Most smartbulbs I’ve tried only let me use my iPhone to change the color of the bulb and to turn it off and on. I’ve never found one bright enough to read by, either, making me wonder if it’s even possible with the current technology.
The Yeelight is my answer: It’s a fantastic, app-controlled, touch-enabled smartlamp that’s colorful enough to set a fun mood while also being bright enough to use for my before-bed reading ritual.
Bottom line, this one’s a winner.
As a teenager in the 80s, I love a good boombox. The bigger, the better, like Radio Raheem’s.
That’s why I was keen to check out Nyne’s new Bluetooth Boombox, called — what else — the Rock. It’s the biggest Bluetooth speaker I’ve ever seen, promising to put out 65 watts of raw music power.
But does it rock — or not?
We’re always looking for ways to take our tech on the go without filling up our limited bag space, and we’ve found a pretty great solution to both in this handy and compact keyboard. It connects either wirelessly (via Bluetooth) or with an included USB cable, and it’s comparable in size to the standard keyboard on our MacBook Pro. But that isn’t even the best part.
The really cool bit is that iClever’s gadget folds up when you’re done with it, and it reduces its size almost by half. It’s kind of ridiculous, but that’s not at all a complaint.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of games available in the App Store. I’ve played tons of them over the years. Some of those games eventually ended up getting deleted, or moved to the last few pages of my games folder, where they remain for long car or plane rides.
However, there are a few games that have remained on my iPhone or iPad’s Home screen for literally years now. Even long after their launch, I still launch these games regularly, play them, and thoroughly enjoy them.
Building a smartphone that beats the Galaxy S6 has likely been Samsung’s biggest challenge so far. How do you improve upon an already stellar design and one of the best smartphone cameras on the market? You build the Galaxy S7.
With its curved glass back, larger battery, Dual Pixel camera and even more powerful internals, the Galaxy S7 is the smartphone to beat in 2016.
If one Gabba is excellent, then Gabba 2 has to be better.
The Gabba 2 Convertible Jacket is just that — Gabba turned up a notch.
Take what was the highly popular and highly functional original Gabba jersey, add some removable sleeves, and the Gabba 2 jacket is the perfect on-the-road companion.
You can usually tell when a game has been well-crafted. A great game will include excellent graphic design, playability, a captivating story and, of course — the soundtrack. A soundtrack can turn a great game into an extraordinary game, captivating the player and immersing them into a world they’ve only dreamt about.
A compelling soundtrack will have amazing melodies, epic chord changes that make you feel something, and sounds that are perfectly tailored to the atmosphere of the game. Below, check out four great iOS games that have amazing soundtracks. I caught up with a few of the soundtrack creators who make these beautiful soundscapes, and their answers to my questions give a ton of insight into how special this music really is.
We all like to carry our gadgets around with us, but there are certainly times when being ultra-portable is apropos to the activity at hand. Say, vacation. I want to be able to take along just my iPad, or perhaps get some writing done in the local coffee shop — and the trendy ones usually have tiny tables that aren’t big enough for a full laptop.
The BrydgeAir iPad keyboard case is an impressive Bluetooth accessory and a fantastic match for the iPad Air. The keyboard allows me to be a bit more productive than I would without an actual keyboard, turning my iPad into a small, MacBook-like, laptop-style tablet.
As far as smartphone cameras have come with improved low-light shooting and intelligent LED flash, there will always be some situations in which you could use just a bit more light. This is especially true for photographers who want to make smart adjustments for their photos, or people who tend to do most of their socializing at night. So it’s worth shining a light on iblazr 2, a fantastic Bluetooth LED flash.
This successor to Concepter’s original iblazr isn’t just your ordinary wireless LED flash. It’s equipped with tons of features that let me fine-tune the way I want my photo to come out. The most important feature for me is that it works with the native camera apps on iOS and Android. In fact, according to Concepter’s website, it’s the only wireless LED flash that does.
A few years back, I looked forward to checking into my favorite TV shows and movies on GetGlue and seeing how many of my other friends were watching what I was. There’s something to be said about movie- and TV-tracking apps that build a sense of community, which is why I think GetGlue did so well with its initial strategy.
Since GetGlue went away, I’ve had to find other ways to not only track my favorite TV shows and movies, but build watch lists and get recommendations from friends. Here’s what I’m currently using and why I think they’re the best movie- and TV-tracking apps for the job, at least for now.
Sure, I can check the weather using any number of built-in or third-party apps on my iPhone, but what if I want to know what the humidity is in my own backyard?
Weather nerds rejoice — we now have a way to access and track the weather from anywhere this simple, easy to use white box and associated app is placed. The Eve Weather outdoor weather sensor melds right in with Elgato’s other HomeKit-compatible products, too, letting me check the details of my local microclimate with ease.
I can also ask Siri what the temperature is in the backyard, which is all kinds of cool.
I thought I knew myself pretty well by now. Boxer briefs instead of boxers or briefs. Surf before turf. Toilet paper over and not under. And over-the-ear headphones well before on-ear or in-ear.
But the NAD Viso HP30s have me questioning my allegiances to over-the-ear.
Endless runner games have done exceptionally well on the App Store for a long time. I was introduced to the concept when I played Mirror’s Edge on the PlayStation, and have been hooked on this type of game ever since.
Endless runners leave you little time to make decisions, and that makes these games exciting — and sometimes frustrating!
Once a year, I head into the backwoods outside of Anchorage and spend a week or so at a public-use cabin by a lake to unplug and clear my head of the necessary evils of urban living.
There’s no running water, no electricity, no internet. It’s delightful, but it takes some planning to keep my iPhone charged up in case of emergency.
I can’t wait to take this rugged, high-capacity, waterproof backup battery with me this year, as it’s the perfect companion for a modern outdoor adventure.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.