Eli Milchman - page 25

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Pioneer launched its SmartCradle for the iPhone at its CES presser today, further proving that the aftermarket auto industry seems to be embracing the iPhone with rapidly increasing gusto.

They really pulled out the stops on this one, hardware-wise: a dedicated GPS receiver with an external antenna, which they said will give even newer iPod Touch models GPS capability; an accelerometer and gyro sensor for better location awareness; hands-free calling an integrated amplified speaker with the ability to vary volume based on ambient noise; and audio/video output. Of course, it’ll also charge the iPhone; Ted Cardenas, Pioneer’s director of marketing, made of point of this — but since the iPhone won’t last long with location services going, any dock even remotely similar already includes charging ability. Nary a whiff on price or availability yet.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Joby released two new iPad stands yesterday. One borrowed from their line of bendable camera tripods, the other was more unusual, and took a page from the Japanese art of origami.

The GorillaMobile Ori ($80)  for iPad is made from a material called Hylite — a blend of aluminum and polypropylene — which felt pretty light and is supposedly super-tough. The origami-inspired design gives the case an intricate look (so many cutouts) and allows for a continuous hinge that can adjust the viewing angle to practically any position within its range. it’s also equipped with a swivel hinge that allows the iPad to be easily switched between portrait and landscape positions — or even turn the iPad into a steering wheel for racing games. Pretty cool.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2011 — Still a day to go before CES is officially at full steam, we found a few nuggets at a Tuesday night press event.

First up is a pair of solar-powered goodies from Eton. The Soulra 2 is the pumped-up version of the original Soulra dock (which was featured in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide). It’s got eight speakers, a massive flip-up, high-capacity solar-panel providing eight hours of tunes on just five hours of charge, and a facelift — we think it looks much more refined than its predeceessor.

LAS VEGAS — Griffin revealed something really cool today: a sensor that hooks up to your car’s diagnostic computer and feeds all kinds of info to your iPhone. Griffin calls it the CarTrip, and it attaches to your car’s OBD-II sensor (the thing car mechanics uses to diagnose problems), collects and stores the data, then sends it to your iPhone (we’re not sure how, because the press release doesn’t say), which then displays the data in realtime with the help its free partner app, CleanDrive.

The app/hardware package will reveal all kinds of information, like fuel consumption rates, acceleration, and it’ll interpret diagnostic codes. It’ll also display a “Carbon Score,” so you can figure out how much you’re befouling the planet by driving around.

CarTrip should be available in early 2011 for $90.

Update: CarTrip is equipped with Bluetooth for relaying the data to an iPhone. Thanks Levi!

LAS VEGAS — After hours of driving through the cow-infested flatness of California’s Central Valley, CultofMac Editor Leander Kahney and I have finally arrived in Vegas, primed to report from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The doors only officially open on Thursday, but here’s some of the sparkly new stuff we saw released today that we’re mega-pumped to get our hands on at this year’s show:

With the release of AirPrint late last year, Apple finally gave iDevice users what they’d been clamoring for (and quite loudly, since the iPad’s debut): the easy ability to print from a wifi connected printer. Hurrah! Problem is, it only works with printers made by HP — owners of Epsons, Canons and the rest were left out in the cold.

However, for Epson owners willing to shell out $10, Thinxtream‘s PrintJinni app already provided a means to print to select Epson wifi-connected printers. In late December PrintJinni became a free download to put itself on even footing with AirPrint, pricewise  — question is, how good of a solution is it?

While most of the Western world was wolfing down grammies Christmas pudding and singing Christmas carols, our gadget squad was quietly steeling itself (in between eggnog and unwrapping gifts, of course) for the onslaught of new tech at the monster of all gadget events, the annual Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

The madness kicks off early next week, and we’ll be smack in the middle supplying wall-to-wall coverage from the get-go. From advance information we’ve received, the really big news this year will be a dizzying acceleration toward  hardware that interfaces with iDevices, including what seems like a massive dose of app-enhanced gadgets — gadgets that are built to interface with an iDevice and come with their own app, basically making the iPad or iPhone an intrinsic part of the gadget.

In fact, we were pretty surprised and disappointed during last year’s CES when it seemed all we could dredge up of the promising new concept was a clock and an insipid speaker dock. But the concept had only just been made available (with uncharacteristically little fanfare from Apple) earlier that year, and it seems gadget makers have caught up — we’re seeing teasers for everything from an iPhone-connected thermometer, to a car stereo that integrates the iPhone as a display to, a little bizarrely, an iPhone-controlled ball.

Not quite as cool but wider in appeal is the vast assortment of new wifi and Bluetooth connected sound hardware that’ll be on display; there’s also an increase in gadgets that stream and/or communicate with the cloud. And of course, we’ll be covering all the usual suspects: portable audio, speakers, docks, storage, cameras, gaming hardware, peripherals — you name it. Stay tuned.

Need a last-minute stocking stuffer, or wondering how to keep that New Year’s resolution? Digifit is giving away its $80 ANT+ Digifit Connect — just download their free Digifit app, then pop for the $15 in-app upgrade (which allows the app to connect with the dongle).

