There are two things I love about these Kransen headphones from UrbanEars. Actually, there are three: that woven cord looks great in red. The other two are cable-wrangling tricks that would be welcome on any pair of earbuds: not that Apple would ever make an accessory so useful.
The MiStand might look like a big, heavy, over-engineered iPad desk stand, and it probably is. But it has one standout feature that makes it interesting: A big magnetic ball.
The SideCar is a lump of silicone that’ll let you use a dual-monitor setup even when you’re on a plane. It’s a simple connector that hangs your iPad off the side of your MacBook screen, either just to keep it handy, or to use as a second monitor using one of many screen-spanning apps in the store.
According to Derek “beefcake with a brain” Morgan from Criminal Minds, “sitting is the new smoking,” and too much of it will kill you. But who wants any boring old standing desk? Yes, you could put a couple of milk crates onto your regular desk and prop your MacBook on top, but why do that when you can spend $3,900 on the Stir Kinetic Desk, a standing desk with a touch screen?
If you have a router (no, not that kind of router), a chunk of plywood and some mad craft skillz, then you could make your own Undulating Contours charging station. If you are missing any one of those, then, it’d be better to spend the $24 on the real thing, hand-hewn in Louisiana.
Warning: Sarcasm follows.
“Are you drinking enough water?” asks BluFit. Well are you? This is how to tell:
If the answer to the above question is “yes,” then you should drink some water.
I’m kidding, of course: BluFit is in fact a totally legit gadget that makes it easy to track how much water you drink. What is it? It’s a water bottle that connects wirelessly to an app on your iPhone.
Seriously.
Oh, man, this is an invention likely to make it impossible for me to ever leave the house. It’s called the Brewbot, and it’s an iPhone controlled machine which brews “high quality craft beers” without leaving your armchair.
Is nothing sacred? I had thought that paper airplanes might be the last holdout for fully-analog toys. After all, all you need is a sheet of paper, a pair of functioning hands and a place to throw stuff. Even in jail these things can be found, and while your first attempts might not fly so well, the joy of the game is in the tuning and improving of your designs.
But now even that simple pleasure has been ruined by technology: the PowerUp 3.0 iPhone-Controlled Paper Airplane is a thing which will soon be available.
While we’re all looking over here at the big, bulky, ruggedized mounts that let us carry our iPhones on our bike handlebars, over there in Austria they’re making a minimal mount that you can leave on the bike or carry in your pocket. It’s called the Finn, and according to at least two of my German friends, it’s excellent.
When our own Rob LeFevre reviewed the Earskins, he was surprised to find them to be an “essential accessory” for his EarPods. I decided to give them a go too. And guess what? They really are essential: I actually have a spare set, because now I can’t imagine using my EarPods without them.
Marshall’s beautiful Stanmore brings some retro styling to the Bluetooth speaker game, looking a lot like one of the company’s classic combo amps or – if you want to really rock out – like the front of a speaker from a stack, with the head-unit controls concealed on the top.
Oh man, I love feeding pets, and they love it too. After your little friend has finally dragged you out of bed (by attacking your feet with sharp claws [cat] or nuzzling you with his disgusting wet nose [dog]), you both head to the kitchen together. He’s all around your ankles, excited for breakfast. And you? Totally up early – again! – and ready to make a delicious cup of coffee with plenty of time to enjoy it.
Now, though, there’s a new way to feed pooch or moggy: the Pintofeed. Here’s how the morning goes with a little iPhone-controlled automation:
Your loyal companion scratches at your closed door. You hear him and reach for your phone, irritated. You tap a button, and the Pintofeed in the kitchen dumps another load of dried meat pellets into its dusty bowl. Your pet goes to the kitchen, alone, and half an hour later you wake up, rush into your clothes and pick up a Starbucks on the way to work. Nice going, you lazy, selfish creep.
The Magnefix book case for the iPad mini solves two problems: first, it protects the edges and corners of the little iPad like the Smart Cover never can, and second, it converts into a stand that doesn’t suck – the opposite of the iPad Mini’s own Smart Cover.
And, as all future-looking gadgets do, it works with the help of frikkin’ magnets.
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The case, which costs £36 (or $58) is made with an polypropylene core and a TPU outer, with a microfiber lining to keep the screen nice and clean. To turn it into a stand, you open it up, flip the cover round back and the magnets take over, snapping the cover into place to make a sturdy stand. Compare this to the Apple case which collapses like a house of cards the first time you tap the screen.
That said, I will remain a loyal user of the official cover as it does what I need (screen protection, sleep/wake) and weighs almost nothing. Plus, it’s a pretty great tool for killing mosquitos (when removed from the iPad of course).
