Hasta La Gadget!

If there is ever an Autobot which transforms from laptop case into desk and chair, then it will look like the Openaire, Nick and Beau Trincia’s rather handsome concept design.

The semi-rigid case is made from hinging pieces of wood and fabric, and consists of several layers which fit inside each other. The outermost skin is removed and hinged open to make a chair. It’s legless, more like a floor-sitting tatami chair than a desk chair, but it keeps you sitting comfortably upright, even on the cold, hard ground.

Next, you slide the computer from its messenger-bag-shaped cocoon. This case also folds out, providing a lap-desk with two flip-open side-panels and a rigid top to help the computer keep cool. It also gives a little lift, so you don”t have to crane your neck quite so much to see the screen.

Because it is modular, you can leave the seat part at home, which is quite likely – after all, who wants to be seen unfolding a whole office in the park? At events like last week’s CES, though, this would have proved ideal. You spend a lot of time far from the comforts of a press lounge or the Wired.com techno-shed, and often end up working on the floor. We just hope its not too heavy to carry.

Openaire [Nick Trincia]

See Also:

• Fold-Flat Office Chair for At-Desk Siestas
• Steelcase Walkstation: Combo Treadmill and Desk
• Mini Rolling Desk: Portable Modular Workstation

LAS VEGAS — Speakal has created a dock for your iOS devices in the shape of the iconic TARDIS from Doctor Who. The bottom of the box slides out like a tray, revealing a small docking station. Speakers are built into the windows, and there’s a volume knob in the back.

The company has also created an iOS app that turns your iPhone or iPod into a wireless remote control for your home theater, controlling the TV, stereo and DVD or Blu-ray player. The free app connects to the TARDIS via Bluetooth, and the commands are beamed to your various home theater devices using a small infrared emitter in the lamp at the top of the TARDIS.

It will be available this spring for around $130, and it will be slightly smaller than this demo unit (It’s actually bigger on the inside than it is on the outside).

Speakal has a few other official BBC-licensed products, including a dock shaped like Stig’s helmet from Top Gear. Your iPhone plugs into the top, which looks kind of silly, but it’s still a wicked cool piece of art.

See also:

• Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Wiimote
• Can Doctor Who Redeem Ebenezer Scrooge?
• Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver, Now Screws Screws

LAS VEGAS — CES isn’t just about new tablets, 3D TVs and one gazillion new Android phones. Sometimes its about the weird and the wonderful from unknown companies, and this iPhone Bluetooth handset from Hong Kong-based Native Union is plenty weird. And yes, I said handset, not headset.

The Moshi Moshi MM03i turns your iPhone into a landline phone, aesthetically at least. The weighted base has a slot for the iPhone, and you can leave it there happily charging and syncing. When you want to make a call, grab the receiver and you can make like 1995, back when you actually had a landline in your house.

To answer an incoming call, just pick it up and chat for up to six hours on a charge. You can also pair the handset with your computer for making Skype calls, and there are pick-up and hang-up buttons on the handset, along with volume controls. There’s even a 3.5mm jack in the base for hooking up to speakers.

For the tin-foil-hatters, you get the comfort of knowing that you aren’t frying your brains will evil cell-radiation every time you make a call. For everyone else, you can pretend you’re Don Draper. Pass me the whisky, now!

Available now, $150, in black or white.

Moshi Moshi product page [Native Union]

See Also:

• Soviet Phone Bluetooth Handset Has Scud Missiles Inside
• Retro Phone Handset Brings Back the 80s, Attracts Hipster Ladies …
• Mini Mob: Retro Phone Handset

LAS VEGAS — Quirky’s Perch is an all-in-one speaker and charger for your phone. It comes in two parts: the dock, which stays put on your nightstand, side-table or desk, and the Bluetooth speaker, which charges on the dock but can be taken with you in a bag, a big pocket or just to the bathroom so you don’t miss any of your audiobook.

When not docked, the speaker has its own kickstand, so you can prop it up wherever you like, vertically or horizontally. It also has a built in mic for conference-calling. When it is docked, the speaker snaps into place, held by magnets.

The dock part hooks up to AC power and connects to your phone via a USB cable instead of a device-limiting dock-connector. It also has a clock readout so you can use it as a bedside alarm.

The Perch is just like any other Quirky product – designed by an online community and only sent to production once the minimum order has been reached. In this case the minimum pre-order is 1,600, and the price is $200, with a $20 discount for early adopters.

Perch product page [Quirky]

See Also:

• Jawbone
• Ears-On With the SuperTooth Disco Bluetooth Boombox
• SuperTooth, a Block-Rocking Portable Bluetooth Speaker
• Quirky

Pac-Man sucks on a touch-screen. Unless you have a proper joystick to yank your yellow-pizza avatar from the clutches of Clyde and co, then you’ll get bored (and frustrated) in minutes. Help is at hand (or at finger?) from ThinkGeek, in the form of the JOYSTICK-IT, a handsome stick which sticks straight onto a tablet screen.

Press it into place over the onscreen controls and the milled aluminum stick will transfer your jerks and tugs into virtual finger-presses by way of a conductive foam pad beneath. The biggest problem with on-screen gaming button is that your thumb can wander off the controls and leave you stranded just as you were about to perform a slick 180º and leave those dumb ghosts in a heap.

The stick will be available at the end of January, for $25. Stick it on you iPad, lay the tablet down on a too-low table and surround with glasses of warm beer. Congratulations: you now have a perfect replica of a tabletop arcade cabinet. Cigarette burns are optional.

Joystick IT product page [ThinkGeek]

See Also:

• Stick-On JoyPad Upgrades iPad Gaming
• Racing Game for iPad Uses iPhones as Controllers