I’ve been keeping my eye out for a basic, inexpensive iPhone stand for a while now. I use my iPhone as an alarm clock at night and I’ve needed something to keep it propped up. Well I’m happy to report I’ve found my solution, it’s called the Glif.
I realize a lot of people don’t care about how nasty their iPhone or iPad screens get—but I do—and I know I’m not alone.
Well those of us who like to keep a clean screen have a nifty new tool at our disposal: it’s called the Sidekick, and from what I saw, it works great. Peep the video to see how it works.
This just in from the remains of CES: Italian design firm Lavatelli has created a prototype emoticon keypad which plugs into a USB port. Soon you’ll be able to express joy, sadness, cheekiness and other ASCIImotion with just the touch of a finger! Email users and internet forum readers are atwitter in anticipation – or perhaps for some, dread.
No word yet if this will be Mac compatible. What would really be handy is a way to add a virtual emoticon keyboard to your iPhone or iPad – now that would be useful! :)
[via Geek.com]
These paintbrushes by Don Lee seem like an incredible idea. Called the Nomad Brush, each brush’s bristles are made of conductive fibers, so that it’ll work for painting on the iPad with any paint tool app.
I’m not sure I entirely see the point though. The iPad’s touch display can only register ten touch points at once, with none of the granularity that would be required to capture individual bristle strokes, not just brush strokes. Consequently, a lot of the feel and look of painting with a brush will be lost, especially since the iPad’s display doesn’t register pressure: you might as well use any rubber-tipped stylus instead for roughly the same effect.
Ultimately, it seems like whether or not the Nomad Brush is worth the dosh for you is how much more comfortable you are painting than drawing. If that sounds like you, the Nomad should be out in February.
Here’s our 2010 Year in Review of the best 10 hardware peripherals for your iPhone or iPad that we’ve come across in the last twelve months.
If you missed any of these or didn’t get a chance to check them out for some reason or another, don’t fret — all of them are still available and worth a look.
10. AR Drone Parrot
It’s going to be one lucky kid who gets this iDevice-controllable wonder
The AR Drone Parrot is a quadricopter that’s controlled by the iPhone, iPod touch or the iPad. It can be flown indoors or outside and features many sensors, including a front camera ,vertical camera and an ultrasound altimeter. High-tech sensors make it simple for kids to pilot. The AR Drone can also be used in video games, such as AR FlyingAce, a dogfight between two AR Drones.
The AR Drone Parrot is available from Amazon for $299.99
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Apple’s Camera Connection Kit for iPad is a pretty useful set of dongles for the on-the-go photographer, but it does seem somewhat redundant: why did Apple need to display two different dongles when it could have designed one dongle that read USB and SD cards simultaneously?
Such was the thinking that lead us to admire August’s 2-in-1 Camera Connection Kit for iPad, which smashed together both dongles into one converging, dual-purpose accessory.
Pretty neat, but the fancy lads over at MIC have just one-upped the 2-in-1 Camera Connection Kit… literally. Meet the 3-in-1 Camera Connection Kit for iPad, replete with a USB port, an SD card slot and a microSD card reader.. all for only $29.90. Take that!
Syncing your iPhone or iPod Touch all too often takes the device entirely out of commission, but it doesn’t have to be that way: Omnio’s WOWKeys transforms your iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch or iPhone 4 into an extension of your keyboard for both the Mac and PC.
Right now, if you want live television on your iPad, you are basically limited to using the EyeTV to stream it from your computer. What if you don’t want to be umbilicaled to your desktop, though>
Meet the Tizi, a small peripheral box being sold in Europe that pairs with your iOS device over WiFi and watch the terrestrial boob tube wherever you are.
Here at Cult of Mac, we love the crowd-sourced, gadget-creating think tank at Quirky.com, and their latest is a fantastic answer to the tangle of USB cables snaking out of the back of your iMac.
We’ve mentioned the IDAPT charging station before, but it has just been updated in a variety of colors in time for the Christmas season.
If, like a lot of us here at the Cult, you have more devices than you know what to do with and not enough time (or power outlets) to charge them all, a single charging station might come in useful.
And if it’s going to be so prominent in your home, you might as well get one that fits in with your decor.
The IDAPT i4 claims to charge over 4000 different gadgets, either via adaptors for the base unit or via USB connection to it. It will charge your iPods, iPhones and iPads quite happily – and all at once. It costs $59.99 including a pack of six mixed adaptors, or you can choose to pick your own selection of four adaptors that precisely match your devices.
The Magic Trackpad brings the feel of an Apple notebook trackpad to the desktop, but would you prefer your entire iMac desktop to feel more like typing on your MacBook Pro? Consider the BulletTrain Express, a large aluminum tray with hollows in which can be ensconced in a MacBook-like configuration both the Apple Aluminum Keyboard and Magic Trackpad.
t will cost you $99 and while to our mind the ergonomic problems seem pretty self evident when seated at a desk, we think this is probably an excellent accessory for people who want to type on their laps on their 27-inch iMacs from the more supine position of a pulled up armchair.
