Hasta La Gadget!

The Trip is a crazy hybrid rolling-suitcase which manages to be both practical and weird in equal measure. It carries your luggage, of course, and offers a very useful “kangaroo” pocket on the front, a flap which zips open to allow fast access to a laptop, books, cellphone or anything else you squeeze in.

It also turns int a chair: The wheels hinge back on the end of stalks and the hard, padded top-section slides forward to make a bigger area for your butt. Think of R2D2 leaning back into his roll-along position and you’ve got the idea.

Then it gets odd. The more expensive of the two trips has a battery and speakers. This is so you can listen to music in your hotel room or take the suitcase along on a picnic. I’m serious. Check this out, from the email pitch:

Pick a sunny day, bring a good wine and some tasty food and put on your favorite tunes for a perfect afternoon! Even if your iPhone or BlackBerry runs out of power, you can charge it through the TRIP.

That charging part is useful, but why would you want to further shrink the space inside a rolling case with batteries and speakers? I have no love for wheelie-cases, preferring a lighter, more capacious backpack, so perhaps I am biased, but even for the lazy traveler it seems foolish to shrink you load-bay like this.

If you do fancy a case/seat/speaker, and don’t mind plugging your travel-bag into a USB port once in a while, then you can have the Trip Sound for €650 ($850), or opt for the quieter Trip for €595 ($780). Oh, and hit “mute” before you go to the site. It has, unforgivably, auto-playing music.

Trip product page [Travelteq. Thanks, Titia!]

Kensington’s PowerGuard Battery Case for the iPhone 4 would be just another ho-hum Mophie-alike design if it weren’t for one very clever little tweak. Around back there is a slot in the plastic, into which you slide a credit card to make an instant kickstand. It is placed smartly, too, so it will support the iPhone in either landscape or portrait orientations.

The case actually comes with a card, so you don’t have to risk your own, and the whole thing is actually rather slim and clean-looking, adopting the iPhone 4’s own squared-off lines instead of the swooping curves normal for external battery packs. It will add four hours of talk-time (or five hours of video or 22 hours audio) to the iPhone’s life, charges via microUSB and has a volume control button, just like Apple’s own bumper case. And given that simple cases can sell for $40 or more, the battery-totin’, kickstand-convertin’ Kensington’s $60 seems reasonable. Available for pre-order now.

Kensington PowerGuard Battery Case with Card Stand [Kensington via OhGizmo]

See Also:

• Solar-Powered iPhone Battery Case: Apple Approves
• Powerskin iPhone Battery is Supermodel-Slim
• GPS Add-On Case For iPod Touch
• Sniper-Stand Turns Credit-Card into iPhone Kick-Stand

It’s a stand for the iPad, and so of course it is called the iStand, but it’s also an elegant piece of furniture. The Danish-designed stand is aimed at POS use (no, not that POS) and holds the iPad at a handy browsing height allowing customers to flip through catalogs, menus or any kind of information. I can imagine these in use both as educational aids in museums and also by clipboard-nazis as they deny you entry to their lame but “exclusive” nightclub.

The iStand has space for a dock-cable and bolts shut around the iPad. It also covers the home button to prevent tinkering, so you’d better be sure you have launched the correct app before you lock it up. It tilts and swivels, too, depending on how you want to use it.

The company behind the iStand, InSilico, also makes companion apps, although these are not listed in the app store. They are pretty self explanatory: They’re called iCatalogue and iMagazine. I’m thinking it would be pretty cool to put a couple of these in Wired’s reception hall showing the iPad version of the mag (or better, tuned to the Gadget Lab page). The only problem there would be in the New York office, where Bureau Chief John C Abell does a lot of his “work” in the comfy reception-area armchairs, and his snoring might scare people off.

Depending on the price of this simple metal pole and mount, the iStand plus iPad combo could be a very cheap way for businesses to get a custom interactive POS system. Knowing what I do about the costs of velvet ropes and stands, though, the iStand is likely to cost more than the iPad itself.

iStand is here [InSilico. Thanks, Kim!]

See Also:

• The Pencil iPad Stand: Smart Enough to Impress a New Yorker …
• Compass, an Elegant Fold-Up Stand for iPad
• Joule: An Elegant, Minimalist iPad Stand
• Wired Bureau Chief Builds iPad Stand from $6 Doorstops

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Photojojo’s Camera Strap Buddy is an almost ridiculously simple widget that could change the way you carry your camera. Nothing more than a small metal bracket and a tripod-screw, the Buddy lets you use your existing camera strap but makes carrying the camera a lot more comfortable.

The usual neck-strap is possibly the worst way to carry a camera. If anything heavier than a pocket-camera around my neck, it starts to get uncomfortable, fast. Use a longer strap and sling it across your chest like a messenger-bag and things get better, but bigger cameras can be bouncy, and knock against your hip. The Camera Strap Buddy lets you run a strap from one of the regular strap brackets to the bottom of the camera.

When slung bandolier-style, even a heavy camera sits comfortably at your side, and is kept out of your way but ready for a quick grab-shot. I haven’t tested Photojojo’s adapter, but I have tried others and it’s possible to carry something like Nikon’s hefty D700 around all day and still be comfortable.

Could you make your own? Indubitably, but why bother? The Camera Strap Buddy is just $15. Just make sure you screw it in tight.

Camera Strap Buddy [Photojojo]

See Also:

• DIY Camera Hand-Straps From Photojojo
• Buckle Up! Seat-Belt Camera Straps

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Like the solid feel of a hardwood pencil but hate writing with a tiny stub? This modular continuous pencil is for you!

At first glance, I thought that the Continuous Pencil was just a stubby with a wooden holder. But no — each pencil can hold the stub of the previous pencil. You just Lego the new one right in, work the old stub to the end, then shave it down to start over again.

For some folks, it might be cumbersome to break out a penknife to start up a new pencil, but once you’ve hand-sharpened your lead, it’s the only way to fly. Designers, architects and illustrators who either don’t like or can’t use mechanical pencils will love this.

The photo slideshow above actually features two different pencil designs that solve the stub problem: the Continuous Pencil and the 1+1 Pencil, both via Gadget Lab favorites Yanko Design.

See Also:

• Sharpie Reinvents Pen with Liquid Pencil
• The Pencil iPad Stand: Smart Enough to Impress a New Yorker …
• The Pencil Bench: An Eraser Tipped Bed of Nails
• Drawdio: A Pencil That Lets You Draw Music
• Eight Cylinders of Pencil-Sharpening Action, And a Pizza Cutter …
• Livescribe Echo Smartpen
• UDraw Pen and Tablet for Wii