…..err….useful additions to any office for a mere $29US from Casio - just buy online so you don’t have to be seen collecting one!

Click the links to see what Engadget think about it.