This goldie-lookin Lightning cable seems absurd at first, a piece of shiny nonsense that surely costs a fortune, aimed squarely at the kind of fools that pay real money for Swarovski crystal and Vertu phones. But in fact it’s a pretty great gadget. Why?
Great news for corrupt restaurant employees and criminal scum everywhere: you can now use the latest Google Wallet app to skim credit cards right into your iPhone. In theory at least. And without actually recording the magnetic strip. But “Google Wallet update allows easy addition of credit cards using the iPhone camera” doesn’t have the same link-baiting ring to it. So scum and villainy it is.
One of my favorite parts of the Kanex Multi-Sync keyboard I reviewed in October. In fact, I said that “Kanex could sell it as a standalone product and do well.” And guess what? You can now buy it, in a pack of two, for just $18.
Yesterday’s biggest news – the biggest I tell you – was the announcement of a new USB plug that can be stuck into its hole any way you like, eliminating one of the many frustrations of USB connectors. But that plug won’t be available until 2014, and will doubtless be ruined by some stupid design decision along the way.
But fret not, dear frustrated USB user, because you can have your USB two-way today, in the form of this Buffalo USB hub.
You know how you walk into a coffee shop or bar, order a refreshing beverage and then grab a newspaper or magazine to read? Now, thanks to Apple’s iBeacons, you can do the exact same thing, only you can peruse the provided periodicals on your iPad or iPhone.
You know anamorphic, right? It’s a way of getting super widescreen film onto the relatively squarish frame of 35mm film. It’s done by using a special lens on the camera that squeezes the image sideways, and then a reverse lens on the projector that stretches it back out again when you watch it. This is why, in the bad old days of non-letterboxed video, you’d sometimes see the end movie credits squished up to fit them onto your TV screen, all while the rest of the move had just been shown with it’s sides chopped off.
Which brings us to the Anamorphic Adapter Lens for the iPhone 5/S, from Moondog Labs.
The Atlas ID is a waterproof case for your iPhone 5S that lets you use the Touch ID sensor even while the iPhone is in the case (although both you finger and the button cover need to be dry for it to work). However, you can still use the regular unlock when the screen is wet, and you’ll be having so much fun snapping underwater picks that you won;t care anyway.
No, it’s not a Mac or an iPhone accessory. It’s not even a camera gadget. But I have no doubt you’re going to love the Victor Wallet from WaterField design. It’s thin, it has a soft, finger-loving lining and it comes with a strap to keep it shut.
Bokeh is an iPhone app (and web service) for easily “lifeblogging” your photos and thoughts. And because nobody but you really cares about the mundane details of your days, Bokeh can be used as a private diary, too, albeit a private diary that you access via the web. So what’s the gimmick? What sets Bokeh apart from all the other lifeblogging apps out there? It has a great calendar view, making it easy to browse and zero-in on the exact memory you forgot.
The Gramophone for iPhone and iPad certainly isn’t the first horn-speaker we’ve seen for our iOS devices, but it might be the most beautiful. The speakers, which run from $200 to $300 depending on size, is fashioned from wood and metal and will boost the sound output of your device by 3x.
RotoView is an app that lets you zoom in super close on your iPhone photos, and then scroll around them by tilting the iPhone itself. It is also a great example of how iOS 7-native design can help an app look great, when otherwise it would very likely look awful.
Olloclip has turned from being a maker of a neat novelty iPhone accessory into a purveyor of an entire iOS lens system. The newest member of the family is the Macro 3-IN–1, a set of closeup lenses with built-in light diffusers and high-quality optics.
What’s this? A review of the Retina iPad mini almost a month after launch? That’s right. And although I haven’t been using my new mini for that long, I’ve been using for more than the two or three hours logged by most of the folks who “reviewed” it on launch.
So if you are wondering if the new mini is noticeably heavier than the old one, or if it takes all night to charge it, or whether an iPad even needs LTE, then read on.
Atoll’s SoundPad is a smart cover for the iPad Air with a set of built-in speakers. It costs $130, and snaps onto the iPad with Magnets. It’s flexible, and it connects to your iDevice via Bluetooth. And that is all the information available, which makes me a little suspicious.
Jottacloud, the “Norwegian Dropbox,” has added automatic photo uploads to its iOS apps. This means that you can not only access your desktop files on the go, but you can also backup and browse your mobile photos, too. Better still, it backs up all you pictures, not just your Camera Roll.
It’s official: riding-a fixed-gear-bike-past-some-old-city-warehouses is the new perky-and-quirky-guitar-music in Kickstarter pitch videos, and the latest people to put an Urban Warrior in their video spot are Martin Fredewess and Philip Perera. What are they selling? A pretty cool-looking iPhone keychain carabiner called the TiStand. And spoiler alert, it’s made of titanium.
Great news for Lightroom users who both own iPads and love the Java runtime: The Mosaic app can now do two-way sync with Lightroom on your Mac, letting you load photos onto your computer and then sit down in your favorite easy chair with a cup of coffee to rate and reject your pictures using the iPad.
We’ve seen roughly one zillion iPhone wallet cases passing through the pages of Cult of Mac, and like neutrinos there are surely untold others which we never even detect. And yes, the Access Case is another wallet case, and yes, it’s even a Kickstarter project. But it has one thing none of the others do: it has a sweet-looking sister that fits the iPad, and which knows how to suck…
Liquid looks set to be a fixture on my Mac. It’s an app which lets you carry out transformations and operations on any selected text, which doesn’t sound like much unless you write for a living, or just have to wrangle lots of letters. It’s actually been around for quite a while (the current version is 4.3), but I figured that if I hadn’t heard of it yet, then maybe you hadn’t either.
