Hasta La Gadget!

It looks like modded rocking chairs are getting more popular this year. First, it was Damien Ludi and Colin Peillex’s Rocking-Knit chair that knitted while you rocked. And now it’s the iRock.

If you’re not into knitting but love rocking anyways, then maybe the iRock is more up your alley.

Using the energy produced by your rocking movement, the iRock charges up your iPad up to 35% for every hour of rocking. It’s also got a pair of speakers built into the headrest and a 25W-per-channel amp.

The chair itself is made from Swedish oak and pine and is available in five colors, including white, black, green, cyan and magenta. The iRock is pretty pricey at $1,300(USD), but what did you expect from a chair with a built-in iPad dock and sound station?

[via Yanko Design]

Most of you are probably too young to remember what the original Apple computer looked like. The few of us who do, recall it looking like a wooden box with a keyboard built into the top. In fact, the first Apple didn’t even come with a case – that’s just the case design that homebrewers built for the system. Now you can make your shiny new iPad look a bit like that wooden Apple 1.

The Wooden iPad Station from Hekseskudd is carved from black walnut wood, and holds both the iPad and Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard, turning your tablet into a retro-modern workstation. The slot holds the iPad in either landscape or portrait modes, and the Apple keyboard fits neatly into the cutout on top. There’s actually a little extra storage space under the keyboard as well.

While it’s definitely reminiscent of the Apple 1, this looks a whole lot nicer, and the iPad is about a million times (and that’s my exact mathematical calculation) more powerful than the old 8-bit system of yore. You can grab the Wooden iPad Station over at Ahalife for $139(USD).

I’ve seen what seems like a million-and-one iPhone docks over the years – some good, some bad, and some just plain weird, but most of them have one thing in common – they aren’t particularly portable. Stycom’s Dock Card doesn’t have this problem.

At just 2.1″(w) x 3.3″(d) x 0.2″(h), this compact dock can easily fold down and fit in your pocket. When opened up, it can work in either landscape or portrait mode, and has a pop-up 30-pin dock connector. That little red part is a short cable which can be connected to your iPhone’s wall charger or your computer’s USB port.

It’s even got a little drawer with enough room to store an SD card, a spare SIM and a SIM removal tool. Pretty nifty, eh?

They’re available in three colors: white with red accents, red with white accents, and black with silver accents.

So what’s not to like? Well I can only come up with one thing – there’s no 8-pin Lightning connector version (yet), so those of us with the iPhone 5 or the latest iPod Touch are out of luck for now. But if you happen to have an iPhone 3/3GS/4/4S or an earlier iPod Touch, head on over to Amazon, where you can buy the Stycom Dock Card for $29.99(USD).

A new Smart Dock for the Samsung Galaxy Note II has surfaced, turning the stylus-toting smartphone into a mini desktop setup with plentiful connectivity for a display and wired peripherals. Listed at Samsung US’ site as well as at UK retailer Clove, the $99.99 accessory has three USB ports and a full-sized HDMI output, squirting up to 1080p Full HD onto a TV or monitor.

There’s also a 3.5mm stereo audio output, for hooking up a set of speakers, and a microUSB input for charging the phone and powering the Smart Dock itself. The Note II can be used as normal when docked in place – including for making phone calls – and if you’ve a flip cover fitted you won’t need to remove it in order to slot it in.

So, you could use the Smart Dock to turn your Note II into a desktop computer replacement, with a full-sized keyboard and mouse to navigate via Android – and all the usual Android apps – on a large display. Alternatively, it could form the hub of a media system, hooked up to your TV and with external storage plugged into the USB ports.

Meanwhile, it folds up for easy transport, so you could feasibly drop it into your bag wherever you go. Clove says UK availability isn’t confirmed yet, nor pricing, and while it’s available for preorder on Samsung US’ webstore, there’s no estimated shipping date. More on the Note II in our full review.

Samsung Galaxy Note II Smart Dock turns phablet into desktop is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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A new Kickstarter project launching today wants to be the first officially licensed iPhone 5 dock, and possibly the last one you’ll ever need for Lightning-bearing. The solid steel Dock+ comes with Lightning support built in, has an application in with Apple’s MFI program and has been engineered from the ground-up to meet Apple’s requirements for its authorized hardware partners. Apple has no plans to ship a dock of its own, so the race to create a definitive third-party solution is on, and Dock+ co-creator David Wurtz believes his product has what it takes.

The Dock+ has a number of benefits over other solutions, according to Wurtz. Unlike the CompleteDock or the newly announced adapter solution for the Elevation Dock, the Dock+ doesn’t just use a pass-through cable solution; instead, it’ll boast its own Lightning connector, so long as it makes it through Apple’s MFI program. That allows it to build a lightning plug that both flexes back and forth for easier removal, and depresses slightly, meaning you can use it with cases and bumpers as well as with a naked iPhone 5.

But other than the clever bit of hardware engineering around the actual Lightning tip itself, Wurtz says the emphasis with Dock+ was always on making something as uncomplicated as possible, without extra ports or features, in order to simplify the manufacturing process and ensure the ability to ramp up to high volume shipments quickly. That’s why Wurtz is very confident they’ll meet their ambitious projected March 2013 ship date – I told him that, in my experience, the Kickstarter project that makes its first projected ship date is very, very rare, but he still seems confident. Really, Wurtz said the main thing that could hold them up would be any hiccups in the MFI approval process.

The Dock+ itself is designed with function as the utmost concern. It’s made of solid steel, and as you can see in the video, that means it won’t budge from the desk or table when you take your iPhone on or off. It also comes in three different colors (natural steel, black and white), and uses readily-available micro USB cables to supply power and syncing, meaning you can fit your own from your existing collection, or choose either a 3- or 6-foot version shipped with the Dock+ itself. Optionally, users can also get a power brick for their wall outlet, or they can supply their own.

Thanks to the shelf design, Wurtz says the Dock+ should work with any changes in hardware design of the iPhone, so long as it retains the lightning connectors (which Apple exec Phil Schiller is here to stay for a while at least). The team has also tested it with the iPad, in the expectation that the next one will have a lightning connector, and it works well. It should also be a perfect fit for the iPad mini, Wurtz says, so long as that device matches the early leaked hardware design.

I never believed I was a dock guy, but it turns out I am, and my time with the iPhone 5 has been sadly dockless so far. Dock+ is a promising new accessory in that regard, and it has a relatively modest goal of $75,000 with 60 days to reach it. Pre-orders start at $49 for early backers, and you can check out the Dock+ in action in the video below.