Belkin JoyPod render surfaces: your App Store gaming controller

For better or worse, it looks like the so-called iControlPad is edging closer to reality -- or at least something really similar. According to a new image (and our limited Spanish translation skills), Belkin is actually looking to produce an App Store gaming controller, though we're still not entirely convinced that what we're seeing is legitimate. Whatever the case, the JoyPod would somehow, someway provide users who purchased Super Monkey Ball to play it using a bona fide game pad, though we can't figure out if the iPod touch / iPhone slips in behind the controller or if it just morphs to fit the JoyPod's space constraints. Guess we'll see (or not) soon enough.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: Belkin pinged us to say this is 100% fake. Ah well, at least you know the truth now.

[Robino @ Aug 31st 2008 3:04PM]

If you actually look at the photo you can see it's like two halves that seperate, which you lock together either side of the iPod or iPhone trapping it.

[Shadyman @ Aug 31st 2008 4:48PM]

Finally, now that we've found their one weakness, we can catch these things in the wild!

All we have to do is leave a JoyPod around it, and some unsuspecting Ipod/Iphone will be lured into its jaws!

Or not.

[drumdbeat @ Aug 31st 2008 6:10PM]

Also shows it on the read link.

I think this is the first time I've ever went to comment and it actually remembered me. Wow.

[Striker @ Aug 31st 2008 3:08PM]

It's settled, I'm buying one.

[DooM @ Aug 31st 2008 3:12PM]

Looks like a Tapwave Zodiac

[brandon @ Aug 31st 2008 3:17PM]

we can only hope support doesn't drop in a year

[JohnTitor @ Aug 31st 2008 3:18PM]

now we know what they did with all the unsold ones

[brandoshido @ Aug 31st 2008 3:18PM]

will probably similar in success too.

[Jon A. @ Aug 31st 2008 3:21PM]

Oh, Tapwave Zodiac, how I miss thee. I think Belkin is going to make me have to buy this and an iPhone just to get my nostalgia on.

But even if the Zodiac did use the archaic (even at the time) Palm OS Garnet, the iPhone will never be able to replace it in my heart.

:( R.I.P. Tapwave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapwave_Zodiac

[Alec @ Aug 31st 2008 6:55PM]

Wow, I really miss my zodiac.

[BML @ Aug 31st 2008 8:04PM]

That was my first thought... the Zodiac is by far the handheld I have the strongest feelings for. (Great hardware... if the support/software side materialized it would have been amazing)

[The_Steven @ Aug 31st 2008 9:16PM]

I was >this< close to buying a Tapwave, but the day I went into the CompUSA to get it, they told me they were out but expecting more the following week....

The following week they were selling the demo unit.

[ZodiacfreaK @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:45PM]

Probably some other people from zodiacgamer.com and tapland.com on here. Man I miss the zodiac days too. We had a fun time back then!
-ZodiacfreaK
Founder of http://www.zodiacresource.com

[Sublimewulf @ Aug 31st 2008 3:18PM]

HA! can some one say PSP Homebrew Emulator!

[Evangelion @ Aug 31st 2008 3:22PM]

PSP Homebrew Emulator.

[gabe @ Aug 31st 2008 4:04PM]

a psp emulator that emulates the psp playing NES and SNES games?

lol

[RikF @ Aug 31st 2008 4:31PM]

I can just see that making it though to the appstore...

[1234321 @ Aug 31st 2008 9:06PM]

or maybe emulating a PSP emulator running a snes running a game boy through super game boy

[Sublimewulf @ Aug 31st 2008 5:39PM]

You would have to filp it though...

[brandoshido @ Aug 31st 2008 3:22PM]

that thing is hideous

[Decoy @ Aug 31st 2008 8:52PM]

Low ranked? Why? It is hideous. I thought you guys were the 'style' people.

[gad get @ Aug 31st 2008 9:17PM]

Apparently it's pretty stylish then, hey?

I think it looks very cool.

[Paulmichael @ Sep 1st 2008 4:22AM]

Don't you get it? They're being ironic.

[john @ Aug 31st 2008 3:27PM]

Wonder if that means someone can make an iPhone case that has a built-in qwerty keyboard, so that the overall device is like a micro-laptop (or maybe a micro convertable tablet, like the HTC Dream was ... only prettier).

That, and a wifi-sharing app, and I might actually start to get interested in an iPhone. Assuming the T-Mo G1 doesn't beat them to it.

