Update: The Kickstarter for the Impulse Controller is live here.
The Impulse Controller for iPhone, iPad, and Android could finally make it convenient to carry around a physical joystick for your mobile device.
Smartphone gaming is great, but I’m pretty sure the on-screen controls common in so many titles will cause me some serious arthritis later in life. My hands cramp up after just minutes with touchscreen buttons and directional pads. I could carry around one of those Bluetooth controllers, but who needs the extra bulk in their pockets?
This is where the Impulse Controller comes in:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHGdmJGG03I]
This tiny piece of hardware is kind of a technical marvel:
- It’s 2.7-inches wide and only .6-inches thick.
- The lithium-polymer battery is fully rechargeable.
- The charge supports 10 hours of playtime and 30 days of standby time.
- Gamers can use it in either orientation to suit right-handed and left-handed gamers.
- If you lose your keys, an app on your phone turns the controller into a remote key finder.
- Two controllers can work on a single device for multiplayer gaming.
- The Impulse Controller can work as a remote camera trigger.
- The buttons and direction stick can operate the video and audio controls on your media.
- Designers built in a loop for attaching the device to a set of keys.
To me, the keychain size alone makes a device like this enticing. Pile the key-finding feature on top of that (mine are perpetually lost), and it becomes a no-brainer.
The device’s developers say the final price won’t be under $40, but the Kickstarter (which is scheduled to go live at 8 a.m. PDT) has a special $25 price reserved for the first 100 contributors. After that, on-the-go gamers can get one of the controllers with a commitment to the $30 reward tier.
Other reward tiers have personalized versions of the hardware, T-shirts, and more.
The project has a $49,999 goal. We’ll update with a link to the Kickstarter when it is available.
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