Hasta La Gadget!

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).

Mario’s alma mater may be looking at its next big console to bolster its stumbling net income, but it won’t be raising its bottom line on hardware alone: Nintendo says the Wii U is going to be sold at a loss. While this is par for the course for most game consoles, loss leader products are somewhat of a new trend for Nintendo, which only started selling hardware at a loss recently. On the upside, company CEO Satoru Iwata says the 3DS is back in the black, finally selling for a tidy (though unspecified) profit after dropping its price late last year. Nintendo expects business to pick up down the road, but says circumstances will keep it from attaining “Nintendo-like” profits in this fiscal year.

Filed under: Gaming

Nintendo Wii U to be sold at a loss, 3DS starts to turn a profit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 02:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you have a HTPC in your living room or spend a lot of time using a tablet or smartphone and wish you had a small keyboard, check this out. A company called FAVI Entertainment has released a palm-sized keyboard that supports just about any portable device on the market including Android tablets and just about anything else with Bluetooth connectivity. The keyboard features a trackpad for pointer control as well.

Looking an awful lot like another keyboard we’ve previously featured, this on is called the FAVI Mini Bluetooth Keyboard and is designed for thumb typing. It has a full QWERTY keyboard and the keys are backlit for use in dark environments. The trackpad is on the right side of the keyboard and on the left side are buttons to control left and right mouse clicks. The trackpad also supports tap to click. The keyboard has a full assortment of media playback control hotkeys, as well as PowerPoint slide control keys. It’s even got a laser pointer built into the end.

Any device that has Bluetooth built in will be able to connect to the keyboard and computers or other devices with a USB port, but lacking integrated Bluetooth can use the included receiver. The wireless range for the keyboard is 50 feet, and it is available now for $49.99 over at Staples.

As gadgets become more and more compact and portable, one thing that continues to stand in the way is the limitation of current battery technology. Just think of how the majority of space and weight inside your tablet or smartphone is its battery pack, and they still often run out of juice before you’re done for the day. As companies continue to work on improving battery life, and decreasing consumption, it would be nice to be able to generate more power when you need it. One conceptual device hopes to help a little bit, by harnessing the energy you expend when you walk or run.

While industrial designer Toby Blake’s Kinetic Charger concept isn’t the first such gadget, it’s definitely one of the more stylish and compact attempts to create a kinetic-energy storage device. The small USB charger would simply clip onto your beltline or a pocket, and would harvest energy you expend as you move around throughout the day, using reverse electrowetting technology.

Blake envisions that each one could store up to 4 watts of power, and you could connect multiples together to increase available energy levels.

Now there are probably some practical challenges that would limit the effectiveness of such as small kinetic-capture device, and there’s really not much room inside of it for a supplemental battery pack to store that energy in either. Still, it’s a cool design, and I’d love to see it come to market someday.

[via EcoChunk]

Laptop trays and portable desks come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and have different features. Some focus on keeping your laptop – and thighs – cool, while others add speakers, USB ports or even keyboards. But the ErgoArc 2 focuses on one thing: it lets you use your laptop in bed.

Granted, there are many laptop trays that you can also use while in bed. Heck, you can even make do with a breakfast tray if you have a netbook. But thanks to the ErgoArc 2′s highly adjustable legs and its bumper, you’ll be able to use your laptop even if you’re lying down. It also has side trays for drinks and a mouse or a notepad, but I think those are just bonuses.

If only I could fit my all-in-one computer on it. You can order the ErgoArc 2 from Amazon for $74 (USD). That’s quite expensive for a laptop stand, but judging from the reviews it’s worthy every cent.

[via 7 Gadgets]