Smarter Stand by SmarterFlo Category: Stands Works With: iPhone 5 Price: $12-ish
Don’t you hate it when your earbud cable gets tangled? I know I do (but not as much as I hate Apple’s stupid earbuds themselves). Luckily, Dotan Saguy has come up with the Smarter Stand for the iPhone, a pliable plastic widget which not only acts as a place to wrap your earbud cable, but also as a handy-dandy stand for the iPhone.
I have been using one for a little while now and it turns out to be a pretty useful little gadget.
Ariaby Pad&Quill Category: Cases Works With: iPad mini Price: $90
I called the Pad&Quill Aria the “classiest iPad mini case yet,” and I’ll stand by that after using it for a week or two. It’s also most definitely the sturdiest, best crafted case I’ve ever seen, and the fanciest that Brian Holmes and the P&Q crew has come up with to date.
But can such a fancy case ever be practical? Let’s take a look.
Status Board Made by:Panic Category: Productivity Works With: iPad, iPad mini Price: $9.99
So many apps are designed first for the iPhone, and the iPad is more or less an afterthought. Not so with Status Board, a brand new app from Panic that is designed meticulously with the iPad’s larger display in mind.
If you know Panic’s pedigree (Coda, Transmit, etc.), then you know what kind of app to expect: something incredibly powerful, focused, and impeccably designed. Status Board is no exception. And although the app won’t appeal to most iPad users, it is perhaps Panic’s most consumer-friendly app to date.
Ulysses 3 by Soulmen Category: Text Editor Works With: Mac Price: $40
Ulysses 3 is a superstar text editor which takes a whole new approach to, well, to editing text. I love it – it’s my favorite new piece of software in a long time – but there are one or two gotchas which could stop me using it full-time to write posts for the web.
X100S by Fujifilm Category: Cameras Works With: Uh, hands? Price: $1,200
First, remember one thing: this isn’t a full review of the Fujifilm X100S, even though I had to write it up there in the title to please our CMS. I’ve only had the thing for a few days, and even though Cult of Mac isn’t DP Review, a few days isn’t enough to evaluate an iPhone case, let alone a camera like the X100S.
On the other hand, the X100S is So Hot Right Now, and I’ve been staying up tip 3AM since I got it because I can’t stop playing with the thing. Combining those two interesting facts leads me to think that an in-depth first look might be a good idea — especially as you can now convert the RAW files on your Mac using the just-released Lightroom 4.4.
Let’s take a look — You might want to go make a cup of coffee first.
Rocksteady XS by Killer Concepts Category: Speakers Works With: Anything Price: $100
The Rocksteady XS is meant to be a tough, loud outdoor speaker. And it is. But how does it stack up, sound and feature-wise, against some rather stiff competition?
Noise-cancelling headphones are suddenly all the rage. It certainly seems as if every big player in the audio game has at least one model that features active noise-canceling, usually accompanied by other luxury features — and with a corresponding luxury pricetag. Even manufacturers who’ve only recently begun making cans, like Logitech UE and Klipsch, prominently feature active noise-canceling in their model lineups.
It may even seem as if the technology has been added to some models simply because it’s become the feature du jour — an impression strengthened by the fact that not all noise canceling is the same. Not even remotely.
None of the headphones in our showdown — the Klipsch Mode M40 ($350), the Logitech UE 6000 ($200) or the Monster Inspiration ANC ($300), the noise-canceling version of the regular, passive Inspiration model we reviewed last year — exhibits the powerful noise-canceling ability that can almost completely drown out noise, like that of the Bose QuietComfort 15. Nor do they sit on the next level down, with NC performance similar to, say, Audio Technica’s ATH-ANC7b (although one here comes close).
K811 Easy-Switch by Logitech Category: Keyboards Works With: Mac, iPad, iPhone Price: $99
This review is slightly unusual: We already published a review of the same device a couple of weeks ago: the Logitech Easy-Switch keyboard. I liked the look of it so much that — on Killian’s recommendation — I went out and bought one of my own. Or rather, I bought one, returned one and searched the internet high and low for another one.
So why the “duplicate” review? Because I use a keyboard in a different way than Killian. Where he sits at the dining room table surrounded by iDevices and Macs, I work not only in different rooms but in bars (cafes), on buses, wherever I might be. So I figured I’d write a very different review.
White Wave Dock by Modern Tech Category: Docks Works With: All Lightning iDevices Price: $22
For the longest time, there were no Lightning docks available for iPhones or iPads, and it looks like Apple will never make one. I have some thoughts on why that might be, but we’ll get to that in a bit. For now, we’re going to take a quick look at the seemingly crappy dock I picked up from Amazon last month. It’s called the “White Wave Lightning Dock Docking Charge Station for Apple iPad Mini/ iPad 4G/ iPhone 5/ iPod Touch 5G/ iPod Nano 7G,” which should give you some idea of the kind of SEO-mad company behind it.
RFLKT by Wahoo Category: Sports/Fitness Works With: iPhone 4S+5, iPad 3,4, mini Price: $130
The promise of the Wahoo RFLKT is of a tiny, ultralight box with an LCD readout which displays information from an iPhone cycling app on the handlebars of your bike. You get the advantage of using your favorite tracking app, and also of having an easy to read and control HUD, instead of having to buy an expensive GPS-enabled bike computer.
![The Pad&Quill Aria Will Still Be Around After You And I Are Dead [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1365692756.jpg)
![Rocksteady XS Speaker: Well Behaved, But You Should Keep It Outdoors [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/1363362008.jpg)
![Logitech’s Easy-Share Keyboard Is So Good, We Reviewed It Twice [Reviews]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/1362753845.jpg)
![Non-Brand ‘White Wave’ Lightning Dock Is Surprisingly Good [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/1362675627.jpg)
![Wahoo’s RFLKT Remote Bike Computer For iPhone: Great Idea, Let Down By Hardware [Review]](http://cdn.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/1362066816.jpg)
