Belkin Game Controller Coming with Apple SDK Support?

[tudtran]

That's a coooooool

[Boxerman1]

I think it would help iPhone sales I mean it could just be another accessorie apple could sell. Even if belkin designed it apple could easliy get a cut with more phones sold to the gamers

[iphonejeff]

whoa is it me or does it make it look like a psp kinda?

[Monkiki]

Uhm....that looks an awful lot like the Tapwave Zodiac design and the buttons are too close to the screen without it adding significant thickness. That stick/pad especially. What about the Home button?

[Jeckel]

This is interesting, though slightly doubtful. For those that don't speak Spanish, it says (with it modified to make sense in English):

"With JoyPod you can exploit your iPhone or iPod Touch to the maximum, already with your revolutionary system, the case would allow you to play your titles from the AppStore in a simple/easy manner.

Advantages

• Lift the experience of playing on your iPod to the maximum potential.

• Own an exit for audio and an entrance for powering your iPod or synchronizing while you play.

• A total of 8 buttons, 6 (directional pad?) and 2 triggers (Start/Select).

• Made of rubber for having a unique experience while playing.

"

[J_Marley]

Ok, this could be real, but I extremely doubt it for a few reasons. To start with, MAJOR design flaws. For a controller that looks like it fits that snugly with the unit, it no longer leaves access to the power/lock button on the top or to the home button on the bottom. Plus for those that actually like the auto dimming feature, this completely covers it up, which means no more gaming after midnight unless you want to manually adjust your brightness.

Moving more into design, the contours of the product just seem... lacking. If you have something that had the shape and design of the iPhone, wouldn't you create something like this that would make it stand out? Granted, Belkin isn't always known for the way their products look, but still... it doesn't even seem like this would fit the curvature of the phone. Not to mention of course that since there is more than one device with this capability of playing games, they would need to roll out models for both 2G and 3G iPhones plus the iPod Touch.

All this being said, yes it would be great if someone would do this, but just at a first glance, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[Dizz]

This is interesting, though slightly doubtful. For those that don't speak Spanish, it says (with it modified to make sense in English):

"With JoyPod you can exploit your iPhone or iPod Touch to the maximum, already with your revolutionary system, the case would allow you to play your titles from the AppStore in a simple/easy manner.

Advantages

• Lift the experience of playing on your iPod to the maximum potential.

• Own an exit for audio and an entrance for powering your iPod or synchronizing while you play.

• A total of 8 buttons, 6 (directional pad?) and 2 triggers (Start/Select).

• Made of rubber for having a unique experience while playing.

"

Thanks for the translation..

All honesty, I think that this is a cool idea but if I were to get this I'd be the guy who uses it for 2 days then gets tired of carrying the extra pieces and attaching them then reattaching and taking them off etc. etc. etc. This would be more like the cool little gadget that I have no use for besides showing off to my friends once in a while when we're at my house bored.

[dillonsmith9147]

if its real the pic is doctored the ratio for the screen doesnt look right from here but maybe its just me

[daffysam22]

it looks like the tapwave zodiac (RIP). We just need Tony Hawk's Pro Skater now.

[Fear1508]

Why is it that whenever something like this comes out all we care to comment is FAKE or REAL. This type of posting is not helpful to anyone.

Apple DID say they won't support dock devices in the SDK. This doesn;t mean that if a company like Belkin (not some random guy making things in his basement) approached them with this idea that they would instantly shoot it down. Especially not if Belkin can convince Apple that it will make both parties alot of money. Think about it... if this device helps sales of games because it is easier to control games with it and in turn games that are hard to control help sell the device, why wouldn't Apple at least consider it. In fact, there was a device coming for the 1st gen that would enable full gps via the dock port as a plug-in add-on that, to the best of my knowledge, was only canceled because the 3G had a gps units built in and it would hinder sales of the new model iPhone.

LOL apple would not consider this device to be put on their shelves. First everytime apple "authorizes" a product they are also held liable to it too. Second, this belkin controller will require all the games to be programmed according to the controller layout (Pain for all developers). If anything apple would be making a mistake putting this on their shelves unless they can manage to have all developers recode which is a lot of work on their part, and a lot of developers will not do it because it will then require ppl to buy this controller to play games so essentially they would need two versions of the game: ones that dont have controller, and for ones that do have controller. This is just not logical for apple to have on their shelves... It is just not practical to have every game re encoded / or have two versions of every game.

[KeviN | NiveK]

when are they ever going to release the control pad (PSP looking pad)
for the iphone?
i want it soo bad.. but then again the belkin joypad looks better than the PSP
but who knows? if they are going to make it.

[huntor]

i completely call this shhit a while back.

but still.. it looks extremely fake.

[mgezz3]

I don't think it's real either. Belkin would have to make a 3g version, a 2g version, a ipod touch version just to fit the different shapes of each device, nah, I don't buy it.

[M4tt Dam0n]

Whats the point of having gaming on the iPhone if you still have to carry 2 devices or make the iPhone way bigger. That thing is damn fugly btw. Ill never buy it even if it were free. Remember even if the iPhone is powerful its still not centered on gaming so the games suck. And portable gaming is a joke anyway. You will always have simple games like monkey ball and racing games on cellphones. If you want portable gaming so bad, buy a DS or PSP.

[santiagodraco]

Whats the point of having gaming on the iPhone if you still have to carry 2 devices or make the iPhone way bigger. That thing is damn fugly btw. Ill never buy it even if it were free. Remember even if the iPhone is powerful its still not centered on gaming so the games suck. And portable gaming is a joke anyway. You will always have simple games like monkey ball and racing games on cellphones. If you want portable gaming so bad, buy a DS or PSP.

Games suck because they have to rely on the accelerometer or screen tapping... Games suck because they are new and it takes time to develop/port better games. Games suck because you think so, but not everyone else does.

The iPhone has OpenGL, a fast processor, a good display, a good OS and is very popular. All of that = a good gaming platform.

As for this or other devices making it "ugly", well, form follows function. Plus IF that is a real device it's in early development stages and is likely a prototype shot. It's also not "ugly" in my opinion, it looks somewhat comfortable and well laid out for what it does.

[Kyle Matthews]

http://www.modmyi.com/forums/news/32...speaks-up.html

[santiagodraco]

It's too bad. A controller like that would be great. I bet we'll see one eventually, maybe with firmware 2.1. But who knows.