The idea is pretty much the same as with the Wahoo Fisica dongle (also $80): Attach the Digifit Connect to an iPhone (or iPad or iPod) and it’ll communicate with any ANT+ heart-rate monitor, footpod, bicycle cadence or speed sensor; then workout data can be tracked and analyzed through the Digifit app, or download the data to one of several websites, like New Leaf Fitness.

With the CultofMac so chock full of bike geeks, it’s no wonder we pretty excited to see the arrival a few months back of one of the first gadgets that fall into the app-enhanced category — a gadget/app mashup that manufacturer New Potato Tech cleverly calls an “appcessory.” In this case, the $99 LiveRider combo of an iPhone bicycle mount and sensor/receiver package with its own dedicated app turns the iPhone into a flexible, jumbo-screened bike computer.

It’s not the only sensor/app combo on the market; Enki Sports offers a more complete and expensive solution, and newcomer Wahoo Fitness recently arrived with a flexible, modular approach (with sensors that look remarkably similar to Enki’s). But we figured New Potato’s kit would provide a simple, relatively inexpensive setup for intermediate-ish cyclists wanting their data fix. We were mistaken.

We’re pretty up on the iPhone’s Bing app; its ability to combine the useful functions of several different stand-alone apps earned it a spot on our 23 Essential Apps list for the iPhone earlier this year.

But Microsoft is apparently even more ambitious: they’ve just updated Bing with some new abilities — including location-based reminders, a Google Maps Street View-like feature and more — to the point where it seems as if Microsoft is trying to turn Bing into some kind of uber-app. The whole thing’s also been given a facelift, and the results pages are less cluttered (even though the front page still needs work). It’s worth a download, even if, at the very least, just to gawk at its application of technology. Here’s a list of all the new stuff:

Bargain-hunting just got more interesting — Metaio has added yet another augmented-reality channel to their AR iPhone app, Junaio. This time they’ve partnered with eBay and created a channel that lets users scan their surroundings for deals in eBay Classifieds, itself a newish, local version of eBay.

It works just like any other Junaio channel; looking around through the iPhone with the eBay channel switched on will, in this case, display local eBay Classifieds listings — apartment buildings will show unit listings superimposed, shops might show discounted stuff available, etc. The channel is also searchable by keyword.

With only 11 days left till The Big Day (if you’re celebrating Christmas; if you’re Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or other, the Big Day/s are variously coming up shortly, already passed or don’t actually exist). And with free shipping on many items ending this week, we thought a subtle, timely reminder was order.

Why are you still reading this? Go go go!

When a company with as fabled a name as Bowers & Wilkins proffers up an iPod dock, one expects nothing less than enough oomph to satisfy even the most discerning audiophile, and enough svelteness to elicit a smile from even the most ardent aesthete. B&W’s first shot at a dock, the Zeppelin, certainly turned heads when it debuted in 2007 (at least, once word got out about it). But its sprawling, bulbous shape — and sprawling, bulbous, $600 pricetag — limited its appeal. Two years later the company followed with the Zeppelin Mini, a much smaller, less expensive dock that nevertheless tried to maintain the aesthetic and sonic reputation the company was known for.

But at $400, the Mini was still significantly pricier than almost any other dock sitting on, say, an Apple Store’s dock table. Then earlier this year B&W brought the price down to $300, placing it on a level field with other upper-mid-end docks — a league that seems to be gaining players at an almost alarming rate — and allowing it to stand out among its peers as the compact, high-performance star it is.

Evolution is a wonderful thing (relax, creationists — we’re only talking the electronic kind here), and iPhone app Twitcal‘s transformation today into SnapCal brings big changes along with the name switch — not the least of which is that the cool little app is now free (down from $3) through iAd support.

For those who aren’t familiar with the app, SnapCal lets users broadcast event details through Twitter, which can then be easily imported into the app’s calendar by other SnapCal users. Events can also be auto-updated by following another user’s calendar. And now, the app can also import events from Evernote and sync with Google Calendar.

SnapCal can also be freed of its iAd shackles for a buck through an in-app purchase.

We’re pretty big on Dropbox here at the Cult, and it’s handiness as a transfer/storage utility for Macs and iDevices alike hasn’t really been challenged. That is, till now.

Spot Documents works with the same basic idea: Its free OS X or iOS apps can be used to upload a user’s e-junk to Spot Document’s cloud — in this case, hosted on Amazon’s S3 servers — where it’ll be stored and made available for download/viewing. The difference is that where Dropbox is pretty slim on options, Spot Documents seems to be substantially more powerful: Spotlight-like search, full previews even on iDevices, and the ability to play around with access options for multiple users. And more.

The flocks of kids I always see clustered around iPads whenever I walk into an Apple Store suggest that kid + iPad = best new toy ever. Only problem is,  really young kid + iPad also = anxious parent.

Griffin thinks it has a case + app combo to fix that. LightBoard is a shatter-resistant polycarbonate case that fully encloses the iPad (Including the screen, but with cutouts for the speaker and headphone jack) and doubles as a table. Then the free LightBoard Trace app superimposes traceable drawings through a piece of paper laid over the screen and held in place by a clip on the case.

