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Iron Man mouse fuels your hot-rod red obsession, is all about the next mission
Whether you're looking to instill fear in the hearts of enemies at LAN, or just want to edit spreadsheets in style, this Iron Man mouse will do everything a normal mouse can... just cooler. To capitalize on hype for the third installment of the superhero film franchise, Japanese company e-blue (aka E-3LUE) has released this gold and hot-rod red peripheral with Tony Stark's blessing (read: under official Marvel license). Two AAA batteries power the wireless mouse (some say an Arc reactor was too expensive, and fictional), which has a resolution of 1000 dpi and, most importantly, light-up eyes. For 699 Chinese yuan (roughly $113), you also get a "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart" presentation case to show it off in. We're not sure whether e-blue's mouse will make it over to the States, but instead of worrying about that, check out the Iron Man 3 trailer below to inject some excitement into Monday morning. Can we have a War Machine version now, please? [Image Credit: PCPOP]
Iron Man 2: the gadgets (video)
When done right, a science fiction or fantasy film will leave audiences with a prescient glimpse into our actual gadget future. Remember the heady pre-iPhone, pre-Pureness days of 2002 when you first saw Minority Report? Staring silently, mouth agape, jonesing for a chance to partake in a multi-touch, transparent display future using nothing but gestures? Well now that Iron Man 2 has been released, we've got another chance to look into the high-tech crystal ball, this time envisioned by a team of artists at Perception who did the design, animation, and visual effects work that turned Tony Stark's transparent LG smartphone (pictured above), touch-screen coffee table, and holographic lab environment into an on-screen reality. The group was compelled by director Jon Favreau and the team at Marvel Studios to keep the UI elements "legible and logical, while still appearing to be several generations beyond the typical user experience." Perception tells us that some of its inspiration was directly attributed to Engadget as it researched near-term technologies for the film's future reality. No doubt, we do see influence from Emblaze's First Else navigation elements and limited color palette as well as Microsoft's InkSeine research at the heart of the doomed Courier UI. And if we're not mistaken, Stark's big ass computing table is almost certainly inspired by Microsoft Surface. Now get past the break and check out Perception's contribution to Iron Man 2, the future of Google search alone is not to be missed.%Gallery-92501%
Former Apple Store employee creates Iron Man's J.A.R.V.I.S. using a Mac mini
Okay, there's no HUD display like Tony Stark had and it isn't voiced by Paul Bettany, but former Apple Store employee Chad Barraford has created Project Jarvis, a digital assistant that greets him, Tweets for him, and can even tell his family when he has a headache and dim the lights of his apartment before he reaches home. Project Jarvis is based on the comic book character Edwin Jarvis, Tony Stark's human butler who became an AI construct after he was reinvisioned for a twenty-first century audience in the first Iron Man film. Chad's real life Jarvis may not help him fly an invisible suit of armor, but via RFID tags, webcams, and microphones, Barraford can communicate with Jarvis in a number of ways including tweeting, instant messaging, and speech recognition which allows him to control lights and appliances, notify him of breaking news, Facebook updates, Netflix queues, check stock quotes and weather, and even help assist him with cooking. Barraford calls Jarvis a digital life assistant (DLA) and runs it entirely from a four year-old Mac mini running custom AppleScript, he told us. Right now he has no plans to sell the AppleScript code, but is always happy to share ideas with other developers of DLAs. Click on over to The Boston Globe to see video of Jarvis in action.
Iron Man trailers are increasingly awesome
If there's one thing that can make us more apprehensive than a movie-based-game, it's a comic book-based-movie-based-game. We've found that the fewer levels of adaptation a product is forced through, the better off it is for it. However, after watching the VGA premiere trailer and the recent "Iron Flight" trailer for Sega's Iron Man, we must admit, it's becoming difficult to maintain this trepidatious front -- the game looks rad. Between the Black Sabbath, the missile suplex, the blue stealth armor, and the halving of not one, but two tanks, we're pretty sure the pleasure centers in our brain just burst. We highly suggest checking out that trailer while we attempt to drive to the nearest emergency neurologist.
