These snazzy keyboard decals from MyBanana are a relatively cheap and simple way to add a splash of color and protection to your Mac.
Priced at £17 ($27), and available in a number of styles — including Lego bricks and rainbows — the decals are made from a waterproof vinyl that’s designed to last, no matter how often your greasy fingers caress them throughout the day.
If you want to protect your Mac’s keys from everyday wear and tear, these decals could be ideal. But do they work?
Meet Carrot, the getting things done app with an attitude. If you’re good and you actually do the things you add to its list, you’ll be rewarded. But if you don’t … actually, things get much more fun if you don’t.
Calendar Paste is a calendar events templating app for iOS. It’s a place where you can store calendar events that don’t repeat in a predicable patten, or that only need to be in your calendar at certain times. It’s one of those apps you never thought you needed.
This is not Pacman. No. It looks like Pacman, it sounds like Pacman. But it’s called Not Pacman for a reason: it’s not Pacman.
How does it play?
Like Pacman. A bit.
I was a big fan of the original BookBook case for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, but it did have a number of drawbacks that its creators, Twelve South, needed to address — such as the lack of a camera cutout on the back of the case. With the iPhone 5 version, however, drawbacks have been eliminated.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the BookBook, is a luxury, handmade leather wallet case that’s designed to look like a pocket-sized, vintage book. In addition to carrying and protection your iPhone 5, it carries up to four credit cards and has space for cash.
BookBook for iPhone 5 comes in vintage brown and classic black, and it’s priced at $59.99.
This Day in the Rolling Stones is the latest app for music lovers of a certain age who want to find out exactly what Mick and the guys were up to every day of their careers. It wants to be all Hot Stuff) but ends up more like a Biggest Mistake.
The best ideas are famously (stereotypically, perhaps) captured on the back of a napkin. That’s the thing that’s been closest to hand at a zillion restaurant or coffee shop tables when great minds have got together and come up with something new.
Ink is a new, free digital napkin for the modern era. It’s also an exercise in minimalism, designed to replicate that napkin and the pencil you’d scribble on it with and nothing more.
Here’s a new free puzzle game for young and old alike. It’s called Quento, and it’s colorful, addictive, and more difficult than it looks.
This is Hundreds, a game from the same people who brought you Canablat and Wurdle, among others.
Hundreds is a multi-touch tapping challenge for your mind and your reflexes. Rather like Letterpress, it has a gorgeous minimalist look to it. Where so many games are all about collecting stars, this one encourages you to look for empty spaces.
Izik is a new web search app from the makers of Blekko, a web search engine for people who are looking for a change from Google.
You could be forgiven for saying “Blekwhat?” there. Although it’s been around for a few years now, Blekko isn’t what most people think of when they go looking for somewhere else to search.
But that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it without trying it. Blekko does search pretty well in your browser, and this app is a decent attempt to do search differently on your iPad too.
You like robots? You’re gonna love this. This is an iPad app all about robots. Just robots, nothing but robots, loads and loads and loads of robots. It’s made of robots, in the same way we are made of meat. It’s fantastic.
The Mummy from Loop Attachment — the creators of the wonderful Loop wristband for the sixth-generation iPod nano — is a premium silicone case for iPhone 5 that aims to provide your handset with all-around protection while preserving its identity.
It’s designed to leave a lot of your handset on show, so you can admire its sleek and sexy form factor, and its Apple logo, while still providing plenty of protection against scratches, scuffs, and drops.
The case boasts an incredibly lightweight design that provides easy access to all your ports, buttons, and switches. Its special feature is that it allows you to slip a credit card into the back of the case so that you can grab a coffee on your way to work without taking your whole wallet.
The Mummy costs $25, and it’s available in a whole range of colors — ten in total.
Raise your hand if you think spelling and grammar are fun. Raise it up. A little higher. Aha, I see you there. And your friend! Both of you, come closer and listen, because I need to tell you about this unique new iOS game where you win points by spotting spelling mistakes.
Lekh Diagram is a clever and potentially useful diagramming app for iPad, “free” on the App Store, but not if you want to make serious use of it.
New on the App Store, and just in time for a Christmas gift to a Beatles fan, is this rather lovely app collating 250 of John Lennon’s letters. It’s been made with affection for the great man, and provides an interesting insight into his mind.
Google released an official Google Maps app for the iPhone on Wednesday evening — I’m sure you’ve already downloaded it to your device — and as you might expect, it’s already incredibly popular. Users have since been rushing to reclaim the mapping service that Apple booted out of iOS with its latest iOS 6 update, helping Google Maps rocket to the top of the App Store’s free chart in just seven hours. It has knocked Apple’s own 12 Days of Christmas app down to second place.
Three months after the release of iOS 6 and the subsequent PR disaster that was Apple’s renewed (and Google-less) Maps app, Google has got a replacement back into the App Store. It’s slick, speedy and, most importantly, a good deal more accurate than Apple’s data. Thank goodness for that.
The WINGStand, from the guys at BiteMyApple, is another accessory that was born on Kickstarter. It allows you to combine your iPad, iPad mini, and iPhone with your Apple Wireless Keyboard in the simplest way possible — without carrying additional an additional stand, dock, or case.
Simply attach the WINGStand clips to the back of your keyboard — they cling onto its battery compartment — and they form a stand in which you can sit your iOS devices. As you can see from the photograph above, the two almost merge into one to create a pretty little computer that’s perfect for getting things done on the go.
When you’ve finished working, simply pull the WINGStand clips off your keyboard, clip them together, and throw them in your bag.
The WINGStand is available in white and “eco friendly” black and it costs just $15. Is it worth it?
We liked Cobook first time round, when it appeared on OS X as a clever little contacts database hidden inside a tiny Menu Bar icon. Now it’s on iPhone, and just as clever as before.
I thought I had the whole “paperless” thing under control until Doxie sent over the new, budget-priced Doxie One for me to review. Trust me: If you snap photos of your receipts with your iPhone in an attempt to banish dead trees from your life, you should probably switch to a portable scanner.
It really is that much better.
Macally was one of the first manufacturers to get its iPad mini cases onto the market when the device was launched back in early November, and this one from the guys at MobileFun caught my eye for a number of reasons.
It provides protection for both the front and back of the device, with a hard plastic shell that houses the iPad mini, and a plastic cover that’s lined in soft, suede-like material. The cover also doubles as a stand for typing and watching movies.
The case provides access to your all of your device’s ports and buttons, and includes a cutout for its rear-facing camera. It’s priced at $47 and comes in a range of colors, but is it worth that price tag?
Keen internet users might already be familiar with speedtest.net, the website that lets you check exactly how fast your internet connection is. Now it’s available as an app too.
This is the C.VOX, a coat with a built-in sound system so you can listen to stuff anywhere you go, while you’re going there. It’s kind of cool and kind of weird. I’ve been wearing it for the last wintry week or so here in the UK, and here’s what it’s like to own one.
Fantastical — the incredible calendaring app from Flexibits — is kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup, and it’s accompanied by KitCam, a great new photography app that gives Tap Tap Tap’s Camera+ some real competition. We also have some big updates to Apple’s Remote app and Vimeo.
From the guys at MyBanana, this iPhone 5 sleeve is handmade in Israel from soft wool felt that’s designed to protect your handset while “keeping it fashionable and stylish.” Not only does it house your iPhone, but there’s also a handy pocket that’ll hold onto your credit cards and cash.
It’s priced at just £15 (about $24) and comes in grey and black, grey and magenta, and grey and turquoise. It’s cheap, then, but is it any good?
