I'm never buying a rev 1 xbox360 but I did play with one the other day and the controller is a serious improvement over the old one, and USB too! I just wondered if anyone had plugged one into a mac yet and seen if it'll work or not.
I'm never buying a rev 1 xbox360 but I did play with one the other day and the controller is a serious improvement over the old one, and USB too! I just wondered if anyone had plugged one into a mac yet and seen if it'll work or not.
Thanks.
I plugged mine in, and it charged via USB. I don't believe it was recognized by OSX however.
It is not a real USB peripheral. Although the connector is USB, the protocol is altered to make it a nonstandard controller. Windows will be able to use it because Microsoft is distributing Windows drivers specifically for the controller. I understand that they want to keep unauthorized 3rd party pads out of the XBox to keep revenue on the originals rolling in, but they didn't need to butcher the controller to accomplish this. They could have made it a standard USB controller that also works on Mac/Linux, and (through a logical hub) put in an ID circuit that lets the XBox distinguish authorized controllers from normal ones.
If you ask me, this is just one more occasion where the XBox division would surely deliver better value were it a separate company.
I checked out the controller itself at the shop, and it feels very good in general (best triggers ever!). It's gonna be good for driving games, FPS, sports. The digital pad seemed like an afterthought. Mushy feel and poor placement on the controller. Therefore, I don't think it will be a good pad for fighting games. (I suspect d/b, d/b will be very hard to input.) Then again, XBox was and still is the wrong console to buy for fighting games.
and I suppose you can't use the wireless feature of the controller?
I mean.. it's 2.4 GHz wireless technology (and i supose Wi-Fi 802.11b & g, you know.. like the nintendo DS that is compatible with Wi-Fi, thus AirPort) , so can't airport identify the controller?
I'm just asking here.. I no trying to make a statement
No, even though the controllers operate on the 2.4GHz spectrum they aren't using 802.11 networking, so you won't be able to pick them up via Airport. That's nothing new, many cordless phones use the same spectrum with their own protocols, too.
Has anyone tried hooking a WIRED controller up to a mac? I'm sure I read somewhere that when you hook a wireless pad up to a Play and Charge cable, it only actually provides power over the cable, and the signals are still sent wirelessly. Sounds a bit odd.
Wireless controllers are ace, though. No cables trailing halfway across the room. Bliss.
[BHas anyone tried hooking a WIRED controller up to a mac? I'm sure I read somewhere that when you hook a wireless pad up to a Play and Charge cable, it only actually provides power over the cable, and the signals are still sent wirelessly. Sounds a bit odd. [/B]
I'm not so sure that is the case as you can definitely plug the controllers into a PC for games without the need for any form of wireless adapter. I would give it a try but it's a few bob for what is basically a stupid experiment
It is not a real USB peripheral. Although the connector is USB, the protocol is altered to make it a nonstandard controller. Windows will be able to use it because Microsoft is distributing Windows drivers specifically for the controller. I understand that they want to keep unauthorized 3rd party pads out of the XBox to keep revenue on the originals rolling in, but they didn't need to butcher the controller to accomplish this. They could have made it a standard USB controller that also works on Mac/Linux, and (through a logical hub) put in an ID circuit that lets the XBox distinguish authorized controllers from normal ones.
If you ask me, this is just one more occasion where the XBox division would surely deliver better value were it a separate company.
I checked out the controller itself at the shop, and it feels very good in general (best triggers ever!). It's gonna be good for driving games, FPS, sports. The digital pad seemed like an afterthought. Mushy feel and poor placement on the controller. Therefore, I don't think it will be a good pad for fighting games. (I suspect d/b, d/b will be very hard to input.) Then again, XBox was and still is the wrong console to buy for fighting games.
I thought that it was general knowledge that Microsoft tried to muscle out the third party controller companies with the XBox360. They have to go through Microsoft now to obtain a license to create XBox360 controllers because it's got some DRM or something on the controller communications. So anyone who cracks it to distribute a third-party XBox360 controller can be sued under the DMCA.
On reflection, the rumor about the controller not being a real USB device is probably bunk, since presumably it has to work with hubs and standard USB drivers on the Windows PC. It just won't be a standard controller and I presume it will never be legal in most of Western countries to write, distribute or sell a Mac or Linux driver for it because of DMCA and it's counterparts elsewhere.
Information is not for or against anything.
My opinion of Microsoft is very cautious. I think they have done good work with DirectX, they make a decent office software including the best spreadsheet application and the best easy-deployment mail/scheduling server, and make decent, reasonably priced input devices. They made a technically, specification-wise excellent console (XBox) that lacked in the game department.
What I dislike is Microsoft's way of constant war against customer choice and functionality, which is only possible because of their dominant market position. In a clean slate market not burdened by backwards compatibility requirements, most of Microsoft's products, especially their major cashcows Windows and Office would take very severe losses.
You can see this attitude reflected in many things on the XBox360. If they were out to make it the best value proposition they can, and make most money they can off the XBox360 not having to consider the other divisions, they'd have a media player in there that worked with any normal filesharing (SMB, FTP) present on the network. Maybe an emulation layer for running any uploaded Windows codec in there, or open interface and free compiler for porting codecs to the XBox360 (in both cases, heavily sandboxed of course). And certainly a normal USB controller profile on every XBox360 controller, so people buy more of them regardless of what computers they have and what operating systems they run. (Not just Mac/Linux; pre-XP Windows users also can't use the 360 controller.)
