(You're reading all posts by Charlie Sorrel)
About Charlie Sorrel
Charlie Sorrel sits in his gadget nerve-center in Barcelona, Spain, and spits out words about various weird plastic widgets while the sun shines outside his iCave. Previously found at Wired.com's Gadget Lab covering cameras, power cables and sneaking in as much Apple-centric coverage as he could, Charlie spends his rare moments outside perched atop a bicycle and snapping photos. You can follow him on Twitter via @mistercharlie(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)
Goal Zero Switch 8 Solar Charger Is Small, Tough And Just Powerful Enough [Review]
![Goal Zero Switch 8 Solar Charger Is Small, Tough And Just Powerful Enough [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
![Goal Zero Switch 8 Solar Charger Is Small, Tough And Just Powerful Enough [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/IMG_1079.jpg)
Unobtrusive, and with more hooks and loops than a roller-coaster full of pirates.
Category: Solar Chargers
Works With: Anything with a USB port
Price: $99
As travel chargers go, The Goal Zero Switch 8 kit is about as convenient as it gets. The two panels fold into one easy-to-carry pack, and on the back is a zippered mesh bag in which the battery pack and USB converter sit. There’s space in that bag for a phone or other small device, and there are enough paracord loops around the edges to secure the pack, open or closed, to just about anything.
So how does it perform?
Draw This App Teaches You To Draw, Step-By-Step
We all know how to draw the "Marvel way," right? Step 1: some lines; a skeleton for your figure. Step 2: ovals and circles, pencilled in to show the head, limbs and body. Step 3: The amazing, finished, inked-and-colored result. Congratulations: You’re now Jack Kirby.
Peterson Hamilton’s Draw This App aims to help out with step two-and-a-half.
Backcountry Tablet Is Like An Outdoor iPad For Adventurers
I’m posting about this Android-based tablet for a few reasons. One, I want it, and as it’s crowd-funded, my chances of getting one are helped if you want it, too.
Second, I figure that if you love your iPad as much as I love mine, then you might miss it when you get all outdoorsy and go camping/hiking/biking.
And third? It’s just awesome: the Backcountry Tablet is an e-ink, solar-powered iPad. With GPS. What’s not to like? It’s even cheap, at $250.
A Great Guide To Taking Product Photos With Your iPhone
One question I get asked a lot (well, quite a lot anyway, considering the small size our team) in the Cult of Mac chatroom is "what camera should I get for taking better product shots?"
As reviews editor, this make me happy – of course I want better pictures on our reviews! – but the truth is that the iPhone is more than capable of making amazing product shots, especially as the target is a 640-pixel web-ready JPG.
With that in mind, Photojojo put together a tutorial for Etsy to help its users take better pictures of their home-made wares. The same advice also applies to your Ebay listings, pictures for your insurer or – yes – review shots.
Pocket iPad Stand Looks Perfect For Travelers
It’s hard to oversell the usefulness of a good iPad stand stand for travelers. It starts on the plane so you can bypass the in-flight movies with something better, and continues from there.
You can prop the iPad up in the bathroom or on the nightstand, you can – in concert with the removed Smart Cover as a base – fashion a quick in-bed theater, and you can type, play music and everything else, all without having to put your pristine iDeice down onto filthy hotel furniture. Ugh.
Cute Cable-Winding Power Plug Comes In Lightning And USB Flavors
Cute and practical, that’s the Itomaki adapter from Softbank. The charger is shaped like a kind of smoothed-off cotton reel, and – surprise – lets you wrap the charger cable around it when not in use.
DIY Cable Tidy Channels MacBook Mag-Safe Connector
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, which is clearly nonsense. My mother’s family photos, for instance, are worth three (Flash. Too. Bright). But this simple photo, from LifeProTips on Twitter, really does explain everything…
Keyprop Looks Like A Key, Props Up Your iPhone [Kickstarter]
If you’re going to make an iPhone stand that slips onto a keyring, you may as well make it look like a key, amirite? Right? Hello?
Ok, so that part of the design is a little dumb, but the Keyprop itself is pretty ingenious, especially the way it manages to work with both the iPhones 4 and 5.
Eton BoostSolar Is Everything You Want In A Solar Charger, And Nothing More
Eton’s new BoostSolar a) is here just in time for sunny summer and b) solves many of the problems usually present in solar chargers. It also looks pretty cool, and less like the utili-hippy designs beloved of rivals.
Process App Update Makes An Good App Great
Process, the step-based photo-editing app for the iPad, has gotten bumped to version 4.0. With that update come live, almost full-res previews, blend mode support and – supposedly – less crashes.
