The iOS lock screen is a boring place. It displays the time, any notifications you’ve received since you last unlocked your device, and a shortcut to the Camera app. But that’s it. When you compare it to Android’s lock screen, which now has support for all kinds of cool widgets, it’s clear there’s room for improvement.
One way Apple could start improving it for iOS 7 is with this awesome concept from Jean-Marc Denis.
If you use Bluetooth as much as I do, you’ll know that there are times when it works flawlessly and times when it does not. Many of the issues around sound quality of a Bluetooth speaker or the performance of a Bluetooth keyboard have to do with the strength of the signal going between your Mac and the Bluetooth gadget.
Here’s a simple way to check the signal strength of each device you’re using.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Y’know how we said something or other about how iHome had an avalanche of new products? Yeah, forget we said that; the amount of new products at the Philips fort (really, they had, like, an encampment) made the iHome avalanche look like a powder dusting. And amazingly, most of it is actually worth talking about. Here’re the highlights from our booth tour.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – With seven groovy, psychedelic colors to switch between for backlighting, Luvvitt’s new Ultra Thin Keyboard Cover would no doubt have been Timothy Leary’s keyboard of choice — had iPad Minis, iPads or technology in general been around in the ’60s.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 –
BlueAnt Wireless is showing off a tiny little device at CES this year called the Ribbon, which they claim can turn almost any speaker into a Bluetooth streaming device. BlueAnt describes three ideal use cases for the device, each providing different functionality.
First of all, the device can be used to clip onto your clothing in order to stream audio from your iPhone. The Ribbon comes with headphones which connect to a standard headphone jack on the device. The controls onboard the Ribbon give you access to media controls as well as Siri.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – After four trips to CES, it’s not often I find a gadget that ambushes me straight out of left field; this one comes from the bleachers. And judging by all the buzz that’s erupted at the show and on the blogosphere about this ungainly Bluetooth utensil variously referred to as the HAPIfork, HapiFork or Hapifork (we went with the latter), I’m not the only one.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – I love my Jambox, but I’m always perplexed why I can’t charge my iPhone using it. After all, it’s essentially a big battery brick with a speaker attached… why can’t I siphon some juice off the top?
The answer is that, in reality, the Jambox has a pretty tiny battery. It’s good for powering a speaker, but it would die pretty quick if you tried to juice an iPhone or (heaven!) an iPad with it. The JBL Charge, though, remedies that problem: it’s a great sounding Jambox-style speaker with a massive battery inside.
We’ve been itching to get our hands on the Pebble smartwatch since it first hit Kickstarter, but that wait will be over later this month. At CES in Las Vegas today, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky announced that the device has now entered mass production, and that shipping will begin on January 23.
Wireless speakers are often the best way to enjoy the music you have stored on your smartphone or tablet, but like other electronics, there are some places you wouldn’t want to take them — such as the beach or the lake. Filling them with sand and water will kill them incredibly quickly.
That’s not a worry with the NUU Splash, however, because it’s both dust and water resistant.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – There’s nothing that isn’t Bluetooth-powered at CES. We saw a Bluetooth-enabled fork the other day, and today, we saw a pack of Bluetooth-enabled stickers. Really.
Unlike the stickers of Hello Kitty and She-Ra: The Princess Of Power that Buster and I shrewishly compete to collect, however, the Stick ‘N’ Find Bluetooth stickers are actually pretty useful, although worth every penny as much to collect.
Wouldn’t it be cool if your Mac locked and unlocked itself based on the proximity of your iPhone? A new menubar app called Keycard uses the Bluetooth sensors to detect when you walk away from your Mac. If you need to get up and, for example, take a call on your iPhone, Keycard will lock your Mac for you until you return.
OS X lets you automatically log out when your Mac is left unattended for a certain amount of time, but Keycard is all about location. The nearness of your iPhone is the key to unlocking your Mac, so you don’t need to manually enter your login password.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – There are many ways that you can annoy pedestrians and motorists with your bike: riding on the sidewalk; ringing the bell constantly as if you were a five-year-old child; running red lights without looking first.
And my favorite: riding a municipal bike-share bike the wrong way down a one-way street, whilst texting (not talking – texting) on a cellphone.
Now, Scosche adds to the long list with a speaker that sits in a bike’s bottle-cage.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – With irritating regularity, my girlfriend and I dance the same dance. She, or I, go to bed with our iPhones. She, or I, lose it somewhere within the ocean of the bedfolds. She, or I, find ourselves apoplectic. She, or I, demands that the other calls the phone to locate. And then she, or I, realize that we’ve lost our phone too. And then we murder each other into a spattering of bloody chunks in our festering rage, somehow to reconstitute ourselves, temporarily find our iPhones and begin this amphisbaena dance anew.
