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You can play 'Super Smash Bros. Ultimate' with banana controllers
The GameCube controller for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate might be sold out all over the place, but you don't need it to dominate the competition with your favorite fighter. All you need, it turns out, is a bunch of bananas. A Twitch streamer going by the handle ATwerkinYoshi did a little modding after a grocery trip and managed to turn seven bananas into makeshift buttons to play the latest installment of Smash.
Wearable banana shows your heart rate and is still edible (sort of)
Cleverly folding in this weekend's Tokyo Marathon with the current appetite for fruit-named wearables, here's some advertising silliness from fruit moguls Dole: the wearable banana. Underneath the skin, there's an array of LEDS that beam out enough red light to scroll lap-time times, the runners' heart rate and even motivational tweets of support -- or you just send Bluth quotes, right here.
Here's how to 3D print using mashed bananas
We've seen many people use food as 3D printer feed in the past, such as chocolates, candies and even ice cream. But can you imagine 3D printing anything using bananas? Sounds hard, if not, well, bananas -- but 3Digital Cooks' founder Luis Rodriguez Alcalde isn't one to shy away from a good challenge. So, for his latest project, he explored how to print out solid objects using banana mush and his self-designed extruder for 3D printers called PLYUMP. As you can imagine, pureed banana can't hold shape on its own, so Alcalde had to use potato starch as a thickener. His first attempt ended up lumpy and brownish, and honestly, quite terrifying to look at.
Bananaphone touch synthesizer replaces ring ring rings with chiptunes (video)
If you're tired of bananaphones that just make calls, the crew at Gadget Gangster now has a homebrew project to use them for musical escapades. A custom-coded (and appropriately named) Adafruit Propeller board turns a bunch of bananas into the Bananaphone TouchSynth, a synthesizer using the same capacitive touch principles that let a MaKey MaKey turn anything into a controller. The project as it's built won't be rocking stadium-sized crowds anytime soon -- not with those beeps and that lone speaker -- but there's nothing stopping it from scaling up to bigger sounds. Just remember that your fresh beats will turn very brown within a few days.
Banana TV now shipping
TUAW's own Erica Sadun recently announced the immediate availability of Banana TV, software that allows users to display photos and videos from any iPad, iPhone or iPod touch on a Mac connected to the same wireless network. Banana TV closes a notable gap in Apple's AirPlay streaming technology. Typically, AirPlay enables iOS devices to stream photos and videos only to a second generation Apple TV. Now, with Banana TV, customers can easily choose to use the big displays on their Macs to show off content from iOS apps that support AirPlay, including third-party apps in iOS 4.3. The software should be especially useful for customers with Macs integrated into their home entertainment systems. Any Mac can easily be connected to an HDTV directly or with inexpensive adapters. Mac users who wish to wirelessly stream video from an iOS device to their television sets can spend less buying Banana TV and a few adapters than the US$99.00 needed to buy a second generation AppleTV. The software also makes sharing photos and videos on a bigger screen possible in situations where an AppleTV is not available (for example, at the office or while visiting friends and family). To use the software, customers launch Banana TV on a Mac, and within moments, the Mac appears as a valid target for AirPlay sharing on iOS devices within the same Wi-Fi network. It's that simple to enable a Mac to wirelessly showcase the latest music video that you cut in iMovie on your iPad, or the photos you took of your trip to Hawaii using your iPhone 4. Banana TV does suffer from a couple of limitations. Currently, the software supports streaming for photos and video, but audio-only streaming isn't available. Banana TV also struggles with displaying photo slideshows from Apple's "Photos" app. Lastly, video protected by iTunes digital right management (DRM) must be authorized to play on the target Mac. Sadun aims to resolve many of these limitations in future updates to the software. Banana TV is available now for US$7.99. To stream images and video from an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, the device must be running iOS 4.2 or higher. Keep reading to watch a short promotional video for Banana TV.
Banana TV will let iOS devices stream video to the Mac
When it comes to making AirPlay sit up and do tricks, we're proud to have one of the best in the business right here at TUAW. Erica Sadun has released a full suite of in-progress Mac apps to work with Apple's video streaming protocol. While AirPlay is intended to allow iOS devices or iTunes to stream media to the current-gen Apple TV or third-party receivers, Erica's AirFlick, AirPDF and Bruce utilities extend the AirPlay universe to allow you to show content, weather/RSS or arbitrary video files and images from your Mac to your Apple TV, all without diving into iTunes. AirFlick even cooperates with Air Video Server to transcode files and streams on the fly, meaning that otherwise-incompatible video formats like AVI or MKV play just fine. Now she's given us a preview of an app that's hopefully coming very soon: Banana TV. This handy tool turns the AirPlay pathway back around, allowing you to play video or images from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or higher directly onto your Mac. While you probably have most of the same content on your computer that you have on your iDevice, it's a great way to show videos on a bigger screen when visiting a friend or family member; it also opens up AirPlay streaming from iOS devices your friends or colleagues have with them, even if you don't have an Apple TV (at the office, for example). No word on when Banana TV might be available or at what cost, but it's a sign of very interesting things to come from Erica's secret underground labs. Keep an eye out for more updates to the other AirPlay apps and more new features.
