Hasta La Gadget!

Apple may have its own in-store, handheld “cash” registers using modified iPod Touches, but what if you, too, want a slick and small credit-card payment system? Sure, you could get one of those chunky, cellular card-readers on loan from the credit card company. Or you could get a dongle for your iPhone.

That’s what VeriFone’s new Payware Mobile is for. The card-reading case hugs the iPhone and an accompanying application runs the transaction. Swipe, sign the screen with a stylus and then send the information in to, well, wherever these numbers are sent. We imagine something like the underground bank staffed by goblins from the Harry Potter books, only with the goblins in cubicles, and endless streams of data instead of actual gold.

So how do you get this device for your own home/store/restaurant/magic wand shop? You need to sign up for a two-year contract with Payware, whereupon the card reader will be tossed in for free. It’s only available for pre-order right now, but we fully expect to see similar solutions from other vendors, not least the Square iPhone Payment System from Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

Payware Mobile [VeriFone]

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The retro-styled Chopper2 headphones from Aerial7 may look familiar. Anyone who has seen the wonderful (and hugely popular, if my local high street is anything to go by) Panasonic RP HTX7-K1 will instantly recognize the large earpieces, the adjustable steel-wire sliders, the leather-covered pads and headband and the single-exit cable. Even the recommended price is almost the same, at $70 to the Panasonic’s $60.

Apart from the dubious color schemes, the Chopper2 has one important addition: an in-line mic, for use with compatible cellphones (the iPhone and BlackBerry both work, for example). They don’t have the inline remote to control an iPod, as that requires Apple’s magic chip to work, but for yakking on the phone you’re good.

In fact, on paper at least, the Chopper2s compare well to the Panasonics. The driver is 4mm bigger, at 44mm, the sensitivity is 108dB (vs. 99dB) and the impedance is 32 ohms against 40 ohms. The frequency response is a little narrower in range, giving 5-20 KHz vs. 7-22KHz. Without actually listening, it looks like the main decider is going to be the microphone and the garish color schemes of the Chopper2s. That and the fact that the Panasonics have been around for so long now that they can be had for as little as $30 online.

Chopper2 Headphones [Aeriel7. Thanks, Greg!]

RP-HTX7-K1 headphones [Panasonic]

The Wall Dock wins a space on the G-lab pages partly because it looks so very sleek, and partly because it shows just how great the US power-plug design is – it may use flimsy, cheap and confidence-sapping prongs, but those things are so tiny that pocket-sized chargers are easy to build.

The Wall Dock is as simple as an iPhone/iPod dock could get — a plastic block that plugs into the wall and has a protruding dock connector up top. This connector rotates, hiding when not in use and allowing the iPhone to tilt back against the wall when charging. Apart from a soft, padded top surface to pamper your ‘pod, that’s it. But what it leaves out – cables, clutter and blinkenlights – is at least as important as what it puts in. $25.

Wall Dock [DLO]

See Also:

• Jukebox Lamp and iPod Charger: Ugliest. Dock. Ever
• MHub iPod Dock Plays Nice With Blackberries, Too
• USB Hub Packs Clutter-Reducing iPhone Charger
• Griffin PowerBlock Charger Packs a Spare
• Ugandan MacGyver Builds Own Cellphone Charger

The Gino Light Mount is $20 and 30 grams worth of ingenious minimalism. All it does is add a handlebar-diameter tube to your bike, anywhere that you have a 5mm braze-on thread. The mount itself is made from aluminum by Paul Component Engineering, and comes with an allen-bolt like the ones you’d use to attach a bottle cage.

But why would you want it? The main selling point is it means you can get your lights down low so they’re throw long, easy-to-spot shadows from any bumps and pits in the road ahead – this is for the cyclist to see his way safely on dark streets, and clearly not to make you visible to other road users: for that you’ll need a regular helmet or bar-mounted lamp. This is particularly handy in the city where you want to use removable lights for security: Try finding a clip-on lamp which will fit the narrow tube of a fork and you’ll see why the Gino exists.

And that’s it, a specific device for a single problem. In fact, Paul’s store is full of handy little bike tchotchkes, most of them damned handy, and many of them beautiful. Check it out. I have my eye on one of these lovely Flatbed racks.

Gino Light Mount [Paul Comp via EcoVelo]

Photo: Gino/Flickr Creative Commons