Hasta La Gadget!

A Wacom-style graphics tablet for the Wii? It’s a fantastic idea, and if THQ, the maker of the uDraw, can make it work as well as a Wacom, it could have a winning peripheral.

The tablet, officially a “GameTablet”, has a slot onto which you slide the Wiimote, and this allows it to communicate with the console and also powers the tablet. The pen is tethered (a good thing, otherwise the kids would lose it in five seconds), and lets you draw on a 9 x 7-inch panel.

The uDraw will cost $70 and will ship with a game called uDraw Studio, a painting app which also uses some of the Wiimote’s buttons as controls: hit the minus-button to undo a brush-stroke, for example. It all looks worthily educational, and has the bonus that you won’t have to clutter the beautiful door of your SMEG refrigerator with the paper detritus of your kids’ scribbling sessions.

THQ has some more titles on the way already. A draw-along platformer called “Dood’s Big Adventure” (which sounds awful) and a version of Pictionary, which could be a genius move from THQ.

The uDraw will ship at the end of this year, almost certainly in time for Christmas. The games will follow, for $30 apiece, in 2011.

uDraw [Wonderful World of uDraw via Yahoo]

See Also:

• Fingers-On With Wacom's Multi-Touch Tablet

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The original MoviePeg stand for the iPhone was a pocket wonder. The little chunk of plastic had a notch chopped from one edge into which could you insert your iPhone. The MoviePeg would then form a kickstand, firmly propping up the phone for movie-watching duties. Even our ever fussy NYC Bureau Chief, John C Abell, bought one and continues to use it.

The new MoviePeg for iPad has a tougher job. Not only does it have to deal with a much bigger, heavier iDevice, it has to work in four different orientations, either upright or laid-back in both landscape and portrait formats. For the most part, it does a good job. In one area it shines, and in another it hardly works at all.

The new MoviePeg comes in two parts made from thermo plastic elastomer. They join together by male and female circles in the flat edge, which lock firmly in place. Pull them apart and then slip the iPad into the slots for a firm fit. Well, almost.

Because of the compound curve that is the iPad’s back, the slots only match the shapes when in the correct spot. Put them too near to the corners and they work, but the contact isn’t snug. An inch or so in from the edge is enough. The MoviePeg also seems to limber up after a little use, gripping better after the first few hours. Maybe they need to grab a little finger-grease to get started?

The MoviePeg is outstanding for typing. It holds the iPad very firmly at around 30-degrees and you can tap away in comfort, or easily read at the breakfast table. Slide the pegs down and tip the iPad a little steeper and it remains firm, perfectly good for movie-watching and more than adequate for poking the screen without knocking it over. In landscape mode, then, the MoviePeg does great.

Switch into portrait orientation and things quickly wobble out of control. Laid-back, it is fine, but try to prop the iPad upright and the stand just can’t cope. So unstable is it that I actually blew it over from over a foot away.

There are a few other quirks. It may be good for typing, but if you want to do this on your lap the unstable base of your flabby legs means things will soon shake loose. Also, grabbing the iPad to move to another room is annoying. You either have to to dismantle to setup, or hope that the pegs don’t drop off as you walk (they will).

If you type or use your iPad on a table, and need a stand that is light and small, the MoviePeg is great. If you watch movies in bed, or need something semi permanent from which grabbing your iPad is easy, or if you do any work in portrait format, it doesn’t work so well. On the other hand, it is so portable and so cheap (£13, or $20) that it’s good to buy and toss in your bag.

Available now, in black and limited-edition Clockwork Orange.

MoviePeg product page [MoviePeg. Thanks, Paul and Kate!]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

See Also:

• Simplest and Best? The MoviePeg iPhone Stand
• Sniper-Stand Turns Credit-Card into iPhone Kick-Stand
• How-To: Gorillapod Doubles as Awesome iPad Stand
• Wired Bureau Chief Builds iPad Stand from $6 Doorstops

It seems like every single new bike tool has to come with a beer-bottle opener built-in. This is fine, and as beer and bikes go so well together, a rather useful development in tool technology. It is also rather wasteful of resources: Almost every tool in my saddle-bag can be used to pop open a cold one.

The Road Popper from designer Pick makes all those tools redundant. It adds the bottle-opener direct to your bike, clamping it to the rails on the seat, meaning you can hop off the bike, buy a quick beer and cycle off sipping the suds without even opening your tool-roll. The Popper comes in two parts, both stainless-steel, which you clamp onto the rails yourself (screws and nuts are not supplied).

The opener is fabricated at Shapeways, the 3D-printer people, and as such takes around two weeks to arrive and costs a rather expensive $40. On the other hand, once you have this, you can save a fortune by not buying specialist “fixed-gear” tools and just pick up your wrenches from the hardware store.

Available now. Don’t drink and ride. Well, not too much, anyway.

Road Popper [Shapeways via the Giz]

See Also:

• Hands-On: Surly Jethro Tule Bike Wrench and Beer Opener
• U-Lock Tool Turns Kryptonite into Wrench
• Bike Geek Gear: Pedro's Master Tool Kit

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

The Mystery of the Rare Peripheral continues, running on and on just like an old Republic serial. The peripheral in question is of course the iPad Camera Connection Kit, a box of plastic dongles so rare that even a hen’s dentist wouldn’t believe it exists.

While the iPad and iPhone have remained in tight supply, you can actually get one fairly easily. The Camera Connection Kit, by contrast, is still subject to a weeks-long wait. Mine finally arrived after a month and a half of waiting. Great, except it arrived at the wrong address, and is still missing.

This little Chinese widget combines the SD card-reader and the USB-port of Apple’s two boxes into one, and costs the same $29 (HK$228). The most important feature, though, is its availability, which is immediate. If you’re in China, that is. International orders are likely to take as long to arrive as the Apple original, which is at least guaranteed to work.

We know you’re struggling to meet demand, Apple, but come on, it’s a card-reader. Are you telling us that there’s a shortage of USB-ports in the world? Or that the white-plastic mines are running dry? Actually, maybe that’s actually the problem.

iPad Camera Connection Kit Knockoff Goes 2-in-1 [MIC Gadget]

iPad Combo Camera Adapter + card reader [WeiPhone]

See Also:

• IPad Camera Connection Kit Supports External Hard Drives
• iPad Camera Connection Kit Delivered, Un-Boxed
• IPad Camera Connection Kit Sells for $187.50 on Ebay
• iPad USB Camera Connector Works With Keyboards, Audio In-Out …
• iPad Camera Connector Clones Five-Year-Old iPod Version

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

If, despite our good advice, and against all common sense, you went out and bought a protective case for your super-durable Apple aluminum keyboard, you might want to waste a few more bucks on this case for the Magic Trackpad.

The “Slip” case is from Waterfield, and matches the keyboard case in the same range. As many readers pointed out, protection for your keyboard isn’t as silly as I tried to pretend, keeping out dust and stopping the key-caps from getting popped-off by a rogue sharp object in your bag. This ballistic nylon case is probably even more useful, as its padded interior will cosset the brittle glass surface of the Magic Trackpad inside.

As someone who’s MacBook seldom moves from the desk these days thanks to the iPad that has taken its place, I have no use for any of these things. For travelers who like to bring their entire office along with them, the $25 Waterfield is asking is probably a bargain.

Trackpad Slip [Waterfield via Mac Stories]

See Also:

• Protective Keyboard Cases Signal End of Civilization
• Cases

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.