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iCade for iPad released!

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8BitMonk:
I just recieved my iCade on Tuesday and it's pretty much just what I expected. The packaging and instructions are all very professional. The construction and parts are decent, not great but good for the price point. The box surrounding the joystick and buttons is closed and I haven't done any dissecting yet to investigate. The joystick is average quality, the buttons are a bit hard to press and not concave. It runs off of 2 AA batteries or you can buy a power adapter separately. After pressing a 4 button combo it pairs via bluetooth with your ipad.

The selection of actual arcade games is very limited and because of the screen orientation you're typically not playing on all of the space. Many of the games are old vector games... asteroids, asteroids deluxe, red baron, battlezone etc. and the vector lines show up very well for how small it is. The other games with more colors like centipede, millipede etc. look ok, similar to how they would look run in an emulator on an lcd. There are many more 2600 games than there are actual arcade games and while they're fun from a nostalgia standpoint, I don't think I'll be spending much time playing them. One thing that peeved me a bit is that once you've paired your iPad to the iCade you lose your digital keyboard until you turn off bluetooth or break the connection. There may be a way around this I'm just not aware of yet.

I'm hoping eventually you'll be able to use the iCade controls for other iPad games, something you can't seem to currently do. I'm sure this is in the works as someone pointed out there are 6 buttons and none of the Atari games really take advantage of all of them. Seems like a no brainer that future games may involve some compatibility.

All-in-all it met my expectations and I felt like I got my money's worth. For $100 I got a pretty cool little device with mid-level materials that plays some fun classic Atari games now and hopefully more in the future.   

Corbo:
Is it large enough to fit a mini-itx motherboard in the base?  (170x170cm)

Cynicaster:

--- Quote from: pointdablame on June 08, 2011, 05:17:00 pm ---
--- Quote from: Cynicaster on June 08, 2011, 12:55:13 pm ---Most consumer products: 1) identify need; 2) design product to meet need

iPad: 1) identify demographic with more money than brains; 2) design "cool" product with bright screen and flashy colors; 3) look for needs to meet with product

As far as looking for needs to meet, I must admit, the iCade is a cool concept.  Unfortunately, for the price of an iPad + iCade I could almost build a full upright cabinet. 


--- End quote ---

I'm well aware of how cool it is to hate Apple products on the internet, but this is an absolutely idiotic post.  The iPad is a tablet.... there were tablets before it, and there are now more tablets than ever with more and more use cases.

Cool product with flashy colors... give me a break.  And yes I own an iPad and love it... we actually have 2 in the house and it's replaced my netbook.  I dont' actually use it everyday for browsing, gaming, and even work though... I just stare at the pretty colors.   ::)

--- End quote ---

Sheesh, didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers. 

As usual, valid criticism of the infallible Apple is summarily dismissed as haterism.  Maybe I should have mentioned that I’ve owned and loved multiple iPods, including a touch, which currently gets the most use.  This is a rather strange purchase history for a knee-jerk hater of Apple products, wouldn’t you say?

Allow me to explain myself.  To me, any assessment of the iPad’s “worth” is utterly useless unless a major component of the assessment is a comparison against the well-established technologies it could potentially replace (or even supplement).  It’s fair to say that there is quite a bit of overlap in application between the iPad and laptop computer, so let’s start there. 

Storage.  Advantage: laptop
Horsepower.  Advantage: laptop
Choices of peripherals.  Advantage: laptop
Means of interfacing peripherals.  Advantage: laptop
Ergonomics/ease of data entry.  Advantage: laptop and anything with a freaking keyboard
Internet/wireless connectivity.  Advantage: neither
Portability.  Advantage: iPad—but come on, almost negligible if you buy the right laptop
Software.  Advantage: laptop (assuming, of course, you prefer truly useful and powerful software over gimmicky apps)
Upgradeability.  Advantage: laptop
Durability.  Remains to be seen, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say advantage: laptop

But it all depends on what you pay for things, right?  Laptops may trounce the iPad in most objective measures, but at what cost?  Oh, wait…

Price.  Advantage: laptop (here in Canada a 64 GB iPad is about $800… I could almost get 2 entry level laptops for that)

Feel free to explain what I’m missing. 

I’ve spent quite a bit of time using the iPad for one of it’s purported strong points—web surfing.  Does it work?  Sure.  Does it look nice?  Sure.  But what I’ve found is that I get sick and tired of resizing windows, pinching the screen to zoom in and out, accidentally hitting wrong links because my fingers are too fat, going to sites with content that the crappy browser won’t support, trying to send off a quick reply to a friend and having my 80 WPM typing ability reduced to about 10 WPM, having the screen rotate on me when I don’t want it to, etc. 

I just don’t see how anybody who is being completely honest with themselves could possibly NOT reach the conclusion that the iPad web surfing experience is markedly inferior to what can be had on a laptop that costs half as much.

So, if you take away the glitz—the cool animations, bright colours, “sexy” sleek appearance—what is left, and how is it worth more money than existing technologies?   

XtraSmiley:
I can't explain it to someone who is trying to compare it to anything else. I use mine to just surf the web and I enjoy it. I don't care about the cost because I make enough money where it doesn't make a difference, and I also have a laptop that I use.

OK, you don't want or care for an iPad, yaaaawwwn.

Can we get back to talking about the iCade? Can you easily replace the CP with one with fewer buttons guy who bought one?

CheffoJeffo:
Your criticisms are fair, BUT I happen to disagree.

I have four nice notebooks and a nice netbook. Due to my need to always have access, I would almost never leave home without at least my netbook. In a pinch, I could remote in via my Blackberry, but was a difficult thing.

Now, I never leave the house without an iPad (the Canadian price of which I am well aware of ... have 3 of them and every one saves me money) and never have to worry.

It doesn't replace my notebooks (which, admittedly, are portable desktop replacements), but now the netbook sits and collects dust.

If I had to choose between my beautiful 1080p notebook and my iPad2, the notebook wins. Every time.

If I had to choose between my beautiful 1080p notebook and my Blackberry, the notebook wins. Every time.

My last post was made from an iPad, this is made from the aforementioned beautiful 1080p notebook.

The mistake that you make is in thinking of the tablet as being a replacement for a notebook.

It isn't.

As for gimmicky apps, **ANYTHING** I can do on my notebook, I can do from my iPads. Once I remote in, the iPad is simply another interface to my existing systems.

It ain't rocket science, you should actually try it sometime.

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