The iControlPad is a wireless game controller compatible with a variety of smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. It is designed for use as either a standalone gamepad or attached to appropriately sized devices, such as the iPhone, using a clamp system. Due to this, the iControlPad is able to add traditional physical gaming controls to devices which otherwise rely on inputs such as touchscreens and accelerometers. Overview The iControlPad's input controls include an eight-directional D-pad, dual analog nubs, six digital face buttons, and two digital trigger buttons on the gamepad's reverse. The sides of the iControlPad are detachable, with two different attachment types: rubber grips, for using the controller as a standard wireless gamepad; or plastic clamps, for connecting with a suitable handheld, such as a smartphone or iPod Touch. A mini USB port on the bottom of the iControlPad can be used to charge the internal 1500mAh battery, update the device's firmware, and charge attached devices using a USB On-The-Go connection and an appropriate adapter. The iControlPad, a Bluetooth device, can be run in a wide variety of modes, including as a HID keyboard, mouse, joystick, and gamepad, among others, allowing compatibility with equipment which is limited to only certain types of input. One of the iControlPad's modes mimics the protocol used by the iCade, an arcade cabinet released for the Apple iPad, facilitating compatibility between apps designed for the iCade and the iControlPad hardware. Due to the iControlPad's ability to operate as a Bluetooth keyboard—by mapping the D-pad and buttons to standard keyboard keys—it is able to communicate with devices such as those running Apple's iOS, including the iPhone and iPad, which do not support Bluetooth gamepads. Since iOS natively supports keyboards, apps can be developed with iControlPad compatibility using either its own protocol or that of the iCade. Thus, the iControlPad is able to control video games and video game console emulators across multiple platforms. Development Development of the iControlPad began in 2007, with testing using a hacked SNES gamepad to connect to an iPhone over the dock connection. Once the serial connection was working, the first prototype iControlPad was produced, using a design styled after the Sony PSP. This earliest concept was a one-piece case enveloping the iPhone, with a D-pad on the left side, and four face buttons on the right in a landscape orientation, and was first revealed in 2008. By November 2009, a