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Phantom Entertainment Announces Lapboard Preorders
Arian writes "Phantom Entertainment (formally Infium Labs) are set to finally release their first product after years of investors trust and years on John Public's distrust. The product is the Phantom Lapboard, a wireless keyboard/mouse combo designed so you can frag from the comfort of your couch. It is designed to work with the upcoming Phantom Game Service, if and when the service is released. Preorders for the Lapboard are available on the Phantom Entertainment website. It is due out in November, at a full retail price of $129.99.
$130 for a laptop and mouse?
Have they been aquired by Sony?
"The right to do something does not mean doing it is right." William Safire
And why would anyone buy that?
It seems that device is similar to WebTV or a more enchanced version.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
Act now, and receive a coupon for a FREE copy of Duke Nukem Forever!!!
I'm gonna go out and buy a set right now!! And then...I'll surf the net with it? Uh, play ps2 games on it? Have a really awesome universal remote? MMMM.....Play some dumb games on it??
Released real soon now for all your DNF gaming needs.
Finally, the comfort of a laptop keyboard meets the effectiveness of working from my recliner.
All that's missing now is the professionalism of the beer holder.
As a great man once said:
"Nigga, please..."
Is it even worth discussing the company and their "products" until someone has a bought, working model in their hands?
-- Gary Goldberg KA3ZYW 301/249-6501 AIM:OgGreeb Digital Marketing Inc., Bowie, MD
Great. Instead of having a computer that is obsolete when receive it, you can now pre-obsolesce your machine so you can be assured that it is obsolete and that you paid too much for it lnog before it ever arrives.
Where were you when the voynix came?
A keyboard and mouse with 50MB of installed software I don't need.
That said, it actually looks nice. If I played a lot of games on my TV (I don't), it might be nice. $130 seems a little steep, but not that bad compared to other wireless mouse/keyboard combos. I hope there's somewhere you can anchor the mouse to, for when you want to put it away.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I'm amazed at how little I think of Phantom. I seriously doubt they have the technical and business prowess to make a mousepad, a keyboard, and a hinge...
Anyway, it does look kind of cool. I hope they didn't patent anything, so a reputable company can still make a knock-off. Which they could sell for 20$.
Pre-orders. PRE-ORDERS?! Are you f#%@ing KIDDING ME?! They can't con any more stupid rich people, so they wanna go for the stupid non-rich? If anyone, ANYONE, plunks down money for this thing that they don't actually have in their hands, then they deserve what they get.
Which, if you need a reminder, is in the name.
Phantom.
...or is that honor just reserved for any investor stupid enough to have given them money? -Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Once you're done submitting your preorder drop me an email. I've got some land in Florida I'm willing to sell at a low price, and I have some foreign relatives that have passed away and their estate needs a domestic bank account to wire money into.
Thanks.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
But, can it run on the soon to be released Amiga's, and will Duke Nukem Forever be playable with it?
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Last time I spent that much on a keyboard, it was the 1980s and there was a VIC-20 built into it.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Even if you use an optical mouse, wired or not, from my experiences I've never really needed to be too picky on the surface for those either.
Look, a product that has a use in the mind of the developers, but little or none in the mind of consumers! Fantastic game plan guys.
Can anyone present reasonable alternatives to this? I am in the market for my home media center, but the model M and non-roller mouse is working okay as long as I don't mind getting down on the floor.
I'm looking for all in one wireless keyboard and mouse that is light and not fragile. Microsoft's idea won't work for me, as it has things I don't care for. Logitech doesn't seem to have anything close to what I want as they want you to have a seperate keyboard and mouse. And while the VersaPoint RF is great at work, I don't need RF, nor do I need a 140 buck keyboard.
So we know the Phantom is crap, and possibly outright fiction, what is a good, buyable alternative? (links to company websites, not to vendors please.)
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
Looks like nobody is willing to give them venture capital anymore... Solution? Get ordinary people to give money!
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These are going to be on woot.com by the thousand. Maybe I'll get one in a Baby On Crack.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Trackballs are ... uh ... nonoptimal for games. I mean, far be it from me to actually defend Phantom Labs, but come on. You can't use your mouse decently on the surface of the sofa (well, not mine anyway) and I don't really feel like hunching over my table to play games - I wanna lay back in the big comfy chair.
I don't know if this 'lapboard' thingamajig would actually work ok, but all three of your comments are way off the mark.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I understand that many do not like trackballs. Why else am I going to have to go on eBay and spend upwards of $100, if I'm lucky, for a new (or even used) Microsoft Trackball Explorer. That doesn't make them nonoptimal for, well, anything merely for those that don't find them intuitive. At this point, going back to a standard mouse is likely as problematic for me as a standard mouse user trying to use a trackball.
As for a surface, there are hard mousepads (rigid) that work just fine. And you can use whatever keyboard and whatever mouse you so desire.
As for my comments being off the mark, I disagree. I think my setup works fantastic for me, reclining on my couch. It won't work for everyone. That doesn't make it wrong, merely different. I could turn around and use the same argument against you, that all but your surface argument are off the mark, but they aren't, they're merely differences of opinion. Everyone's got an opinion, just like everyone has an asshole. That doesn't make you unique.
I know a lot of gamers, and there's one who uses a trackball. And frankly, he kind of sucks. You just don't have the level of responsiveness you need - he just can't turn around as fast as everyone else.
> I think my setup works fantastic for me, reclining on my couch. It won't work for everyone.
I don't think it'll work well for -most- people. I base this assertion on the fact that trackballs users are almost nonexistant and that there's many surfaces on which optical mice won't work well, either because they won't track or because they generate too much friction. That's your first two points - that trackballs work fine and if they don't, then optical mice are fine.