[peacefulpony @ Aug 31st 2008 3:46PM]

Still waiting for the iPhone nunchaku attachment...

[deyanimay @ Aug 31st 2008 3:40PM]

Who plays gameboys anymore, psp and ds ftw.

[Yami @ Aug 31st 2008 3:50PM]

Almost as horrible as your spelling.

[Josh @ Aug 31st 2008 3:50PM]

Am i the only one who has thought of the potential extra battery it could hold? Face it, the iphone's battery is mediocre at best and if this included an extra battery, even if it only helped for an extra hour, that would still help.

The iPhone 3g: The best thing since the original iPhone
:P

[gabe @ Aug 31st 2008 4:03PM]

where is the iphone dildo attachment for the ladies?

[Mizax @ Aug 31st 2008 7:32PM]

Here you go.

http://www.ohmibod.com/products.php

[drumdbeat @ Aug 31st 2008 8:11PM]

:D !


I fell off the floor laughing at that.

[AudVis @ Aug 31st 2008 4:21PM]

I'm pretty sure I saw this photo somewhere already (something in connection to a future icontrolpad render. It pulls apart to to insert the ipod/iphone). The ad is probably photoshopped with the belkin logo.

[RikF @ Aug 31st 2008 4:30PM]

You be sure to come back and let us know when Apple have sold one-tenth of the number of iPhones (any version) as Nintendo have sold DSs (one gameboy model - people still use their old ones)

[gabe @ Aug 31st 2008 4:34PM]

of course it wont - playing monkey ball was enough to see that nintendo has nothing to worry about.

poor controls don't equal great gameplay

just look at the psp - a failure with the poor analog controls - minus one at that.


iphone will have its niche but to be a real player in the game market it needs something called Buttons and great developers.

maybe sooner than later - who knows ?

btw - i love my nintendo DS - and would never leave it for the iphone in terms of games - i just bring both on trips :)

[Keo @ Aug 31st 2008 5:04PM]

I'm very hesitant to believe this to be true....

Consider the fact that anyone developing for the iPhone has to program for the human interface as it exists i.e. sliding your finger, tapping an on-screen softkey (whether that's a graphic HUD element or a gamepiece or a solitaire card), or tilting the whole device. How would you connect pressing the "A" key to tapping a point on the screen? It's not as simple as mapping a controller's directional pad to WASD. Would you have to install a driver to support this device? How well would it work? Would you have to set up a configuration set for every game? At the very least, this would not be plug-and-play for the current titles.

However, this could work nicely with ported games that already use this sort of traditional interface. If Sega wanted to release packages of Genesis/Saturn/Dreamcast games and had hired Belkin to produce the hardware.... well, I would have to buy one! :)

[Shawn @ Aug 31st 2008 5:33PM]

I thought nothing could use the dock port to communicate with the iPod/iPhone? That's why no one has released a QWERTY keyboard add-on... How would this be any different?

[Smileypanda @ Aug 31st 2008 5:52PM]

Support for NES and gpsPhone plox!

[Raheem @ Aug 31st 2008 6:38PM]

Look, I know it's cliched to say it... but I would seriously love to see a Halo: Combat Evolved port to the iPhone, with local play (carry a charger).

[Pastry Chef @ Aug 31st 2008 6:46PM]

I'm definitely getting one of these. Hopefully, the existing emulators will add support for this!

[Gilberto R. R. @ Aug 31st 2008 9:35PM]

Hey, this may be false, the text in spanish have some errors, in the frase "... jugar a tus títulos..." should read "... jugar tus títulos..." so a "a" should not go there, and it may seem a simple typo but how many typos you see in publicity, I say not many, they are double or triple checked before final printing.

[VitoXman @ Sep 1st 2008 5:05PM]

My native language is spanish, and "Jugar a" is often used in Spain

[deyanimay @ Aug 31st 2008 10:03PM]

First of all its NINTENDO ds second of all at least the psp has flash (even if its just version 7) you know that thing that your revolutionary iphone lacks.

[Chris @ Aug 31st 2008 11:11PM]

And they only thing they could use to show it off is coverflow?

[slarity @ Sep 2nd 2008 12:32PM]

Looks very nice. Give it to me for $20-$30 and make sure there is software to use it with and Ill be all over it.

[Galina @ Sep 11th 2008 5:14AM]

You can see news on the Touch Notes too