The new Magnefix is available now.
Source: C6
Presumably thanks to hangovers caused by excessive in-flight drinking on the flight formthe U.S to the antipodes, the iFixit folks managed to not find the M7 chip inside the new iPhone 5S during their teardown before the weekend, leading to speculation that the chip didn’t even exist. Conspiracy! And as with any drunken adventure, lost things start to reappear when the dawn finally rises. The M7 chip is there alright; it just doesn’t have a big "M7" label on the front. According to the Chipworks’ blog, the M7 still carries its factory label: NXP LPC18A1. <!–more–>
> Luckily, we’ve been able to locate the M7 in the form of the NXP LPC18A1. The LPC1800 series are high-performing Cortex-M3 based microcontrollers.
The M7 is a separate chip then, but (as Apple already made clear on the iPhone 5S product page) it processes the data from the MEMS sensors on the main A7 chip, letting the iPhone 5S’s big brain stay asleep while the low-power M7 works tirelessly in the background. These sensors – compass, accelerometer, gyroscope – are mostly the same as in previous iPhones, with the exception of the new Bosch Sensortech BMA220 3-axis accelerometer. According to Chipworks, this is the first time a Bosch component has been found in an iDevice.
The A7 is made by Samsung, just like previous iPhone brains, despite Samsung’s continued and shameless ripping off of Apple’s designs in all other areas. I guess there’s no decent alternative yet.
Source: Chipworks Blog)
There’s no getting around the fact that you look like a total dork when taking photos with your iPad, a problem only slightly mitigated by using the iPad Mini. But id you start shooting video with the Padcaster Mini, all bets are off. Even with my finely-tuned DorkDar (like a radar for nerdiness), I have no idea whether the Padcaster Mini will make you look awesome or utterly ridiculous.
I never make actual phone calls – they’re for people who don’t know how to use the internet. But I used to, and I remember one thing: real telephone handsets are way more comfortable to use than cellphones, especially for long calls.
Which is to say, the POP Desk handset will look great next to your fax machine.
Boom! No, I mean it literally. This is a boom mic for the iPhone, although here is is pictured not on a boom but on the iPhone itself. Yes, for just $40, you too can make amateurish-looking movies where the mic dips into frame at just the wrong moment[1].
The Nikon AW1 might look look as awesome as the Nikonos, Nikon’s previous waterproof camera (pictured below), but it is the first interchangeable-lens camera I can remember since that iconic design that can be taken underwater without a housing. And having tried out underwater photography with an iPhone and a blurry-lensed case this summer, I can totally see the appeal of doing it with a proper camera.
Juicy external battery packs are definitely the way to go for the globetrotting nerd – I have had my bacon saved a few times by the 12,000mAh battery pack I carry with me on trips – they’re not only good for the iPhone, but the iPad min, a Kindle, and even USB bike lights (this is the best unknown use for these chargers).
But you know what would be even better? A ruggedized, waterproof battery pack. And – surprise – that’s exactly what I’m just about to tell you about.
No matter how fast you can unlock your iPhone and launch Drafts app, you’ll still be slower than someone jotting down a note with a pen and paper. But that means you have to carry a separate notepad along with your iPhone, and then you have to dig around in your bag or pocket to find it.
Not so with the Paperback, a, uh, a paper back for the iPhone 5/s/c.
With the exception of latency, AirPlay beats out Bluetooth audio streaming any day. Fewer dropouts, way better (lossless) quality and less power drain on your iDevice, as it works over the Wi-Fi connection you already have on anyway.
Usually, though, AirPlay speakers are expensive. The Auris Skye is designed to fix that, turning any dock connector into an AirPlay receiver.
If you want to get serious about typing on all your devices (and I mean all) (and I also mean serious), then the new Kanex Multi-Sync Keyboard is what you want. It’s a full-sized keyboard with a number pad, and it can connect to one device via USB, plus three more via Bluetooth, switching between them at the touch of a button.
Who needs to carry a clutch of compatible cables just to charge a few gadgets when you could just toss the CrossLink into your pocket/travel bag and be done? Best of all, it costs less than many single dedicated cables.
Product managers at Nikon and Canon must be getting pretty worried about their bonuses right now – First of all they’re still being squeezed by cellphone cameras at the low end, and now even their high-end compacts look absurd in the face of Fujifilm’s latest offering, the X-A1. It’s a camera which costs around the same as Nikon’s P and Canon’s G cameras ($600), only it comes with an APS-C sensor and an interchangeable lens.
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?
