Last seen wrapping the iPhone in chopped-up fire hoses, the folks at Station Supply Co have expanded (pun most definitely intended) into recycled airliner life rafts. That’s right: now you can cover your iPhone or iPad with a swatch snipped from a genuine 1970s-era PanAm life raft.
There are probably more slick-looking weahter apps in the app stoire than there are gimmicky to-do list managers, but if you want a meteorological powerhouse in your pocket then there’s only one option: WeatherPro. In it’s paid form it will give forecasts for up to two weeks, along with all the radar and satellite animations you could need, plus detailed yet easily-read weather info.
Now, if you own a backyard weather station from Netatmo, you can view its data right there in the familiar WeatherPro interface.
Question: Do you associate complexity with value? That is, do you think that an object is worth more if it uses more parts in its construction? No? That’s absurd, right? But try this: the No.002 bag from Clean Everything is made from a single sheet of leather, cleverly cut and folded to form a bag. The price? €289, or $385.
The Atrio case, a Kickstarter project from Craftwerk USA, is an aluminum bumper that’ll cost you a crazy $90 (less for early-bird pitchers). But the clever twist here is that the box it comes in doublers as a stylish – and matching – iPhone stand.
As travel chargers go, The Goal Zero Switch 8 kit is about as convenient as it gets. The two panels fold into one easy-to-carry pack, and on the back is a zippered mesh bag in which the battery pack and USB converter sit. There’s space in that bag for a phone or other small device, and there are enough paracord loops around the edges to secure the pack, open or closed, to just about anything.
So how does it perform?
It’s hard to oversell the usefulness of a good iPad stand stand for travelers. It starts on the plane so you can bypass the in-flight movies with something better, and continues from there.
You can prop the iPad up in the bathroom or on the nightstand, you can – in concert with the removed Smart Cover as a base – fashion a quick in-bed theater, and you can type, play music and everything else, all without having to put your pristine iDeice down onto filthy hotel furniture. Ugh.
Cute and practical, that’s the Itomaki adapter from Softbank. The charger is shaped like a kind of smoothed-off cotton reel, and – surprise – lets you wrap the charger cable around it when not in use.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, which is clearly nonsense. My mother’s family photos, for instance, are worth three (Flash. Too. Bright). But this simple photo, from LifeProTips on Twitter, really does explain everything…
If you’re going to make an iPhone stand that slips onto a keyring, you may as well make it look like a key, amirite? Right? Hello?
Ok, so that part of the design is a little dumb, but the Keyprop itself is pretty ingenious, especially the way it manages to work with both the iPhones 4 and 5.
Eton’s new BoostSolar a) is here just in time for sunny summer and b) solves many of the problems usually present in solar chargers. It also looks pretty cool, and less like the utili-hippy designs beloved of rivals.
$7 is getting close to the lower limit on prices for iPad cases – unless you choose to make your own out of recycled materials that is. Actually, the Apple Pie iPad case is made from recycled materials. It’s a cardboard folio that’ll protect your iPad from adults and kids alike.
Do you wish you could get in on this whole one-keyboard-switching-between-multiple-devices game, only you’re wedded to some crazy old clackety keyboard that only connects via cable? Then I have good news! IOGear has a new widget that’ll hook everything up.
Denon’s new range of audio receivers, called InCommand, has support for Apple’s AirPlay built right in alongside the great sound and embarrassment of cable hookups usually found in this kind of gadget. And that’s in addition to being able to control the unit itself from a dedicated Denon app.
Your next iPad keyboard might come from… Microsoft! That’s right: this minimal, great-looking, tablet-specific keyboard comes from Microsoft. And while is is designed to be used with Windows 8, it "also works with iPad and most Android devices.
Another handy-dandy iPad case for your this lovely Monday morning, this time one which converts into a shoulder bag or even a "backpack." It’s called the Across, and it really does look pretty useful.
Having spent far too long browsing the shelves of the local hardware stores (plural) trying to cobble together my own iPad mini hand strap, I’m glad to see a proper case featuring one. I gave up on my DIY efforts, having decided that even as a weak-armed geek I’m strong enough to hold an iPad mini in one hand.
But if I was going to buy a case, a strap like the one on the Luxa2 MiniCinema sure would tempt me.
This is the first part of a two-part review. When you see the case I’m writing about, the reason will be obvious. It’s the Castello Davarg Kanam, and it’s a wraparound case fashioned from full grain leather in the good old U.S of A. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that it was thrown together by unionized slackers with one eye on the time-clock: The case is clearly put together with some care.
Why the tow-parter? Because this is a chunk of cow, and as such it’s meant to age gracefully, getting better over time. So today is more of a first look, with a long-term write-up to follow.
Apparently, there is a magnet somewhere inside the back panel of the iPhone 5. How do I know? Because these cool new lenses from Carson use it to stick themselves to the back of the phone. The result is something like a small, less-bulbous Olloclip, only for close-up photography.
There would be but one way to make the mŌna iPad stand seem more like an adult toy, and that’d to make it in pink. As it is. The suggestive-looking stand comes in black, white and red. I have been using one on and off for a few months (strictly for iPad support purposes) and found it to be excellent in some aspects and silly in others. Would you like to know more?
The second-most-common use for my iPhone’s camera is
scanning. I snap pages from recipe books, business cards from, well, from the kind of people who still carry business cards, and hand-written notes from index cards. Which means that my Camera Roll is full of pictures of slightly skewed documents with my pink thumb peeking in at the bottom corner.
Standscan will stop this.
The latest Lensbaby in the lineup is the Edge 80 optic, a plug-in 80mm blur-tastic chunk of glass for your existing Lensbaby body. It offers the same movable sweet-spot of all other Lensbabies, but in a portrait-friendly length.
What if your local coffee shop offered free phone charging along with free Wi-Fi? What do you mean, it already does? Yeah, sure, you can plug your phone in while you sip your delicious cup of pour-over, but you still have to bring your own charger.
ChargeAll’s answer is to sell multi-point charging stations to store owners, and have them provide the service to their customers.
MirrorCase: Handy tool for meetings and lectures, or creepy accessory to help snap pictures of people without them ever knowing (until they find them on some revenge porn site, I guess)? The answer is a resounding “both!” Find out why…
This cute little iPhone 5 case comes from Poketo, and not only coddles the iPhone within but also packs slots for your cash and cards. The twist here is that the cards sit safely on the inside instead of in a set of rear-cut slots on the back, and the whole thing snaps shut with a clicky clasp.
Those quick-access camera straps which loop through a ring screwed into the tripod socket are fantastic and terrifying in equal measure. Fantastic because they really are fast, convenient and comfortable to use (just ask Cult of Mac’s Traci Dauphin, who I have never seen without an Olympus hanging from a Black Rapid strap around her neck); and terrifying because you’re hanging your expensive camera from a strap which could unscrew itself any any time.
Add to that the fact that you can’t use a tripod with the screw-in strap plate attached and you’ll see where this new Kickstarter gadget is coming from.
