Look at it. Just sitting there ominous like the monolith in 2001. Watching mankind since the dawn of man. Waiting. Waiting for a mouse manufacturer to run with this design.

Because right now, this beautiful work of art is just a foam mock-up. The first company to build this will have my money. I don’t care how much. I’ll just hand you my wallet. I don’t even mind that the D-pad is on the side.

Although we wish it were so, we have to face reality: Your cell phone is not going to become your primary portable gaming device anytime soon. The best it can hope for is offer a decent alternative to the DS and PSP, especially with the iPhone’s capability. But what about other powerful handsets that could prove to be decent gaming platforms, but lack the proper controls?

The BGP100 Bluetooth gamepad for phones aims to fill this void, and supports a bunch of smartphone platforms including Windows Mobile, PocketPC and Symbian UIQ. It features a special twisting design and you can attach the BGP100 to a wide range of phones as long as they do not exceed 55mm in width. If it turns out that your handset is too large for the BGP100, you can also use it as a standalone gamepad when folded up.

Apple’s iPhone isn’t exactly a console, but it might do better if it had some actual physical inputs and stuff like this just doesn’t make it a gamer’s best friend. Sure, it has the touchscreen and tilt sensors, but without some buttons and a D-pad, the average gamer finds it hard.

Well, gamers have something to celebrate as the iControlPad case for the iPhone is heading to production. This is the final prototype. When released, it will be in black and those holes will have buttons for mashing. No word on any ship dates or even a price.

Dan Middle bought Sony’s UX UMPC and found it to be severely lacking when it came to portable gaming. He did what any of us would have done, he took things into his own hands by hacking a cheap USB gamepad. The end result is a set of controls that make available all eight buttons with a single hand, while the other hand is free to aim with the UX’s mouse controls.

The gamepad has been attached to a CF dummy card, slotting into the UX’s CF port. He did some testing and found that it’s pretty decent to use. Vista even recognizes it as a gaming peripheral. I’m not sure if this spells trouble for the PSP and DS Lite, but it’s pretty cool. Video below.

This gamepad mouse from Evergreen might be the coolest mouse we’ve seen yet. It’s called The Genius Navigator and hidden inside, you will find a gamepad featuring six buttons, plus Turbo and Clear buttons, and a directional pad.

The 1600/800dpi USB laser mouse weighs 67 grams and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP and 2000. The Genius Navigator will cost you about about $33 USD. I suspect that both the gamepad and mouse don’t work all that well together, but like Peanut butter and chocolate, I do think it’s awesome that they put them together. I’d like to see them take it one step further and put a Nintendo DS in a mouse. That I would buy. Who am I kidding? I would buy this one, too.