My USB keyboard has 2 USB ports on it...just sayin'.
Kickstarter just hit $2M.
My USB keyboard has 2 USB ports on it...just sayin'.
Kickstarter just hit $2M.
Those Chinese tablets are pretty cool. But if they use that savings to keep the price below 100 (really 70, considering it has a controller) it may not be the worst idea though. Hell, maybe they'll be so successful they'll be able to get a better deal buying in more bulk and upgrade the hardware a bit.Originally Posted by Brad Grenz
This is the fastest kickstarter ever I think. There was clearly some untapped demand out there for something like this. These guys got there first for better or worse. I really really hope they don't blow it.
Last edited by Quaro; 07-11-2012 at 12:20 AM.
Tegra 3 may be under performing the PowerVR in these benchmarks but not so sure that is a complete picture. Lot's of android games have been optimized for Tegra 3 NVidia has provided tools for developers to take advantage of the Tegra 3 capabilities, and can't find the article but maybe it was Anandtech that showed some games that were optimized for Tegra 3 looked better then the IOs version on a PowerVR chips. The problem is that when this thing comes out we are probably going to see Tegra 4 devices on the market that should be a lot better.
Its a cool device for android hacking but for me I can't think of why would I want to buy and play an game on this device instead of my PC.
Yeah, there are like 10 games where nVidia paid to have custom Tegra versions made, and that are only available through a special Tegra app store, but none of that changes the fact that it's an inefficient design with far less shader power than SGX and Mali GPUs.
The most popular Android Tablets use Tegra 3, game developers are going to develop for Tegra 3 so it doesn't matter if it has an inferior design, on top of that is cheaper then the other high end android chips. If you look at the nexus 7 review on Anandtech all the best performing Android tablet use Tegra 3 if there are chips out there that outperform the Tegra 3 why doesn't anybody use them? I mean if a 150$ chinese tablet can afford then why not Asus?
Because that was the best way to stay under $200 without sacrificing screen quality or battery life? And Mali is the GPU ARM themselves designed. There's hardly any fear it will be poorly supported in Android games. nVidia got a lot of wins by being the first quad core ARM design to market when everyone decided the best way to try and beat Apple was by pumping up the marketing specs of their hardware. nVidia even describes the Tegra 3's GPU as having 12 cores, which sounds good next to the iPad 3's 4 core GPU, unless you know the later is still more than twice as powerful.
Anyway, if you just want to futz around with Android 4.0 on a TV you can buy an Android Dongles today for less than $70. This one has a dual core CPU, Mali 400 GPU and a microSD slot. Plug in a USB controller and emulate or hack to your heart's content.
I actually went back and looked at this Pocket TV Kickstarter I posted about in the Kickstarter scam thread. They were charging $99 for this exact generic Chinese design that sells for under $50 in quantity. I figure in 9 months, since the Android dongle and set top box market is so active in China right now, by the time Ouya is actually shipping there will be cheaper, better options.
Unfortunately, a lot of USB single-port devices still don't support USB host mode. I'd need to see the full spec...
It's there in about every other decent Android device; more common now, honestly. It would seem silly of them not to include it in this device, but at $100, who knows?
There are a couple options available with the iCade Mobile and iControlPad, but they're both ridiculously overpriced ($70 + shipping). Why the choices are so limited and expensive when there are ten million iOS games and a massive user base is beyond me.
But yeah, I'd really like a reasonable option for adding physical controls to my iTouch as well.
That's basically my question, yea. I've had a friend who bought a $90 Chinese Android Tablet (yes, yes, he's an idiot) which didn't do host mode.
(Actually it works pretty well as the eReader he uses it for, but nothing else ^^)
buy the cheapies from dealextreme.
There isn't a massive user base, because games have to be programmed to use the controllers, and only a handful of popular games are. The user base is basically Jeff Minter fans.There are a couple options available with the iCade Mobile and iControlPad, but they're both ridiculously overpriced ($70 + shipping). Why the choices are so limited and expensive when there are ten million iOS games and a massive user base is beyond me.
Ouya devs are working on stretch goals...they need to work faster, as they hit $3M just about a half-hour ago. They've probably already passed what would've been their first two stretch goals.
Cool. It's exciting to see these things coming down so fast. People are going to build cool things with them.
Looks like the difference is that Ouya knows how to market themselves... or at least got extremely lucky and a bandwagon hitched onto them for whatever reason. They have a great video. They got Brian Fargo. They namedrop Minecraft! Even though Mojang didn't commit to anything, was just like, if putting Minecraft on there will be good for us, we'll do it.
I really would like to see at least one of these arm consoles get some traction. It might as well be this one I suppose. I think you need a standardized controller too. Too bad about the Tegra 3 I guess.
