There is a catch, of course, but it’s all quite par for the online shopping course. To take advantage of free shipping with ThinkGeek, you’ll need to place a minimum order of $25. If you do that and enter FIREFLOWER in the coupon code area, then you’ll get free shipping to the contiguous United States. They haven’t said when this offer is expiring aside from saying it’ll expire “soon.” You cannot stack coupons on top of this.

The other offer is the free t-shirt at ThinkGeek. To get the free Legend of Penny t-shirt, you’ll need to place a minimum order of $40. That’s really not that much more than the $25 you’ll already be spending to get the free shipping, so you might as well do it. And yes, this will still qualify for the free shipping. You just have to enter the same FIREFLOWER promo code. Just bear in mind that the Legend of Penny shirt will only be offered “while supplies last.”

The post Daily Deals: ThinkGeek Offering Free Shipping and Free Shirt appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

At first, I thought this iPad case would be the complete opposite of useful. It looked like it would block out about half of the touchscreen and then you would presumably load some sort of app to simulate the old Mac operating system. And then, I realized I was wrong. The “Mac” part of this Padintosh case is really for the back of the iPad and not the front. This way, when you decide to hold up your iPad to take a picture of Bill and Melinda Gates in London, they can stare right into the faux Mac screen that reads “hello.”

Go ahead and “party like it’s 1984″ with the Padintosh Case. It’s available now through Thinkgeek for a fairly reasonably $24.99. Since it’s only the back part of the case, you can still use your Smart Cover for the front. If only they made a 1984 style Smart Cover to match…

[Source]

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I used to hate that Macs didn’t support 2-button mice, and so I always favored PCs because they had the traditional 2 button (or more) style. One click, that’s really an annoying limitation, right? Imagine if a PC mouse had no buttons though. The reality is that such a mouse exists, called the “Stealth Touch Mouse”. This thing is completely buttonless, but instead of being a limitation, it’s a feature. This wireless 2.4GHz mouse uses all touch technology, meaning no scroll wheel, buttons or anything. Simple gestures like swipes, taps and slides control all the programmable features that this mouse can perform.

The Stealth Touch Mouse can also work at an impressive range of 33 feet. While it’s really cool looking, as a PC gamer, I’m not sure how I’d feel about a mouse that is completely without anything to click. Still, if you need something with long-range and an interesting amount of features that require no physical buttons, its hard to find anything else that compares. Because of its unique design and long range, this mouse also works great for presentations, and at $69 it’s not a bad deal.

[ Think Geek ]

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It’s called the iCADE 8-Bitty and it’s going to be showcased at the 2012 Toy Fair in New York City. In a nutshell, it’s a wireless controller that very much borrows its inspiration from the 8-bit era of gaming. It’s pretty much a replica of the old NES controller, except there are four face buttons instead of two. There are eight buttons in all, so I’m assuming the other four are shoulder buttons.

I’m not sure if the “iCADE” moniker is really still all that appropriate, because this really has nothing to do with gaming in the arcade anymore. It’s gaming in the living room. Like the other iCADE products, the iCADE 8-Bitty connects to your iPod, iPhone, or iPad via Bluetooth. The difference here is that they’ve expanded the scope to include Android folks, encouraging app developers to use the API to “make just about any game compatible with iCADE.” Current supported games include Muffin Knight, Super Mega Worm, Warblade HD, Space Inversion 2, and HyperBowl.

The iCADE 8-Bitty will sell for $24.99 when it launches “later this year.”

The post Aww Yeah, Retro iPad Gaming with the iCADE 8-Bitty Baby appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

One gaming innovation that came out of CES this past January was the JoyStick-IT arcade style iPad gaming joystick. We were more than enthusiastic about its release, but  I spent some good time with the $25 device and you will be surprised to know that it just didn’t stick with me. I’m not a serious gamer by any means, but what I can tell you is if you are a serious gamer and you get excited when playing your favorite games — even the least bit — this device may not be for you.

The Joystick-it is milled from solid aluminum, a suction cup sandwiches a conductive layer of metal mesh that sits atop sponge which in turn rests upon your touchscreen display to create conductivity. It works similar to the technology in those gloves you can use on your touchscreen in the winter.

I use a protective layer of film on my iPad. I dont know if you do or not, but I get am pretty clumsy and like to protect touchscreen glass as soon as it comes in. If you don’t, then this feedback may not apply to you, as the JOYSTICK-IT works about as well as you could expect it to while being stuck to pure glass. But not so fast, you may have to worry about another thing. The sponge falls short. The edge of aluminum touches down on your screen when you toggle in different directions. While it provides an adequate amount of cushioning for movement feedback, it doesn’t cover the entire area when you touch it down on the glass.

I dont know how easy it is to scratch the iPads display since I use a protective film to prevent scratches. The protective film remained relatively unscathed. So those who go naked could be the better judge of that. But with the sponge layer sitting on top of your iPad even a 10th or 100th of a milimeter, it could scratch. This did not scratch my protective film, but then again, I couldn’t really get it to stay on very well either. With my anti-scratch layer of Zaggness I found it less than optimal. The display was clean, the suction cup clean, maybe it’s something to do with the protective film but the suction cup easily popped off when taking quick turns avoiding ghosts in PAC MAN. Sure, you could play much more gentle and just lightly toggle up and down and keep your enthusiasm to a minimum, but I like to get excited, make quick moves and shift around. If you get excited or move your body in the least bit while playing, if you become a bit animated in your movements, or, if you are under the age of 15 you’re going to have a hell of a time keeping this stuck. Picture Mr. Dressup playing the iPad, this is how excited you can be. (Not mocking Mr. Dressup, he rules).

Bottom Line

It’s a decent first generation accessory trying to fill a void in the touchscreen tablet gaming market. I think the idea is there but it needs a bit more “stick” to give it more “joy.” If your tablet glass is naked you should be able to have a moderate amount of fun with it. But remember, Mr. Dressup.

[Think Geek]

The post Review: JoyStick-IT iPad Arcade Stick Lacking Joy and Stick appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

As great a platform as iOS may be for all kinds of casual games, the touchscreen interface just doesn’t give the same kind of experience that a real joystick can provide. The JOYSTICK-IT iPad Arcade JoyStick from ThinkGeeek that came out at CES is now shipping.

The idea is obvious enough. You stick these retro-looking thumbsticks onto your tablet and you can play games like Pac-Man to your heart’s content. It’s a solid aluminum joystick, so the idea is that it’s lightweight but robust. Naturally, there are no batteries involved.

It doesn’t provide the tactile feedback for the virtual buttons, but at least you have the joystick part of the equation going on. A single stick sells for $25, or you can get the double-pack for $40. And they just started shipping. It’s not quite as crazy as the iCade for iPad, but it’s also a lot cheaper and much more portable. Stay tuned for a review soon.

The post Arcade-inspired JOYSTICK-IT for iPad now shipping appeared first on Mobile Magazine.