Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s what my dictionary says about the word “twinge”: a sudden, sharp localized pain; a brief experience of an emotion, typically an unpleasant one. Putting the letter “i” in front of that doesn’t change much.

The iTwinge is an external, add-on keyboard for the iPhone. The bulky sheath slides onto the phone’s slim body and turns it into a beast which resembles the 1984 Psion Organizer. Once there (and remember, you’ll have to slide it on every time you want to type something, and off again when you want to use the lower part of the screen to, you know, see something), you can use good, old-fashioned hard keys to type.

How does it work? The company behind the iTwinge, Mobile Mechatronics, is being a little cagey, and won’t reveal the keyboard’s inner workings until November 12th (the ship date). We do know that the the iTwinge ” uses the phones power”, and that you need to “plug it in”, but it appears that it simply translates your key presses via a capacitive nodule directly to the screen.

A mystery for sure. In fact, we can’t shake the feeling that this is a hoax, and an ugly one at that. $30, for iPhones 3G and 3GS.

Product page [Mobile Mechatronics via ★]

For beginners, tuning a guitar is a pain, and learning on an out-of-tune instrument is discouraging at best, and liable to get you stoned by your neighbors at worst (and we don’t mean the good, rock-star kind of “stoned”). The Headstock Tuner will help you tune your guitar and, because it reads vibrations instead of sound*, it’ll work in noisy places and doesn’t need to be plugged in to an electric guitar’s jack.

The tuner is tiny, and clips onto the headstock. This alone is an improvement, as the headstock holds the tuning heads and is where you’re attention should be. Next up is the interface, which glows red when you’re out of tune and, as you turn the pegs, moves a line closer or further from the target to guide you. It then turns green when you hit the spot.

I used to play the guitar, and when I began I used an analog needle and dial tuner. It worked fine, but this one looks way easier to use, and I totally dig the chunky light-on-dark display. $42.

Product page [Daddario via Oh Gizmo!]

*We know that sound is vibration. Don’t be so picky.

The wording is somewhat ambiguous, but it looks like Nike may be about to sell a heart rate monitor which hooks up to the latest (fifth generation) iPod Nano. Apple Insider did some digging inside the new Nike+ iPod User Guide and found possible references to the new hardware. Here’s the text, pasted from the pdf:

Linking a Nike + iPod Compatible Remote or Heart Rate Monitor

iPod nano (5th generation only) also supports Nike + iPod compatible heart rate monitors.

To link to a Nike+ compatible heart rate monitor (sold separately):

iPod nano (5th generation only): Connect your Nike + iPod receiver to your iPod nano, choose Nike + iPod > Settings > Heart Rate Monitor > Link, then follow the onscreen instructions.

As you can see, the description “iPod Compatible Heart Rate Monitor” could mean any third party add-on, but Apple Insider also got a tip-off that the monitor was “initially expected to launch alongside the next-generation iPod nano.”

We’re not surprised. That the Nano no longer needs the Nike+ dongle to work left a certain gap in Nike’s product lineup that a heart rate counter would fill, and I’m sure our resident fitness-freak and editor Dylan Tweney will check it out when it becomes available. Me? Nah. I’ll be raising my heart rate the same way my family has raised their heart rates for generations: Whiskey and porn.

Nike plans iPod nano-compatible heart rate monitor [Apple Insider]

If you’re one of those neat-freaks who wraps cords, then may we present to you the Powercurl, a fetching custard-colored, clip-on plastic cord-wrap for Apple’s magsafe power adapters. The original adapters do have a pair of flip-out prongs so you can curl up the smaller of the cables, but the truly obsessive will appreciate the ability to wrap the mains extension, too, as well as the clip to stop it unwinding.

Those of you who gently fold rather than maniacally wrap (in other words, the people whose cords last for more than a few days without internal snaps and breakages) will also find something to love: The Powercurl lifts the red-hot plastic brick off the floor, mattress or sofa and lets a little air circulate around it. For anyone who, like me, works from bed, this is a boon.

Best of all, the Powercurl is cheap. $7.25 cheap, which means spinning your own is pointless. As with all of Quirky’s products, it was designed by the Quirky community and when enough orders are signed up, the production lines will begin to hum and churn out the goods. Fun fact: The Powercurl went from idea to final design in just 24 hours.

Product page [Quirky]

Reelight, the Danish maker of magnet-powered LED bike lights, has announced a new handlebar-mounted version of its set-and-forget lamp.

I have had a pair of Reelights (the SteadyLight) on my city bike for almost a year and I love them. They don’t buzz and grind and slow you down like a bottle-dynamo rubbing the wheel, they’re glowing all the time you are riding, so you can never forget to switch them on, and they are utilitarian enough not to be a thief-magnet.

The one problem is that they sit down by the wheel hubs. The lights work by generating energy from magnets hooked onto the spokes. As the magnets are near the hubs, so are the lights, and down there they aren’t as noticeable as they could be.

The new lamps have a cable running from the generator to the light, which now sits up high. Same battery-free lights, same always-on behavior, only now you can see them properly. If these work as well as the regular low-riding Reelights, and you don’t care about bolting bits to, and running cables around, your bike, there is no reason not to buy a pair.

Reelight at Eurobike [Rad Spannerei via Cyclelicious
Photo: Red Spannerei

Manufacturer site [Reelight]

See Also:

• Reelight: Magnet Powered LED Bike Light
• Hands-On with the Knog Frog Bike Light
• LightLane: Personal Laser Bike Lane