GreatLakeJake

8.05.2012

Bladepad iPhone gamepad seeks Kickstarter funding, looks to change your iPhone gaming experience

Bladepad iPhone gamepad seeks Kickstarter funding, looks to change your iPhone gaming experience The Bladepad is an iPhone case / Gamepad combo that is currently seeking funding from Kickstarter. It consists of an easily removable iPhone case complete with a clip on gamepad that includes two joysticks, a D-Pad and many buttons to enhance your iPhone gaming experience.

Playing games on your iPhone will never be the same! Bladepad brings a full console controller to your phone with a convenient and comfortable gamepad that maximizes portability and minimizes unnecessary bulk. Connect Bladepad to your iPhone via Bluetooth. Place your iPhone in the protective case and the gamepad slides out beneath your phone. When you are done playing, the gamepad slides back in place under your phone.

Bladepad makes use of high quality components and materials to provide a durable device that is built to last. Inside is a powerful micro-processor and Bluetooth module from Texas Instruments. Additionally, Bladepad has a real metal bezel made out of the same lightweight and durable alloy that is used in the iPhone 4/4S. The bezel is actually a solid metal plate that protects Bladepad for long-term use.

If you would like to be one of the first to try this gamepad, you can become an early adopter with a pledge of $59 or more to secure one should they make it into production. The Bladepad currently has just over $6k of pledges and it needs to hit over $55k to gain enough to be funded. As with all of these Kickstarter projects, just because a particular item reaches its funding total doesn't guarantee it will be made. I guess the saying goes; you pays your money and takes your choice!

There is no doubt in my opinion that gaming on the iPhone is hugely popular but is being held back by the lack of hardware buttons and a joystick. Lots of innovation is taking place on this front as we have already seen solutions from iCade and one or two others. The problem however is that there is no set standard for including support for a gamepad. Developers can chose to support one particular solution or none at all and until that changes, you could well be wasting your money as your favorite games may well not have any gamepad support at all.

The only long term solution to the problem would be for Apple to release its own gamepad and give all developers the ability to easily add support for it. Then we will we see most games taking advantage of the gamepad and it will become an essential part of gaming on the iPhone iPad and iPod touch.

Can you ever see Apple releasing its own gamepad? Would you buy one if they did?

Source: Kickstarter

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/adADxtFtJHQ/story01.htm

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5.27.2012

Nest learning thermostat rolling out soon to Apple Stores nationwide

Nest Thermostat

Apple Stores will soon carry stock of the revolutionary Nest learning thermostat. According to sources, the Nest thermostat is being delivered to Apple Stores nationwide and may go on sale as early as next week. The Nest thermostat has already been given its own Apple part number and is set to be sold at the same price as Nest's online store at $249.99.

Today, a trusted source was able to provide a first hand look at the Nest packaged at an Apple Store today, complete with the part number. Priced at $249.99 (the same as Nest's price through Nest's online store), the Nest has a part number of H9279ll/a in Apple's systems.

The Nest was developed by former Apple iPod and iPhone hardware chief Tony Fadell who came up with a new way to imagine your home thermostat -- the Nest Learning Thermostat. It's a touch-controlled system that makes your home energy needs simple and easy to control remotely via an iPhone or iPad app.

According to Nest, the thermostat takes roughly a week to pick up on your energy routines and adjusts your temperature accordingly. A display changes colors to red or blue to distinguish between heating and cooling, and the design is very Apple-like. The greatest part about the Nest Learning Thermostat is the iOS app for your iPhone or iPad, letting your remotely adjust Nest's settings and get all the vital information you need on-the-go.

If you have been thinking about picking up a Nest learning thermostat, you will soon be able to see one in the flesh at your local Apple Store.

Source: 9to5 Mac

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/537ZIUmB6rs/story01.htm

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Your House: The Next Great Digital Network

If you want your washing machine to email when your clothes are clean and your basement to tweet when it's flooding, you can pick from a growing handful of startup products to get the job done.

Connected boxes Twine and Ninja Blocks, card-like Electric Imp, and stand-alone sensor hub Knut all use sensors to communicate information about objects or the environment around them to the Internet — a concept known as "The Internet of Things."

The Internet of Things has been around for a while. It includes gadgets like connected scales and the Nike+ shoe, as well as identifying technologies as simple as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Over the last few years, however, the hardware involved in putting objects online has become more accessible — and The Internet of Things has made a beeline toward the mainstream.

SEE ALSO: Refrigerator Magnet Lets You Order a Pizza in One Tap [VIDEO]

Startups are creating hardware that makes it easy for anyone to connect an object.

Users of startup gadgets like Twine and Knut, for instance, can typically program software to activate actions based on information they gather: "When sensor gets wet, then send text message that says 'The basement is flooding!'" or "When sensor is dry, tweet 'your plant needs to be watered!'" In the case of the Electric Imp, appliance manufacturers can install a card-reader that, when the user inserts a card, gives their products smart capability. Users could, for instance, turn on their sprinklers when the weather gets hot.

Twine is one of several startup gadgets that uses sensors to collect data from the real world that can trigger an online action.

But the concept has greater potential than simply watering your plants.

"Think about a commercial user that has 200 greenhouses," says Scott Lemon, the creator of a software that helps connect objects to online services. "It's a much, much different world when you look at it from a non-toy approach."

Pay-as-you-drive car insurance, smart metering and shipping systems that track temperature and other potentially damaging conditions are just a few of many ways the Internet of Things has already started to change the technology landscape. But Lemon's company, Wovyn, wants to make it easier for developers who aren't backed by governments or big companies to integrate with the real world.

It allows programmers to easily include information from connected objects in their apps and, unlike most systems, connects any hardware with any cloud application. Like Twine, Ninja Blocks and Knut, he's raising money for the product on Kickstarter.

If successful, the system will broaden the affordable use cases for putting objects online — adding to the enormous growth in connected objects that analysts have predicted.

In 2010, there were about 12.5 billion objects connected to the internet. The same year, a former director of Internet technology at IBM, Michael Nelson, predicted that within 5-10 years, 100 billion objects would be connected to the Internet. A more conservative 2011 estimate by Cisco puts the number of connected devices at 50 billion by 2020.

"Trying to determine the market size of the Internet of Things is like trying to calculate the market for plastics, circa 1940," Nelson explained in a report by consulting firm the Hammersmith Group. "At that time, it was difficult to imagine that plastics could be in everything.

"If you look at information processing in the same way, you begin to see the vast range of objects into which logic, processors or actuators could be embedded."

With sensors and integrations priced for consumers, startups have started to make that range more visible.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Kalawin

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