SOCOM Confrontation's retail release will include a Bluetooth headset, Sony reconfirmed today -- this time with pictures. While similar to the Jabra headset packaged insideWarhawk's box (and later removed), SOCOM's offering actually appears to be well-designed and, in fact, PlayStation-branded. Features include a prominent Mute button, USB charging cradle, and extended battery life. Sony has neither finalized the design nor priced a standalone model, but the SOCOM bundle is rumored to fetch $80.
Getting us all one step closer to our very own direct Codec link with the Colonel, comes this Metal Gear Solid 4-styled Bluetooth headset for, well ... ostensibly for the PS3 but – seeing as how this is a Bluetooth headset – you could use it with your regular old cellphone. You and Otacon can talk about love on the battlefield for up to eight hours from up to 30 feet away from your PS3.
This headset should be in stores just in time for the game's release on June 12 and – considering how similar it looks to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Wireless Headset – it should come as little surprise that it will carry the same $59.99 pricetag. To paraphrase the great Solid Snake, "we don't believe in coincidences."
We love nothing more than walking down the street and pointing at random objects, figuring we are nurturing our inherent telekinetic powers and that one day the neighbor's dog will be lifted three meters into the air. In the interim, we need help practicing our finger-pointing accuracy.
Using the above video as tutorial, you can turn use a Nintendo Wii remote for making a finger-controlled interface à la the film Minority Report (and you thought Tom Cruise was using thetans to control the monitor ...). All you need is an array of infrared LEDs and some reflective tape. Remember, the Wii remote is a bluetooth device so you should be able to apply this method for any computer interface. Now to figure out how to simulate a mouse click ...
FCC employees must have had a lot of fun testing out this one. Though the hipsters might call it Exhibit VFR822151, to the layman it's the Bluetooth-enabled wireless Rock Band guitar for the PlayStation 3. Shown on the site are some test reports, pictures of the guitar's innards (ew!) and snippets of the manual.
Somewhat perplexing is the picture of a USB dongle (pictured after the break). Because of the Bluetooth technology, the guitar shouldn't need an intermediary device to connect to the PlayStation 3; however, the user manual included with the FCC exhibit clearly show the dongle as part of the setup process. Perhaps it'll become clearer closer to Rock Band's holiday launch.
An adventurous and skillful modder has managed to turn a Wii remote into an Xbox 360 controller with middleware help from the PS2 control scheme -- it's as if all the console makers are working in harmony for this one hack. Try humming this to the tune of "Dem Bones" (actually, don't, because we're not even going to try to fit the rhyme scheme):
The Xbox 360 is connected to the XFPS PS2 to 360 adapter
... which is connected to a big black box Microcontroller "with custom firmware emulating a PS2 controller"
... which is connected to a Samsung Q1 PC with custom Wii remote firmware
... which is connected via Bluetooth to the Wii remote itself.
Full details of the process can be found here. A video demonstration is embedded after the break that not only shows the control scheme work with Halo 2 but also the thought put into making it a comfortable and viable control scheme (such as anti-acceleration and smoothing algorithms).
A new column at our sister site Nintendo Wii Fanboy, REVOLUTIONARY, aims to crack open the shell of the Wii world and feast on the delicious geek food inside. This week features a round-up of hacks that let you control your PC with the Wii Remote. And we're not talking about playing Minesweeper and moving files around, you can play just about any game with this lethal combination.
All you need is a compatible Bluetooth adapter, the free GlovePIE program, and some time to tweak and customize settings. REVOLUTIONARY spells the whole process out so even your grandmother could get her Half-Life 2 fix, motion-sensitive style.
This announcement will have everyone seeing blue, or blu, depending on your vowel usage: the Blu-ray disc version of Sony's online shooter, Warhawk, exists after all and will come bundled with extra materials, including developer interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and a Bluetooth headset. Aside from distinguishing it from the PlayStation Network version of the game, the headset should prove handy if you're in a rush jump in and trash talk.
Warhawk will also have a public beta starting on May 24th. You can sign up at the official site, quite possibly by the time you're reading this. We had a lot of fun with this one at Sony's Gamers Day, and it should be even better once they the beta opens and all the fresh meat starts pouring it.
Just another device hacked for Wii-control, yes, but this one's a radio-controlled car! An Austrian fellow claims to have modded his toy car to receive tilt inputs from a Wiimote, making for some novel R.C. Pro-Am throwback action. We're not convinced the setup is as "simple" as its creator claims, but the result could inspire some clever retail products.
What's stopping Nintendo from releasing its own Wiimote-controlled car -- or R.O.B. 2.0? Why confine Wii to the telly?
