The Slope is similar to the MiStand I reviewed yesterday, only it goes long on style and short on utility. It’s essentially a bent piece of aluminum with sticky pads on each side, and it holds your iPad, hovering, above your desk.
We’ve all been there: Some mornings simply aren’t compatible with a task as sophisticated as groping for an iPhone and then pawing at the screen or volume button to activate the snooze.
And for those especially drooly mornings when even smacking a massive rubber button is too much of a challenge, there’s the wobL: a stand-app alarm combo for iPhone that works simply by — you guessed it — wobbling it.
With just hours left before the weekend, the Bungajungle is unlikely to be beaten for the week’s best-named gadget. It’s also a pretty fantastic-looking iPad stand, with enough flexibility (pun most definitely intended) to double up as a stand for your MacBook.
Imagine that you had a stick of gum that could be bent into any shape. OK, that part was easy – all you had to do was imagine a normal stick of gum. Now imagine that that stick is weight-bearing, and that it would actually stay in the shape you gave it.
If you were doing it properly, then you just imagined the Gumstick, a rubbery, pose-able stick of gadget goodness.
Perhaps it’s more of a gold trickle than an actual bona fide rush, but we’ve already found two just-released gold versions of previously un-gilded gadgets: the Kickstarted eleMount iPhone stand, and Parrot’s luxury Zik headphones (above).
The Plicopá is a cardboard iPad sleeve which unfolds and refolds into a sturdy tablet stand, ready to support your iPad for poking, or just to prop it up while you tap out words on an external keyboard. It looks to be pretty much ideal for travelers.
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
Perhaps best known for their bag-making skills, Aussie-based STM Bags is no slouch when it comes to iPhone and iPad armor. This week saw the introduction of a new STM iPhone 5/s wallet case — and two new cases they’ve already prepped for the iPhone 5c.
Did they receive 5c specs from Apple? Nah mate, they say the bonzer new cases are the result of good planning and a lot of hard yakka. Fair dinkum!
Are you jealous of all that Android/KitKat business in the news today? What you need is a chocolate-bar-related product for the Mac, and I have just the thing: It’s the CURB, a Toblerone-shaped stand for your MacBook.
An iPhone or iPad dock is a very nice thing to have for keeping one’s desktop regimented and tidy, but they have drawbacks.
For one, a dock that you buy for one generation of iPhone might not work if Apple changes the handset design in the next generation. In addition, iPhone and iPad docks tend not to be cross-compatible, so if you have a dock that fits your iPhone, you usually can’t force an iPad into it, and vice versa. And then, of course, there’s the case problem. Docks and cases tend not to play well together, but most of us like to use a case to protect our devices. That means we usually go without a dock.
Twelve South’s latest product, the HiRise for iPhone and iPad mini, is a combination dock and stand that very cleverly finds a way around all of these problems. We love using it, but putting it together? That’s another story.
I remember the crushing fetish we all had for Titanium back when I entered the cycling fraternity. (It’s fallen out of vogue now, of course — most likely thanks in part to the rise of carbon fiber, or perhaps something to do with the economics of materials I don’t fully understand.)
It’s an exotic material, with accompanying exotic pricing, thanks to the difficulty and expense of processing it. Still, we’ll pay an exorbitant surcharge for things made out of the magic metal because it’s so near-unbreakable, corrosion-resistant — and just plain wicked.
Which brings me to Tuls. David Laituri — you may or may not remember him as the man behind Vers and their super-green, handcrafted audio toys — has laser-cut tools, iPhone stands and other thoughtful solutions out of slivers of Titanium.
Ten One Design, the creator of the world’s first capacitive touch stylus, has unveiled a new minimalistic stand for the iPad mini today called the Magnus Mini. It’s a smaller version of the Magnus stand for iPad, and it uses “a strong magnetic link” to securely hold your iPad mini in place — with no front lip to intrude on the front of your display.
I’m always interested to see a new iPad stand, and I’m especially interested if it can do the job of both my two favorite stands in one neat package. The stand is the Nimblstand, and it wants to replace the Origami keyboard case and stand, plus the PadPivot, or similar.
There’s a bewildering array of iPhone 5 cases to choose from — waterproof cases, cases that double as stands and even cases that carry business cards. But how many can double as a business card?
