Hasta La Gadget!

Everything about the Piolo iPhone stand is minimal — including the price

If you liked the minimal MoviePeg iPhone stand, you’re going to love the Piolo, which offers more — or really less — of the same. Hell, even its name is shorter.

Where the MoviePeg was a chunky, rubbery clip-on stand with a satisfying heft, the Piolo is a thin strip of TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) with a notch cut to hold the iPhone. It works in both horizontal and vertical configurations and props up the handset by working as a tiny kickstand.

Wired.com’s very own NYC Bureau Chief Mr. John C. Abell had the MoviePeg for his iPhone 3GS and regarded it as good. The Piolo seems to be the same, only even more pocket friendly, and even has a hole to hook it onto a keychain.

But the very best thing about the Piolo, designed and made in the gruffly charming city of sheffield in England, is its price. The designer, Andrew Bond, has even applied his minimalist creed to the cost, and the Piolo sells for just £4, or $6.50, plus flat rate shipping for just £1.85 ($3). What’s not to like? And how can you not like a man whose bio includes the following: “I like a good cup of tea, bacon sandwiches, sleep, photography, films.”?

Piolo iPhone stand [Piolo. Thanks, Andy!]

See Also:

• Simplest and Best? The MoviePeg iPhone Stand
• Hands-On With the MoviePeg for iPad
• Tiny, Gravity-Defying PadFoot Stand Seems Impossible
• The Glif iPhone 4 Tripod Mount Does Much Much More

The Keydex iPad stand follows its own aesthetic vision

The only part of the Sanwa Keydex iPad stand that won’t melt your eyes due to its sheer ugliness is the keyboard — and that’s because it doesn’t come with one. Instead, you have to supply your own iPad Keyboard Dock. And that’s where the pointlessness of this accessory starts to become clear. To fully appreciate this piece of whimsical nonsense, watch this promotional video:

Where to begin? Perhaps with the speakers that are actually a separate piece, complete with extra cable mess? Or with the ridiculous press-n-roll button at the front, which makes it easy to move the iPad and stand backwards and forwards with a single touch (which can’t be done with any other stand, of course). Or maybe the fact that you need to already have the Apple keyboard stand/dock to prop up the tablet?

Perhaps the best “feature” is the one that lets you lay the iPad back at a shallow angle to type on its virtual keyboard, while the the actual physical keyboard lies below it with glorious redundancy. What on Earth were they thinking?

There is actually one other feature that almost justifies the otherwise unfathomable existence of the Keydex: its price. At just ¥3,480, or $43, it isn’t too expensive, especially as those speaker probably sound just awesome.

Keydex product page [Sanwa via Akihabara news]

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• Ugly Bluetooth Headset Transforms into Even Uglier Wristwatch …
• Ugly Flip-Like Camcorder Records Beautiful Sound

Intel’s new high-speed port technology is called Thunderbolt. But what is it, exactly?

Think of Thunderbolt (formerly code named “Light Peak”) as two cables in one. One is a fast PCI Express cable for transferring data, and the other is DisplayPort, for driving an external display.

A Thunderbolt cable is capable of delivering data between a computer and a peripheral (say, an external hard drive) at 10 Gbps in either direction, Intel claims. That’s fast enough to transfer a full-length HD movie in under 30 seconds.

It’s also 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and 20 times faster than USB 2.0, according to Apple.

Because a ThunderBolt connector is also a DisplayPort connection, that means a single port on a notebook — such as the new MacBook Pros, which have Thunderbolt ports — can connect to an external monitor, which in turn can connect to storage devices via PCI Express. We call this “daisy-chaining” devices.

In theory, the monitor could also connect to a keyboard, mouse, additional displays and even a gigabit ethernet connection, with all the data for those peripherals going through the single Thunderbolt cable connecting the monitor and the notebook. The makers of these hardware devices simply need to add a small Intel chip to decode the Thunderbolt signal into its PCI Express and DisplayPort signals.