Comments
Originally posted by Chopper3
I'm never buying a rev 1 xbox360 but I did play with one the other day and the controller is a serious improvement over the old one, and USB too! I just wondered if anyone had plugged one into a mac yet and seen if it'll work or not.
Thanks.
I plugged mine in, and it charged via USB. I don't believe it was recognized by OSX however.
Originally posted by Sport73
I plugged mine in, and it charged via USB. I don't believe it was recognized by OSX however.
Thank you, I'd be interested in what Profiler reported it as, I don't suppose you have "USB Overdrive" installed?
If you ask me, this is just one more occasion where the XBox division would surely deliver better value were it a separate company.
I checked out the controller itself at the shop, and it feels very good in general (best triggers ever!). It's gonna be good for driving games, FPS, sports. The digital pad seemed like an afterthought. Mushy feel and poor placement on the controller. Therefore, I don't think it will be a good pad for fighting games. (I suspect d/b, d/b will be very hard to input.) Then again, XBox was and still is the wrong console to buy for fighting games.
I mean.. it's 2.4 GHz wireless technology (and i supose Wi-Fi 802.11b & g, you know.. like the nintendo DS that is compatible with Wi-Fi, thus AirPort) , so can't airport identify the controller?
I'm just asking here.. I no trying to make a statement
Has anyone tried hooking a WIRED controller up to a mac? I'm sure I read somewhere that when you hook a wireless pad up to a Play and Charge cable, it only actually provides power over the cable, and the signals are still sent wirelessly. Sounds a bit odd.
Wireless controllers are ace, though. No cables trailing halfway across the room. Bliss.
Neil.
a.k.a. Arnel
Originally posted by Arnel
[BHas anyone tried hooking a WIRED controller up to a mac? I'm sure I read somewhere that when you hook a wireless pad up to a Play and Charge cable, it only actually provides power over the cable, and the signals are still sent wirelessly. Sounds a bit odd. [/B]
I'm not so sure that is the case as you can definitely plug the controllers into a PC for games without the need for any form of wireless adapter. I would give it a try but it's a few bob for what is basically a stupid experiment
Originally posted by Gon
It is not a real USB peripheral. Although the connector is USB, the protocol is altered to make it a nonstandard controller. Windows will be able to use it because Microsoft is distributing Windows drivers specifically for the controller. I understand that they want to keep unauthorized 3rd party pads out of the XBox to keep revenue on the originals rolling in, but they didn't need to butcher the controller to accomplish this. They could have made it a standard USB controller that also works on Mac/Linux, and (through a logical hub) put in an ID circuit that lets the XBox distinguish authorized controllers from normal ones.
If you ask me, this is just one more occasion where the XBox division would surely deliver better value were it a separate company.
I checked out the controller itself at the shop, and it feels very good in general (best triggers ever!). It's gonna be good for driving games, FPS, sports. The digital pad seemed like an afterthought. Mushy feel and poor placement on the controller. Therefore, I don't think it will be a good pad for fighting games. (I suspect d/b, d/b will be very hard to input.) Then again, XBox was and still is the wrong console to buy for fighting games.
Originally posted by webmail
And you got this anti-ms information where?
I thought that it was general knowledge that Microsoft tried to muscle out the third party controller companies with the XBox360. They have to go through Microsoft now to obtain a license to create XBox360 controllers because it's got some DRM or something on the controller communications. So anyone who cracks it to distribute a third-party XBox360 controller can be sued under the DMCA.
Originally posted by webmail
And you got this anti-ms information where?
Try Microsoft.
On reflection, the rumor about the controller not being a real USB device is probably bunk, since presumably it has to work with hubs and standard USB drivers on the Windows PC. It just won't be a standard controller and I presume it will never be legal in most of Western countries to write, distribute or sell a Mac or Linux driver for it because of DMCA and it's counterparts elsewhere.
Information is not for or against anything.
My opinion of Microsoft is very cautious. I think they have done good work with DirectX, they make a decent office software including the best spreadsheet application and the best easy-deployment mail/scheduling server, and make decent, reasonably priced input devices. They made a technically, specification-wise excellent console (XBox) that lacked in the game department.
What I dislike is Microsoft's way of constant war against customer choice and functionality, which is only possible because of their dominant market position. In a clean slate market not burdened by backwards compatibility requirements, most of Microsoft's products, especially their major cashcows Windows and Office would take very severe losses.
You can see this attitude reflected in many things on the XBox360. If they were out to make it the best value proposition they can, and make most money they can off the XBox360 not having to consider the other divisions, they'd have a media player in there that worked with any normal filesharing (SMB, FTP) present on the network. Maybe an emulation layer for running any uploaded Windows codec in there, or open interface and free compiler for porting codecs to the XBox360 (in both cases, heavily sandboxed of course). And certainly a normal USB controller profile on every XBox360 controller, so people buy more of them regardless of what computers they have and what operating systems they run. (Not just Mac/Linux; pre-XP Windows users also can't use the 360 controller.)
Originally posted by Placebo
Yeah, I bought one and it has yet to work.
Thank you for letting us know, have you tried "USB Overdrive" yet?
Originally posted by Chopper3
Thank you for letting us know, have you tried "USB Overdrive" yet?
It overall seems to not even be detected by the OS, let alone be ready for USB Overdrive configuration.
Originally posted by Placebo
It overall seems to not even be detected by the OS, let alone be ready for USB Overdrive configuration.
Cool, thank you for saving me a few quid