Moviewedge, A Plush Friend For Your iPhone

moviewedge

The Moviewedge is not, as I first thought upon reading the rather juicy name, a chunky media viewer, or even a small prop to hold your eyes open during the penultimate 15 minutes of Blade Runner. It is a beanbag in the shape of a wedge, with a plush lip at the front, and it is the perfect place to rest a tired iPod, cellphone or other movie-playing device.

It’s probably a little chunky for the minimalist traveler, but we like it anyway. The bag will sit on an airline seat-tray or your knee, just as happily, and just as steadily. The single best feature is the micro-fiber material which forms the skin, perfect to quickly polish away greasy smears from grubby thumbs. And finally, the combination of soft body and hard, shiny screen reminds of of the Chumby, only this is actually useful.

Product page [Moviewedge. Thanks, Brad!]


Griffin iTrip, Now With Added iPhone App

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For those folks who hate wires enough to put up with bad, hissy FM quality from their in-car iPod listening, we have good news. While it still won’t make the sound better than it would be if piped through a cable, Griffin’s new hardware/software iTrip combo at least makes FM transmitting to your car-stereo a whole lot easier. And prettier.

The iPhone application is free, but you’ll need the new $50 iTrip to use it. The new iTrip itself has a backlit LCD display on which you can see the tuned frequency, and it will actually send track information to be shown on your car’s head unit if it supports RDS.

The application will auto-tune the iPhone to a fairly unused frequency, and you can store three presets for fast access. The nicest UI feature is the Big Ol’ Dial, which gives an onscreen wheel that you can twist and tune manually.

One other handy hardware touch is the mini-USB port on the bottom of the iTrip. This will take any USB cable and, when hooked into the iPhone’s dock connector, allow you to charge it with any old charger. Available now.

Product page [Griffin]

Product page [iTunes]


Glow In The Dark Stickers Add Keyboard ‘Backlight’ On The Cheap

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Before they all went pro, one of the big differences between the entry-level unibody MacBook and the next model up was the illuminated keyboard of the better machine. This upgrade cost a few hundred bucks, and I bit, paying the premium for see-in-the-dark keys.

If only I had known about the Dark Keyboard Stickers, from Baron Bob, the tireless Gift Crusader. For a mere $9, I could have added the glowing stickers which are described both as glow-in-the-dark, or as highly reflective, depending on which paragraph you choose to read. Whichever it is, you should be able to see a lot more in dim rooms, and perhaps this would be the perfect compliment to the Laptop Burka, today’s Worst Gadget Award winner.

Product page [Baron Bob via BBG]


Laptop Burka: Tasteless, Useless, Glare-Less

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Not only is the name in very questionable taste, but the product itself seems useless to anyone with access to a laundry closet. The Laptop Burka is a sheet of “breathable, lightweight fabric” which you drape over both yourself and your computer to cocoon the pair of you in a glare-free, psychologically separate space.

Let’s take a look at some of the “features”.

Laptop Burka lets you work or watch movies in your own portable private space.

If you watch movie under this thing whilst in public, there is only one kind of film that passersby will assume you are watching.

Laptop Burka lets you work and play on your laptop without the glare of sunlight or stares from uninvited strangers.

Clearly wrong. Strangers will actually stare more. You just won’t be able to see them.

No more eye straining or battery draining from glare.

True. But neither will there be any more laptop after somebody sneaks up on you unnoticed, deals you a carefully aimed whack to the head and makes off with the machine. Worse, nobody will approach your unconscious form for fear of, well, for fear of meeting the kind of nutjob who would cover themselves like this in public.

And did we mention that it is called the Laptop Burka? Avoid, and as the Lady suggests, just go indoors. $36.

Product page [Laptop Burka. thanks, Mark!]


Motion Activated Earbuds Stop Music When You Pull Them Out

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I don’t care much for the microphone, but the play/pause switch and volume control on Apple’s earbuds has become essential for me. You can leave the iPod where God intended (in your pocket) and still be polite to shopkeepers (pause, remove earbuds) without missing a single second of the Gadget Lab podcast.

Sony Ericsson’s new ‘buds go one better. Remove one from your ear and the music stops. Put both buds back in and the tunes resumes. And if the MH907s are hooked up to a phone, you can answer the call just by plugging one earbud into your canal.

The earbuds are motion activated, but they only work with Sony Ericsson phones that have a fast port connector, which allows them to talk to the handset. We guess that this kind of tech will always be hooked to a specific handset, but hopefully somebody will come up with an iPhone version. Available soon, for $55.

Product page [Sony Ericsson via Oh Gizmo]


Swiss Army Knives, Rebooted

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You have, of course, heard the saying “jack of all trades and master of none”, and it might have been coined for the Swiss Army Knife. While is is undoubtedly very convenient to have a tiny tool-kit in a pocket-sized package, the tools themselves are never as good as the standalone versions. The knife is hard to pull out and folds back in, chopping fingertips, when you press any way but the right way, the screwdriver doesn’t so much drive screws as scratch and tickle them, and the corkscrew somehow manages to slip one of your spinal disks with every bottle you open.

