If you are remodeling your home and wish to spend ten times the price of a regular power socket on each and every wall wart, you can opt for one of many USB-enabled faceplates which let you charge your gadgets right from the wall. But for a more practical and portable option, you might take a look at the RCA USB Wall Plate Charger, a gadget which does exactly what it says on the label.
As a nerd, it’s almost certain that you still haven’t bought a Valentine’s Day gift for your significant other (heck, as a nerd it’s not even certain you have a significant other). An inkling at the back of your mind tells you that flowers are too obvious, but your geek brain can’t conceive of any romantic gift that isn’t also practical. Fear not. We have news of the most romantic (and practical) gift money can buy: the Pink Little Black Book for iPhone.
Everyone was jamming in the little corner where House of Marley was stashed during the official press event at CES, and a big part of that was due to their Bag of Rhythm dock — the Marley PR people carried it around slung on their shoulders, and it just rocked, man.
Oh, sure. The idea of being able to reach out from across the room and dramatically direct your mighty will to zap stuff on, off, up, down, or cause the very Air to shimmer with Play is intoxicating — that is, until those nine remotes you’ve been using to control all your magical devices become horribly unruly; perhaps they no longer bow to your commands, or maybe they’re off chasing hobbits under a couch somewhere. Whatever the reason, it’s time to harness the VooMote Zapper ($70), and make them all submit to your will!
(WARNING: Tossing the Zapper into a giant pit of lava under a mountain is not advised and will undoubtedly void the warranty, ‘mkay?)
A study by The NPD Group, a leading market research company, provided us with some interesting Q4 statistics. On the obvious side of things, the number of smartphones sold in Q4 were up, with Android and iPhone accounting for over 90% of those sales. While you probably didn’t need a study to tell you that iOS and Android lead the smartphone market, I bet you weren’t aware that Android was actually a favorite among first time buyers.
Apple has made another addition to its team this week with a former Microsoft Product Marketing chief, Robin Burrowes, joining the ranks to become the head of App Store Marketing for iTunes Europe. Burrowes was previously part of Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE team, and he’s not the first gaming executive to head for Cupertino as Apple gets serious about battling consoles head on.
Some gadgets love the rugged outdoors; the iPhone, with its sensitive, water-fearing innards, is more of a house gadget. Awww. Then LifeProof stepped in to change that when it launched its $80 water-, dirt-, snow- and shockproof case last summer. Now, the company has unveiled a line of four modular mounts that fit the LifeProof case, turning the iPhone into an electro-Leatherman.
I’m actually typing this review using Belkin’s Bluetooth Keyboard Folio for iPad 2 ($100). There are a few keyboard cases out there created to both house the iPad 2 as well as provide an alternative to the iPad’s digital keyboard, but this keyboard case’s keyboard is an iPad-toting writer’s dream.
Fitness buffs love Runkeeper (and its accompanying iPhone app) for its ability to gather data from a wide variety of cloud-based services and gadgets they might use, so it can be stored and viewed in a central location; we haven’t exactly counted, but it’s a good bet that the all-knowing fitness service can import data from more fitness apps, services and gadgets than any other cloud-based fitness service on the planet. But with the nine more they added today, well, now it’s just getting ridiculous.
There are those faithful who will never surrender their little white Apple earbuds. To them we say: Wear proudly. But for the rest, for those who don’t want to deal with sub-par sound, earbuds flopping around and having to hunt for foam covers, come with us — and we’ll show you a world of possibilities.
I distinctly recall a bit of maneuvering when Joe Daileda, head of sales and marketing at MEElectronics, contacted us about reviewing some of their earphones. Joe seemed particularly keen on getting a pair of their ceramic CC51Ps in our hands, but I wanted none of it — being the armature junkie I am, I was fixated on their armature-powered A151s ($75). Joe eventually ended up sending us three models (impressions of the unique, modular SP51 coming soon to a review near you).
Joe’s favoritism may have been entirely in my head — I get like that sometimes; but true enough, the CC51Ps turned out to be a stunning revelation. The A151s? Not so much.
You see that alien looking band permeating through the aurora borealis? No, that’s not a UFO looking for fuel, it’s actually Nike’s latest fitness accessories made for today’s connected world. Nike wants to remind us that “Life is a sport, make it count,” and that’s exactly what the Nike+ FuelBand does — count. It counts your calories, steps taken, time, as well as a variety of other activity.
The guys over at Macminicolo just celebrated their seventh birthday (Happy Birthday!), and took a look at some numbers. During those years, the humble Mac mini’s benchmarks have increased by some 1429%.
Steve Wozniak is a man who loves technology. He’s also a man who’s not afraid to tell it how it is. You’d expect a guy who co-founded Apple to be incessantly praising it while dismissing any advantages the competition may wield. Instead, he’s an open-minded guy who enjoys a variety of tech products, including Android. In fact, in an interview with the Daily Beast, Woz had much praise for the mobile OS that Steve Jobs was hellbent on destroying.
My colleagues here at Cult of Mac, PR reps completely unrelated to Fuji or anything photographic, random showgoers whose snippets of conversation I intercepted — everyone seemed to be talking about it. Even the very air at CES seemed to be pulsating with the word “Fuji.” Of course, they were all talking about the enigmatic, neo-retro Fuji X-Pro1.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — How did professional auto-modder Mark Abate build this custom iPad-integrated Bat-trike? He started with a stock 2010 Can-Am Spyder trike, then worked a whole lot of Gotham-inspired magic on it, that’s how. Full gallery ahead!
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – Or maybe it’s that they’re pretending even less. The amount of bling at the Monster “booth” — it was actually more of a compound, complete with a super-secret inner sanctum — would make Snooki (who was at the show) blush. Their three newly released headphones seemed far more focused on fashion than sound; even Monster founder Nole Lee’s Segway (was it a Segway?) rolled around on gold-rimmed wheels. Then there were the booth fashion shows…
The Pentax WG-1 GPS ($350) is a waterproof, shockproof location-aware camera.
If you’ve never tried a waterproof camera before, it can be quite a jarring experience. Every fibre of your soul tells you that you shouldn’t put electronic gadgets in water, so immersing this beast feels decidedly like the wrong thing to do.
As soon as you’ve done it, though, there’s a rush of delight as you press the on button and the screen lights up, and everything just works as if it were out on dry land.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – Amazing to think Sony has never offered an armature-driven earphone before; now that they are, they’re diving in huge time with eleven models. Aussie new kid on the block Audiofly just have one in their new lineup, but it’s a doozy, and it sounded absolutely stunning; we fully expect these to be a huge hit.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — Sennheiser is attacking the audio market with two exciting new headphones: the high-end HD 700s, and the mid-tier anodized-aluminum-crafted Amperior. Both have taken me to my happy place.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – Taking a cue from their cutting-edge Command Messenger laptop bag, Timbuk2 have taken their popular, almost decade-old Commute Messenger and finally given it a major overhaul.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — Blue has announced three new microphones for Mac, iPhone, and iPad here at CES: The Mikey, Tiki, and Spark. I spent a bit of time at the Blue booth checking out their new mics, and I liked what I saw.
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LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — The last Altec Lansing dock we reviewed, the Bluetooth-equipped InMotion Air, left us with a weird taste — it was just too funky. AL’s new LIVE 5000 more than makes up for this: It looks *really* stunning up close — and sounds fantastic to boot.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — Those studly hex bolts, that rubberized exterior, the thick mass of battery — Mophie’s new Power Station Pro was obviously designed with one idea in mind: keeping your iDevice-laden butt juiced out in the middle of nowhere.