Donkey Kong Country Returns pre-order bonus is a-peel-ing
So, here's the problem: We're big fans of the recently revealed pre-order bonus for Donkey Kong Country Returns, but we don't really know what to call it. Everything we've come up with so far has been way, way too suggestive: Banana dock? Banana holder? Banana sheath? The official GameStop announcement refers to it as a "banana pouch," but even that hits the ear in a manner which causes our inner eight-year-old to flare up with tittering. Until we can settle on an appropriate name, we'll simply have to refer to it as a Tropical Fruited Wii Remote Cover. The T.F.W.R.C. can be yours by dropping a five-spot on a reservation for Donkey Kong Country Returns at GameStop, either online or in your nearest brick-and-mortar locale. Now, how do we feel about "banana holster?"
First Impressions: LEGO Universe's Gnarled Forest
Yarr matey, are ye lookin' for more information on NetDevil's upcomin' MMO, LEGO Universe, then we've got a treat for you today! In an interesting move, the team at NetDevil has decided to drop the NDA one zone at a time, thereby allowing us to give you some early impressions of the game while it's still in beta. With that said, I must reinforce that due to the game being in beta, some of this may well change. Nonetheless, the story should still hold true -- and it's a story chock full of pirates, monkeys, bananas and other bizarre things you might expect to find in a place called the Gnarled Forest. Before we start, I should perhaps explain a bit about the game's known back-story for those who haven't been watching too closely. The idea is that this dark force known as Maelstrom Energy (that's the weird purple glowy funk you see spread throughout these screenshots) has corrupted certain parts of the LEGO universe, and it's your job to help stop it. In the case of the Gnarled Forest, ships full of pirates touched down on the nearby beach and after adventuring into the forest, found large cracks in the ground that contained glowing purple crystals. Being pirates, they figured the glowing purple crystals were probably valuable gems. So, they greedily stuffed them into their pockets and treasure chests, only to wind up witless, mutated minions of this dark force. Curious? Join me for more on LEGO Universe's Gnarled Forest behind the break, and be sure to check out the screenshots in the gallery below too! %Gallery-97712%
'Unique' Bluetooth banana has truly limited applications
Some products require no explanation. Take this "Unique Banana Shaped Bluetooth Handset," for example -- either you get it or you don't, but no amount of marketing, advertising, or sweet-talking is going to get a skeptic to appreciate its brilliance. If you're still reading this, maybe -- just maybe -- you fall into the "I need this, particularly at just $17.70" camp, and for you, take heart in the knowledge that you can be just 2 to 5 business days away from talking on a simulated piece of fruit that's connected to your phone via Class 2 Bluetooth 2.0. When's the last time you heard "standby time" quoted for a banana, anyway? [Thanks, Larry]
First Impressions: Albatross 18
Have you been pining away for a great golf MMO? We have, too! Look, even if you haven't, let's just go along with this, okay? Albatross 18 is an engaging, colorful, whimsical game that doesn't disappoint. When one considers golf, there really isn't too much to it -- hit the ball into the hole, rinse, repeat. The beauty of its simplicity is that a developer can go crazy with that concept and add all sorts of madness to it, and it can only improve the game.And that's exactly what's going on with Albatross 18: beautiful environments, useful power-ups, crazy caddies, mascots, costumes -- this game is hilarious. Will you like it? Let's find out. As always, we remind you that this is not meant to be a full review of everything in the game; these are the first impressions we got after spending an hour or so playing. Excelsior!%Gallery-21821%
Motorola Z8m brings 7.2Mbps HSDPA the banana way
We'd long since forgotten about Motorola's UIQ-based Z8 kick slider -- the introduction of the hotter, fancier Z10 pretty much sealed the deal for us there. Turns out Moto thinks there's still life left in the unusual smartphone, though, and it's taking an updated model to South Korea to prove it. The Z8m comes at a time when Motorola is looking to reassure its South Korean fans that the corporate break-up isn't going to affect its presence here, where SK Telecom continues to serve as its exclusive carrier partner; whether this is just the right phone to do it, we can't say, but we can say that we wish we'd get a version of it stateside. The headlining feature here is support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA (the original Z8 topped out at a mere 3.6Mbps) and appears to carry over the same type of UIQ setup from its predecessor -- just fine with us. Look for it to hit for around 500,000 won, which translates to just about $501.
Motorola Z12 in the wild?
The Z10's fresh out of the gate, but it probably serves Motorola well to be thinking well, well ahead -- like 5 megapixels worth of ahead, for example. The so-called Z12 "Skarven" has been rumored for a few months now, and this fairly legit looking shot claims to have a wide swath of the Z series lined up for a family portrait: Z8, Z10, and Z12, from left to right. It allegedly runs UIQ (much like the two kick sliders before it) appears to feature some touch sensitive controls up front, and should feature the aforementioned high-end cam, integrated GPS, and a two-bedroom, one-bathroom flat for all we know. With any luck, we might find out a thing or two at MWC in a few days.
