Mujjo’s new “Understated & Low-Key” case collection is out, and if you like slick and simple leather sleeves for your devices then you’re in luck. I have my eye on two pieces: the Slim Fit iPhone 5s Wallet and the Slim Fit iPad Air Sleeve , both in tan.
The Miracle Machine is an iOS-connected device that turns bread into fish. Wait, no… It turns water into wine. Only instead of doing it lickety-split to please an angry crowd like that Jesus fella did back in the time of the dinosaurs, it does it with grape juice and yeast, and takes however long it takes for wine to ferment to make.
Arq Backup is like Time Machine for your Mac, only it uses Amazon’s Glacier and S3 for storage instead of a local disk. It also looks dead easy to use.
This is pretty neat – it’s a clutch bag for a lay-dee, and it has a pocket for the iPad, as well as a spot inside for your iphone. If you were to lead it up with your cash and credit cards too, you could get one step closer to losing all of your valuable at once.
I’d say there are enough times you’d need to protect your iPhone whilst using it outside that something like the Surf Sound Play is necessary. I’d also say that Pyle Audio can and has done better. The Surf Sound Play case might work and sound great, but it looks like somebody found it in the dumpster round back of the worst dime store on the block.
Stack Motion is a fin new app that helps you cut somebody or something out of your photos and overlay it on top of another photo, or even a video. That’s pretty much the whole premise right there, but there are some clever features to help make it easy.
How much coffee do you drink? If you drink any at all, then the answer is probably “Too much.” And how does all that caffeine affect you? Now, with Jawbone’s new Up Coffee app, you can find out.
Findery, from inventor of Flickr Caterina Fake, is like Instagram for places, or maybe Foursquare for everywhere – even that street corner you like or the park bench you read on sometimes on Sundays.
Findery is a an iOS app and web site, and it lets you save pictures and make notes about places, and either share them with anyone, or just people you know, or even just yourself.
Wello is an iPhone case that costs $200, and monitors your vital signs like a pocket Dr. McCoy. Why would you buy such a thing? Science, bitches! Also, Stanley Kubrick stars in the promo video.
Native Union’s Gripster case is now available for the iPad Air, and it looks like the perfect accessory for folks who own an iPad air and also have hands. Yes, hands – those prehensile utilihooks at the ends of your chestal meat-sticks.
The case combines a grip, a stand and a cover, and is possible even better suited to the Air than it is to the mini, for which it is already available.
Hey dorks, great news! Toady is the day you get to fill up your utility belt with… With really dorky stuff. The brand new Modular Pixel Pocket Rocket is perhaps the hottest thing that’s gonna get near your pants pocket this year. You lucky dog you.
Unu’s new Enerpak Extreme is an update to my favorite battery backup brick. In fact, I have one here on my desk ready to review, but I thought I’d tell you about it first.
The Enerpak Extreme is a 14,000mAh battery pack that can charge an iPhone or an iPad, or both at the same time. It has two full-sized USB ports, one 1-Amp and one 2.1-Amp, plus a microUSB port for charging the device itself.
Amid a slew of weird design and censorship choices, Pictorl for iOS, Android and PC (!) has one standout feature that sits above the sea of confusion: a fantastic non-destructive editor that uses your online images as its source.
It’s also a rather beautiful app, presenting photos with almost no chrome or clutter.
AtmoBar is Mac app that works with the NetAtmo weather station you have in your back yard (or on your balcony, for city dwellers). It sits in your menubar and gives readouts and graphs with just a click.
It sure beats just looking out the window.
I won’t lie. The main reason I checked out Upword Notes is that it sounds like Upstream Color, Shane Carruth’s amazing movie about pigs (some are calling it Babe 3).
But underneath this strange coincidence (surely just another of Carruth’s crazy web of mystery) lies a solid note-taking app, one with some genuinely clever features.
