Company Turns Your Android Smartphone Into a Game Console

MojoKid writes "The time we spend making calls on smartphones pales in comparison to the other activities we use it for, like surfing the web, logging into Facebook, streaming music and video, and of course playing games. It's that latter functionality that a startup called Green Throttle wants to tap into, and given the horsepower of today's smartphones, it makes a lot of sense. The company envisions harnessing the power of today's well-equipped Android smartphones and tablets in order to play console-like games on your HDTV. Right now the concept is limited to select devices — Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S II and S III, HTC One X, Kindle Fire HD, and Asus Transformer — though the company says it's adding to the list quickly. The system is fairly simple. You load Green Throttle's Arena app on your compatible device and start gaming using the company's Bluetooth-enabled Atlas controller, which looks a lot like an Xbox 360 controller, then push your phone's HDMI output to an HDTV."

Comments

What is the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can already connect my phone to a TV with HDMI and pair a bluetooth game controller with it. How is this special?

Re:What is the point?

[CodeheadUK]

Plus, with OUYA just around the corner, there will be no need to fry your phone's GPU and wring out the battery in an hour. There's a cheap box designed for the purpose.

"Sorry mom, can't talk"

[MrEricSir]

*BOOM* AAAAH!
"Sorry mom, can't talk I --"
HEADSHOT
"-- got to finish this level I'll call you back"
ULTRAKILL!

OUYA

[darkain]

$45 for this "Single Controller Pack", or $99 for a dedicated OUYA game console with controller, also runs android, doesn't have to worry about the game being interrupted by a phone call, no worries about frame rate drops due to various background services running, and already has dedicated third party developers (rather than a "developer program"). Yeah, sorry guys, the other team already has my money!

http://www.ouya.tv/

Woah, back up...

[wonkey_monkey]

Phones are computers now?

Bluetooth is a standard

[bWareiWare.co.uk]

Many Android games have native Bluetooth game-pad support, for though that don't you can use something like: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fishstix.gameboard

You can already get hundreds of far cheaper Bluetooth game-pads, many designed to also mount your phone.

Re:I went and RTFA

[Half-pint HAL]

The "way of connecting a game control to a phone" is called Bluetooth. Your phone has is.

The HDMI thing isn't a "bonus" -- it's a feature of your phone. And if it's not a feature of your phone, this device isn't going to magically give you it.

This is "stone soup" sales tactics. Sell you something "magic" that lets you do wonderful things... because you don't know you can already do them....