BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Here’s something I wish would come to a future iPhone, or — even better — an iPad: e-ink. Imagine being able to switch to an e-ink version of the tablet and read in bright sunlight. Or turn off the various radios and enjoy a battery life measured in months, not hours.
That’s what the e-ink phone can do.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS –
RadBlocker might sound like some lame anti-skateboarding device from the 1980s, but it is in fact an Israeli company dedicated to keeping your brains unscrambled. And nestled amongst its RF-denying belt holsters (for Dad!) and laptop trays is this amazing pair of headphones: Echo Tubez.
BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Would you believe me if I told you I’m writing this post from underwater? No? Well, you win, you clever thing you, because I’m totally not. Instead, I’m perched on an ass-numbing stool in the Mobile World Congress press lounge.
But my iPad mini could totally be underwater right now, and it wouldn’t even know. Why? Because it’s sealed inside a watertight gadget bag from LokSak.
Is it just me, or have SLR cameras gotten really boring in the last few years? I mean, I know they’re awesome machines and all, but they don’t do anything new. And all the while the rest of the camera world is pulling farther and farther ahead.
The iPhone in my pocket not only takes photos, it edits movies and shares my pictures with the world, wherever I am. And Sony’s incredible RX1 is pretty much a full-frame SLR in the body of a pocket camera.
Meanwhile, cameras like Nikon’s new D7100 would have been impressive a few years ago, but now they’re just that same old thing, with some bigger numbers on the spec sheet.
In the olden days, where getting the exposure of your photos right was much harder thanks to the fact that you didn’t get to see the result until your prints came back from the lab, people would sometimes rely on a separate incident light meter, which would measure the light falling on the subject, and not the light reflected by it.
Now, such a piece of hardware is being made for the iPhone…
Despite the fact that you’ll probably end up killing someone because of it, you’re going to keep using your phone in the car. With this in mind, I bring tidings of the Airframe from Kenu, a tiny smartphone mount which clips to the louvers of your car’s ventilation holes and hugs the phone tightly. The idea is that your iPhone is now secure and convenient, making it less likely that you’ll mow down a cyclist while you try to compose a Tweet.
Having all but dumped my iPad for an iPad mini, I’m now back in the bag dating pool, searching for the perfect match for my little friend and his favorite accessories.
The Polly bag certainly isn’t that perfect match – it’s a girls’ bag and it’s for the big, ugly retina iPad – but when it turned up on my dating radar I figured that it’s totally worth a look.
Like an idiot, I just last week gave The Lady my old aluminum MacBook to replace her dying plastic one. And now I see the Vool, a MacBook stand so gorgeous that I want to buy a can of silver spray-paint to somehow steal back my old MacBook without her noticing.
ECBC’s new range of roll-along luggage packs a rather neat feature: a battery pack which will charge your gadgets as you travel.
Take a look at this iPhone case that turns your svelte, pocket-friendly computer into a big, bloated plastic boat. You might scoff. I did. But then I realized that at home I lay my iPhone on tables and tatamis ay more often than I carry it in my pocket. And I am constantly picking it up to check the web, or to play music and podcasts before putting it back on a (most likely wet) kitchen table.
So this Mango thing actually looks pretty neat.
Filp Cap from CNET Asia on Vimeo.
Pesky lens caps: They’re either on the lens and in your way, or in your pocket and impossible to find. Or – worse – lost. What’s that? You have a little string to keep it attached to your camera’s strap? That’s neat, but it’s also going to drive you crazy next time it dangles into frame.
What you need, my frustrated camera-toting friend, is the Flip Cap.
Another day, another awesome-looking Bluetooth speaker WHICH I TOTALLY WANT. Today’s chunky rectangle of wireless audio goodness is the Switch from Native Union, and it has one distinguishing feature: a big round volume knob on one end.
If you made a Venn Diagram with circles for the name and the description of the Aluminum Sliding Bumper Case for iPad Mini, then it would consist of just one circle.
And there’s not really much more to add.
Why wear a helmet and a camera when you go skateboarding/snowboarding/waterboarding/other? With the Video Head helmet you get both gadgets in one. Cheaper, safer and more -in-one-er.
Sonos’ new PLAYBAR does two things: The first is to add a hefty, sound FX-pumping speaker bar to your underpowered HDTV. And the second is to provide a temporary respite for my otherwise vestigial CAPS LOCK key.
The Mission: You have files on your Mac or iPad, and you want to get them to your iPhone.
The Problem: There is no Wi-Fi network around, nor any cellular. You are, in fact, in the middle of the wilderness.
The Question: Why the hell are you transferring files between devices when you should be enjoying the great outdoors?
The Solution To The Mission, Not To The Question: The i-FlashDrive HD.
Vault’s Lexx case sadly has nothing to do with the ultra-cheesy (and fantastic) 1997-2002 sci-fi series of the same name. But it does come with its own flaws, just like the TV show.
Bem’s new Outlet has a new take on portable Bluetooth speakers. Instead of packing a rechargeable battery, it just comes with a pair of prongs on the back so you can stick it straight into a power outlet. This does of course mean that you’re out of luck if you want to run it anywhere that doesn’t have mains electricity, but if you never use your $200 Jambox away from your kitchen counter, then you could have bought two Outlets for the same price.
The Chef’s Sleeve is a lot like a Wizard’s Sleeve, only it’s usually covered in gravy and blood. And the Chef Sleeve (singular) is a disposable plastic bag which protects your iPad as you cook. Now, the makers of the Chef Sleeve (the bag, not the actual sleeve) will sell you a cutting board with a built-in iPad stand. What could possibly go wrong?
The Smarter Stand for iPhone really is smart. It was designed to solve two problems: tangled earbud cords and a slab-like iPhone which insists on slipping off anything you try to prop it against. And it does all this whilst remaining a flat, pocketable piece of plastic.
The SplashSak is a water-repelling pouch for your iDevice, which simultaneously protects it from everyday spills and also disguises it as a lunch or a wad of papers or just pretty much anything other than an iPad.
It also has the best name ever.
Lioncase’s NYHK (New York Hong Kong) case for the iPad is a leather celebration of monosyllabic place names. It is also one of the lightest and slimmest cases around, and it is the one that the Lady still chooses despite the flood of test cases (pun intended) which sweep through our home.
Now the lightweight case has been expanded to fit the MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch. GONE! is the brittle iPad-holding shell (the one weak point of the original), and NEW! is the button-fastening clasp.
This is a rather specialized iPhone case, but if you’re, say, an interior designer or even just a fan of the color scheme of the end-of-level doors on first-person shooters, you’re going to love it.
The case comes from Incipio, and it turns your iPhone into a virtual tape measure.
To paraphrase the immortally wise words of Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel, how much more minimal could this iPhone case be? The answer is none. None more minimal: It’s nothing more than a piece of cleverly cut leather and a rubber band.
This is just about the coolest iPad case you’ll see this week. It’s called the Tank, and it’s an aluminum beast which will protect your iPad and also twist to stand in pretty much any position you choose. If a movie protagonist was to walk purposefully down a street with an iPad handcuffed to his wrist, it’d be sat inside a Tank.