Screen protectors are big business, apparently, judging by the number of people I see with the filthy, peeling prophylactics stuck to screens, bubbles pushing through. But they all have one big problem – feel. No matter how fancy they are, those plastic skins will never feel as good as the silky, slippery glass of the naked iPhone screen.
Which is why Seidio will now sell you a tempered glass protector for your iPhone 5.
Oh man! The Mac Belt is an amazing combination of flat-out utility and naively wrongheaded design. It is exactly the kind of thing you expect a mad professor to come up with, except this crackpot product is actually out there on Kickstarter.
Here’s a brief description: The Mac Belt is a belt (the kind that holds your pants up) with a giant novelty buckle. And that buckle folds out to make a little bracket for your iPad or iPhone. Yup. An iPad stand that mounts on your junk.
Could it be that, after spending a lifetime looking, I have finally found the perfect bag? Of course not. There’s no single bag that can perform every task.
But I might just have found the perfect day-to-day backpack. It’s the medium Velo from Rickshaw Bagworks in San Fransisco, and it’s pretty damn awesome.
“Click!” You hear that? It’s the sound of an iPad turning into a Microsoft Surface, with the help of the Nibiqü keyboard cover.
Now that we see it, it’s obvious that this product was completely inevitable. And almost equally inevitable is the fact that it comes by way of Kickstarter.
I usually avoid posting about concept designs because most of them are so lame. But the iPhone Theater deserves a special mention, somewhat ironically for the very same reason – it’s so lame.
While regular ol’ cameras race to add touch screens, apps and pinch-to-zoom even while they strip away their physical buttons, Snapgripp is doing the exact opposite for the iPhone.
The little case’n’handle combo adds a finger grip to the iPhone 4/S and – in concert with a companion app – lets you pretend like your iPhone is a real camera. Except for that tiny sensor anyway.
What could be tougher than a fire hose? Nothing, that’s what – not even a dragon’s hide can beat out these woven polymer wonders. And it turns out that they are also pretty damn useful: when not being used to quench fires or give civil-rights protesters a jocular nudge, a firehose can be used to protect your iPhone.
I’m pretty sure I have some speakers on my desk. I say “pretty sure” because, while I can hear them loud and clear, I haven’t been able to see them amongst the clutter for many months now. I’m just terrified of unplugging the little cable from my MacBook’s jack socket in case I can never listen to music again. Not that I can find my MacBook either.
But the UCubes might be the answer. First, they hook up via USB, sucking both sound and power out through the bus, meaning I can leave my existing speakers hooked up, just in case.
Second, they are so handsome that I might be inspired to do my annual spring clean a few months early to allow them full aesthetic access to my desk. Where by “spring clean” I mean “sweep everything but my computer into a box and start over.”
Just a few weeks back we brought you the then-cheap $100 ring-light for the iPhone, a cheap way to shoot flat fashion photos and videos with your favorite camera. Now, though, you can achieve the same thing for just $10.
Bonus: It’s a DIY project, so you have a great excuse to ignore your family this Christmas.
If you want a waterproof bag, forget about zippers, velcro, or any other kind of fastening. What you need is a roll-top bag – just ask Ortlieb, the king of waterproof gear.
The same goes for gadget bags, and Smithfly’s Digi-Pouch offers a tight-sealing, easy-access home for your cameras, iPhones and anything else you want to keep dry.
What I am about to share with you will likely blow your mind. It will change your perspective on the world forever, and give you a new understanding of the word “convergence.” Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Lens Strap, a device which hovers uncertainly in the quantum foam between iPhoneography accessories and collars for poodles from Beverly Hills.
I warned you.
Here’s how you start an e-mail pitch:
In your last post about the Braven 570, I loved how you said that someday you might stop writing about candy bar shaped speakers. Well, today is the day for a Bluetooth speaker that shaped like, well, paper.
That speaker is the CoverPlay Mojo, a skinny speaker that will snuggle into your luggage between your shirts, instead of needing to be jammed inside a shoe like all its stupid, oafish rivals.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
Day 17: the PadPivot, the best iPad stand around.
One day, I promise to stop writing about little candybar-shaped Bluetooth speakers, but today isn’t that day. After all, these things are so handy, and so excellent for their size that more choice has got to be better, right? Today’s offering comes from somebody we already know – Braven – and it has the dubious distinction of having appeared on the QVC shopping channel.
Despite Tim Cook’s revelation that he uses the iPad’s virtual keyboard most of the time, anyone who writes for a living will still be using an external keyboard. And today’s test subject is the Brydge+, a $220 Bluetooth keyboard which does its best to turn your iPad into a tiny notebook.
The PocoWool might have the worst Kickstarter video yet seen, making the clothes-fitting-room scene in Pretty Woman look like a Jim Jarmusch movie, but it looks to be the hottest iPhone bag/purse/clutch around.
Best gadget of the year? According to Time Magazine, it’s the iPhone 5. Oh, and Apple or people who have worked for Apple are responsible for another two out of the top ten spots as well.
It is with bad memories of Apple’s original iPad case in my mind that I write about Elecom’s Ultra-Compact USB Memory. Forcing that hideous black rubber monstrosity on the beautiful iPad was like marrying a supermodel and forcing her to wear a wetsuit.
But thanks to Elecom, we never need to do this to our svelte MacBooks Air – this tiny USB dongle might be easy ot lose, but until you do, it’ll hand around looking beautiful. Just like that hot model (soon-to-be-ex-) wife of yours.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
Today’s little morsel? It’s the Supertooth Disco 2.
I’ll say it right now: The Ninth Sprocket Pro Kit looks like a spoof. It’s another Kickstarter project which converts an iPhone into a big-boys camera, complete with pro accessories and mounting options. It is also the weirdest, and possibly most unwieldy camera case I’ve ever seen.
The promise is simple: Take a small box, stuff in some flash memory and a Wi-Fi radio, and make the contents of that flash storage available to any device on the network via a web browser.
That’s the Packetta from King Jim – a USB dongle which would be just about ideal were it not for a few deficiencies.
The iNotebook from Targus is yet another attempt to solve the old problem of hand-writing on your iPad. This one comes in the form of a folio with a pad of paper, a special pen and a sensor up top to record your ink strokes in digital format.
The trouble is, it looks like another “faster horse and carriage” solution.
This is theGOODbook. It is a book, and it is very, very good. It’s so hot that even though I’m a dedicated non-user of cases, I have the product page primed and ready to place my order.
Christmas is nearly here, and with it comes the snapping of a million never-to-be shared photos. So, instead of promising your friends and family that you’ll e-mail pictures, or trying to teach your mom how to use shared Photo Streams, or dicking around with SD cards and sneakernet, why not just make some good, old-fashioned prints?
And don’t worry – you won’t have to touch a computer.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
So what’s up with door number 6? It’s a handy little charging solution called the PlugBug that puts a spare 10 watt USB charger in your MacBook power brick.