I'm sure the bright minds at Apple could figure out a solution for creating a standardized set of commands if they really wanted to, which would make adding controller support trivial. They could even sell their own overpriced gamepads!
Apple barely seems interested in Apps or Games on TV. They could jumped on that market anytime they wanted. They'd be embarrassed to sell anything with a controller that even resembled a game controller though, and until they do it, there won't be good support for anything.
Yes, of course they could. They don't want to. Hence, there is no massive userbase for existing or potential manufacturers of iOS controllers.I'm sure the bright minds at Apple could figure out a solution for creating a standardized set of commands if they really wanted to, which would make adding controller support trivial.
iirc they really werent keen on the iPhone having games.
Of course there is; it's just more difficult to reach because of Apple's unfathomable opposition to this market segment. Even so, there's nothing stopping a big name brand like Logitech from attempting to create a standard themselves. There's no reason why the only companies attempting this are these tiny operations like iControlPad. A larger company with more assets and experience could steam roll them if they put any kind of effort into it.
They said they aren't going to upgrade the RAM.
Since the lack of RAM is supposedly what is keeping the Xbox version of Minecraft so damn tiny (you can reach the edge of the world in a few minutes!) I wonder how much bigger having a gig gets you. If I were them, I'd go out of my to get an aweome Minecraft port.
The only way they could "steamroll" them would be to pay lots of money to developers to get them to program for their controller. Which doesn't seem like a business model Logitech, or any large company, would be particularly keen on. The point is that there's no mystery here. Until Apple changes its mind, or a critical mass of developers/publishers settle on a particular controller format and support it in every game they release, it's going to be a niche thing.There's no reason why the only companies attempting this are these tiny operations like iControlPad. A larger company with more assets and experience could steam roll them if they put any kind of effort into it.
Why in the world would they have to pay lots of money to developers to support their controller? It's a selling point for both parties. Even if they did need to grease the wheels a little in order to help get it off the ground, once the product is in the consumer's hands, they'll be the ones lobbying with developers.
If the iCade can get the kind of developer support it's gotten since launch, there's no reason why a much bigger brand with a better, more affordable product can't do just as well, or better.
Will it be a "niche thing"? I really doubt it. The iOS gaming market is enormous and I think a ton of people would pay for a slick controller attachment that was reasonably priced.
Two years from now people will be looking back at this thread and kicking themselves that they bought in to the promises of yet another charismatic, against the odds console maker that releases a brand new video game console without any concrete plans on getting games on it.
Ok, nobody knows if that will happen, but can anyone honestly say that after watching their kickstarter video they think game developers will be rushing to release games focused on this platform? Yes, you can play android games on it somewhat, but then many phones can be hooked up to your tv and they even have a cool addon that allows you to hook a ps3 controller to a phone to make it a quasi psp.
They keep raising the number of available units but to keep thing is perspective it's still a very tiny market, but Kickstarter projects have at the moment a disproportional effect in the media, to me there that are so many unknowns to this project that is to early to say if there is going to be any kind real of impact in the industry. As Brad Grenz point out there are better options already out there for the android hackers so it's hard to see this as an hackers only thing, but it's not hard to imagine that similar boxes like this one starting to appear before Christmas on retailers shelf's touting phrases like thousands of free games like software crapware compilations do.
I wish the best for this group but I think this project shows the almost late 90's type fever hype bubble the tech world got to with web startup's before crashing. All these kickstarter projects getting tons of news with people giving lavish praise for them when none have shown they can deliver yet. IMO most of these projects seem seriously underfunded compared to what it will actually take to get them to market(even the ones that exceeded their original goals). I just don't believe for a second even at several million dollars they have even remotely close to the funds to make this thing a commercial reality. The original 950K amount they wanted was laughable IMO. But good luck to them.
IIRC, someone said upthread that the developers had received venture capital-esque funding for most of their costs and viewed the Kickstarter money as "getting it just right" cash or something to that effect.
Plus, you know, better-than-free (earns you money) PR.
A million bucks doesn't go far in terms of employees. You're talking low teens, max, for a year.
I did some research and they did not get any VC funds. They got money from friends and family.
Also there are some issues that I am seeing here that are really starting to bug me and in the end will make me pull my money back. First they do not have a website what the hell is that about? That is just weird. Second the weird lack of updates and community involvement. They blew past their goal in like a few hours and it took them till nearly 10pm that day to post a "thank you" and since then we have nothing from them. The whole thing is starting to smell fishy.
Why is that fishy? Lots of tech start-ups are in stealth mode and don't have a website.
Even ones that made 4 million dollars on Kickstarter? I'll give you the no website thing but there is a large lack of communication going on.
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