If non-clicky keyboards are what you’re after, and you don’t like the free one that came with your Mac, then Logitech offers some of the best options around. I own two, that I’ve bought with my own cash money, and if I had an Apple TV or Media Center setup, I’d be seriously considering the new Harmony keyboard and hub, which doesn’t work quite how you think.
Use Google’s Chrome on your Mac but Safari on your iPad? Do you wish you could use iCloud tabs to open that browser tab that’s open on your iPhone? You need CloudyTabs, a Mac app that puts iCloud Tabs in your menubar, and opens them in your default browser.
The Tylt Vu wireless charger looks like it would make a great iDevice stand, even if it didn’t have an induction charger hidden inside. The idea is that it not only charges your iPhone, but the shape of it means that the iPhone is always positioned in just the right spot to let the magnets do their thing, even if you just toss it into the cradle.
They say cellphones have ruined dramatic fiction. Next time you watch a TV police procedural or read a modern novel, check how many times the characters stray out of cellphone range, or lose their handsets altogether. The truth is that – in fiction just as in real life – the cellphone is just too useful, too good as a means of rescue.
Would Stargate have worked so well if James Spader could have just snapped a photo of those runes and used Google Translate? No. Would Marty McFly have gone back to 1955 if he could have just FaceTimed Doc Brown when he woke up late? Of course not.
And yet it gets worse. Now there’s a case which will let TV characters –and you – get rescued every damn time.
Nikon might be content to lose out to its competitors in every field except SLR bodies and lenses, but it beginning a big comeback, starting at the very top – literally. Two new camera straps – the Quick-Draw and the Quick-Draw S – are made in partnership with Black Rapid, and promise to let you never buy a third-party camera strap ever again.
The Baron Fig Confidant notebook started out on Kickstarter, and is today available to buy for just $16 – $4 less than the original price. I have one here on the desk, laying open at a fresh two-page spread without anything to weigh the pages down and stop the book from closing (that’s a Baron Fig feature by the way).
This isn’t a review – that’ll come later when I’ve filled the book with words and doodles. I just thought you’d like to know you can buy one, becasue it’s a pretty amazing notebook. In short, Moleskine can go suck it.
Neglected iOS and Mac app The Hit List has been snapped up by Karelia software, promising to breath life into a pretty great to-do app. One look at the iOS version of The Hit List tells you all you need to know: it still sports an aged iOS 6-style interface, and there is still no iPad version. That’s pretty bad for an app that costs $50 on the desktop, and requires a $2-per-month subscription to sync with the $10 iPhone app.
Hopefully that’ll be fixed soon now the app is in better hands.
Aether’s Cone speaker is simple, in both its physical design and its interface. Inside, though, it has a brain that learns what you like.
The Cone is a cone-shaped AirPlay-ready speaker which also streams music straight from the internet. It learns your tastes, and even lets you cue up tracks by asking for them, just like Siri.
A waterproof case for your iPhone is more fun than you might think – especially one that is designed to fit onto any of a zillion different action mounts. And a waterproof case for your iPhone that also comes with a box of interchangeable lenses is even better.
Last summer I used a Griffin case to take photos in the pool, kayaking at the lake and in many other places I would never usually take a phone, let alone a camera. That case broke (thankfully not when it was submerged), and also took bad pictures thanks to the cheap plastic window over the iPhone lens.
The Optrix PhotoProX has no such problem, thanks to the proper, screw-on lenses. And its no slouch as a case, either. In fact, I’d say that not only is it the best waterproof iPhone case I’ve tested, it’s the best rugged iPhone case I’ve tried, too.
Brett Terpstra’s Marked app started out as a quick way to preview any Markdown file as it would appear when rendered into rich text or HTML. It still does that as well as any of the apps that have their own built-in Markdown preview, but Marked is now arguably something else entirely. It analyzes your text and gives detailed statistics, as well as suggestions on how to improve your prose.
The latest version detects the passive voice.