Generally speaking, the only type of pies worth bothering with in the United Kingdoms are delicious savory ones, but if you’re jonesing for a pepperoni pizza while on a trip to olde Albion, you now have extra incentive to stop into a Pizza Express location: iPod docks built right into the seats.
If you want to do some serious typing on your iPad, you’ll pretty much need to pair it with the official Apple Bluetooth Keyboard. The only problem is that once you pair your iPad to the keyboard, it can sometimes be annoying actually reaching up from the chiclet keys to actually navigate your tablet through directly interacting with the display through multitouch.
Or maybe it isn’t at all and I’m just lazy. Either way, the Flashpoint iBoard seems to be a product that is aimed squarely at lazy iPad keyboard monkeys like me. Essentially, it’s a standard Apple Bluetooth Keyboard that comes with a bunch of stickers that can be stuck to the keys for assigning app shortcuts, which the keyboard manages to launch thanks to an included app. A full-keyboard silicone cover rounds out the whole package.
Price? Even though the Flashpoint iBoard is essentially just a repackaged Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with some stickers and a raincoat thrown in for free, it actually costs $5 less than buying the same keyboard through Apple.com. Even if you think the Flashpoint iBoard is stupid, then — and we’re willing to admit it kind of is — it’s still an excellent deal if you’re in the market for an iPad-pairable keyboard.
Taking its audiophonic cue from the giant brass horn your crotchety grandfather greasily crams down his cochlea when his nurses attempt to shout pleasantries at him, the Bone Horn Stand is an unpowered amplifier that slips over your iPhone’s bottom half and channels the sound of your speakers up through the trumpet shaped gramophone tube at top, amping up the output by another 12 decibels. It even works as a stand. Only $25!
If you mostly play around with Macs, you’ve probably never heard of Cool Master: the company usually dedicates itself to the task of making the sorts of outrageous, glowing computer cases favored by the sort of mouth breathing PC uber-nerds who list their Counterstrike stats on their curriculum vitaes.
It’s interesting, then, to see Cool Master release a product that can be used by Apple fans, even if it is as bog standard a gadget as an external battery pack.
Called the Choiix Power Fort 5.5 Whr, this battery pack is about the same size as an iPhone and has a single charge port on the bottom that will allow it to juice up any gadget under the sun capable of sucking down electricity through the USB standard.
For Apple-only households, this means you can juice your iPod Touch or iPhone up for an additional eight hours. iPods can expect another 48 hours of on-the-road battery life. Even the iPad should get a few extra hours from the Choiix, and Cool Master says that the 5.5Whr can be recharged up to 300 times while retaining 85% of its total capacity.
Is it worth buying? If you’re looking to recharge a variety of devices, it might be a good deal, but it’s hard to tell, given how cagey Cool Master is being about the price.
JBL continues to solidly plug away at the take of making affordable, decent sounding iPhone and iPod portable speaker docks with their latest, the On Stage Micro IV and On Stage Micro III, both boasting a new and eyebrow arching design the company affectionately refers to as “the Weave.”
Compact and easily slung about, the new OnStage units feature aluminum-domed transducers to deliver accurate high-frequency response, as well as a slipstream port design that is meant to optimize bass output while doing away with distortion. The On Stage IV comes with four Odyssey transducers, which will pump out vibrant, deep and limpid sound perfect for most environments, while the On Stage Micro III only comes with two.
If you’re on a Mac, you’ve probably noticed that the connectors needed to hook up an external monitor have changed quite a bit in the last couple of years… especially if you’ve got an older Mac and are trying to hook it up to a new monitor.
Kanex to the rescue, who have just released three new adapters to make it easier to hook any Mac you please up to your sexy new display.
The timing of Scosche’s new sneakPEEK II accessory seems curiously timed.
You can’t fault it’s functionality, really. The sneakPEEK II allows you to pump content from your iPad or iPhone to your television easily by just connecting it to your device via their umbilical. On one end is the standard Apple docking connector and, on the other, composite and component inputs for plugging into pretty much any television out there. It’ll even charge your iPad while you watch a movie or play a game, thanks to an integrated micro USB connector and AC adapter.
That’s not bad functionality, but when iOS 4.2 rolls around, isn’t the point of a cable like this going to be pretty much obviated when AirPlay allows you to stream video or audio from any app to any AirPlay-compatible device… including Apple’s own $99 AppleTV?
The sneakPEEK II, of course, is cheaper than an AppleTV, but at $59.99, the price discrepancy is so minimal that we can’t help but feel there aren’t a lot of people who will opt for Scosche’s solution over Apple’s sexy black box. In fact, about the only thing to recommend it over an AppleTV is if you want to pump video from a classic iPod up to your television, or if your television lacks an HDMI port.
Last time we heard about the iControlPad, the long-delayed physical gamepad for the iPhone and iPod Touch had finally completed its two-and-a-half year journey from the brainpan of its makers to their hands as the very first model dropped off the production lines… now boasting a modular design that would allow the iControlPad to be easily updated to support future iOS handhelds. Since the official site was about to start taking preorders for the first 3,000 units, we imagined that the iControlPad was pretty much done.
