Reviews - page 79

Best List: DropTech protective case for Apple iPad Pro by Gumdrop

Apple charges a whopping $599 to repair a broken screen on an iPad Pro. With its 13-inch screen, yeah, the Pro has a lot of glass, but 600 bucks is nearly as much as it costs to buy a new one. Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.

So I’m grateful that my iPad Pro is safely ensconced in the equivalent of a big, rubbery safety blanket. Gumdrop’s DropTech Case looks like a flattened tractor tire, with big ridges on the back for maintaining a grip. It’s not elegant by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m confident it’ll save me a trip to the Genius Bar.

Zuli Smartplug Presence 3-Pack

The Zuli smartplug has been out since September, but starting today, it’s gained some cool new functionality: You can now use its companion app to control Philips Hue smartbulbs.

This joins the device’s existing features like Presence, which turns on lights and adjusts the thermostat as soon as you enter a room, and schedules and tracks power usage of connected devices through the app. But if you have Hue devices and don’t already own Zuli, is its new superpower enough to justify the purchase?

Probably not, honestly. But it has enough going on that you might want to check it out, anyway.

Best List: Zagg Slim Book case

Long before the original iPad debuted, I dreamed of the day that Apple made the ultimate portable netbook that wouldn’t destroy my bank account and could be carried around everywhere.

Apple wisely never got into the short-lived netbook trend, but you can get pretty much the next best thing by combining the iPad mini 4 with Zagg’s new Slim Book case that adds a great detachable keyboard to the world’s best tiny tablet.

Today is February 29, which is always a little confusing. It’s cool that we get an extra day in the year (kinda), but we aren’t ever sure what to do with it. Do we keep acting like it’s crappy February, or should we get even more anxious for halfway-decent March? And why haven’t we filed our taxes yet?

We don’t know, but if you’re looking for a way to spend your Leap Day, here are some of the best iOS games from the past month.

Solartab 5.5-watt solar charger

It’s a problem when you get caught away from home with a dead phone. And it’s a bigger problem when you find yourself stranded with a dead phone and a flatlined portable charger. But one company has come up with a solution to both of those problems.

Solartab is a power source with a massive capacity and a handy ability: It draws energy from the sun like Superman. It can hold an impressive 13,000 mAh, which is enough to recharge an iPad Air 2 twice or an iPhone more than five times, depending on your model. And the best part is that all of this power is basically free.

The worst part, though, is that the Solartab is massive.

Urbanears Hellas Bluetooth washable headphones

You can’t beat the sound quality (or comfort) of a good pair of on-ear wireless headphones, but working out with most pairs can be an exercise in moisture management with a side of stink-appeal.

These new Hellas headphones from Urbanears solve that problem with a removable, machine-washable headband and ear cup. You simply pull off the mesh-covered bits, toss them in the provided net laundry bag, and drop them in your washing machine. You’ll never have to deal with smelly, sweaty headphones again.

One of the best email clients for the iPhone just got even better. Spark, which promises that “you are going to like your email again,” is now available for the iPad as well. And this isn’t an all-too-common instance of developers just stretching out the iPhone version of their app and calling it a day. Spark is fully optimized for the iPad’s larger display.

Even if the “teacher” is a college kid with bad diction, the one-hour Lightroom Basics course that I just took is pretty darn fantastic.

I have to take a lot of photos here at Cult of Mac, especially for reviews. Every gadget and gewgaw I review gets a big, bold photo at the top to best show off its features.

Because of this, I’ve been hoping to get serious about my photography for a while now. The first step was to sign up for one of these amazing, useful courses.

As a victim of a poorly-made iPhone wallet case that lost my ID and credit card, I’m always wary when I try a new one. I like carrying my valuables with my iPhone so I don’t need a secondary wallet, but I really like hanging onto my stuff even more.

The Urban Armor Gear Trooper case takes great pains to secure three to four plastic cards (and a bit of cash) in its roomy interior and provides a locking door that acts like a mini safe — nothing’s gonna fall out of this wallet case.

Project management can get overwhelming quickly, especially if you’re juggling multiple initiatives and deadlines at once. From keeping your team on track to ensuring there is good communication and planning between you and your client, there are tons of project management apps available in the App Store to help you tackle even the most challenging of tasks.

I’ve been using my iPhone and iPad to help me manage teams and keep projects moving for the better part of five years now. While my workflow constantly changes as tools and apps become better and better, here are my favorite project management apps that I just couldn’t do without.

Best List: MacBook Pro Skin by dbrand

The time I spend hacking away on my laptop at coffee shops, hotel lobbies and conference room floors I inevitably spot another MacBook user with a cooler-looking laptop than mine, filling me with envy.

Well, dbrand has the goods to make the other coffee shop patrons jealous.

Stellar Wanderer gets right into the action with space battles from the very first mission, which takes place in the full 360 degrees of your spaceship viewport.

You’ll take to the vastness of interstellar space, populated by huge space stations, rugged traders, and (obviously) hordes of space pirates to complete missions given to you by mysterious individuals and then taking the reward money to upgrade your craft and piloting skills.

There’s a lot of space in space, and you’ll feel every kilometer of it when you drop into Stellar Wanderer on your iPhone or iPad.

Check out the gorgeous launch trailer below.

One thing I do on my Mac more than anything else is write. On average I write about 10,000 words a week, and some weeks, I double that. And that isn’t even counting email and other kinds of communication. That’s why a great text editor app is imperative to my every day workflow. Without it, I couldn’t do my job.

