Article
Griffin PowerMate Knob Controller Finally Goes Wireless | Gizmodo
From the horse’s mouth
Griffin Technology
My Comments
Griffin had taken advantage of USB’s devuce-class abilities to release a knob-shaped rotary controller which connects to your computer’s USB port.
Here, through the use of a control-mapping program, this controller allows you to either control your computer’s sound volume or use it as a scroll-wheel with documents or video material. For audio content, the knob has come in handy with audio-editing software due to the fact that it mimics the “scrubbing” action that used to be performed when editing open-reel tape. This effectively has replicated in some ways the “jog-shuttle” wheel found on most video-editing equipment and has become a well-liked accessory for people working with multimedia content.
Now they have taken this rotary controller further by making it be a Bluetooth wireless device. What I like of this is that they avoided the need to use a wireless dongle which is the common practice with most wireless mice and keyboards which limits interoperability with other computer systems and devices and creates something else to lose. As well, it implements the Bluetooth 4.0 protocol which allows for low-energy operation thus making the batteries less of a worry.
At the moment, Griffin’s website seems to make out that it is compatible with the Apple Macintosh platform only but they would need to port the function mapping software to Windows 7 and 8 to make this device have wider appeal. The Bluetooth 4.0 compatibility would also be applicable with the latest crop of Windows-based portable computers that are on the market which also implement this technology.
It is another of the accessories that pass by many computer users because they aren’t made readily available online or through mainstream computer outlets.
