Reviews - page 113

I’m a big fan of Loop Attachment’s Mummy cases for the iPhone — they’re probably the best silicone cases you can get — so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the Mummy case for iPad mini when it was announced at CES back in January.

Just like its smaller siblings, it’s made almost entirely from a soft, coated silicone that provides impact protection from those inevitable dings and drops. It’s also the first envoloping silicone case that’s designed to be compatible with the iPad mini’s Smart Cover, and the Mummy’s built-in magnets will keep your Smart Cover pinned back while your device is in use.

The Mummy has been carefully designed to show off the Apple logo on the back of your device, as well as provide access to all of your buttons, ports, and speakers while still protecting your iPad mini from head to toe. It’s available now in black, blue, graphite, red, and teal, with a white model available for pre-order.

I’ve been testing the Mummy for around a month to find out whether it’s worth its $30 price tag.

My pre gym ritual, aside from beating my chest with my bare fists and grunting, always seems to include 2-3 minutes of loathsome headphone detangling. How those confounded white wires always weave themselves into a tangled ball, I do not know, but now there might be hope.

Kordl is a little clip that secures the pod and plug ends of your headphones together, thus, theoretically speaking, making annoying detangling sessions a thing of the past. Kordl’s founders, now trying to fund their product, go so far as to promise Kordl will make your headphones tangle proof.

Bold claim! So I decided to clip a preproduction Kordl to my Earpods and find out how well it really works.

As you already know, I swing more or less caseless when it comes to iPhones and iPads. I cover the iPad’s screen with a Smart Cover, and have a dedicated jeans pocket for the iPhone. But once in a while eI need something more rugged, and that’s when I reach for X-Doria’s Shield, a multi-layer case which adds minimal weight and bulk but quite a good bit of protection:

The cellhelmet for iPhone 5 is the world’s only case that comes with one year of protection against accidental damage. If you drop your iPhone and it breaks while inside the cellhelmet, its makers, cellpig, will have it repaired or replaced for free — all you pay is the $50 handling fee.

That’s how confident cellpig are in the cellhelmet’s ability to keep your iPhone protected. The case itself costs $49.99, which is a little costly when you compare it to other iPhone cases of its kind. But because of the accidental damage cover, it negates the need for a dedicated insurance plan, so you’re still saving yourself a small fortune in the long run.

The cellhelmet is made from a polyurethane plastic that covers the back and sides of your device, while providing access to all of its buttons and ports. It has a matte finish that promises not to attract lint, and it’s available in eight different colors.

You know when you unplug your iPhone and your $20 Lightning cable goes slithering to the floor? I hate that, and it used to happen to me all the time in the morning when I set free my phone from its charging cable, and each time it happened, I thought to myself, “there’s gotta be a way to prevent this.”

Well, with the MOS securely attached to my bedside table, now there is.

Harnessing the power of magnets, MOS (Magnetic Organizing System) is a handy little puck that keeps your cables stuck to its surface and ready for use instead of lying listless and tangled on your desk or floor.

It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that any time we review a bag or case by Waterfield Designs, we’re going to love them. The San Francisco based company is such a maestro at stripping a cow to its bones then stitching the tanned hide up into a premier laptop or tablet case that dishing out an enthusiastic review of yet another one is starting to feel like a matter of course.

So it’s with a profound sense of relief that I can report that Waterfield Design’s CitySlicker MacBook case is the worst thing anyone’s ever made, ever. That includes the Fred series of movies. Scotch-taped together from what appears to be a beef jerky flavored Fruit Roll-Up, the City Slicker….

*snicker*

Sorry, I couldn’t keep a straight face. Just kidding! The CitySlicker is an awesomely stylish protective case for your MacBook Air that can double as a very streamlined laptop bag or attache case. Oh, and it also makes a pretty awesome lap desk. It’s just as good a product as any that Waterfield has ever made. But it’s definitely not for everyone.

