The MEDUSA crowd control ray gun we reported on earlier this month sounded like some pretty amazing--and downright scary--technology. Using the microwave auditory effect, the beam, in theory, would have put sounds and voice-like noises in your head, thereby driving you away from the area. Crowd control via voices in your head. Sounds cool. However, it turns out that the beam would actually kill you before any of that happy stuff started taking place, most likely by frying or cooking your brain inside your skull. Can you imagine if this thing made it out into the field? Awkward!

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Touchscreens are great, but for many of us nothing beats old fashioned tactile controls. That seems to be one of the reasons why Lyndsay Williams of Girton Labs is in the process of developing SenseSurface--a system that allows users to stick working knobs to on-screen virtual controls. Apparently, the magnetic knobs can be placed anywhere on an LCD because the movement is picked up by a "unique sensing surface" attached behind the screen. It seems fairly unnecessary, but I'm sure that there are practical applications for this for music and graphics fields--or anyone who is tired of smudging up a touchscreen. A video of SenseSurface in action is available after the break.

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TUAW's tipsters tell it that, based on code found in the latest iPhone SDK beta, Apple's working on an app called iControl to hook up with iTunes libraries. Their guess is that it'll enable your iPhone to connect wirelessly to your iTunes and play back music, videos and podcasts (supposedly on the phone). That's interesting and all, but we're hoping it's more of an actual "controller", as specified in TUAW's headline and image. This way we can use the iPhone as a remote to adjust playback on our iTunes and Apple TVs. This is the one that makes sense to us. [TUAW]

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The Aurora Multimedia site says that their 6 or 12 button Waci-Pad is "ideal for wall or podium mounting," we know exactly where we're putting this—next to the our front door so we can switch on all our electronics when we enter the house (or off when we leave, but that never happens).

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Rumors of the long-expected parental timer embedded in the Xbox 360's impending fall update have been picking up steam in the last week or so, with the latest sort-of confirmation supposedly coming from a Guitar Hero III keychain. The included pamphlet reportedly describes the timer thusly:

A simple tool that lets you manage how much time your kids spend on their Xbox 360. Manage in daily or weekly increments. Easy for parents to suspend and add time. Available in December 2007 only through Xbox Live.

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When classy businesspeople need to conduct PowerPoint presentations in style, they pair their pinstriped suits with 18-karat-gold-coated X-Pointer RF Wireless Presenters. Every tool you could want at your disposal while putting a captive audience to sleep is present and accounted for, including slide controls, a laser pointer and wireless mouse functionality. But discerning presenters demand more out of there electronic aids, don't they?

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