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While playing the latest Viva Pinata, I finally got sick of having to use the gamepad's analog sticks to name my pinatas. I unplugged a USB keyboard from my office, carted it into the living room, and left it there for a few weeks so I could easily give my little creatures insufferably cute names. While the keyboard was out, I was uncharacteristically chatty while sending text messages over Xbox Live. I even used proper capitalization and punctuation. Little did I know that I could have simply purchased a tiny $25 keypad that clips onto the bottom of the 360 controller.
As is their wont, Sony is following up a year later with its own clip-on keypad for the Playstation 3, which comes out next month and will cost twice as much. Furthermore, it clips onto the top of the controller, which raises the question: "Uh, hey, I kinda have to press the shoulder buttons when I'm playing PS3 games, so isn't this going to get in the way?". MTV's gaming blog got a little hands-on time with it, but didn't mention how we're supposed to make the cars go in Motorstorm later this month.
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By Squee at 8:47 PM ON 10/06/08
Wait a minute. You can use a USB keyboard with the 360? I was under the impression that only worked with PS3. Can you actually use it during games, or only in areas where a keyboard pops up? And do mice work?
By malkav11 at 11:48 PM ON 10/06/08
Keyboards on the 360 are strictly for text entry. (Well, I think FFXI might support them, but that'd be it.) Dunno about mice, but I doubt it.
By Trent Polack at 12:55 AM ON 10/07/08
This may be one of the most poorly designed peripherals I've ever seen.
By Squee at 1:23 AM ON 10/07/08
Ah, damn. Thanks for telling me.
By PS3 at 11:40 AM ON 10/08/08
For some reason, this doesn't look as good as the XBox 360 version of a key pad, I think it's because it's at the top of the controller, which doesn't make much sense to me at all really :S
By Anaxamenes at 3:12 PM ON 10/09/08
I wonder if it's just for quick typing. So you wouldn't keep it on all the time, you'd just pop it on if you needed to type in a long URL or message or something. Sounds like a pain though.
By Peeps at 7:24 PM ON 10/09/08
It looks like there's shoulder buttons under the guy's fingers in the pic...I think that answers that question. Still looks like a colossal waste of money, though.
By Anon at 8:54 AM ON 10/13/08
A thumbpad that's nowhere near your thumbs! Whatever next?