“All Thunderbolt technology devices share a common connector, and let individuals simply daisy-chain their devices one after another, connected by electrical or optical cables,” Intel’s press release states.

In short, a monitor could become a hub for PCIe peripherals to which you can easily dock your notebook with a single cable connection. For that to work, of course, you’ll need a Thunderbolt-compatible monitor — and none currently exist.

Fortunately for Mac users, Thunderbolt plugs have the same shape as the Mini DisplayPort connectors in all recent Macs, and it’s compatible with them, so you can plug an older monitor into a new Thunderbolt port (even using a DVI, HDMI or VGA adapter) and it will still work. You won’t have a data channel, but the video connection will function.

In the longer term, the speed of the PCI Express bus makes it possible for a variety of devices to be connected through simple, external cables rather than internal expansion cards, greatly increasing the expandability of notebooks and even netbooks. Video-capture devices, RAID arrays and who knows what will all be easy to add simply by plugging in a Thunderbolt port.

For now, Apple is the only company we know of offering Thunderbolt-compatible gadgets. Intel lists several other partners who will be using the standard, including storage makers LaCie and Western Digital, and says it is working with other companies to bring the technology to “computers, displays, storage devices, audio/video devices, cameras, docking stations and more.”

Dodocase’s Bookback skin for the iPad

On of my biggest complaints in yesterday’s iPad 2 wish-list was that the back of the current iPad is just too slippery. It never feels secure in the hand, and if you tuck it under your arm or prop it on the arm of a couch, you’re looking at imminent disaster.

And as if by magic, today I got a pitch from the Dodo people, behind the famous Moleskine-like Dodocase for the iPad. The new product is a simple rear skin for the iPad, and also the iPhone, which is made from the exact same leather-like material that covers the Dodocase itself.

The skins are called Bookbacks, and come as self adhesive, reusable skins, debossed with a name and logo in black or red. They only offer scratch protection for the aluminum rear panel — you’ll need a proper case if you plan to sling your iPad in a bag — but for improving the feel and grippiness of the iPad, the Bookbacks look ideal.

They’re not too pricy, either. The iPad version is $20, and the little iPhone model is just $9.

Bookback product page [Dodocase. Thanks, Abby!]

See Also:

• iPad Case Smackdown: Dodocase Vs. Pad & Quill
• Dodobag, a Murse to Hold Your Dodocase
• iPad-Case Maker Preserves a Dying Craft

The trouble with using your iPhone as a bike computer is that it is vulnerable to rain, salty road spray and even the occasional unexpected drop onto the asphalt. What you need is a waterproof and shock-resistant mount so your phone survives long enough to call an ambulance when you fall off yourself.

That mount is the iBike Dash. It’s a case and computer in one, and like many bike accessories, it has a price that bears almost no relation to what you get. There are two models. The plain Dash encases your iPhone (3, 3GS or 4) and allows it to hook up to a variety of (optional) inputs: heart rate monitor, cadence sensor, and also speed input from a magnet on the wheel. The Dash + Power adds a power meter and actually includes the sensors in the box. The models cost $300 and $750, respectively.

The oddest part of the product page is that it keeps touting the touch-screen, the GPS and the powerful computer inside. It takes some digging to find out that these are all supplied by your phone.

The cases also come with a companion app, called iBike (free in the app store). It gives GPS tracking, as well as access to all the metering functions of the iBike units. It’s not the prettiest cycling computer app out there, but it looks like it does the job, and offers lots of customization.

But really, it comes down to the ridiculous prices of those waterproof bike mounts. Sure, they offer a connection between phone and sensors, but is an interface dongle really worth $300, let alone $750?

iBike Dash [iBike Sports]

See Also:

• Dahon iPhone Bike Mount Is Waterproof, Shockproof
• $100 LiveRider Kit Turns iPhone into Bike Computer
• Five iPhone Apps That Replace Bike Hardware