Reviews - page 115

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.

Out of all the junk that I own, there are a few objects which I love to use. And I mean “love” on a base, visceral level. These are the things that are so well suited to their tasks that they not only never get in the way, but they make doing that task better.

When I heat milk and cocoa in my small De Buyer saucepan, alone in my quiet kitchen late at night, I smile when I unhook the pan from its hanger and feel its durable heft; I smile again when I pour the cocoa into a thermos and feel the pan’s perfect balance. Even washing it and hanging it up again is a pleasure.

I also love to use my dented, stainless steel Klean Kanteen “Reflect” water bottle. It’s design is so simple, just two pieces of steel, a silicone ring and a bamboo disk, but it does its job so well that I really do take it everywhere with me. And it’s so trustworthy that I’ll toss it into my bag along with my iPad and never worry about it leaking.

Which is to say, some things are not just well designed, they’re actually wonderful objects in their own right. And Twelve South’s SurfacePad for the iPhone is one of those objects.

Moves is that rare thing on the modern App Store — a free app that has an enormous amount to offer. It’s magical in its simplicity, an app that asks no more than you switch it on and forget about it.

All you have to do is carry on with life. Moves tracks your movements, intelligently works out whether you’ve been walking, running, cycling or using transport of some kind, and provides you with a helpful summary at the end of each and every day.

Best of all, though, it does so without any need for input from you. You don’t have to tell it that you’re going out for a run. You don’t have to tell it you’re walking from A to B.

It just knows.

The XFLEX from BiteMyApple is a gadget stand for smartphones and tablets that’s so versatile, it has an almost unlimited number of uses. It’s great around the home, in the office, in the car… and anywhere else you fancy taking it.

The XFLEX has a weighted base that ensures even the heaviest of tablets won’t cause it to topple, while its flexible arm let you move your device around to get the best viewing angle — whatever you might be using it for.

The XFLEX costs $109.99, and it promises to be a “single stand solution” that “works practically anywhere.” But does it live up to its claims?

The idea was simple, create a brush and stylus combo tool that gives users an authentic painting experience on the iPad. Born on Kickstarter, the Sensu artist brush for iPad ($40) cruised well past its $7,500 funding goal, sitting pretty at just under $66,000 by the end of its funding deadline.

I now sit here with the product of that idea and Kickstarter cash, and after days of testing and tinkering with it, I can say with all sincerity—the Sensu team was definitely on to something special.

New interface ideas are few and far between on the App Store these days, but productivity app Sooner is crammed full of them. It’s also elegant and speedy and rather fun to use.

I have a love-hate relationship with Spigen’s line-up of Glas.T screen protectors.

On the one hand, they just feel great. If there’s any truth to the notion that screen protectors are to smartphones what prophylactics are to sex, the Glas.t feels like wearing nothing at all. The extra millimeters of glass help protect your screen from scratches, but still feel like you and your iPhone are going bareback.

The problem? Glas.t screen protectors are made of glass, and so they crack, they chip, and they break. The glass is tempered (hence the ‘t’) so they never downright shatter, but they do tend to break in other ways fairly easily. If you’re invested in keeping your screen protector pristine as well as your iPhone display, replacing Glas.t’s can become expensive quick.

Now, here comes the Glas.TR, Spigen’s new and improved glass screen protector for the iPhone 5. The ‘R’ at the end stands for “Rounded,” and it stands for rounded corners, which Spigen says makes the new Glas protector much more resilient than they were before. But what’s the truth?

FioWriter is a text editor for iOS, outwardly similar to many that have gone before it, but with a style all of its own. One important difference is that it provides keyboard shortcuts of the sort you’re familiar with on your desktop computer. Their usefulness, however, depends on the device you’re typing on.

As video surveillance goes, Netgear’s VueZone system is about as easy and user-friendly as it gets. But does VueZone sacrifice power and performance for ease-of-use? We tested the two-camera system, which cam with two motion-detecting cameras, four magnetic mounts and the master gateway for $290. It also came with a one-month trial subscription to the Premier service subscription; the no-frills Basic service, which allows you to montitor up to two cameras remotely from your computer, is free.