35
PlayCase Turns Your iPhone Into A Proper Portable Game Console | Time Extension
(www.timeextension.com)
no Android
Boo hiss etc
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
35 points (92.7% liked)
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They cannot just make a passive, universal device that presses places on the touchscreen, as Nintendo has filed a patent for a Game Boy case for phones, likely without actual interest in making this cheap hardware device themselves.
They managed to patent the concept of capacitive buttons in a plastic case, for fucks sake. The whole patent system is broken beyond repair…
No, they patented a plastic shell containing buttons which charge capacitive screens but do not rely on transference. In other words, they can be used with gloves or anything else that inhibits capacitive touch.
They cited about a zillion other patents for what you described: plastic cases with capacitive buttons (physical keyboard attachments, etc.).
This is a perfectly acceptable usage of the patent system.
Read it for yourself: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180275769A1/en?oq=20180275769
Incidentally, this company tries to cite their own patent:
PlayCase – U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/668,169 (filed on July 6, 2024)
But a provisional patent is not a patent. Depending on its claims and citations, it'll be interesting to see whether or not it's granted by the USPTO, but my money is on no.
They also use unlicensed trademarked images on their webpage.
The only advantage I see over my current phone case controller is that it looks like it can fit in a pocket. Giving up screen space isnt ideal when you want to refer to a guide or look at some other part of your phone temporarily. And some games are widescreen only, which means this one's a nonstarter for those.
Because Iphone is where the emulation is... $50 could get you an RG35XX or MYOO mini
I get what you’re saying, but I can play PSP or Nintendo DS games on my iPhone.
Cool idea, I wish this was available for my phone. But alas, this is what I get for having an experiemental phone.