Lilbits: Using a Fisher Price baby toy as a real game controller and VESA’s new variable refresh rate display standards

Computer display standards organization VESA has announced a new open standard and logo certification program for PC monitors and laptop displays with variable refresh rates. Yet another new mini PC with a Rockchip RK3566 processor and Ubuntu software is available, this time with prices starting at just $89. And a new version of the Sxmo user interface for mobile Linux distributions has been released with support for device profiles, improved Bluetooth support, and other improvements.

But perhaps the coolest thing I’ve seen on the internet today? A hacker found a way to turn an $8 Fisher Price toy that looks like a game controller into a functional controller that you can actually use to play games. It’s ridiculously impractical, but kind of glorious – especially since the hacked controller still plays songs and makes weird noises as you press buttons.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

Hacker turns a Fisher Price toy that looks like a game controller into a fully functional controller that makes ridiculous sounds while you play Elder Ring (or anything else) with an Arduino Pro Micro clone, joystick, and microswitches. https://t.co/N0KTd0uEkj

— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) May 2, 2022

See it in action here:

here’s the Fisher Price Xbox controller in action!

let me know what games you’d like to see me play with it

and thanks to @Wario64 for the off-hand joke that inspired me to make this happen 😂 pic.twitter.com/3OETvcsEsI

— Rudeism (@rudeism) May 1, 2022

VESA introduces ActiveSync and MediaSync standards and certification/logo program for monitors that meet certain variable refresh rate standards. Could be simpler to understand than NVIDIA G-Sync or AMD FreeSync… which probably aren’t going away. https://t.co/hUlhhnE1VP

— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) May 2, 2022

This 4.1″ x 4.1″ x 1″ mini PC is powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor, supports up to 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage, and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux. https://t.co/EmU8ekTjF6

— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) May 2, 2022

Congratulations to the #sxmo team for getting 1.9.0 out! 🎉

Among other things, device profiles were enhanced for #pinenote, #pinetab, poco f1, etc.https://t.co/Fo1uxd2BvF

— postmarketOS (@postmarketOS) May 2, 2022

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