Scott Stefan’s Kickstarter project is an odd one, but more on that in a second. In order not to bury the lede, I am obliged to tell you what the product is right up here in the first paragraph (or “graf” as “we in the biz” call it). It’s called the MaCool, and it’s a beer cooler designed to look just like an original 1984 Mac.
hŌld is an orange plastic taco for your iPAd which makes it a lot easier to hold. Instead of having to grip the thing the whole time, risking a broken wrist from the Retina iPad’s monstrous bulk, you can kind of let it hang on your fingers. And it even works with your Smart Cover attached.
People love to moan about the slimline MagSafe 2 adapter that was launched to match the skinny (current) MacBook Air. It falls out, they say. It’s too easy to knock from its magnet-hole. I’ve never had any trouble with it. In fact, I like it more than the original because not only does it stay firmly in place, but it also snaps in properly in to begin with. I often found the old fat MagSafe would fail to engage, leaving me with a dead battery when I left the house (not that I ever actually leave the house).
Anyhow, you whiners now have something else to waste your money on: the Snuglet.
With so much success on Kickstarter, the Pebble smartwatch hasn’t been easy to get hold of if you weren’t an early backer. But you’ll soon be able to pick one up at Best Buy. The retailer just added the device to its website with a $150 price tag, though it doesn’t yet have a release date.
This is the Handleband. It’s a band for your handlebars, but it’s also a great word to roll around your mouth – handleband… handleband – rattling it through your teeth and wrapping it around your tongue. Haaaandlebaaaand.
Poppy is a box containing lenses and mirrors that turns you iPhone into a 3-D viewer – or a 3-D camera. If you ever used one of the old 3-D Viewmasters, this is exactly the same. Except it uses an iPhone instead of a card circle of tiny film slides. And you can film with it as well as view. And it does video.
So not quite exactly the same, then…
If you a) use a MacBook and b) hate it when you lose the use of your arms and neck than you might like the Roost, a notebook stand that puts your MacBook at the perfect angle and height for working safely, without causing pain and RSI disorders. Oh, and it looks like the bottom of the Eiffel tower, which is cool.
The Touchfire keyboard has all the functionality of a standard keyboard, but in a paper-thin, transparent rubber that fits directly on your screen. You can still view the entire screen right through the keyboard with the ability to touch and swipe as if nothing was there – and Cult of Mac Deals has it for $42 for a limited time!
The Touchfire is a true Kickstarter success story. The creators Steve Isaac & Brad Melmon jump started the process on Kickstarter and with a goal of $10,000 they ended up blowing it out of the water with raising more than $200,000! Since their campaign ended in 2011 they’ve been in full force delivering one of the most revolutionary iPad products to consumers around the globe.
Readers with long memories for frustratingly future-distant Kickstarter projects might remember the Halopad. It was a “universal” iPad stand which I described generously as “like a pub ashtray with the bottom cut out” and – with even more generosity – “not ugly.” And now that the stand is finally for sale, I stand by both of those gushing endorsements.
If you’ve used an iPad for any significant amount of time, you know that after a while, it can get rather unwieldy to hold and use, especially with one hand. Gripping it on the side bevel is a decent sort-term solution, but the larger iPad just gets too heavy to make that a tenable stretegy for long, and even the iPad mini, with its significantly smaller bevel size, can be a challenge to hold.
There are probably a metric ton of iPad and other tablet cases out there that try to remedy this, adding bulk and unwieldy solutions along the way. In addition, cases that strap around an iPad can’t be used for other tablets or eReaders at all; they’re specifically tailored to each device’s measurements.
Two designers from Simi Valley, California aim to change all that with the HandTab, a medically-safe handgrip for the iPad and any other tablet you might own.
Seriously, I’m kind of tired of playing the typical RPG in which I take on the role of the savior of the world. This kind of power fantasy, wish fulfillment story has its place, but boy would it be nice if we could see some different stories out there.
The developers behind Kickstarter project, Unrest, must have felt the same way, as their new online RPG is set in ancient India, for one thing (not a Tolkeinesque forest complete with Orcs and Elves), and will let you play as the ordinary folk struggling to maintain their freedom, safety, peace, and keep their children fed and happy.
World of Warcraft, this isn’t.