LightBoard is available through Griffin’s website for $40.

For Mac users awash in social networking (and that’s like saying “for NASCAR drivers with the ability to make left turns”), today’s release of Flock‘s completely revamped browser — which, like its predecessor, is heavily integrated with social networking sites — should be exciting news.

It’s been a long wait for Mac users, as the browser completed its transformation from a Mozilla to a Chromium 7 skeleton. The new Flock arrived on Windows last summer, and Flock’s blog claimed an October release for the Mac version, with no word since then. But it’s here, it easily integrates major social networks right out of the box (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even LinkedIn) — and it’s fast.

We’ll take a closer look at Flock in our upcoming browser comparo. Stay tuned.

This one’s got us raising an eyebrow: an app that figures out not only the distance to an object, but its speed — for a buck.

From the app’s press release:

Employing the device’s three-axis gyro and basic trigonometry establishes distance. Speed and laps are measured using the motion sensing of the video camera, timing the interval between the object entering and leaving the frame. The app is compatible with iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, and iPod touch 4.

We’re assuming that though SpeedClock is compatible with the 3Gs, it must deliver somewhat less-accurate results on it as there’s no gyro. We’re also assuming the app isn’t all that accurate for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the app requires the user to guesstimate the distance from the iPhone to the object. But who knows, maybe one day the tech’ll get there; somehow the idea of state troopers aiming iPhones instead of radar guns seems somewhat more cuddly.

Thanks to the inclusion of WebSocket support for the iPad’s Safari browser in iOS 4.2, the doorway for collaboration through the web between the iPad and assorted devices has been flung open.

One of the first apps to take advantage of the iPad’s new trick is $10 SyncPad, which presents users with a faux whiteboard to scrawl notes on, then lets other users of the app scribble on that same whiteboard over the Internet, with the results showing up in realtime (well, almost — the developer, Davide Di Cillo of development company 39 Inc., told us it updates a little slowly, but that the problem’s been fixed in the latest update, which is waiting for Apple’s approval).

There’s no limit to the amount of collaborators, although each has to have (of course) the app and an Internet connection; the iPad-less can view the whiteboard through a web browser for free, but have to make do without being able to add input for the time being — although Di Cillo says they’re working on a fee-based version that’ll allow collaboration via a browser as well. There’s also a view-only free version of the app for the iPad.

Only 11 more days til Christmas!  Yikes. If you are still at a loss as to what to get your loved ones, look no further, CultofMac is here to save the Holidays! Keep in mind that most of the cheap or free shipping ends this week.

Here comes another one of those apps that drops jaws with its ingenuity — it’s a heart rate monitor that uses the iPhone 4’s camera to measure minute changes in skin color caused by blood flowing into and out of a finger.

According to Heart Rate – Free‘s App Store press release, simply sticking a finger over the iPhoen 4’s camer should deliver a heart rate figure within a few seconds, accompanied by a heartbeat chart. The app’s developer is quick to point out that the Heart Rate – Free is for entertainment only, but the concept is remarkable.

As its name suggests, Heart Rate Free is free.

The iPhone 4’s attenuation problems aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, which means iPhone 4 owners are stuck with two options: fattening the iPhone with a case or bumper, or living with the issue.

But there’s a third option. ThinSkins are strips of vinyl or PVC, die-cut to wrap perfectly around the iPhone 4’s rim , creating a barrier between a user’s hand and the phone’s external antenna, potentially eliminating the attenuation problem. Interestingly enough they’re from TruePower, the same outfit that gave us the mother of all backpack batteries, the iV Pro.

ThinSkins launched a few weeks ago, sell for $20, are easy to apply (according to TruePower) and come in more colors than a bowl of Skittles.

Over the last few weeks we’ve covered Apple-centric gift ideas for men and women.  Now teens take center stage (like they don’t always anyway), as we lay down a humungous stack of sick, phat, gnarly, rad, neato, cool and completely sweater-free holiday gift ideas just for them.

Remember those wildly popular, hideously happy “slap bracelets” born of the late ’80s that — like Oakley Iridium Frogskin sunglasses — adorned those young individuals who were blissfully devoid of any sense of fashion whatsoever? Well, Griffin thinks it’s time to bring them back — but this time, they’re making them cooler, by sticking iPod Nanos in them and turning the whole thing into a Swatch (another fashion gift from the ’80s) -ish watch.

A cool $25 will get you (or the giftee of your choice) one of Griffin’s silicon Slap Cases for the 6th-gen Nano, in one of several retina-destroying colors.

Ever since we posted about  Let’s Create Pottery HD last month, we’ve been wondering when the app — that lets users have a go at creating virtual pottery on the iPad — would be out (or even be practical) on the smaller screen of the iPhone/iPt.

Last week, developer Infinite Dreams released the iPhone version, then added further enticement to get our hands dirty by releasing a free, try-before-you-buy version of the app a few days later (Which is a good thing, because the paid version looks like it might be a little prone to crashing, judging by the comments).

Still, the lite version checks out pretty well, and the full version, with its expanded creative options, is on sale right now for just a buck.