Atoll’s SoundPad is a smart cover for the iPad Air with a set of built-in speakers. It costs $130, and snaps onto the iPad with Magnets. It’s flexible, and it connects to your iDevice via Bluetooth. And that is all the information available, which makes me a little suspicious.
We’ve seen roughly one zillion iPhone wallet cases passing through the pages of Cult of Mac, and like neutrinos there are surely untold others which we never even detect. And yes, the Access Case is another wallet case, and yes, it’s even a Kickstarter project. But it has one thing none of the others do: it has a sweet-looking sister that fits the iPad, and which knows how to suck…
I love this case: It’s a plain old polycarbonate shell for the iPhone 5/S, but it comes with a bunch of handy pull-out tools in embedded into the plastic itself. It’s like the pen and tweezer tools from Swiss Army Knives, only all of the tools are like that.
If I cut out the middle of a sentence from the Indiegogo page for the Apple Worm case, I get the following nugget of comedy gold:
You may need a phone holder […] at any time when you […] go to toilet, etc. Our “Apple Worm” can meet all your needs.
But aside from the toilet/worms gags, the case looks pretty handy.
Native Union wasn’t kidding around when it chose the name “Gripster” – this thing can be gripped and grabbed any way you like. Hell, even a Dolphin could get a purchase on this thing with its slippery flippers. The case, now available for the iPad mini, had a swiveling hand loop, a kickstand/carrying handle and a Smart Cover that folds up to add yet another handle.
Rickshaw Bags, the finest bag-maker in San Francisco, will now sell you a plush-lined sleeve for your iPad Air. I have tested the mini version and I loved it, although I’d say it’s actually better suited to the bigger iPad thanks to the fact that the mini looks after itself so well, even when left naked and cold in the basement of a dark messenger bag.
Three letter ran through my mind the moment this photo of the LaFonction appeared on my screen: “W.T.F.” Then I pasted it into our Hipchat chatroom, where Killian said “Haha. WTF is that?!”
The answer? It’s a giant, €840 office-in-a-bag for your MacBook.
Good news for lovers of extremely light, slim and functional iPad cases: Lioncase’s Folio Shield has been updated to fit the extremely light, slim and functional iPad Air. Regular readers will recall that the Lioncase cases are some of my favorite iPad cases of all.
I hope you’re ready for yet another case that adds extra lenses to the iPhone’s amazing camera. This one has a twist. Well, I guess they all do, but this one has a different twist. It’s also ruggedized and waterproof.
Booq’s new Viper hardcases are tough, zip-up versions of the regular Viper sleeve, an already very protective case to carry your MacBook or iPad. The hardcase is sized to fit an iPad, an 11-inch MacBook Air or a 13-inch MacBook Air. MacBook Pro users can suck it – it’s not like you ever leave the house with your giant computers anyway.
As long as Miniot keeps making its lovely wooden iPad cases, we’ll keep writing about them. The latest is this rather fetching little number for the iPad, arriving just in time to cover the front of your hot new Retina model with slivers of dead trees.
Take a look in your local bike emporium and you’ll see zillions of options for mounting your iPhone onto your handlebars. Wahoo’s PROTKT, as its name suggests, goes for boxy protection above all else, although the iPhone within remains quite usable. But should you go for this coddling case, or would you be better off with a super-simple silicone band?
Just as night follows day, death follows taxes and blissful sleep follows energetic coitus, so a new iPad is always followed by a new case. And for me that case might just be Grove’s gorgeous new Wood Smart Case for the mini and the new iPad Air.
Need a spot to stow your stylus when you’re not using it ti draw on the screen of your iPad mini? No, me neither. But I could find space for a case which holds a regular old ink pen, which Adonit’s Jot Tote will doubtless manage just fine. Hell, the slidey-out metal drawer could even be used to store a little chocolate snack as you read.
Buying an iPad case on the eve of an Apple iPad event is probably not the smartest thing to do, but if any case can tempt me it’s this gorgeous Folio from Dodocase. At the very least, it’s got me hoping that any new iPad minis have the exact same dimensions as the current one. In short, the Folio looks to be the perfect marriage of old and new tech.
The iPad mini is pretty tough. Mine fell off the top of my refrigerator (around five feet high) and landed corner-first on a terracotta-tiled floor. It survived with nothing but a dent in the corner and a slightly-bent screen as it approaches this corner.
If I’d been using the SlipStopper, though, it mightn’t have fallen at all.
Remember those swivel-screen ultrabooks? The MacBook Air knockoffs with a screen and keyboard that could be twisted and refolded to make the device into either a slimline notebook or a really fat iPad copy? Well, now you can do the same thing to your actual iPad with the iHome Type Pro Bluetooth Keyboard Case.
Love Pad&Quill’s sweet bookbindery iPhone cases, but don;t love the big Baltic birch frames that bulk them up? You’re in luck! The new Bella Fino is a leather taco for your iPhone 5/S/C that does away with the frame in favor of a reusable, re-stickable 3M “clean release” adhesive panel.
Back in March we took a look at the SIMPLcase, an iPhone case which stored your spare SIM cards and a SIM tray eject tool inside. One Kickstarter campaign and several months later, the SIMPLcase is a shipping product, and one which I which I have been testing out in a recent move from sunny Barcelona to gray Germany.
Does the SIMPLcase pass? Yup. With flying colors, in fact.
The NewTrent Gladius case isn’t the first iPad case we’ve seen with a grabby handle on the back, but it is the first we’ve seen that uses a leather strap on a plastic case. This also makes it the first case that would let you play a game of “My Little Subway Car.” Just glue the iPad to the ceiling of your bathroom and hang from the strap. For extra realism, piss in a corner a few hours before “embarking” and have family and friends pass through from time to time, asking you for money.
There’re tons of battery cases out there for the iPhone, and a good selection of waterproof cases. But a battery case that’s waterproof? Just one: the new Mojo Refuel Aqua from iBattz.
The Refuel Aqua isn’t just mildly, get-caught-in-a-little-rain waterproof — it’s go-snorkeling-with-your-iPhone-for-hours waterproof; It’s rated at a mighty IPX8, the highest waterproof rating, and iBattz says it’ll seal out water at a depths of up to three meters.
The Plicopá is a cardboard iPad sleeve which unfolds and refolds into a sturdy tablet stand, ready to support your iPad for poking, or just to prop it up while you tap out words on an external keyboard. It looks to be pretty much ideal for travelers.
What is it with wooden gadgets? Cases I can understand – cases have been fashioned from wood since cases were invented, but it seems like a poor material choice for most high-tech purposes.
Then again, it looks gorgeous, just like this wireless charging sleeve from Orée.
It’s hard to argue with the awesomeness of Grove’s Wood Print case, a maple shell for your iPhone 5 with one of your own Instagrams printed on the back. Who wouldn’t want that?
Got yourself a pair of Beats headphones? I’m sorry to hear that, but I do have some good news: no, there’s not a magic fix to tame the over-boomy bass and bring balance back to the sound of your expensive cans, but there is an iPhone 5 case that’ll help you wrangle the red cord.
Actually, the Cordii Case will work with any sufficiently thick headphone cable, not just Dre’s overpriced junk.