Imagine cramming an entire iPhone stand, not just into your pocket, but into a credit card slot in your wallet.
That’s what the Pocket Tripod 360º does. It’s an ingenious little design: a small plastic card that unfolds into a sturdy dock that can keep your iPhone 5 propped up at literally 360 degree angles.
Hands up anyone who knows what a light meter is? You at the back… speak up… No, it’s not a way to tell how much electricity you use to illuminate your home. Fine, I’ll tell you: it’s what we used to use to measure light and set the exposure on our cameras, back before they were so good at doing it themselves.
Oddly enough, this weekend I found myself in need of one. And then what do I see in my inbox? The Lumu, a light meter for the iPhone.
Clipless is not a foot retention system for bicycle pedals. Or rather, it is, but this version isn’t – it just has the same name. Today’s clipless is instead a magnetic gizmo that sticks your iPhone to your clothes… Or anything else.
If you thought the new icons in iOS 7 were nauseating, then try this one on for size: It’s the RoboRoach, a kit that turns any cockroach into a cyborg you can control from your iPhone. Ugh.
Our serial-inventing friend Dotan Saguy is back, this time with yet another super-smart iAccessory. It’s a little carrying case for your everyday iPad essentials, and it is designed to integrate with your iPd Smart Cover. It’s called the Smart Cargo, and it’s as ingenious as Dotan’s other Kickstarter projects like the Smarter Stand.
Still using that Ikea wind-up kitchen timer to take your time-lapse videos? Ditch it, because somebody has finally come up with a purpose-made iPhone motion rig that is cheap, fits in your pocket and can do double (triple?) duty as a panoramarator[1], and a passive sound-amplifying iPhone dock.
This amazing little iPhone stand has two great features: it is the size and shape of a credit card, letting you carry it with you always. And it somehow manages to hold the iPhone at any angle you like, in vertical or horizontal orientations. Is it magic?
The Genii is a case which adds flashing LEDs and media buttons to your iPhone 5. That’s right – just like the Walkmans you rocked out to in the 1980s, the iPhone 5 can now have four real, physical buttons along its edge letting your play, pause and skip tracks without dragging the iPhone from your pocket and unlocking the screen.
The SETA smartphone stand is another one of those post-Lighting iPhone “docks” which don’t actually let you dock the phone. The 30 pin dock connector was bad in many ways but it did at least give us docks into which we could dump our devices and let them charge.
The SETA pretty much ignores the dock part and just proves a handsome, minimalist spot on your desk to park your phone. And it also provides a neat way to control your charging cable.
Sonte’s new film can switch up its opacity in just a second, and it can be controlled from your iPhone. Cover a window and flip it from transparent to opaque at the tap of a screen, blocking out nosy passersby or ugly distractions whilst still letting in most of the light. It’s like turning any room into a bathroom. Only without the extra plumbing required.
The Mutator is a hardware mute switch for your iPhone. What’s that you say? You already have a hardware mute switch on your iPhone? Well, yes you do. But – as the poor fellow who caused Mahlergate found out – mute doesn’t always mean “mute”.
I have three very good reasons to write this post. One is that the camera lucida is just a kick-ass gadget, the kind of thing that all you creative iOwning folks out there will presumably love. Second, the Kickstarter video which accompanies it is both interesting and educational. And third, I have an idea for a version that will use your iPad and iPhone.
If you own an iPad with a Smart Cover or Case, then you know how much of a pain it is to use it as a stand for your iPad. It literally only has two positions that aren’t ideal for doing what you need to do on your iPad. Thanks to these Smarter Stand Clips your iPad Smart Cover (or Case) can now be transformed into a fully functional stand that creates 4 different stand positions. Moreover, these clips are designed to slide up and down your Smart Cover with ease so you’ll be able to quickly change your stands position in a flash.
And Cult of Mac Deals has the Smarter Stand Clips for just $14.99 for a limited time.
The obvious thing to say about the XiStera is to call it the "“Swiss Army Knife” of iPhone 5 accessories. Leaving aside for a second the fact that, if all the Swiss Army is bringing to the fight is that little knife, it’s no wonder it refuses to play in any wars, let’s make a better analogy for the Xistera. It’s like a Glif crossed with a Pulltaps corkscrew.