Apparently not, though. As fallout to Cupertino’s recent decision to sue Sanho for using repurposed MagSafe adapters and iPod Dock Connectors in their line of HyperMac batteries, the iControlPad team has apparently gotten nervous about connecting the gamepad through the iPhone’s dock connector. Instead, they are looking to switch over to Bluetooth support.
The Wallee is both a hard case for iPad as well as a simple and efficient wall mounting solution. It allows you to use your iPad throughout your home. It’s one of the best solutions out there, and delivers both on style and functionality. The Wallee is a gadget that is so well-engineered that I often forget about it. It has just blended its way into my everyday life – just like the iPad itself.
The moment Steve Jobs quipped about the new Nano’s perfect suitability as a time piece, we all all recognized the obvious accessory void that would quickly be filled: iPod Nano watch bands.
Here’s the first: a 22mm Maratac Nylon band that will slip through your nano’s clip and comes in matching colors for just $17.
The wisdom of tethering your headphones to your wrist is, of course, debatable, as is the necessity of charging your wristwatch once per day, but if you’re so inclined, it’s now just a Jackson away from being done.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWOBSuKqiWU&feature=player_embedded#!
Supposed mind-reading peripherals are nothing new. The Atari Mindlink, for example, introduced the concept to gaming way back in 1983. It didn’t work exactly as described, though, unless the way you usually thought was to accompany your ponderings with an alarming staccato of violent facial tics: then, just then, you might get Pac-Man to drunkenly wobble across the screen for a couple seconds before Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde get their inevitable gang bang in.
Things haven’t changed much since then: consumer mind-reading gadgets still usually don’t do any mind-reading at all. They haven’t sold very well, but companies keep trying. The latest plucky upstart in the supposed-mind-control-but-probably-forehead-reading accessory market is PLX, whose XWave headset plugs into any iOS device’s audio jack and supposedly lets you drive your iPhone with your throbbing frontal lobe.
PLX claims that “with [the] XWave, you will be able to detect attention and meditation levels, as well as train your mind to control things. Objects in a game can be controlled, lights in your living room can change color depending on your mood; the possibilities are limited to only the power of your imagination.”
Or, at least, the power of PLX’s imagination, since their demonstration video (embedded above) shows concept apps that give results that seem about as reproducible in a laboratory as those of your local dive bar’s coin-operated Love Tester machine. I’m somehow guessing those “Meditation” and “Attention” meters might be randomized.
It’s $100 bucks if you’re feeling overly credulous. PLX warns that the device is “for entertainment purposes and is not intended for medical use,” so don’t use it for psychic surgery or anything.
Employing the iPad Camera Connection Kit, it’s technically possible to hook an iPad up to a portable USB hard drive… but only if that hard drive falls within the maximum range of the SD card’s storage capacity. That’s only 32GB, which makes the Camera Connection Kit’s ability to read storage off of an external hard drive more a matter of trivia than practicality.
That gruesome device above, though? That’s the Sanho spacious 750GB HyperDrive, designed to circumnavigate the iPad’s restrictions by turning individual file folders into virtual 32GB drives on the fly. It comes with a CompactFlash and SD card slot for slurping up your camera’s photos, as well as a 3.2-inch QVGA color display and the ability to interface directly with your Mac. All yours for just… $600.
*Sputter* That’s a lot of money to drop on a hard drive that, because of iOS limitations, can’t even read music or launch apps. Of course, this isn’t for consumers who need to upgrade their iPad space: it’s clearly aimed at photographers who want to be able to juggle huge archives of RAW files on their iPad’s on the fly. A very niche market indeed, given the relative lack of powerful RAW editors on the App Store, but perhaps that will change in time.
LaCie’s latest, the MosKeyTo thumb drive — get it? Har. — is a product that manages to pull off the nearly miraculous: it’s not only just 20mm long, or about the same size as the nanoreceiver of some wireless mice, but it’s actually garnered our interest enough to break our oath and yet again hit the keyboard to write something about the most boring species of gadget on earth: the USB storage dongle.
It’s not the specs, which are standard. It’s not the price: 4GB for $17.99, or 8GB for $27.99. It’s not even the drive’s tininess. No, we’re writing about it to call attention to the official product image above, featuring a giant mosquito wildly fornicating with its namesake on the lid of a MacBook Pro.
Congrats on catching our attention, LaCie! Time to give someone in your art department a raise.
Following on the heels of competitor BMW’s optional iPod dock, Steve Jobs’ preferred German automaker Mercedes Benz announced a custom cradle for the iPhone available as an option on nine classes of its vehicles. The interface will allow seamless integration between the iPhone’s music and telephone functions and the vehicle’s systems, Mercedes says.
Placed in the Mercedes’ onboard cradle, the iPhone’s music and phone functions can be controlled with the help of multifunction steering wheel controls, while the vehicle’s display indicates phone status, music functions, etc. The cradle features automatic recharging as well as increased reception with the help of the vehicle’s antenna.
More pics after the jump.