The following idea was birthed from what could only be described as a drunken orgy between a Wii-mote, a Mac, and a Star Wars geek. The program's creator took his existing app that uses the MacBook's built-in tilt sensor to transform your computer into a lightsaber, and took it one step further. Coupling that functionality with the data retrieved by the recently released DarwiinRemote, WiiSaber was born. Pair your Wii-mote with your Bluetooth-enabled Mac and swing it around to make authentic lightsaber sounds so you can finally live out your Star Wars kidStephen Colbert fantasies.
ps- Yeah, we tried it. It works great ... just be sure you're alone.
More Wiimote hackery takes today's honor as the second-most-watched YouTube game video. (The Halo 3 commercial is still scoring big, taking the top spot.) The video, created by the same people who demonstrated GlovePIE, shows the Wiimote controlling Half-Life 2.
The game interprets the movements of the Bluetooth controller, looking up and down with tilts, and left and right with rolls. The buttons are mapped to handle other game controls, like walking, normally driven by a keyboard. And yes, it's all done on a MacBook Pro running Windows XP; we thought that laptop looked familiar in the previous video.
IGN gives a thumbs-up to the forthcoming Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows, enabling 360-compatible wireless devices for PC use. The dongle offers simultaneous synceration for up to four wireless controllers and four (wireless) headsets. The Wireless Racing Wheel is also supported, along with all future wireless Microsoft offerings.
Despite what the image might imply, the receiver is wired, connecting via USB. Retail units will ship later this month for $20 -- no surprise there.
The PS3 is not, it's fair to say, perfect. Yet it's not the complete mess that some fanboys would have you believe, either. In truth, it's just imperfect. Like most consoles (except for the SNES). Anyway, some of those imperfections affect online play with the PS3. And those are the ones that bother us most.
We've been playing Ridge Racer 7 online every day for the past three weeks, and largely without complaint. A few recurring problems have, however, started to sap our Ridge Spirit (whatever that is). For one thing, intermittent Bluetooth downtime suffered by the Sixaxis has led us drifting helplessly into track barriers. That's a hardware fault, but a software anomaly was also experienced at this blogger's test location of Kyoto, Japan, where yesterday a race was won without any true racing:
Our Meltfire motor lined up in pole position on the starting grid, we took off at a good pace, then checked our rear-view mirror to see the other nine racers involved, lagging about 200 meters behind. A second later, they were gone. All our competitors had disappeared, leaving us to amble around the Aviator Loop circuit and, very smugly, pick up some serious Online Battle Points. That was a one-off (although we secretly hope it happens again).
Unfortunately, the Bluetooth deadzone niggle -- caused by automatic Bluetooth re-syncing -- continues to niggle. Worse, having to occasionally connect the Sixaxis via USB in order to manually re-sync its Bluetooth connection is something of a downer. And we want uppers. So, Sony, please release all the firmware updates you can. We've not written you off yet.
Datel's 3rd-party Xbox 360 Bluetooth headset has popped up on Amazon UK with a shipping date of the 30th of June and with a price tag of £59.99/$109. Originally the headset was said to ship on the 17th of March, but there's still no mention of it on the company's website, so it's possible that Amazon jumped the gun by placing it on their site. If it does ship when they say, it'll have the market for wireless Xbox 360 headsets to itself for quite a while; Microsoft hasn't said anything more about when their official headset will be released.
The device itself is a bundle of what appears to be a relatively generic Bluetooth headset--it looks strikingly similar to Motorola's HS820 headset--coupled with a dongle that attaches to the controller's standard headset port, packaged together in a standard Xbox-green and white box.
Inside Mac Games has reviewed Logitech's new V270 Bluetooth notebook mouse, and it looks like road warriors have a new option for gaming on the go. The reviewer tested the V270 on Call of Duty 2 and Quake 3 (yes, the Mac version of Quake 4 is out) with no noticeable delays, and it responds well on a variety of surfaces. Just make sure you're not synching your cell phone or using any other Bluetooth devices simultaneously with your laptop, as this may cause a slight performance drop.
The V270 sells for $40-50 online, and although it ships with a Windows-only installation CD, the reviewer had no trouble setting it up on a Powerbook using the Bluetooth Setup Wizard.
Ingredients: 1 (one) Bluetooth gamepad,
1 (one) black PlayStation One controller, 1 (one) Dell Axim PDA, 2 (two)
mechanical pencils, plenty (plenty) o' hot glue.
Gut the Bluetooth gamepad, put guts into the PlayStation
controller, make a stretching clamp out of mechanical pencils, an old battery charger, and some hot glue, and assemble.
Simple, right?
