Apple disappointed the world today with its terribly named new product the iPad. With all the hype surrounding it and Apple promising that it will bring some revolutionary ways of interaction, I was expecting some Project Natal-like tech to be used in controlling this thing. But we were graced with an oversized iPod Touch and I don’t see crowds forming outside the Apple Stores nationwide for this thing. And no, I won’t tell any iPad tampon jokes since the web has exploded with them! However, I do want to touch upon an observation I made about the iPad. It’s taken me all day since its unveiling to put this to words cause it’s a bit of an abstract idea but I’ll do my best (hell, I even dictated my thoughts and recorded them to my iPhone in order to piece them all together!).

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater of the iPad. It’s just not something I’d go get and not something “magical and revolutionary” as Steve Jobs proclaimed. It does however shed some light on a potential gaming revolution that could be on the horizon. Now no gamer is gonna go snag one of these because it’s a gaming machine. But one cannot help but to think of the door that this device has opened for the industry. Imagine the next generation handheld gaming devices. What do you envision?

What if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft jumped onto the iPad concept and took it to a whole new level when it comes to gaming. Imagine a Microsoft iPad-esque product that has a front Natal camera. Just set the device on your lap and use your hands as guns or a steerig wheel and see the results in front of you. Imagine using gestures to go between screens, similar to Minority Report or Gamer. Juice up a thing like this with the appropriate hardware and you can be looking at a whole new gaming experience. Imagine bringing the device home only to transfer what’s happening on it’s screen to your console/TV in real time!

Apple’s focus with the iPad isn’t gaming but it does help provide inspiration and innovation into what the next generation of handheld gaming devices could be like. Sort of how mini-PCs were ahead of their time yet provided the groundwork for netbooks, the Apple iPad could be laying the groundwork for the PSP 3 or the DSi 2.

The gaming industry was revolutionized today by Apple’s unveiling of it’s new product the iPad. Pretty much it is a giant iPod touch but don’t let that sway you! Hidden deep within its 9.5 inch display lies technology that will change the face of games forever! In an exclusive interview with Fried Yoda, Apple fanboi William “Steve Jobs” Gates IV said, “This thing will revolutionize the gaming industry, but we didn’t want to reveal all the details today.” As seen at today’s event, game execs and demos were fairly lackluster, but that was all part of the plan according to Jobs.

“There’s a big secret inside the iPad that not only will allow it to take action during the heaviest of flows but it will also literally expand how games are played in front of your very eyes!” Steve-o-rino proceeded to reveal this mind-blowing tech to us: Continue Reading »

I think most game companies in the industry should explore the possibility of expanding their support departments to include Apple Macintosh computers, even if their games are PC only. Apple has a nifty piece of software currently in beta testing called Boot Camp that allows Mac users to install Windows XP or Vista on a separate partition of their hard drive. Boot Camp will be released in it’s final form as part of the new Mac OSX called Leopard, which comes out this fall. Unlike Windows emulation software that is available for Macs, such as Parallels Desktop, Boot Camp allows for the entire Windows experience, including the use of DirectX. This means that when Leopard is released Mac users will have access to the vast array of titles available in the PC gaming market.

With the swarm of Mac gamers knocking on the PC gaming doorstep, it is only logical that gaming companies start supporting their products on Mac’s using Boot Camp as well. This doesn’t mean creating Mac ports of their products, but it means that if a Mac user has some issues with their game while running Boot Camp, the game company’s tech support team will be able to help him or her resolve that problem. What do you think?