Wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of iPhone accessory that let you toss your $650+ device around, abusing it by bouncing it off walls and floors? If you answered a sensible “no” to that question, then congratulations. You are a responsible adult with a sense of perspective. If you answered “yes,” then you might be interested in The O, a foam ball with — you guessed it — custom apps.
The Quad Lock case is a universal mount and case for the iPhone 4/S. Wait. Where are you going? This case is actually very cool. I promise, especially if you have a home, a car or a bike.
The new Timbuk2 Command Messenger 2012 ($140) is nothing like the first Timbuk2 bag I ever owned, some 11 years and 20 pounds ago, back when I was heavily commited to the world of cycling. Timbuk2 called it the Bolo, and it was a real messenger bag — though messengers almost always opted for it’s larger sibling, the Tag Junkie — crafted from a single piece of vinyl and Cordura; just a massive main compartment with not much more than a small pocket sewn on the outer face for coins and maybe a patch kit.
Although it’s just about as tough, the Command Messenger is light years away from my Bolo (and is really as much a messenger bag as a Chevy pickup is an ox cart): It’s sophisticated, uses several advanced materials, has loads of pockets and a trick feature that makes air travel easier for laptop-toting jestsetters. My how you’ve grown, Timbuk2.
The SmartGuard iPhone case might guard you, but it definitely isn’t smart. The iPhone 4/S compatible case will deliver a dose of pepper spray to U.C Davis students or violent attackers alike.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where your SD cards would need to be “waterproof, shockproof and magnet proof,” but Samsung has gone and made some ruggedized cards anyway. Available in several speeds and sizes, the brushed metal cards will look as good out of your cameras as they will in it.
It’s light, it’s tough and it’s beautiful to both look at and touch. Is there anything better than bamboo for making an iPad case? Maybe not. And Silva’s bamboo case for the iPad 2 is finally, finally available to buy.
Bag-maker STM hails from dehn undah (if you think my Aussie impression sounds bad here, well, it’s even worse in person), where they’re apparently pretty huge. They’re less well-known here in the States — but that’ll likely change thanks to a big marketing push and bags like the fantastic STM Velo ($100), a designed laptop bag stuffed with unusually clever features.
Just when you thought there was nothing more that could be squeezed into a pocket-sized multitool, Gerber comes along with the Steady, and proves our imagination to be pathetically limited. What does this many-bladed wonder bring to the transforming tool party? A camera tripod.
Gerber’s Steady Tool is aimed at real everyday use, with a slew of practical, non-specialized tools. There’s a pair of needle-nose pliers, flat and serrated blades, a bottle opener (essential), screwdrivers, wire cutters and of course a tripod and cellphone/camera mount.
The body of the tool forms one leg, while the other two stick out like a sea lion’s flippers. You can either screw a standard thread into the bottom of a camera or tripod-compatible phone cases, or you can use the suction cup to stick the sleek, smooth glass back of your iPhone 4 to the 5.8-ounce tool.
The Steady will cost you $64. Not cheap, but you do get Gerber quality, plus everything you need to conduct a booze-filled picnic.
[Via Uncrate]
Apple’s designs constantly prove that beauty and practicality can exist in the same place, but that’s clearly not the only way to do things. Take a look at the AQUA TEK S, which manages to be possibly the most practical and the most ugly iPhone case ever. It bills itself as “the first ever battery powered, solar charged, rugged under water iPhone 4/4S case on Kickstarter.”
Oh, man. We’ve seen some dorky iPad accessories in our time, but none has managed to be both embarrassing and stylish at the same time. The GoPad performs this seemingly impossible feat, and adds a little bit of campness at the same time.
ZOMG! Never lose your iPhone again with the ZOMM Wireless Leash Plus, a hardware/software combo that wirelessly ties your iPhone to a needy dongle that cries whenever the two are separated. It can help you to remember your phone, your keys, or even where you parked Grandma.
It’s taken a while, but it seems that the dried up tear-duct that was the supply of Thunderbolt accessories is about to turn into a torrent of high-speed, daisy-chainable tears of relief. Hard drive supremo LaCie will at last sell you a 2big Thunderbolt Series external drive.
Imagine buying a paper magazine (remember those?), only instead of pages it just has a cover and a hole in the middle. Into this hole you place your iPad, which you then use to read the magazine’s contents. Useless, right? But that’s (almost) exactly what Hasbro has done in a desperate attempt to bring its board games into the 21st century.