With iOS 9, Apple introduced a whole slew of multitasking features including picture-in-picture, so I can watch a video while using another app. Even though this was technically already possible on the Mac, there hasn’t been an easy way to get a video to overlay another window so I can focus on both at the same time. Well the new Fluid Browser solves that problem, quite magnificently I might add.

Fluid is its own web browser, but it’s not meant to replace Safari or Chrome for my main usage. Instead, I open up Fluid and go to a website where I want to play video, like YouTube or Netflix. The video itself will enlarge to fit the width of the browser window. Then magically, if I click somewhere else on my desktop, Fluid will float above the other windows and even has adjustable opacity so I can make the video as prominent on screen as I want.

Super-elaborate, open-world games with stats, exploration, or an engrossing storyline are great, but sometimes you just want to put your foot in some ninjas’ faces. And that’s where Kick or Die really delivers.

This mobile title has been out for a couple months, but it’s just received an update that adds some new challenges and bosses. We didn’t play the earlier versions, but the new one is a fast-pased, dead-simple kickstravaganza that will keep your thumbs on their toes, even though that sounds completely stupid and impossible.

The game’s fun, though.

iPhones and iPads have become more than just media-consumption devices in so many ways. From using an iPad as a virtual cookbook to using it as a portable way to develop a website, the iPad and iPhone are extremely useful in everyday life. One of the biggest categories where these devices have made a huge difference is music.

Best List: Eve Energy Switch and Power Meter by Elgato

Thanks to this cool little HomeKit gadget from Elgato, I know exactly how much energy my PlayStation 4 uses (79 watts). I also know how much energy is sucked away by my living room lamp (40 watts), my big HDTV (143 watts) and my Apple TV (8 watts).

All I did was plug each of these devices into Elgato’s new Eve Energy Switch and Power Meter, and then pull up the associated app on my iPhone to get instant information on the power being pulled through whatever I’ve plugged in.

The smartplug is also voice-activated, letting me turn on and off whatever device is attached to it.

Neat, huh?

If there’s a single iPhone and iPad accessory I consider myself to be the most picky about, it would be charging docks and stands. While there isn’t a shortage of options, let’s be honest, most of them aren’t that great. They either don’t dock securely or they’re obsolete when a new iPhone or iPad form factor comes out.

That’s why I’ve narrowed down my vote for best iPhone and iPad charging docks to only two candidates. Yep, just two. Here’s what they are and why I think they’re better than most:

Best List: iClever BoostCube 3-port wall charger

I have a bit of an embarrassing problem: Part of my device-charging setup in my bedroom includes a power strip that sits on the floor next to my bed. It isn’t the worst thing ever, but it’s ugly, and sometimes I trip over it. But I may have found a solution in the 3-port iClever BoostCube. It will save my pride, and some space in my bag when I travel, and that’s just good news all around.

Plus, the ports glow an eerie blue when it’s plugged in, and that’s really cool-looking.

As important as it was for Apple to make the switch from 30-pin cables to Lightning cables alongside the release of the iPhone 5, there is one significant problem Apple has yet to address over the years: the durability of its charging cables. They bend, fray, tear and sometimes just stop working altogether even with only moderate use over time. Thankfully, third-party accessory makers have caught on to this, and have started offering solutions. One such offering is the MOS Spring Lightning Cable, which claims right on the packaging to be “the indestructible charge/sync cable.”

The iPhone and iPad are both great ways to consume news and RSS on the go, or while simply lounging around the house. No matter what service you use — Feedly, Feed Wrangler or something else — there are tons of RSS and news apps that support them. If you don’t need a news aggregator service, or don’t even know what that means, there are still news apps that can help you find interesting things to read.

These are currently the best of the best news apps available for iPhone and iPad — and why I think they’re so great.

You should never take a video projector camping — it completely defeats the object of the great outdoors. Unless you have kids. Then it’s handy to beam a movie onto the side of a tent to keep them quiet while you drink.

Perfect for the job is Sony’s $350 MP-CL1 — a small, battery-powered pico projector. Not much bigger than an iPhone 6+, it beams a surprisingly sharp and bright image that belies it’s small size.

Hook it up to your iPhone via a HDMI cable and adapter, and you’re off to the woods.

Best List: Fresh Brew Plus coffee maker by Zojirushi

Every coffee fiend has a morning ritual. For me, it’s getting up before my wife and brewing a half-pot of strong black coffee that we can share. She usually gets up much later than me (lucky her), so a thermal carafe works wonders for us: I can drink mine as early as I like, and she can enjoy hers at a more leisurely hour.

That’s one key reason I’ve abandoned fancier coffee makers and set up shop with a Zojirushi Fresh Brew Plus — among its other features, it boasts the best carafe I’ve ever used.

I waited for a GoPro-type video camera that won’t the break the bank, and happily discovered Vivitar’s DVR 786HD ActionCam fits the bill.

It’s tiny, capable and totally scratches my itch for an easy-to-use video camera to wean me off using up my iPhone’s battery to capture longer videos.

I found one of these ActionCams for around $75 or so on Amazon, and while it doesn’t offer all the extreme insanity of a GoPro, it’s a pretty nifty little camera on its own.

Do you frequently find yourself repeating the same blocks of text in emails? Or maybe you send certain sets of data, contact information or links on a regular basis. Text snippet and clipboard apps are lifesavers for anyone that finds themselves doing this. Many of them can not only capture and save from the clipboard, but make your most frequently used selections available in just a swipe.

These are currently my favorites when it comes to clipboard and text snippet apps, and why I’d recommend them.