iControlPad 2

As many of you may know, the PB does not support game pads in any way. Bluetooth, USB, anything. But it does support bluetooth keyboards. I have just been reading about the iControlPad 2 (the follow up to the very successful iControlPad which worked with iOS and Android devices). It's going to be a device which can work over bluetooth or USB and can act as a keyboard, allowing you to map the controls to keyboard buttons. In theory, this would mean devs of PB games could add bluetooth keyboard controls, and those controls could be mapped to this controller.

Of course, that'd mean developers would have to get on board and add bluetooth keyboard controls to their apps (which wouldn't work for apps which require an analog input e.g. a virtual stick; perhaps a digital equivalent would be good enough?), but still it's an interesting prospect.

Anyway, here's the kickstarter link: iControlPad 2 - The open source controller by Product 3 LLC — Kickstarter

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not personally backing this project, I am just hoping others will and that the final product will be cheaper than it would be to back the project :P

EDIT: Acutally, looking into it more, it seems the original can also act as a bluetooth HID keyboard...anyone tried it? I'm tempted to get one to try it with...

Thats really cool op I'm thinking I want one price seems about right.
Post back if you get one.

looks cool to me, pricey though!

the first or current iControlPAD allready has a BT keyboard mode, all digital buttons have a key assigned to them. The only thing not working in this mode are the analog sticks, but well that makes only sense :)

the new icontrolPad 2 offers a a full qwerty keyboard besides the buttons, its based on the pandora "controller" i think.

PS: before someone asks, i dont own a iControlPAD yet so i have not tested it with the playbook. And as far as my experience goes the PB does have some problems with several BT keyboard. The other problem is that no game or emulator besides DOSBox takes advantage of bt keyboard, so even if its working there would be almost no advantage of it.

i would love to see bt keyboard support in more games/Emulators but its not happening currently.

Imagine playing modern combat series (mc4 if it ever comes on playbook) online using mouse and keyboard. Hook our playbook to a 42" lcd tv and totally blow out other opponents :D

I'm already playing some games hooked up with an iluv keyboard & mac mouse to my TV. Haven't tried anything 'hardcore' like mc, but asphalt 6 looks cool (have to use the pb to control), but playing papa's bugeria with the mouse is kinda cool - great with the kids.

For me this type of controller would be fab for old school rom games - psx, N64, etc. They work well on PB, but controls are a hassle!

Again, looks kinda pricey - which is a shame really.

I'd like it for use with the Gameboy, and possibly PSX, emulators (I believe some emulators already support bluetooth keyboards, but I'm not sure which ones do). I don't think many "official" games would support a bluetooth keyboard unless LOADS of people requested it to the devs. As it is, I wouldn't use it enough for it to be worth it I don't think.