Lensbaby, purveyor of the finest image-degrading lenses known to man, has come up with a new blur-tastic optic. Named the Edge 80, it cuts a sharp, straight slice of focus through the photographic haze.
My parents never let me play with them as a kid because they were afraid I’d get shot by a trigger-happy cop, which is perhaps why, to this day, I get a little giddy when I hear or read the words “LAZER TAG,” and feel myself ethereally tugged away — John Carter like — to a distant world where I am a member of the Lazer Team, policing the galaxy for perps who can be non-violently terminated by aiming my ray gun at the conveniently placed sensors strapped to their back, head and torso.
So when I saw that Hasbro has just announced the next update of their Lazer Tag guns — and that these sets actually use an iPhone or iPod touch as an augmented reality display and HUD — I immediately got excited, then disappointed as I remembered my parents wouldn’t let me have one. But wait! I’m an adult now, and as an adult, I can wave around as many plastic toy guns as I want! Hooray!
Decent in-dash stereo systems aren’t just expensive, they make you a target for a break-in… and why even bother with one when your iPhone can do everything a stereo dash can do, and a lot more besides?
Exactly, say the makers of Devium Dash, a new project up on Kickstarter. Instead of some expensive in-dash system that doesn’t do as much as your iDevice, why don’t you just slap your iPhone into the dash when you start driving instead?
For years now, I’ve been singing the praises of Koss Porta Pro headphones whenever anyone asks me which headphones they should by. Really, for the price, absolutely nothing beats them: they are rugged, extremely comfortable, and sound better than headphones that cost twice as much, all by-products of a classic, time-tested design that has kept mobile audiophiles pleased for decades now, and which Koss stands behind with a lifetime warranty.
The only problem with the Porta Pros is that their design is so classic, so time-tested that it doesn’t feature one of the major necessities of a good pair of on-the-town headphones of the last few years: an in-line mic and remote for answering calls on your iPhone. So hooray! Guess what the Porta Pro KTC (Koss Touch Control) fix?
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Some bits and bobs of tech just never seem to go away entirely no matter how much tech you own, and just as you always need to have a printer around for that rare printout, there’s always a need to have access to a scanner to digitize the stray scrap of paper or mottled receipt.
With so many people now ditching their laptops for iPads, the iConvert aims to fill a niche. Featyring a front feeder adjustable from between 2- and 8.5-inches wide, the iConvert can scan almost anything normal sized you throw at it, and digitize them directly to your iPad’s picture folder as 300 DPIs.
Pretty swank for the mobile road warrior looking to keep his portfolio of documents as svelte as his iPad 2. Couple this with an OCR app, you’re all set. $150 when it goes on sale in February, courtesy of Brookstone.
Logitech isn’t waiting for CES next week; instead, the gadget giant is releasing two new products today — one of which raised eyebrows here.
It’s that time of year again. Not the holidays — I’m mean yeah, sure it is, but that’s pretty obvious. No, it’s the time of year when we drive ourselves (and others) a little crazy running around trying to find gifts at the last minute. Especially those pesky stocking stuffers — the little gifts that fill in the gap between “it’s Christmas? Geez, I completely forgot” and “honey, I bought you a Lexus.”
Children and Apple stuff mix pretty well — iDevices cap the top three slots on kids’ wishlists, right? So it’s a good bet that there’ll be a bunch of Apple stuff underneath the trees or the Menorah this year. We’ve put together a short list of icing-on-the-cake type gifts — or great follow-ups if you got ’em iDevices last year.
Everyone knows that Apple creates products that are great for creating. But part of what makes that statement true is the deep selection of third-party gadgets that make the most of artistic impulse. We’ve painted this next section, Gifts for the Imagination, with examples that’ll help nourish the next Pissarro, Satriani or Cartier-Bresson.
We’ve got just the thing to follow our Gifts for the Working Stiff section of our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: This time around, we’re hooking you up with Gifts for Kicking It. So grab your fun hat (and maybe your shopping mouse) and check out this list of awesome gadgets that make it a party.
We’re pretty passionate here at the Cult of Mac. What are we passionate about? Well, the pecking order goes something like this (although maybe the order is flipped for one or two CoM writers):
1. Our loved ones
2. Gadgets
Of course, we’re also passionate about sharing our knowledge of gadgets and technology with the rest of the world. Combine these three passions, and here’s the result: our Holiday Gift Guide.
London based design consultancy BERG have surpassed themselves with their latest idea, simply called Little Printer.