Lost for photo inspiration? Fear not. Instead of just firing up Instagram and looking at great photos taken by other folks, you should launch the new OKDOTHIS app and follow along. The app tells you what to take a photo of, right there, and you just have to do what you’re told.
I love this case: It’s a plain old polycarbonate shell for the iPhone 5/S, but it comes with a bunch of handy pull-out tools in embedded into the plastic itself. It’s like the pen and tweezer tools from Swiss Army Knives, only all of the tools are like that.
If I cut out the middle of a sentence from the Indiegogo page for the Apple Worm case, I get the following nugget of comedy gold:
You may need a phone holder […] at any time when you […] go to toilet, etc. Our “Apple Worm” can meet all your needs.
But aside from the toilet/worms gags, the case looks pretty handy.
I love Cyber Monday, but not for the reasons you think: I don’t give gifts, not do I buy yet more crap to fill my apartment. I love it because it’s the only place that the word “cyber” can still be used without people ridiculing you. Hell, I even cringe when I read Neuromancer these days.
By way of celebration, we bring news of the Apps for Snaps Cyber Monday deal, a collection of iOS photo apps which can be bought today for just a buck apiece.
This absurdly hot bag is the cool equivalent of those nylon executive laptop cases that are so lame you can’t even call them dorky. It has the usual attache-case features inside, with pockets to keep everything in place when you open it, along with a splash of fashionable color.
Outside is an aluminum band which protects the case and doubles as a handle, and the whole thing is wrapped in lovely nappa leather. If your significant other absolutely has to use a briefcase, you should make it at least as cool as this one.
Normincies Leather and Aluminum Bag
iPad cases never felt so good. No, I mean that literally. They never “felt” so good. Get it? It’s because these Gräf & Lanz iPad sleeves are made from felted wool, and… Never mind.
I won’t bother with a description other than to say that they’re felt and come in lots of nice bright colors. Instead I ‘ll tell you something about felt so you can regale the lucky recipient with your impressive knowledge on Christmas morning:
Felt is made by a process called wet felting where the natural wool fibres, stimulated by friction and lubricated by moisture (usually soapy water)…
That line came straight from Wikipedia, and proves that the Wikipedia authors do have hot blood running through their brains after all.
The Field Bag is a notebook and iPad bag from Pad&Quill, and is designed and made with as much care as the company’s everlasting bookbindery iCases. The leather even comes with a 25-year warranty.
Inside the waxed canvas outer are plentiful pockets, enough to hold cable sand chargers along with MacBooks and iPads. And the vertical shape means that it will hand comfortably at your side.
You’ll have to love the giftee though, as the Field Bag will cost you $329.
This gadget really is handy for the frequent traveller. Plug it into the mains and you have a two-port USB charger, but that’s just the beginning. The little dongle also plugs into just about any socket in the world, and will wrangle networks wireless and wired alike. It can work as a router, as a repeater (boost a signal in a big hotel suite), an access point (make a network so your devices can talk to each other), or as a client, turning an Ethernet-only device into a wireless device.
You could pay $45 for any of these features alone, but all together the price is a steal. I’m probably going to buy one for myself — at least that way I have a chance of getting something I want this year.
Got a friend who likes to hide their CRT TV in a giant faux-wooden cabinet at the end of their bed? Or that buys those speakers that hang on the wall and look like paintings on canvas? Then you should buy them a Cartella case for their Retina MacBook Pro, which comes from the fine and upstanding folks at Pad&Quill.
Not only will it turn their 21st-century gadget into a centuries-old book, it does it with protection (a baltic birch frame), style (a leather bookbindery cover) and some measure of practicality (you can use the MacBook while it’s in the case without impeding airflow).
Not that your luddite friend/family member will care about such modern niceties. Maybe you should just ignore him and buy this for yourself instead.
Here’s the perfect gift for your annoying uncle who bought MacBook Air when he really should have bought an iMac. You know the guy: he has his little 13-inch Air perched on the desk with tubes and wires running to it like it was a in a hospital emergency room after being found unconscious at home with a vacuum cleaner pipe… [That’s enough –ed]
Ahem. Back to your uncle, whose poor MacBook is tied to the desk by external hard drives, thunderbolt accessories, an external display, an Ethernet dongle and probably a powered USB hub to keep it all going. What he needs is the Landing Zone dock, an amazing piece of plastic and steel which leaves the MacBook free to come and go.
The units are fitted to specific models (make sure you buy the right one) and clamp onto the back of the Mac like a facehugging alien onto a, uh, face. It inserts itself into all available ports, and can be ejected with a single lever. Meanwhile, you can hook up all your peripherals and even the power cable to the dock and leave them permanently connected.
Having an ultra portable MacBook with enough battery power to work all day and then watch a few adult videos in the hotel afterwards? Priceless. Having just 128GB on which to store your business-trip entertainment? Lame, with a capital “lay.”
Which is why you should buy your husband/lover a MiniDrive, a tiny sliver of plastic that acts like the iPhone’s SIM card tray, only instead of a SIM it carries a microSD card. And instead of working with an iPhone it slides into the redundant SD card slot on the side of a MacBook Air.
It’s a semi-permanent solution, the idea being that you add a high-capacity (up to 64GB) microSD card and enjoy the extra storage. Speed depends on the speed of the card you buy (the SanDisk Ultras are a good bet), but for the odd porno you should be good.
The ClipR is a little disk that turns any headphones into a set of Bluetooth headphones. Or, to be more accurate, it turns any 3.5mm jack cable into a Bluetooth-enabled jack cable.
And it has a clip, so you can tuck that cable neatly away.