Controls Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Chrono Trigger screenshots out, with touch controls and redone menus

by Mike Schramm (Nov 21st, 2011)

Square Enix's Members site has posted a few screenshots of the long-awaited release of Chrono Trigger on iOS, and truth be told, they're a little disappointing. Don't worry -- the game is still there, and as one of the best console RPGs of all time, I'm still excited to play through it again on ...

Turn your iPhone into an NES-style controller for free

by Michael Grothaus (Oct 5th, 2011)

Back in April we told you about Joypad, the US$1.99 app that lets you use your iPod touch or iPhone as a classic joystick controller for game emulators on your Mac. It works by connecting to your computer via Bluetooth once users have also downloaded the Joypad Connect software for their Mac or ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Two Worlds II Castle Defense

by Mike Schramm (Jul 7th, 2011)

Two Worlds is an RPG series for consoles that's had a few releases already, but this game for iOS only uses the same setting and assets as those titles. As you can tell from the title itself, it plays very differently from the third-person RPG. It's a castle defense game of a sort, but rather ...

'Invisible' touchscreen prototype tested with iPhone

by Mike Schramm (May 23rd, 2011)

The video on the next page features a prototype for an "invisible" iPhone created by researchers at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany. Basically, the idea is that with your iPhone in your pocket, you can hold your hand out and move your finger around on it as if you were holding your ...

Apple patents idea for smart bezel touch area

by Mike Schramm (Apr 7th, 2011)

Here's an intriguing patent highlighted by the patent-following folks at Patently Apple -- it's an idea Apple has registered for a "smart bezel," which would be a part of the touchscreen that worked as a separate display only when you're using that part. In other words, if you just needed to ...

Apple Fools: Gameloft's Pet Pal will let you control your pet via iPhone

by Mike Schramm (Mar 30th, 2011)

Wow, this is incredible! iOS developer Gameloft is releasing a new app called Pet Pal, which uses sound wave technology to actually control your pets via the iPhone! The sound frequencies emitted from the iPhone activate certain centers of a cat or dog's brain, harmlessly commanding it to bend ...

Xperia Play ad rags on iPhone gaming

by Mike Schramm (Mar 22nd, 2011)

Sony has released a few tongue-in-cheek internet ads for its new Xperia Play smartphone (basically, the PSP phone everyone's been waiting for). In one of the ads, which you can see embedded after the break, performer/Daily Show correspondent/biggest fan of Flight of the Conchords Kristen Schaal ...

Apple patent suggests Magic Mouse with display panel

by Mike Schramm (Jan 20th, 2011)

A newly revealed Apple patent has an interesting take on the Magic Mouse: the patent shows a display embedded in its touch surface, creating sort of a mini iPod touch-style interface. It's not clear just how much processing power the display-enabled mouse itself would have, but uses mentioned in ...

Tactile+Plus adds buttons to your iPhone - kind of

by Mike Schramm (Nov 22nd, 2010)

Steve Jobs dislikes buttons, which is why one of the most premier gaming devices in the world has no tactile feedback whatsoever. But there's still a call for finding buttons on the screen by feel alone, and Tactile+Plus is designed to let you do just that. It's a little plastic sticker sheet that ...

iTunes 101: Using the Album Art widget

by Mike Schramm (Sep 3rd, 2010)

Here's a cool new feature in iTunes 10 that we haven't mentioned yet: when listening to any song in your library, you can double click on the album art window in the lower left hand corner to detach it from the main window and see it full size. That's not new -- you could get a closer look at the ...

WWDC 2010: Hands-on with Chopper 2

by Mike Schramm (Jun 15th, 2010)

Chopper's been in the App Store since day one, and David Frampton of Majic Jungle Software is the guy who put it there. Since then it's garnered over a million downloads, he's made a number of other App Store titles (and brought the game to the Mac), and he's hard at work on the game's sequel. ...

TUAW's Daily App: 2360: Battle for Cydonia

by Mike Schramm (May 28th, 2010)

We've been doing apps and puzzle games a lot on this feature lately, so let's not forget what makes a game really fun: a big robot blowing up lots of stuff. Fortunately, Battle for Cydonia is full of that, as you control a mech armed with dual machine guns through a series of missions on the future ...

Patent: Invisible button on future MacBook Pros

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Apr 30th, 2010)

AppleInsider has the story of a patent application that would turn any place on the aluminum shell of a MacBook Pro into a disappearing input space by utilizing invisible backlit holes. The application describes an input device made of the same material as the computer housing, so when not in use, ...

Activision puts Geometry Wars: Touch, Tony Hawk 2 on the App Store

by Mike Schramm (Apr 1st, 2010)

iPad titles have started appearing on the App Store, and two big video gaming names are there with them. First up, Activision has apparently dropped a copy of the arcade shooter Geometry Wars out there in the form of Geometry Wars: Touch for iPad. Given that we haven't actually played the game yet, ...

Tony Hawk coming to iPhone soon

by Mike Schramm (Mar 17th, 2010)

A leak on Tony Hawk's official Twitter account has revealed this picture, which appears to be Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game being played right there on the iPhone. The tweet that linked to this picture seems to be gone, but it promised that "This is real & dropping soon." If we believe this ...