> Look, a product that has a use in the mind of the developers, but little or none in the mind of consumers!
It's got plenty of use in the mind of consumers. Just not you.
I dislike phantom as much as the next guy (actually, I love them. You can't make up that kind of internet idiocy), and seriously doubt that these things will ever see the light of day, but your arguments against it are just way off.
If you're gonna make an argument against it, I'd be casting a dubious eye on the strength of that hinge, the lack of useable space under it and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any place to tether the mouse to when you're done with it.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
For $130 bucks, surely they could include a more ergonomic looking mouse than this
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
For a company that didn't produce anything, ever, EVER! It's surprising they are still around.
Yet as they refuse to die for so long, they refuse to learn with a decent speed as well.
It took them 5 years (or more) to create a product that exists (the lapboard exists, it's been demoed, tested etc.), but now they may need another 5-10 years to realize people don't just buy whatever you throw at them, especially if it has outrageous prices and dubious practical qualities.
They simply have no the finances or image to hype this up. They're lost.
That's pretty surprising, given that the last /. article on the Phantom Lapboard (in July) was for the launch of a website to market the product August 15th, 2006. I wonder if that ever happened on schedule? Aren't they supposed to have had preorders for over a month by now?
I wonder if they will be shipping with Vista support and preconfigured keymaps for Duke Nukem Forever?
More than that, what about non-FPS games? Do those not count in your book? I've yet to find one that needs the "superior" responsiveness that a "gaming" mouse provides.
> and that there's many surfaces on which optical mice won't work well, either because they won't track or because they generate too much friction.
There are many on which they won't work. There are many on which they will. Like I said, YMMV. This still hasn't addressed my comments on rigid mouse pads, which can be used just as well as their "lap board," if not better, because you can place it as close to or far away from your keyboard as you would like. The couch (specifically futon) I'm sitting on right now has worked just fine for friends of mine as a mousing surface, and it isn't like grabbing some random textbook would be all that hard either.
> It's got plenty of use in the mind of consumers. Just not you.
So what do we get, a keyboard / surface / mouse combination. I could come up with such a combination, while possibly not as elegant, in a matter of minutes simply from what I have laying around in my apartment. This works great for people that don't have the capacity to find solutions on their own, or people with money to burn, or people that don't feel like taking the effort. I'm not attacking any of these people (I at least don't intend to,) I just expected most slashdot users to be a bit more resourceful. So I used exaggeration, I apologize. I'm sure you have never done that, and I commend you.
> If you're gonna make an argument against it, I'd be casting a dubious eye on the strength of that hinge, the lack of useable space under it and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any place to tether the mouse to when you're done with it.
All of these are valid arguments. If you had these insights, why not look past the fact that you disagree with where I'm coming from and just post those? Does it make you feel better to try and correct others for not seeing things the same way as you? I'm sorry, mein fuhrer.
.. specifically, that there are no more Phantom jokes left. Whatever will journos do now?
The Phantom Game Service is anticipated to be the first end-to-end, on-demand game service delivering online games...
It's a bad sign when the lies start in the first sentence.
The ______ Agenda
So, let me see... that's where you give them the money now, and they send you the product later? Sounds ok to me. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? I'm sure my $129 will be perfectly safe.
> Does it make you feel better to try and correct others for not seeing things the same way as you? I'm sorry, mein fuhrer.
No, it makes me feel better to point out assertions that are clearly incorrect, such as your claim that this device (or rather, a device which fills the requirement that this device purports to) has no use in the mind of consumers.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
You offer "proof," I offer rebuttal, you offer ad hominem attack or you target things that have already been taken out of the discussion. You did not comment on my offered alternatives for this lap board. When you comment you offer personal experience as substantial argument. If you do that, then you must accept my personal experience at comprable value. Or are you claiming that your experiences are simply more important than others?
Your rebuttal is "it's not useful to me," which is fine. That doesn't mean there's no market for this.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I already covered that last portion of my initial message. It wasn't meant to be argumentative, but you've made an excellent attempt at changing that. And my rebuttals have covered most everything but that last bit of my initial post, save saying it was exaggeration, hyperbole, etc. Once I've seemed to adequately defend myself, you let it go, except for this last bit. Why is that?
> And my rebuttals have covered most everything but that last bit of my initial post, save saying it was exaggeration, hyperbole, etc. Once I've seemed to adequately defend myself, you let it go, except for this last bit. Why is that?
Because I seem to have missed that - my apologies. I don't buy your arguments because they fly in the face of all my experience and all my friends experience. I still contend that trackballs suck for games and that you can't just wedge an optical mouse most places and expect it to work well. But it's a stupid enough thing to argue about. I regret that it became so argumentative - I certainly didn't intend it that way.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I believe it was Infinium.
At least, that's who [H]ard|OCP sued.
First off, did you look at the Phantom Lapboard? It is not optimized for gameplay anyways.
As for trackballs, there's a wide variety of trackballs. My friend used a thumb trackball for FPS. He calibrated it so turning 180 was super quick. I personally used a large trackball (Think Golden Tee or Centipede) for FPS for along time. On FPS games, where the up/down view range is generally +/- 60 degrees, the trackball was very fast and accurate for me. The only game that I had a problem with was Tribes due to jetpack battles.
As for accuracy, think how many people are playing FPS with gamepads now. Trackballs are a lot more accurate in my opinion.
Right now, I use a G5 mouse because I was annoyed with my MX1000 wireless mouse and wanted a corded mouse again.