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Joysticks For Your Smartphone
Virtual joysticks on your smartphone for games don’t exactly give the best gaming experience. There have been multiple occasions where I have found, in my enthusiasm, my finger having moved to somewhere in the middle of the screen, simply because the lack of feel of a physical joystick threw me off. Thanks to Ten One Design, the same guys who brought you the Fling joystick for the iPad, iPhone and Android users can now enjoy a physical joystick on their smartphone devices now.
If you’re interested, the accessory will set you back $24.95 for a pack of two and you may now head on down to their website and pre-order yours today. Check out the full press release after the break.
Ten One Design Reveals Fling mini Game Controller at E3 Expo
Montclair, NJ (June 3, 2011) – Ten One Design, creators of the first capacitive touch-screen stylus for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, has announced the “mini” version of its revolutionary tactile game controller – Fling mini.
Expanding on the success of the Fling for iPad announced at this year’s CES, the mini controller adheres to any smartphone on top of the directional pad of any applicable game to deliver ultimate control and superb response for full gaming immersion.
Fling mini’s unique spiral design creates actual physical resistance so gamers are assured of greater directional control. It works with any iPhone or iPod touch game with a directional pad, or virtual joystick, including Meteor Blitz, Aralon: Sword and Shadow, Super Mega Worm, Robokill, Blade of Betrayal and Dink Smallwood, to name a few.
Similar to Fling for iPad, to use Fling mini, launch the game of your choice and secure Fling mini’s center control over the game’s directional pad. Then simply place your thumb on the center control to navigate easily through the game.
The translucent and flexible design provides an unrestricted view of all on-screen action. Plus, the suction cups allow simple attachment and detachment for spontaneous gaming sessions.
The included microfiber bag is ideal for on-the-go storage and doubles as the perfect screen cleaning cloth to eliminate unwanted smudges and fingerprints.
Available in Ninja, the 2-pack Fling mini is available for pre-order now for just $24.95 at www.tenonedesign.com.
The Fairphone 2 was first unveiled in June earlier this year, where this particular handset carried a modular design while featuring majority of its components that have been sourced from conflict-free mines. It seems that this particular handset that you can purchase with a clear conscience has begun to ship to those who happen to live across Europe.
Fairphone announced in a blog post, “It’s been almost two years in the making, and some of the earliest buyers have been patiently waiting since July to receive their new phones. As community manager, I want to personally welcome the new batch of Fairphone owners to our community.” The initial 1,000 units are tipped to ship this month, before the other pre-orders follow in January 2016.
In terms of hardware specifications, the Fairphone 2 will run on a Snapdragon 801 chipset, has a 5″ 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, 2GB of RAM, an 8MP camera, with Android 5.1 Lollipop in tow. It will be a dual SIM capable handset with a microSD memory card slot and plays nice with 4G LTE networks, retailing for approximately €525 a pop.
It looks like the upcoming flagship model from Xiaomi will feature NFC support, at least based on a document that was released by China UnionPay. Just in case you are scratching your head and wondering who China UnionPay is, they happen to be the only domestic payment gateway supplier and card organization, and hence, to see them offer detailed support concerning the newly released NFC-based payment system points to the very real possibility of the upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5 featuring NFC capability.
After all, the Xiaomi Mi 3 was also mentioned on the list, which so happens to feature NFC, and there is no mention of the Xiaomi Mi 4 which does not come with NFC. Still, such a new payment system would be the ideal tool to see the reintroduction of NFC to the flagship model.
OnePlus did make an announcement in the previous month that the Ceramic variant of the OnePlus X will be released on November 24. True to their word, they did exactly that – although only a pitiful number of units were made available, and not only that, this was through a charity auction. Thankfully for the rest of the masses who are on the lookout for this device, it has gone on sale officially already.
Needless to say, this particular variant is available only by an invitation, although do bear in mind that standard OnePlus X invites are not good here – you will still need to snag yourself a specific Ceramic variant invite before you make a purchase. OnePlus is also on the lookout to offer additional methods of picking up this smartphone, although no further details were revealed.
The OnePlus X Ceramic will be available only in select markets, where among them include Europe, India, and Hong Kong. To date, we do know that OnePlus had made only 10,000 units of the handset available. A case of the early bird getting the proverbial worm here?