Aehso’s Output

Nintendo Revolution’s, err, revolutionary controller.

A fellow gamer sent me a hands on report of the new Nintendo Revolution controller. Here’s Nintendo’s promotional videoI think Nintendo are onto a winner with this - it almost makes you wonder why Sony and Micrsoft didn’t introduce motion detectors in the new PS3 & XBox 360 controllers. Now that the cat is out of the bag, expect the other two to counter with “oh we will have one of those Real Soon Now(tm)” statements.

If you think it’s gimmicky bear the following in mind: Apple recently added a Sudden Motion Sensor to the inside of their powerbook laptops earlier this year. It’s a simple enough device that was designed to detect sudden changes in axis and velocity and was put in there just to protect the hard drive (the heads can damage the platters easily if the drive is in use when an impact occurs). The thing is, once developers found out about the sensor, they got curious. And the kernel guys went out and wrote drivers to use the motion sensor as a standard input device - think picking up the PowerBook and moving it about to control applications and you get the idea). It won’t take long for Apple to build and integrate a new external peripheral (SpaceMouse, anyone?) using the same sensor technology (and bluetooth). It might only be used by a small number of spatial-type applications but it is such and Apple thing to do.

Kudos to Nintendo for innovating. It’s almost a pity they still will not match the PS3 and XBox 360 sales figures but those hype machines have other features (and more marketing $$$) that will ensure their success. But Nintendo beat Apple to the punch on this one - wow!

Update: Logitech already have a SpaceMouse - damn, I liked that name.

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