Ever wanted to take photos of people without them knowing? Perhaps a sneaky shot of a pretty girl to help you “remember” her later, or some equally creepy bit of deceit? Well then, we have good news for you, you pervert: it’s the COVR Photo, an iPhone case which lets you shoot in secret.
This cute little case is the Cargito, a lovely leather-lined pouch with space for the iPad mini (or Air), plus a battery to charge it as it lays inside.
The new Sony A7S is a mirrorless full-frame camera which shoots 4K video and has a top ISO of 102,400, expandable to 409,600.
Remember back in 2006 when Palm CEO Ed Colligan said this, about Apple and the iPhone:
PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.
If you switched Apple for Sony (those gadget guys) or Fujifilm ("film guys), and Palm for Nikon and Canon, then the same thing is happening today.
When headphones look this good, who cares how they sound? Well, me, for one. After all, unless you carry a mirror everywhere you go, you never see your headphones while you’re using them. Still, Phiaton’s Bridge MS 500 headphones just got a Red Dot award, so there might be something to them other than good looks.
Sound Freaq’s Sound Rise is an old-fashioned concept wedded to new-fangled function. It’s a clock radio (remember those?) that plugs into your iPhone and charges it while sucking the sound out of your music library or favorite streaming apps.
Here’s the Das Keyboard 4, possibly the most bad-ass clacky keyboard in existence. No keycap markings, USB 3.0, Cherry MX switches and a huge knob. All that plus Das’s trademark feature: it’s as big as a boat. A “Das Boat” if you will.
Elgato’s Thunderbolt Dock has a few unique features that are appropriate for a company that makes video accessories for Apple devices. First, there’s an HDMI port around back, and second, the USB ports put out enough juice to charge your iPad at a decent speed.
Photojojo’s new iPhone Lens Wallet is a safe place to store the entire Photojojo lens lineup, and it’s small enough that it can live in your daily murse/purse. It even holds a tripod, and can be bought either empty or fully loaded.
Pad&Quill is at it again, this time with a low-profile rear-shell style case for the iPhone 5/S. While calling anything from Brian Holmes’s P&Q “minimal” would be a stretch, the Traveler Case gets pretty close. It is also gorgeous to look at, and would surely be just as lovely for the hands. It looks like the kind of case you couldn’t stop fingering.
A bumper is a great option for folks who don’t care for cases, but are clumsy enough that they need some protection for their iPhone. And the brand-new Grovemade wooden bumpers not only offer protection but look great too. Also, they have names that you’ll want to lollop around your tongue, over and over.
I find anything that promises one-handed operation of your iDevices suspicious, but then I have a dirty mind. The Grip&Shoot – seen by Buster last week and Macworld – is one such gadget, and it adds a trigger grip to the iPhone to make shooting videos and photos way easier.
Like the current bloom of retro-styled shooters, but don’t like the $500+ prices? Unsurprisingly, Olympus has you covered – the new Stylus SH1 looks hot in a silver and black/white body, and packs Wi-Fi, a built-in zoom lens and 5-axis image stabilization.
Transporter just took another step towards being a viable alternative to Dropbox for mobile users. Now the private cloud has become a “platform.” Don’t worry though – this just means that app makers are now free to add Transporter support to their apps, letting you sync and save your data from your iPad and iPhone.
At last, a portable Thunderbolt drive that leeches its power from the Thunderbolt connector itself, just like a USB drive. And you can’t even lose the cable for WD’s new My Passport Pro – it’s built into the unit itself.
This week in Review Roundup we look at luxury leathery book-a-like iPhone cases. All three are made to last, with real leather or bookbindery covers. Two are ultra tough, one is a little more low-profile, and all three will probably last you forever. But which one is best?
Pad & Quill’s Luxury Pocket Book, a wood-framed, leather covered wallet case with space for some cash.
Davarg’s Kanam is a simple wraparound flap of leather with a (somewhat reusable) sticky pad that glues the iPhone into place. It’s less bulky than the other two, and very nice looking.
Meison Morgan’s Handmade Case is a lot like the Luxury Pocket Book, only it has a bookbindery cover instead of leather.
Let the contest begin:
Manufactured in Greece using the same bookbinding process that traditional notebook makers use, this case offers not only good looks, but also all-round protection that promises to withstand the test of time.
It’s available in black and denim (blue), and it’s super affordable at €30 ($46).
