Then the Wii came out, and innovation was at the forefront again. The Wiimote's motion sensing capabilities gave way to even more quirky games. Is it really so hard for other companies, Microsoft Studios, EA, or Sony, I'm looking at you, to think outside of the box? Judging by the vast amount of sales Nintendo has accumulated, it is a clear signs that gamers are looking for, and amenable to something different. Something that doesn't rely on the latest eye candy, and powerful processors, Sony and Microsoft, I'm looking at your next generation consoles. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't class myself as a Nintendo fanboy, I own a Sony PSP, Nintendo DS Lite, and a laptop for my main gaming purposes, but it is easy to see that innovation wins.

We come to the matter of games for Personal Digital Assistants such as touchscreen-enabled Pocket PCs, and even smartphones. For PDAs, development companies should take advantage of the fact that there is a touch screen available, and lean to more DS-like games. Instead, most games make use of it in the most rudimentary ways, with menu navigation, and in the case of Bejeweled, an easier way to select your jewels. Most games ask you to map device buttons, and for the rest of the game, you use the hardware buttons to control the game!

One shining example of a game for touchscreen personal devices is iPhysics, a drawing game that applies conventional physics to figures drawn on screen, guaranteed hours of fun. iPhysics is a homebrew game no less, meaning it was coded by enthusiasts themselves instead of a game development company! The iPhone platform that made it capable was produced by Apple, a company known for innovation.

Also, most smartphones nowadays come with both touchscreens and microphones. Why not innovate by creating a game that takes advantage of them both? Imagine using the microphone for all sorts of mini-games on your phone, WareWare-like. However, there may be technical limitations, as some smartphone manufacturers have blocked off access to microphones to third party applications other then the Phone. One reason for this is that they are keen to maintain the carrier's monopoly over services such as Voicemail. Enabling microphone access would make it easier for individuals to code their own voicemail application into the phone, resulting in less revenue for the carriers. There are some exception as seen by Skype for Windows Mobile which utilizes a wi-fi connection and the speakerphone to allow users to make VoIP calls as if they were at a PC.

A more recent example is the release of the iPhone SDK by Apple. They have imposed several restrictions, namely, not allowing background processes, and VoIP operation over a carrier Data connection such as 3G or EDGE, once again safekeeping corporate interests.

So, companies, if you are reading this, remember to keep your eyes open and think beyond the box. Utilize devices to their full potential in order to provide a memorable gaming experience for your customers.

However, I propose we change the name from Bluetooth to BlueHeadache, because that's what occurs when you try to connect the freaking devices. I have a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capable PocketPC Phone (the HTC Alpine), and recently purchased Bluetooth Jabra Stereo Headphones with A2DP and a Bluetooth GPS receiver. The GPS still doesn't work after a week of trial and error, though on the bright side, it only took two days to get the headphones working! It involved a registry hack and a kernel-level patch. Seriously, you'd think it'd be marginally easier to achieve 'wireless freedom'. Its certainly understandable that ensuring compatibility with a wide range of devices is not simple, but they could have done a better job.

The way the profiles/services system looks good on paper, but when hardware vendors don't bother adhering to a more stringent set of common standards, the results are pure frustration. On top of that, there is not much you can do, because on the computer side, the components are limited in the tweaking sense, and if you're hooking up to something like a GPS receiver...well, there's really nothing you can do when the damn phone can't detect the correct serial profile for the GPS.

There are revisions, specifically Bluetooth 1.2, 2.0, and even a proposed 3.0, but they are not in consumer products yet, and it may be a while before they will be. One can only hope they managed to improve compatibility between devices. On the bright side, barring the instances when both my phone and headphones flat out refuse to work (and that happens randomly), it sure is fun having wireless audio...also disregarding the fact that it stutters when I use the phone, and when I walk out of a room. Once I managed to get the remote buttons on my headphones to work using the AVRCP profile, it is very convenient to listen to music. There is still the matter of my now useless GPS receiver though...the damn thing won't even work with my laptop's Bluetooth adapter.

Gizmodo has long been regarded as on the scale with one of the more popular tech blogs such as Engadget, but they recently came back from the Consumer Electonics Show 2008 in Las Vegas with some heavy confessions to tell. They took along a device called TV-B-Gone, which, I assume, scans infrared frequencies that turn off televisions. So, naturally, there are a huge amount of televisions at the fair. They went around turning them off for fun.

As you can see in the video by following the link, they may have gone over the line a little bit. Oh sure, cutting off booth sets are harmless fun, something I would definitely enjoy, but shutting them down during presentations and live events? That may be toeing, if not stepping over the line. It's a childish prank, worthy of a couple of high school students. You can see poor product reps glancing about in confusion as their displays went black, during their presentations. For their careers may depend largely on how they manage to market their product, and through no fault of their own, these mishaps occurs. You have to give Gizmodo credit for issuing an apology in the latter part of their post, but isn't this a bit like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped?

Let's hope that there are no serious repercussions from their little fun, both for the reps and Gizmodo themselves.

http://gizmodo.com/343348/confessions-the-meanest-thing-gizmodo-did-at-ces

Edit: Here is another post about the incident, more information than mine, actually. They contacted Gizmodo's publisher on whether the persons responsible would be fired, his answer was a terse no, but I do believe there will be suitable actions taken within the company. They also expand on the possible ramifications of this act, reflecting badly on all bloggers everywhere. Quite a shame, really.

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9848317-7.html

Further Update: Aaand, they've been reportedly banned by CES and Gawker Media, the site behind Gizmodo is probably going to get slapped with a lawsuit. Looks like that little prank has wide reaching repercussions eh?

Source: http://www.rlslog.net/gizmodo-remotely-shutting-lcds-at-ces-banned/