Say hi to the little Braven BRV-1. Take a while to get acquainted… You’re going to be spending a lot of time together this summer. Why? Because not only does this little fella sound pretty good, he can follow you almost literally everywhere you might go – beach, biking, even boating – without stopping.

Regular readers will know how much I dislike iPad cases, and that I only ever subject my iPhone to the confines of a miniature straitjacket. They’ll also know that I’m a big fan of Skech cases in general. So what happened when Skech sent me some leathery iPhone covers to try out?

Surprise! I (quite) liked them.

If Apple sold an iPhone 5 dock designed to work alongside the iMac, then the OCDock would probably be it. Born on Kickstarter and provided by the fine folks at BiteMyApple.co, this device fixes to the base of your iMac or Apple Thunderbolt Display and provides you with a beautiful built-in dock that looks like it was always a part of your machine.

The OCDock has a paper-thin wire that runs under the base of your iMac’s stand, so it looks like it’s completely integrated. It also has a spring-loaded base that moves up and down, so it will even accommodate your iPhone in a case — providing the case isn’t too thick.

If you’ve ever had a party with people in various rooms of your house, maybe even outside, Bem’s Wireless Speaker Trio was made just for you.

The Trio is a neat idea: connect your music source (iPhone, iPad, iPod) via Bluetooth to its base station, then move any of its three rechargeable satellite speakers anywhere in your home, up to 120 feet from the base, and they’ll fill that room with music from your iDevice or Mac.

But while Bem’s Wireless Trio is a great idea and was awesome when it worked, my tests brought to light some problems I just couldn’t ignore.

The Rocksteady XS is meant to be a tough, loud outdoor speaker. And it is. But how does it stack up, sound and feature-wise, against some rather stiff competition?

I thought I’d heard everything there was to hear from wireless speakers. I have tested everything from the smallest, crappiest pocket speaker to the big booming Big Jambox. Then I “hooked” the Libratone Zipp up to my iPhone, and I started to enjoy music again.

The PopLock is a new iPhone 5 case from NutKase that does more than just protect your beloved smartphone from scratches and scrapes. Its built-in, pressure sensitive kickstand pops out with just a push, allowing you to stand your iPhone for FaceTime calls and watching movies.

The stand is also designed to be a clip, which lets you fix your iPhone 5 to almost anything that’s sturdy enough to hold it, such as a computer monitor or an air vent in the car. The PopLock is made from a durable polycarbonate that promises to absorb shock, and it provides you with access to all of your ports, buttons, and cameras.

The case is available in grey and black, and it’s priced at $22.99. Here’s what I think of it after testing it for a few weeks.

With features like Bluetooth 4 connectivity, hundreds of levels of pressure sensitivity, and a built-in undo button, the Pogo Connect Pen (currently about $79 $62 on Amazon) sounds like an amazing drawing and painting tool for your iPad or iPhone.

Question is, how’s it perform in real life? I took it for a test drive to find out.

This review is slightly unusual: We already published a review of the same device a couple of weeks ago: the Logitech Easy-Switch keyboard. I liked the look of it so much that — on Killian’s recommendation — I went out and bought one of my own. Or rather, I bought one, returned one and searched the internet high and low for another one.

So why the “duplicate” review? Because I use a keyboard in a different way than Killian. Where he sits at the dining room table surrounded by iDevices and Macs, I work not only in different rooms but in bars (cafes), on buses, wherever I might be. So I figured I’d write a very different review.

Interested?

For the longest time, there were no Lightning docks available for iPhones or iPads, and it looks like Apple will never make one. I have some thoughts on why that might be, but we’ll get to that in a bit. For now, we’re going to take a quick look at the seemingly crappy dock I picked up from Amazon last month. It’s called the “White Wave Lightning Dock Docking Charge Station for Apple iPad Mini/ iPad 4G/ iPhone 5/ iPod Touch 5G/ iPod Nano 7G,” which should give you some idea of the kind of SEO-mad company behind it.