On the whole, the Meison Morgan is a fantastic iPhone case that looks great and offers plenty of protection. It’s also relatively inexpensive at €30. But the experience is marred somewhat by a couple of issues that could so easily be fixed.
If its makers can iron out those problems, then I’d have no reservations about recommending this case.
Buy it $46
The Luxury Pocket Book is a leather-bound book with a Baltic beechwood insert, a leather lining and slots inside the front cover for credit cards and cash (bills, not coins). It has cutouts for all your ports and buttons, plus a hole in the back for the camera and flash.
Lastly, there’s an elastic strap to hold it closed, just like on a Moleskine notebook.
Buy it $85
The Kanam is a book-like wraparound cover which protects the back, the front and one edge. Unlike the SurfacePad, the Kanam protects the right edge, opening backwards (or forwards if you’re one of those manga weirdos). This leaves the mute and volume switches free to be used. There’s also a small cutout over the phone speaker so you can talk with the case closed and still hear the conversation.
The iPhone 5 itself is held in place with a sticky, reusable adhesive pad. You just clean the back of the phone, peel off the protective waxed sheet (setting it aside in case you ever need to take the iPhone out of this case) and stick. It holds just fine.
Buy it $52
The winner? The Pad&Quill Luxury Pocket Book. Why? It’s expensive, but it’s made to last. The Meison Case is already falling apart in our review, and the Davarg is bulky without adding any extra features. The P&Q case wins for a combination of craftsmanship and clever design.
Fotobit is a 4.25 x 4.25-inch frame designed for wall-mounting your Instagrams. It’s modular, so you can slot the frames together to cover the wall with an Insta-mural, and the frames themselves are a handsome matte black or white. But there’s more.
Paper? In the age of the iPad? Unthinkable! Ink from a pen? Inconceivable! And yet that’s what the new Booqpad for iPad Air promises us, a case that both protects the iPad and gives you a pad and paper to write on. Not only that, but it does it all with magnets.
I use flash thumb drives for precisely one purpose these days – taking a PDF boarding pass to the local print shop. That doesn’t stop me being impressed with Edge’s new DiskGo Sonic USB 3.0 Flash Drive, though, which is a super-fast SSD drive in the form of a USB stick.
Back when I wrote at Wired, I called Waterfield’s keyboard case a “signal of the end of civilization.” Who needs a coddling cover for a keyboard that is so tough it can keep working even after you have a tantrum and smash it on a marble topped table? Repeatedly? (Like a friend of mine did one time).
Now I actually use that same cover whenever I travel, so I’m a little more accepting of the new “CitySlicker for the Jawbone Mini Jambox,” a case for the toughest little speaker on the market.
The Photographer’s pouch is a boiled-wool pocket that will stick inside any camera bag thanks to the velcro strip on its back. And of course you’re not limited to cameras, or even camera bags – anything that will fit fits, and any bag with velcro can be used.
The little BOLT Charger Battery is as clever as it is good looking. The USB wall-charger packs a backup battery into its tiny body, as body that leads its maker to call it the “The World’s Smallest Wall Charger + Battery Backup.”
I’m not sure how true that it, but who cares? It fits in your pocket and it’ll juice your iPhone twice, even without a wall to shove it into.
I’m traveling to Russia to cover the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. It’s going to be a thrilling, crazy experience. You’ll see some of my work here at Cult of Mac, among other places.
Here’s the gear I’ll be taking with me overseas:
As we approach the end of 2013, it’s time to take a look back and pay some recognition to some of the finest apps that have hit the App Store over the past 12 months.
It’s not easy to build a successful iOS app anymore — with over 1 million of them in the App Store, competition has never been tougher — but some developers have proven it’s still possible to stand out among the crowd with titles that are either completely unique, or just far greater than their rivals.
We’ve picked 15 that you really shouldn’t miss.
“We still have a lot to cover,” is Apple’s promise this time around. On October 15th, the company sent out press invitations for a media event that will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this coming Tuesday, October 22nd.
Last month we saw the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, and this second event is expected to center around new iPads. But that’s not all; the future of OS X, iOS 7, and the Mac are also rumored to be waiting in the wings.
Here’s what to expect from Apple’s October 22nd event:
iOS 7 is out, and all of your favorite apps are being updated with new designs and features. We’ve been posting about big updates as they come out, but it’s impossible to keep up with everything.
We’ve collected big app updates for iOS 7 worth mentioning in a handy roundup. Take a look at how some of your favorite apps have changed:
