Charlie Sorrel - page 101

This is the SpoolStool, and it answers the question “why do I have to buy uncomfortable furniture and power adapters separately?”

As ever, I shall start this iPad case review by reminding you that I only ever use a Smart Cover on either of my iPads, the mini and the Retina. And that on the occasions that I might be moved to use a case (when not actively reviewing one) I like something light and thin.

Which brings me to the Lioncase Pocket Shield for the iPad mini. It’s slim (13mm), it’s light (150g) and it has a pocket!

You can already check in to a flight online, so why can’t you check your luggage? With a new luggage tag about to be trialed by British Airways, you can. And you can do it with your smartphone.

This is the Handleband. It’s a band for your handlebars, but it’s also a great word to roll around your mouth – handleband… handleband – rattling it through your teeth and wrapping it around your tongue. Haaaandlebaaaand.

In the right hands, the iPhone Makes a great camera. And in the wrong hands, even the best DSLR or rangefinder will spit out crap. This is the truth behind the SunTimes/DarkTimes Tumblr, a blog which highlights the terrible photos that the Chicago Sun Times is publishing ever since it fired all its photographers and let the writers snap pictures with their iPhones.

The result is clearly shown above.

Everpix 2 has launched, and it takes everything you love about the all-photos-everywhere service and makes it easier to use. It also introduces the comedically inaccurate Explore feature which mistakes breakfast for human faces.

And no, it still doesn’t work in portrait orientation.

Mr. Reader, my favorite RSS reader for the iPad, has added support for a slew of third party sync services. Thus this new 2.0 version places the app at the head of the line when it comes to rescuing you from the impending Google Reader shutdown.

Triggertrap has released a new dongle which lets you fire real camera flashes using your iPhone. This brings you into the realm of high-speed photography — the kind where people shoot bullets through balloons of water and capture the image.

Poppy is a box containing lenses and mirrors that turns you iPhone into a 3-D viewer – or a 3-D camera. If you ever used one of the old 3-D Viewmasters, this is exactly the same. Except it uses an iPhone instead of a card circle of tiny film slides. And you can film with it as well as view. And it does video.

So not quite exactly the same, then…

Weathertron is Yet Another iPhone Weather App. In fact, it’s Yet Another iPhone Weather App Built On Dark Sky’s Back End. But as we shall see it’s totally worth a look: it looks great, it’s universal and — best of all — it’s called Weathertron.

Sony’s RX100 is a pretty great compact camera. And the new RX100 II should be even better. The update/sequel, announced today, adds a bunch of modern-day gizmos to the $750 compact camera.

The modern digital camera is a miracle. It can take photos in light so low that you can’t even focus the lens manually. It can record thousands of images onto a single SD card, or it can shoot RAW and let you make incredible adjustments back in the comfort of your own home.

But one thing that has driven me crazy with pretty much every digital camera I have ever owned is its charger. They’re almost universally terrible. Which is why I bought this Digipower alternative. But is it actually any better?

The Blokket is just about the most stupid, wrong-headed case I have seen in a while. It certainly looks nice enough, and I’d probably use it based on its cute tool-bag styling alone. But the case also blocks cell signals, letting you “turn off distractions” for a moment. I hope you like dead batteries.

If you a) use a MacBook and b) hate it when you lose the use of your arms and neck than you might like the Roost, a notebook stand that puts your MacBook at the perfect angle and height for working safely, without causing pain and RSI disorders. Oh, and it looks like the bottom of the Eiffel tower, which is cool.

I asked Siri something yesterday, and s/he – as usual – misheard me. Whatever I actually asked, Siri thought I said “Election Tacos,” and as that didn’t really fit in with Siri’s abilities, he did a web search. Only instead of popping me into Safari, the results were shown right on the lock screen. And that’s not all.

Dropbox for iOS just got a great update. No, it still doesn’t have the photo Albums feature found on the web and Android, but it does add some neat new features. Let’s take a look:

I shall assume that you all make some use of IFTTT, a.k.a. The Glue of the Internet. IFTTT (If This Then That) grabs things from various internet services and sends them to other services. Thus you can have all your Instagram photos sent to Flickr, or get a Boxcar push notification if its going to rain, or, or…

And IFTTT just added a couple of new services to the mix — Feedly, 500px and JetSetMe — plus one huge update to Gmail: support for attachments.

NetNewsWire is the granddaddy of RSS readers, and v4.0 is now ready for you in beta form. It still doesn’t really sync, but it brings the arrow-based navigation from the previous incarnations of NNW that might make it the fastest news reader on your Mac.

There are tons of iPhone-detectable device trackers, widgets that let you find your lost items using an app. But the Tile might just be the first one to get it all right. It will let you find things you lost down the back of the sofa, but it also has some other killer features.

Here’s Fujifilm’s new XM-1, a compact mirror-less body set to go up against the likes of Panasonic’s GF series cameras. It’s a 16MP box which can take all of Fujifilm’s x-System lenses, but which weighs in at just grams, or just shy of 12 ounces.

One of the unsung advantages of the iPhone’s crazy popularity is that you can almost always find a charger for it, whether from the lost property box at a hotel or from the guy at the next desk in your office.

But now that Lightning exists, things are more complicated, and a lot of the old 30-pin cables people were willing to lend out are now useless. So how about carrying your own? That’s the idea behind the Nomad cable, a three-inch stub which attaches to your keychain.

You know who thinks I look hot when I wear this bag? Everyone, that’s who. From the young hipster laydeez to the local barrio ne’erdowells, everyone steals a glance at me when I sashay down the filthy dogs hit covered streets of my dirty Barcelona neighborhood. “Who is that guy?” their eyes seems to ask. “And why is he wearing that short-strapped red leather bag with those pink shorts?” their eyes continue, before rolling momentarily in what I like to think is ecstasy, but which is probably just exasperation.

The bag, though, is worth the attention, and it probably also worth more than its contents. At €180 ($240) it’s not cheap. But then, it’s pretty gorgeous.

I no longer have to bother with the swapping of lenses since I traded in a box of the things for the fixed-lens Fujifilm X100S, but when I did I found that I never had enough hands to do it (for the record, I have the usual number of hands: two). If I’d been desperate enough, then, I might just have opted for the Spider Holster Large Pro Lens Pouch, a dork-tastic accessory which is nonetheless very practical.

Readers with long memories for frustratingly future-distant Kickstarter projects might remember the Halopad. It was a “universal” iPad stand which I described generously as “like a pub ashtray with the bottom cut out” and – with even more generosity – “not ugly.” And now that the stand is finally for sale, I stand by both of those gushing endorsements.

Here’s a practical case for you. It’s called the Corduroy Clip Case, and — while only half of its name is true — it does appear like the perfect way to both carry your iPod and make yourself look like a kind of creepy, Robin Williams-esque man-child.