Hasta La Gadget!

In addition to letting us get our hands on all its IFA announcements today, Acer pulled back the curtain on a concept device. The Acer Extend prototype works similarly to the ASUS Padfone, letting you connect your smartphone to a clamshell-style dock with a display, keyboard and a 6,000mAh battery to recharge your handset.

For the purposes of the demo, a modified version of Acer’s Liquid E2 smartphone was connected to the Extend dock via an MHL cable, though company reps said a market-ready version could include a retractable cord. Even more compelling, though, would be a wireless, Bluetooth-based solution.

In addition to offering much more screen real estate than a phone, the dock solution nets you a full-size, tactile keyboard, and Acer’s optimized this island-style layout to work with a smartphone’s operating system. To that end, there are buttons for Mail, WiFi, Bluetooth and more — more or less the options you’ll find in and Android phone’s Settings menu. Though the keyboard is tailored to a smartphone interface, the Extend lets you view apps such as Gmail in tablet format, meaning you’ll reap the full benefits of the larger display. There’s also a full-size touchpad on board.%Gallery-slideshow77226%

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Mobile, Acer

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There’s an abundance of iOS device docks, but many aren’t well-suited to deskside use when they sit too low and limit use of the audio jack. Twelve South’s new HiRise for iPhone bucks that trend. The stand raises smaller iOS devices closer to eye level, where they’re well-positioned for video chats and listening to music with headphones. Owners have to bring their own Lightning cables for power, but they won’t have to worry about case or device compatibility thanks to an adjustable rear support. That flexibility helps justify the HiRise’s relatively high $35 price — it won’t be obsolete the moment that Apple and accessory makers change form factors.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Portable Audio/Video, Tablets

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Source: Twelve South

The Nexus 7 Dock is no longer available on the US Play Store.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo.

Newly created Wiplabs Design LLC has huge plans for the future, and in order to kick things off, they will first need to launch their maiden product that they have dubbed the iDockAll. IdockAll will not be made available to the masses right away, as it needs to have that crucial user base before things can happen at the production line, considering how iDockAll is a crowd-funding project over at Kickstarter. Just what makes the iDockAll so special from all the other docks that are available in the market? For starters, the iDockAll dock will boast of a unique design which enables continuous charging of the iOS devices. For the layman, that would mean you are able to answer calls even when your device’s battery is running low, checking out private messages while synchronization, writing emails on the iPad, just about anything and everything is possible.

In a nutshell, you can do all of the above mentioned while ensuring that the lithium battery is being charged up. The iDockAll sports a minimalistic design that is so well executed; users might actually figure out that the iDockAll was a creation by the folks over at Apple themselves. The iDockAll project kicked off on Kickstarter earlier this month, and it has until the end of June to gather the relevant funds.

Here is a little bit of context on how the iDockAll came about. Apple enthusiasts Nathalie De Clercq and Kevin Wippermann are old mates who hail from Belgium and were frustrated with the difficulties of docking and displaying their iOS devices (be they iPhones, iPads or iPods) considering how docks kept on changing with each device iteration released. March 2013 proved to be the turning point, as they decided to tackle the issue themselves, resulting in the iDockAll. This is the maiden non-constraining dock that plays nice with the whole iOS product range (Lightning and/or 30pin connector) and their covers, and in line with Apple’s design philosophy, it has been crafted out of a single block of aluminum for that added touch of class.

Press Release
[ iDockAll a Kickstarter project that needs your help copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Remember Motorola’s Atrix and Photon 4G? They were phones that could be plugged into a proprietary dock that turned them into Linux netbooks. If you ever wished you had something like that for your phone, check out the Casetop.

The Casetop doesn’t give you a desktop OS but it does add three useful things to your phone: a full-sized keyboard, an 11.1″ 720p LEd-backlit screen (not a touchscreen) and a battery. That’s right – the Casetop has its own battery, and if you plug your phone in via a USB cable the Casetop will charge your phone. The Casetop works with any smartphone that has Bluetooth connectivity (to connect to the keyboard) and a video output via HDMI, MHL or micro-USB (to connect to the screen). It also has a couple of 1W speakers, but you’d probably be better off plugging in a pair of headphones via the 3.5mm connector. Here’s a brief demo of the prototype Casetop:

And here’s the full Kickstarter pitch video:

It’s kinda weird having to navigate via your phone’s touchscreen, but aside from that I think this device could find its niche. Pledge at least $250 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Casetop as a reward.

[via Ausdroid]