Swiss designer Thilo Fuente has teamed up with Wenger, the original Swiss Army Knife maker, and come up with some less diverse but certainly more functional tools, from a knife with an angled handle to make opening and wielding it easier, through a large blade with fold-out handles which change the function depending on where you place them, to a separate handle and blade which are screwed together and have an integrated grind-stone.

We think these designs are fantastic, and they retain the steel and aluminum materials and red/polished metal of the originals. All except the rather pocket-unfriendly set of five tools which are held together by a hank of red cord. Put these on sale, Wenger, and you’ll be getting a pocketful of my dollars.

Product page [Fuente y Fuente via Core77]

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Dahon iPhone Bike Mount Is Waterproof, Shockproof

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Waterproof? Check. Shockproof? Check. Bike mounted? Check. Dahon’s BioLogic iPhone case puts your iPhone up front on the handlebars, right where you need it, and gives it enough protection that you don’t need to worry about it getting rained on or shaken to death.

The mount allows a 360º swivel, and the front membrane transmits your touches so the iPhone can still be used on the go. Legitimate uses: GPS and mapping, cycle-computer applications and music. Bad ideas: in-ride movies and Monkey Ball. Combine with Dahon’s FreeCharge iPhone and USB charger and you can go all day. Available January, $60.

Dahon Announces Waterproof, Shockproof Bike Mount [Bike Hugger]


At Last, An iPhone Tripod Adapter

blur-tripod

The iPhone 3GS has a great camera (for a cellphone) especially with the new easy-edit video function. But holding the lightweight handset steady isn’t easy. Joby already addressed this by rebranding it’s smallest bendable tripod as the Gorillamobile (sadly, not a car for big apes), and that remains a great multi-purpose option.

But if you want some thing for half the price, and with a single minded focus, you can now try the Blur Tripod, another poorly named accessory for the people who brought us the iTwinge external keyboard. The big difference is the connection, a cradle like converter which also pokes into the dock connector to keep the iPhone steady. On the bottom is a standard tripod bush socket, and the $15 kit comes with a small folding tripod included. The Gorillapod uses a suction cup.

The company also supplies photo software for the iPhone, but as it isn’t yet on the iTunes App Store, we’ll have to wait to see what it can do. There’s not much not to like here, unless the connection is somehow wobbly. Available now.

Product page [Mobile Mechatronics]


Pong: Radiation-Blocking iPhone Case Smells Fishy

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There is one thing you need to know about cellphone radiation: without it, you don’t have a cellphone. Or at least, you don’t have a cellphone that can make calls. The radiation is the signal.

If you block that signal, the phone will pump up its output in order to carry your call. Remember the last time you flew and forgot to switch off your phone? The battery was dead when you arrived, right? That’s because, searching for a network, the phone was running its radio at full tilt to acquire one.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Pong, a tin-foil-hat (or “case”) for your iPhone, which purports to deflect the dangerous brain-boiling rays away from your bonce. As you might expect, the “how it works” section is littered with meaningless tosh, handily hiding the lack of actual science. Here are some samples, with comment:

Pong uses a patented physics-based solution to redirect the flow of this energy.

Appeals to hippies.

The Pong technology module, optimally aligned with the phone’s internal antenna, attracts the radiative energy. The Pong Effect occurs as a pure energy transfer with no distortion due to the properties of the module material and microwave-tuned antenna design.

Those are English words, arranged into an English sentence, yet somehow they remain meaning-free.

Chimney Effect
The unique “ladder” configuration of the Pong module moves the signal and its hazardous radiation through the Pong case like a chimney, and away from the user.

What?

As you can see, it looks a lot like science, but it ain’t. Even the “Test Data” comes in the form of acronym-peppered nonsense, and is accompanied by the very scientific diagram seen above, next to the Pong case itself. How much is this paranoia-placebo? A predictably expensive $60. There’s a pong here, alright, and it’s the stink of snake-oil.

Product page [Pong Research]


Mophie Announces Case for iPhone Case, Singularity Draws Nearer

hip-holster

Another slip-on iPhone accessory today, this time in the form of this executive-dorktastic iPhone case from Mophie. Pretty much all you need to know is the name: Hip Holster.

The leather pouch has a belt clip and flap, and the “quick draw feature allows easy access for one-handed removal.” Why is this any different from the one zillion other leather, belt mounted cellphone holsters (the businessman’s equivalent of the tramp stamp)? It is bigger than most, in order to accommodate both iPhone and a Juice Pack — another case from Mophie which holds an external battery for the iPhone.

That’s right. This is a case for a case, the beginnings of a cellular babushka which can only end in a wardrobe-sized prophylactic, one that most certainly won’t fit on a belt. But why stop there? Surely the next logical stage is a case into which the owner can slip in order to protect himself on the mean corridors between cubicles, a warm, womb-like haven from which he can call, uninterrupted by the world outside. Yes. We just invented the iPhone-booth. $30.

Product page [Mophie. Thanks, Matt!]