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Quake gets ported to the BUG, controlled by Rock Band guitar
The folks from Bug Labs certainly represented themselves well enough at CES with a slew of new BUGModules, but we're guessing they would have attracted even more attention if they would have had this perennial favorite on hand. If you can't quite make it out, that's Quake running (rather well, we might add) on the BUG and, yes, it is indeed being controlled by a Rock Band guitar thanks to the newly developed Xpad driver, which should work equally well with a standard Xbox 360 controller if you're a little less ambitious. Head on past the break to check it out in action, and hit up the link below for all the necessary details.
Bug Labs announces price, release, and new BUGmodule
The moment hardware hackers have been waiting for: final price and release details of the Bug Labs BUGbase and BUGmodules. And even better for those enterprising early adopters, Bug is giving a discount to everyone who buys gear within the first 60 days. Here's the story: Pre-orders start Monday, January 21, 2008 Gear ships by Monday, March 17, 2008 BUGbase: $299 / $349 (early adopter price / regular price when bought after 60 days) Touchscreen LCD: $99 / $119 GPS: $79 / $99 Camera: $69 / $79 Motion/accelerometer: $49 / $59 New Von Hippel BUGmodule (adds interfaces and I/O ports for further hacking of the BUGbase) Bug is also launching BUG+EDU, promoting to the education-market (additional details to come)
Working Bug Labs hardware hands-on
As a publication whose bread and butter is handheld gadgets, we're obviously more than a little excited about Bug Labs' upcoming LEGO-style DIY electronics kit, which allows users to affix various modules to a small, open-source computer and create such magical products as a GPS-enabled digital camera with built in 3G modem and motion detector. While we've seen the hardware before -- including the BUGbase and current BUGmodules -- founder and CEO Peter Semmelhack invited us over today to check out some of the very first working applications, including the Linux-based PIM software you see running in the photos. Apparently we can expect pricing details shortly, as well as a demo of the final system in action, all leading up to an official launch before the end of the year. Check out the gallery below for even more hands-on action... %Gallery-10677%
Bug Labs BUGbase and BUGmodules hands-on
There's no doubt Bug Labs is getting closer to launching its open source modular gadget kits, but for those wondering when we'd see some physical hardware, today's your lucky day. We got a chance to check out an early BUGbase unit and the full complement of BUGmodules. While we didn't get to see it up and running, we did get to fool around with the whole experience of plugging (and unplugging) modules, and got a good feel for how things work. Some details: The BUGbase uses a bus with four module slots. Each module has a base size of 2 x 2-inches (meaning the BUGbase itself is ~4 x 2-inches). Multiple BUGbases can be physically conjoined and communicate wirelessly for greater than four simultaneous devices, but there is no system for bus expansion of a single BUGbase. While it can charge via USB, there's also a backup power input should you use the USB for an external peripheral. Bug settled on MMCmicro instead of microSD because it's open source. We're torn about this one. We get it, but really, who the hell has any MMCmicro cards laying around? Yeah, that's a standard camera mount you see on the side. Nice addition. The modules we looked at included a display, GPS receiver, motion detector, digital camera, and 3G radio. Obviously those are just a few listed on the site. The LCD module apparently uses the exact same QVGA LCD panel as the iPod classic. If that matters at all to you. The module plastics are colored according to purpose: input, output, or input-output. For example, the light blue modules are output only (like the 3G module above); dark blue modules are input-output (like a touchscreen), while white modules are input only (GPS receiver, etc.). Yeah, they made a Hiro Protagonist reference. Still no price / exact launch details, but we're obviously getting close. %Gallery-9625%%Gallery-9624%
