Hasta La Gadget!

“See What You Print” (SWYP) is like a cross between an iPad and a printer. The concept — from Artefact design — shows us printers as they should be, not the hideous, hard to use devices we are forced to use today.

SWYP is incredibly simple, both in design and use. Once loaded with photos from your camera, you can swipe and pinch the images on the printer’s touchscreen until you are happy with the layout. Then hit print, and the exact same image you see on screen is deposited onto a sheet of paper.

Because the printer has its own screen, the two can be calibrated together to make sure the print reflects what you see on the monitor, and driver issues disappear as there are no longer two separate devices talking to each other.

If this printer was ever actually made, I’d probably start printing my photos again. It could even be made as an iPad dock and I’d be interested — after all, I don’t need to buy yet another screen. As it is, I’ll probably stick to sending my Instagram photos to Blurb and having them send me back perfectly printed books.

SWYP: See What You Print [Artefact via PetaPixel]

See Also:

• For Printers, 'All-In-One' Really Means 'Way-Too-Much'
• Print Wirelessly From iPad to Any Printer? There's an App for That …
• good-looking printers

Belkin’s trio of kitchen-friendly iPad stands seem adequate

Belkin has launched a range of iPad kitchen accessories, to make cooking with your tablet a little easier and safer. That’s the idea anyway: at least one of these products looks a little dangerous.

That product is the Fridge Mount, a $40 bracket which attaches to the refrigerator door with a pair of sticky 3M Command Strips. The iPad 2 then sits on a small bottom shelf and is held at the top by its own magnets. And that’s the possibly dangerous part. The iPad’s magnets are great at holding a cover on, but I’d bet a good slam of that door could shake them loose.

The other products are the Chef Stand, weighted countertop stand with a chunky stylus for using the tablet whilst sticky-fingered ($40) and the Kitchen Cabinet Mount which clamps onto any shelf or cabinet ($50). All of these are available now, or you could just opt for the almost-free Gadget Lab ghetto version, the Ziploc-bag-and-business-card-stand.

Belkin iPad Kitchen Stands [Belkin]

See Also:

• Gadget Lab Reader Makes iPad Kitchen Stand, Starts Business …
• How-To Make a Waterproof, Kitchen-Proof iPad Case and Stand …
• Wooden iPad Stand Doubles as Kitchen Accessory
• Chef Sleeves: Disposable iPad Prophylactics
• Genius: FridgePad Turns iPad into Giant Fridge-Magnet

ITwin tries to make sharing files between remote computers less absurd than it should be in 2011

One thing that our computers are still comically bad at is sharing large files between each other. You want to send a birthday movie to your mother? Good luck. E-mail is hopeless for large files and sharing services are too complicated. Your best (and fastest) bet is to burn the files to a DVD and mail it.

ITwin is an attempt to fix this, although it comes with its own problems. The double-ended USB dongle breaks in two and plugs into two different computers, allowing you to transfer files between them over the Internet. These computers can be Macs or PCs, and the only other requirement is that they be switched on and online.

The dongle auto-installs its software the first time you plug it in, and the two halves generate and share an encryption key between themselves whilst still joined together. Then, when split, the second part can be plugged into any machine and files are transferred back and forth. ITwin is billed as a connecting cable, without the cable. We might add “without the speed” to that list, as you’re limited by the upstream connection of the sending computer.

The iTwin is really little more than software disguised as hardware: you could punch a hole in your firewall and encrypt the transfers for free if you wanted to. The difference is that your Uncle Pete can use this as easily as using a USB stick.

The price is $100, which is cheap or way overpriced, depending on your needs. The iTwin is available now.

iTwin product page [iTwin. Thanks, Madison!]

See Also:

• Box.net for iPad Solves File-Transfer Troubles
• WiGig Tempts With High-Speed Wireless Data Transfer
• IPhone Gets Bluetooth File Transfers

Taco Belkin: Why buy a whole new monitor when you can just grab this little dock instead? Photo Daily Tech

If you own a new Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Air, you probably have an eye on Apple’s new 27-inch Thunderbolt monitor, with its mess of expansion ports out back which will let you turn laptop into desktop by plugging in just one cable.

But before you ditch your perfectly good monitor and drop a grand on a new one, consider Belkin’s Thunderbolt Express Dock, a standalone dock which has the exact same ports as the Cinema Display.

The dock, an aluminum taco shell, has three USB ports, a FireWire 800 port and a hole for Gigabit Ethernet. It also has a Thunderbolt passthrough to send video and anything else onto monitors or further docks, and has a DC-in socket to power all the junk you have attached.

It’s a great idea, and although Belkin hasn’t yet put the thing up on its site, the dock is sure to cost a lot less than a new monitor. And if you’re using one of Apple’s aluminum Cinema Displays already, this dock will sit on its foot and blend right in.

IDF 2011: Belkin Shows Off Thunderbolt Express Dock [Daily Tech]

See Also:

• Thunderbolt Display Almost Turns MacBook Air into iMac
• How Thunderbolt Could Hook Up Notebooks With Powerful …
• Apple Releases Thunderbolt Cable. Now All We Need Are …

Elasty is a surprisingly practical phone case

Belkin doesn’t make this Belkin-branded iPhone case, but it should do. It’s a concept design from Yoori Koo, and is the functional equivalent of wrapping a couple of rubber bands around your phone, only it doesn’t obscure the display.

Koo’s Elasty case is much like any other bumper-with-a-back style case, encasing the iPhone’s squared-off body in a silicone shroud. The difference comes in a set of four thin strips formed by slits in the rubber. These pull away and let you tuck in cash, cables, cards and even pens. Anything that can be squeezed behind a loop can be carried.

Larger items are of course impractical, but once they get really big, the relationship changes and you can hang the phone em on them. Otherwise, tucking in your beer money or your wound-up earbuds is a great idea.

According to Radhika Seth of Yanko Design, Koo’s design has actually won a “Korean Belkin Design Award,” so maybe we’ll see it on stores sooner or later. In the meantime, might I suggest you get going with some old bike inner tubes.

Simple Slits for Phones [Yanko]

See Also:

• IOpener, a Bottle-Opening Case for the iPhone
• Third Rail Case Adds Removable Battery to iPhone
• First Look: Audiowrapz iPod Case With Built-in Speakers
• Cut and Cover: Notebook Hides Pen Beneath its Skin