The Beamhaus Pocket is a premium leather sleeve for the iPhone 5 that’s “inspired by old baseball mitts, broken-in leather jackets, and long-loved boots.” It’s made from hand-selected leather from the Horween Leather Company, the oldest tannery in the United States, and it’s built to provide your iPhone with complete protection from everyday scratches and scrapes.

On the front of the Pocket, there’s a little pouch that’ll hold up to three credit cards — according to Beamhaus — plus a large cutout at the bottom that allows you to access your Lightning connector and hear your speaker. The Pocket is also lined with suede, which aims to prevent your shiny iPhone 5 from getting damaged as you slip it in and out of the case.

The Pocket is available in black and tan, and it’s priced at $59.99. Read on to find out whether it’s worth it.

TC Electronic’s Flashback guitar pedal ($169) is a multitalented piece of gear. Its robust set of delay and loop features make it easy to get lost in hours of guitar playing, but when paired with a Mac or iOS device, it does something no other pedals can do.

The promise of the Wahoo RFLKT is of a tiny, ultralight box with an LCD readout which displays information from an iPhone cycling app on the handlebars of your bike. You get the advantage of using your favorite tracking app, and also of having an easy to read and control HUD, instead of having to buy an expensive GPS-enabled bike computer.

The reality comes somewhat short.

Amen! A charging case designed for the iPhone 5. Mophie’s new Juice Pack Helium ($79) is one of the first of its kind that work with longer iDevice, so if you find your i5’s often running in the red battery zone by noon each day, read on for the full review. This sleek and slim charging case might just be exactly what you need.

This is the Unu Enerpak Vault. It’s an excellent spare battery pack for any of your portable devices, and it is even powerful enough to almost (almost) charge the thirsty, thirsty Retina iPad.

But what it does the most (apart from get you out of pretty much any charging emergency) is show the amazing difference between the batteries inside out iDevices.

It’s no longer a surprise to walk into a store that sells gloves and mittens and finding a pair with capacitive spots on the thumb and forefinger. These gloves let you tap on the screen of your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or other touchscreen device without having to take off your gloves, thereby saving you from potential cold hands or frostbite.

Living in a cold city like Anchorage, AK, I’ve come to appreciate the ability to use my iPhone when I’m outside, but really haven’t found a pair of gloves that let me use my iPhone naturally and easily, until now, with these knit gloves from Glove.ly. These soft, warm knit gloves now let me use my forefinger, a pinky, a thumb–indeed, a whole hand or two–to tap, swipe, and multi-touch gesture my way around an iPhone or iPad screen.

I’m fairly in (g)love.

The Logitech Easy-Switch ($100) is a Bluetooth keyboard that’s designed to work with both Mac and iOS devices — at the same time. It’ll connect to up to three devices simultaneously, then it will allow you to quickly switch between them as and when you need to.

Its built to compliment your Mac, with an aluminum top cover, black accents, and black laser-etched keys that look right at home in front of an iMac or Thunderbolt Display. It has a built-in battery that’s rechargeable via USB, and it offers up to a whole year of power — depending on how you use it, of course.

The Easy-Switch also has a row of function keys, that’ll allow you to adjust brightness, control media playback and volume, and use features like Mission Control. But its best feature, at least in my opinion, is its backlit keys, which allow you to type comfortably in a dark room.

The Easy-Switch is by far the best keyboard I’ve used. It’s better than my old Logitech keyboard, and it’s better than Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard. Let me tell you why.

We’re really stoked to show off this sleek and slim premium leather iPhone case from CaptCase. The all-round magnetically closing case encloses and protects your phone back and front without covering up the earpiece during calls, with a little slot for listening. It also has some other nice features such as a slender back-pocket for stashing in cards and cash, so you can ditch your wallet and travel light. If you are looking for a plain, black, no-nonsense, businesslike leather case for your iPhone, here it is.

Lioncase’s Folio Shield might be the best case I’ve yet tried for the iPad mini – apart from the Smart Cover that is. I’ll admit that I had trouble testing it because I love to fondle and caress the mini’s naked curves so much, but I forced myself, and I found out that – in the end – I quite enjoyed it.