Findables Flex cases can, because they have QR codes stamped on the back that link to your contact or social media details.
The Keizus Quadrapod device mount looks remarkably like a human form without a head; it’s also similar in form and function to the Joby GorillaPod, leading to inevitable forthcoming comparisons between ape and man whenever the Quadrapod is mentioned.
Has your life been graced with a Twelve South product yet? The company’s Mac-only accessories line is imbued with such cleverness, it’s difficult to avoid complete ubiquity in the home or office. While I’m fond of many of their products — I use the PlugBug every day — it was their HoverBar that actually changed my life. All it required was a change in how to use the HoverBar.
The intention of the “Tony Stark-inspired” HoverBar is to provide increased screen real estate on the iMac with a cool opposable arm. The mounting brackets fit an iPad 2, 3 or 4, providing the user not just with more screen real estate, but with touchscreen real estate. (Win!) I use an iMac primarily for film editing, so having an iPad near allows me to check email while I have all 27 inches of the iMac devoted to a project. The problem for me is that access to an iPad during this time is just a distraction.
It should be apparent by now that wires are an endangered species, what with the recent explosive popularity of Bluetooth for transmission of sound and data, and the growing ability to keep everything constantly synced with the cloud.
The lone holdout restraining the iPhone from breaking free is the charging cable—but even that’s on its way out. Case in point, Buqu Tech’s Magnetyze wireless charging case for the iPhone 5 is now available.
If there’s one thing us iPad owners like as much as iPad cases, it’s iPad stands. And no wonder: without such a prop, the iPad can do little more than lay flat on the floor or table like a dead fish. Only unlike the poor fish, it won’t even entertain us by flapping desperately around for a few long seconds as it fruitlessly tries to push a few more drops of nonexistent water through its gills, before slowly expiring and laying eerily still.
The Boomerang case won’t provide the same pizzazz as the last few seconds of a suffocating real-life Big Mouth Billy Bass, but it does bend in the middle, and it does support your iPad.
Twelve South, one of Cult of Mac’s favorite accessory makers, has a new stand out called the HiRise. Announced today, the elegant, metallic device is designed for holding the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. Like most of Twelve South’s products, the HiRise looks right at home amongst your other Apple products.
Meet the eleMount, a poseable aluminum mount for your iPhone or—if you’re feeling adventurous—the iPad mini. It’s like a little angle poise elbow for your phone, letting you set it at almost any angle you like.
The iProp is so basic in its design that it’s obvious the designers worked very hard at it. When I first opened the bag it came in, I wondered what the big deal was. So what? It’s a beanbag with an iPad stand on it. Big deal.
Then I tried it out for a few days. I used it on my coffee table, on the arm of my recliner, and in my lap. I took it to the coffee shop and to a friend’s house. I started to get used to it. I started to like it. I wondered where it was when I didn’t take it with me.
Now that’s a well-designed product.
As apparent through the company’s tagline “musicians first,” IK Multimedia generally makes stuff for musicians; but their new iKlip iPad stand should also fit a ton of scenarios that have absolutely nothing to do with music.
The stand combines a wide-stance, stable, metal-reinforced base with a tall neck that ends in a frame that an iPad slides into. There are two adjustable points, both of which lock: an elbow in the middle of the neck, and a ball pivot where the neck meets the iPad frame.
Apparently, the hot new thing is to stick your iPad to the kitchen wall and then immediately start chopping red peppers. Luckily for those new to this emerging fashion, there is both a product and an instructional video available to help out. The product is the MagBak, and it consists of a pair of rubbery, magnetized pads that stick onto the back of the iPad.
Reaction to this ruggedized, clamshell Bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad mini must surely qualify as a “what the…?!” moment. Not because the New Trent Airbender Mini is ruggedized, and a keyboard, and a case, and a stand; but because it combines each of those sought-after elements for $40.
“What the…?!”
I’ve long been a big fan of Aviiq‘s laptop stands — so much so that I almost never use my MBP without a stand under it. Why? It props the MacBook up at an angle better suited to typing, raises the screen close to eye-level, and allows for better cooling by allowing for airflow between the MacBook’s bottom and the desk.
Aviiq has just refreshed the fancier of the two models, the Portable Laptop Stand, and brought down the price considerably.
