Before you say anything: Yes, I know this is a case for the Kindle and not for an iPad or other Apple device. But I don’t care because a) it’s super cool and should be made for the iPad mini and b) you probably own a Kindle anyway.
It’s called the Wingo, and it adds a pair of pop-out wings to your e-reader.
Good news, iOS power-nerds! TextExpander Touch 2.0 has just been released into the wilds of the App Store and is available for your keystroke-saving delectation.
The big news? Fill-In snippets finally come to iOS. But that’s not all…
After testing AirPlay speakers against Bluetooth speakers, one thing has jumped out at me: AirPlay is way, way better. In terms of sound at least. Which is why I’m interested in the Wren v5 wireless speaker, an AirPlay speaker from an ex-president at Harman International.
Choosing what to buy when you’re trying to be an ethical consumer is tricky. In a world where hippie holdout Ben and Jerry’s is now a corporate sellout owned by Unilever, how can we know who owns what, and which products we should boycott?
Luckily (and you knew this was coming), There’s An App For That™. It’s called Buycott, and by just scanning a barcode, you can find out which scheming ne’erdowells are behind the brand.
Last seen wrapping the iPhone in chopped-up fire hoses, the folks at Station Supply Co have expanded (pun most definitely intended) into recycled airliner life rafts. That’s right: now you can cover your iPhone or iPad with a swatch snipped from a genuine 1970s-era PanAm life raft.
There are probably more slick-looking weahter apps in the app stoire than there are gimmicky to-do list managers, but if you want a meteorological powerhouse in your pocket then there’s only one option: WeatherPro. In it’s paid form it will give forecasts for up to two weeks, along with all the radar and satellite animations you could need, plus detailed yet easily-read weather info.
Now, if you own a backyard weather station from Netatmo, you can view its data right there in the familiar WeatherPro interface.
Question: Do you associate complexity with value? That is, do you think that an object is worth more if it uses more parts in its construction? No? That’s absurd, right? But try this: the No.002 bag from Clean Everything is made from a single sheet of leather, cleverly cut and folded to form a bag. The price? €289, or $385.
The Atrio case, a Kickstarter project from Craftwerk USA, is an aluminum bumper that’ll cost you a crazy $90 (less for early-bird pitchers). But the clever twist here is that the box it comes in doublers as a stylish – and matching – iPhone stand.
One of the coolest features of Photoshop for iOS is the "Scribble Select" tool. You draw a fat green line around any object you want to keep, and scribble some red into the parts you want to delete. Hit "OK" and a few moments later you have your subject, neatly cut out from the background, better than you could have managed on even the best desktop machine of a few years back.
But what if you aren’t near your iPhone or iPad when you need to do some quick ‘shipping? You need the browser-based Clipping Magic.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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…
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’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, 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.
If I see another app which promises a "distraction free" mode, I’m gonna…. Wait. Where was I? Ah, yes. Write is now available for the iPad. You might remember the iPhone version of this text editor for its clever UI and stunning good looks. The iPad version has all this and some clever extras.
$7 is getting close to the lower limit on prices for iPad cases – unless you choose to make your own out of recycled materials that is. Actually, the Apple Pie iPad case is made from recycled materials. It’s a cardboard folio that’ll protect your iPad from adults and kids alike.
Do you wish you could get in on this whole one-keyboard-switching-between-multiple-devices game, only you’re wedded to some crazy old clackety keyboard that only connects via cable? Then I have good news! IOGear has a new widget that’ll hook everything up.
Sometimes all you want to do is flip through a folder full of photos, maybe cropping a few of them and deleting the worst ones. That’s exactly what Arcsoft’s new Photo+ for OS X is for. You just drag a single photo onto the app and you’re off – able to use the arrow keys to navigate every other image in the folder, cropping and deleting as you go.
Denon’s new range of audio receivers, called InCommand, has support for Apple’s AirPlay built right in alongside the great sound and embarrassment of cable hookups usually found in this kind of gadget. And that’s in addition to being able to control the unit itself from a dedicated Denon app.
Cobook, the non-sucky contacts app for iOS and Mac, has today added Livecards. Livecards are a way to share your contact info with other people. Instead of relying on those lazy idiots to update your details, you take care of it. The resulting changes are pushed to everyone who has your Livecard in their Cobook.
Yes, this is exactly how address books should have worked ever since the internet was invented.