But no longer! At Digital Experience, I talked with a wonderful little outfit selling a gadget called the Hipkey, which creates a sort of blood bond between a dongle and your iPhone. The possibilities after that are pretty rich: not only can it help you find a lost iPhone, or a lost set of keys, but you can even do things like help find a missing child or be alerted by a pickpocketed smartphone with it.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – UK-based Fitbug is new to the U.S., and makes gadgets very similar to Fitbit — but they weren’t shy about letting us know they were the first to come up with the idea.
“We were first.” Fergus Kee, Fitbug’s Executive Chairman, stopped short of actually saying fitness gadget-maker Fitbit is a wholesale clone of his company — but he got pretty close.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – If you think you’ve seen it all, think again. Straight out of CES this year comes what appears to be the world’s first Bluetooth-enabled fork. As crazy as it sounds, the concept behind it is actually pretty simple.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Apple accessory powerhouse iHome unleashed a mighty avalanche of products last night, the lion’s share of which was Bluetooth in nature. Highlights from the deluge include a Bluetooth version of the perennially popular iMH series portable speakers and the quirky iBT44, a Bluetooth boombox — not simply a Bluetooth-equipped speaker that some marketing guru has slapped the term with, but an honest-to-goodness, FM-equipped stereo circa 1983, only covered in rubber. Oh, and there was also a double-Lightning clock-dock. And Bluetooth headphones. And more Bluetooth speakers. And regular speakers.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Withings has now added a heart-rate monitor and an air-quality sensor into their WiFi Body Scale, which previously just measured weight and body-fat percentage. In fact, their scale now has so many sensors, they’re not even calling it a scale anymore.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – The idea behind Felt Audio’s lineup of iPhone accessories is simple. We’re going to let you take the sound from your iPhone and snap it on anywhere.
Did Santa forget to bring you an iCade controller for your iPhone this Christmas? Well, don’t feel too downhearted, because you can now pick up ThinkGeek’s iCade Jr. for iPhone and iPod touch for just $9.99. That’s a whopping 80% off its regular $49.99 price tag.
Nyne’s new NB-250 portable speaker is a modern update on the venerable boombox: portable and loud.
But it’s a lot smaller and more discreet than a boombox of old.
The Bluetooth speaker comes in a trendy, unobtrusive black shoulder bag for transporting to park, pool or a party. It not only looks good but sounds nice as well.
Believe it or not, Christmas is almost here, and we’ll mark this midwinter festival by getting together with friends and family and continuing to drink and eat far too much.
Meanwhile, we also buy gifts for those same friends and family members, whether they want them or not. Luckily, we’re here to help, and if you follow our festive advice, your gifts just might make it into the “wanted” category.
From now until Christmas, Cult of Mac will be putting together holiday gift guys full of ideas for the special ones in your life, no matter what their interests or your budget. Today, we’re looking at gifts that cost less than $100, for people you like quite a lot, but not that much.
This Cult of Mac Deal sounds great…literally!
The AFS1 Portable Bluetootk Speaker offers great sound – wherever and whenever you want it. You can easily sync this powerful little speaker to your tablet, phone, computer, or bluetooth compatible music player to enjoy stereo quality tunes anywhere. And for only $39 you’re gettinga deal that sounds great on a whole other level!
One day, I promise to stop writing about little candybar-shaped Bluetooth speakers, but today isn’t that day. After all, these things are so handy, and so excellent for their size that more choice has got to be better, right? Today’s offering comes from somebody we already know – Braven – and it has the dubious distinction of having appeared on the QVC shopping channel.
We’re very stingy with our five-star ratings, and it’s even more rare for us to slap all five onto a gadget. So pay attention — because today we’re awarding the full five stars to the Logitech UE Boombox ($250), a portable, battery-equipped, eight-driver Bluetooth speaker that sounds absolutely astounding. In fact, the Boombox does a better job of rocking out than some non-portable, home systems costing much more.
Believe it or not, Black Friday has already come and gone. Pretty soon the Christmas season will begin, and we’ll mark this midwinter festival by getting together with friends and family and continuing to drink and eat far too much.
Meanwhile, we also buy gifts for those same friends and family members, whether they want them or not. Luckily, we’re here to help, and if you follow our festive advice, your gifts just might make it into the “wanted” category.
From now until Christmas, Cult of Mac will be putting together holiday gift guys full of ideas for the special ones in your life, no matter what their interests or your budget. Today, we’re looking at gifts for people who are like, totally into their iPads. Totally.