Dojo update: a comedy classic
Today's Super Smash Bros. Brawl Dojo update actually revealed something new! Like, actually new, and not something that was also in Melee. We wonder if it was a mistake-- maybe this update was meant for September and they accidentally posted it instead of more about Fox.Banana peels are the newest addition to the arsenal of items that serious players will ban. We look forward to the hilarity! Poor Kirby looks really annoyed, either because he slipped or because he didn't get to eat the banana and gain its Potassium Power.
LG SV280, now in green
Sorry, it's too easy; we're going to have to skip right past the "it must not be ripe yet" jokes here and play this one straight. The SV280 slider from LG takes a cue from Motorola's Z8 by curving to conform to the user's face when extended; the original was white, and LG's decided green is the way to go for round two. No, it's still not available 'round these parts, but the color's just bizarre enough to make us not sure we care.
He's finally back to kick some tail
DK! Donkey Kong! DK! Donkey Kong is here! Sorry, we can't think about Donkey Kong anymore without the DK Rap blaring in our heads. Much like how Rare permanently left their mark on DK through his character design, the rap has been irrevocably stuck to the character. Having the horrifying song stuck in our heads is the price we pay for playing Donkey Kong 64 or Super Smash Bros. Melee. Luckily, scanned images don't have audio tracks, so we can live without fear of coconut guns that can fire in spurts.Jeux-France has some magazine scans of Donkey Kong Jungle Climber, the sequel to the GBA's King of Swing, and it looks as good as any game that features a giant talking banana as a character, which is to say it looks excellent. And they kept the shoulder-button control scheme instead of tacking on a touch-screen system! Good Nintendo.%Gallery-3481%
LG's SV280 "banana style phone"
Well, well! Who's copying who now, LG? The Korean firm rethinks (or, at the very least, rips from the Motorola RIZR Z8) ergonomics with its new SV280, apparently inspired by nature's perfect food: the banana. When closed, this clean-lined white slider looks like any other of its kind, but once opened (or is that peeled?), the handset curves to better fit against your face -- and we can easily see the ap'peel' (we so had to get that in somewhere) in that. Features include a 1.3 megapixel camera hidden under the slider, QVGA screen resolution, flashing sidebars for message notification, and an MP3 player. The rest of the phone's spec sheet is a bit of a mystery, but one thing that did pique our curiosity was the mention of "aromatherapy" -- and hey, who doesn't want the subtle scent of delicious fruits wafting toward their nostrils while they're on a call? In light of the local-market "Cyon" branding, expect this one to launch stateside in your wildest dreams only.[Via AVING]
Automatic banana peeler operates in low gear
Apparently, utilizing bananas to satisfy one's DIY cravings is becoming all the rage, as just weeks after hearing about a Texas-sized geostationary blimp, Donkey Kong's favorite fruit is showing up in yet another bizarre contraption. The uber-slow automatic banana peeler is fairly self-explanatory, but if you're still miffed at just what this thing does, we assure you the video demonstration will allow plenty of time for you to fully grasp the concept. Essentially, the creation stands the banana upright and grabs hold of the peeling, and by utilizing some sort of "BBQ machine," it unwraps the fruit at an incredibly sluggish pace. Of course, we'd love for an interpreter to click on through and decipher exactly what these two fellows have to say about this thing, but considering that we actually enjoy fruit more when it's fresh, we aren't particularly interested in waiting five to ten minutes before enjoying a perishable snack.
Best Buy whips out mad dealz
Seriously. Best Buy is having a small-yet-appreciated discount on a few of the Wii launch titles. The following reductions should have already taken place: Red Steel - $29.99 (formerly $49.99) Super Swing Golf - $29.99 (formerly $49.99) Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - $39.99 (formerly $49.99) Perhaps not the finest of titles, but the significant price-cuts to RS and SMB might convince gamers who were on the fence to take the financial plunge. Any of you guys out there going to finally pick one of these titles up? Can we come to your house and play with you (we work for cookies and the occasional mixed drink here)?[via GoNintendo]
Geostationary banana blimp to hover over Texas?
We've always heard that everything's larger in Texas, and since it's home to one of the largest PC / accessory vendors on the planet, will soon have the world's largest domed stadium, and calls the "Godzillatron" its own, we're starting to believe it. Cesar Saez feels the larger than life love too, as the artist is crafting a "helium-inflated 300-meter banana" to hover above the Lonestar state for a month, and while we'd just love (ahem) for it to pack a bevy of voyeuristic camera gear, this fruit is strictly for gazing at. The Geostationary Banana Over Texas project seeks to lift the dirigible above Texas for no other reason than to express his apparent appreciation for the uniquities in life, as Mr. Saez himself simply stated that "Texas is as symbolic as the banana," leaving us all to wonder what exactly that means. Nevertheless, the project is slated to cost around $1 million when it's all said and done, and while we're not precisely sure when the giant yellow balloon will lift off, we doubt it'll be hard to miss.[Via TechDigest]
Ape Escape Academy 2 downloadable demo
Yet another Ape Escape demo. This one lets you catch bananas, against the CPU or a friend.1. Download the demo ZIP file.2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file.3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable.4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder.5. Copy UCES00302 folder into the GAME directory. Check out our new demos site:demos.pspfanboy.com
