Hasta La Gadget!

Of course, a retractable wire restraint won’t actually help the iPhone play any nicer with AT&T’s beleaguered network, but it will stop the screen of your iPhone (or any other phone, despite the name) from ending up like a crystalline spiderweb after hitting the floor.

The extremely dorky process goes like this: You stick an adhesive pad onto the back of the phone, which adds a plastic loop. This loop then connects to the painful-sounding “split ring connector” and that in turn hooks onto a 30-inch steel cable.

The cable retracts into the belt-clip, just like a metal tape measure swishing back into its case, and the clip is held on by a locking carabiner. If there is a nerdier accessory in all the world I want to see it.

The leash will not only keep you phone from fatal impacts; it will also stop you from dropping it in water (something that Wired Science editor Betsy Mason might find useful to stop her dumping yet another iPhone in the toilet) and helps to prevent theft. Or not: a cable running into your pocket means one thing to a thief, and that’s that you have something valuable in there.

It gets a whole lot less ridiculous if you use this to secure your phone whilst inside a bag, but for those who insist on wearing their dorkiness on their belts, an optional extra can make you look even sillier. The Designer Label puts “a crystal clear polyurethane dome” over the design or photo of your choice, mimicking those old-fashioned key-fobs.

The iPhone Leash will cost $25 in money. In cost to your street-cred, its price cannot be overestimated.

iPhone Leash [My Phone Leash. Thanks, Daniel!]

Apple’s iPhone-centric developer event is still days away, but a case manufacturer sent Wired.com two protective rubber cases designed for the next-generation iPhone.

The company, Gumdrop Cases, said it based the case design on a combination of specifications provided by inside sources in the plastics industry, as well as features seen in the prototypes leaked to Gizmodo and a Vietnamese blog. The company, which has offices in California, the U.K. and Hong Kong, said it did not receive the specifications from Apple.

“It’s supposed to be announced on Monday is what we’re being told, so we wanted to make sure we had cases available,” a Gumdrop spokeswoman told Wired.com.

The third-party accessories industry has historically been a leaky boat for Apple, according to Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac writer and former news editor of Wired.com. In the past, we’ve seen a number of case manufacturers begin selling protective cases for Apple products ahead of release. However, those leaks usually occur in China, and this is the first time Wired.com has actually received a case for a next-gen Apple product before it was released.

The characteristics of the two cases line up with the prototypes of the next-gen iPhone revealed in video and photos. Its overall form factor is slightly more square than the current iPhone. The case also fits awkwardly around the current iPhone: The holes for the audio/silent switch, volume button, power button and microphone jack don’t line up. The camera hole is slightly too large, giving enough room for a camera flash — a feature that Gizmodo and the Vietnamese blog saw on their prototypes of the next-gen iPhone.

A Gumdrop representative admitted the company deliberately mailed the cases, labeled “iPhone 4G Case” on a press flier, in order to gain attention prior to Apple’s official announcement of the product — you could call it a publicity stunt.

We have to get a next-gen iPhone to see if these will really fit, but the story about overseas insiders in the plastics industry is intriguing.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday, where Steve Jobs is expected to announce Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone during a keynote speech.

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

If hand-cutting your own microSIM is a little bit too folksy for you, or if you own a back-street cellphone store and find yourself chopping up other people’s SIMs to fit into their iPads, then Henk van Ess’s Cut My Sim might be just the thing.

Instead of scissors or a straight-edge and an X-Acto knife, you just slip your SIM into what looks like a cross between a stapler and a hole-punch and push the lever. The stainless steel jaws clamp shut and strip away the excess plastic surrounding the chip, spitting out a perfectly iPad-ready microSIM.

This may be a little redundant now that carriers in all the countries where the iPad is officially available will just give or sell you the proper card, but that doesn’t make this any less useful for those wishing to hijack a non-iPad data plan or just use a non-supported telco. At the very least you’ll have a nice, retro-style paperweight for your desk.

The Cut My Sim costs $25 and will ship at the end of June. That price includes a plastic tray, called Back to Normal which will let you return it to its former size. Shipping later this month.

Cut Your Own MicroSIM! [Cut My Sim via Core77]

See Also:

• SIM-Trim: Cutting Card Down to MicroSIM Size
• SIMFi, a SIM Card With Built-In Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Fingers-On With The MicroSIM Card Adapter
• Use iPad MicroSIM and Data-Plan in Your iPhone
• How to Use an iPad on (Almost) Any Data Plan in the World

Mad Catz’s new wireless Litetouch keyboard is most obviously aimed at couch-bound media-center owners, but it could also be great for notebook users who “graduate” to a desktop.

The Litetouch combines mouse and keyboard into one, with two mouse buttons flanking a nubbin-like trackball under the numeric keypad. That keypad is the big gimmick here. It is a touch-enabled LCD screen (don’t worry, the QWERTY side is all real-life scissor-sprung buttons) which can switch between three modes: a standard number-pad, a set of media control keys and a custom “MyEclipse” mode, which lets you assign your own shortcuts. Because the keyboard is backlit, it does suck batteries: the li-ion battery will give you just 20 hours between charges.

As we said, it’s perfect for browsing and watching movies on the big screen. But that built-in mouse and the switchable number-pad also makes a great compact all-in-one for those of us who like to use a desktop machine, but hate to use a mouse. I’m one of them. The day somebody makes an Apple Bluetooth style keyboard with a trackpad built in, I’ll be in line to buy it. Until then, this will probably have to do.

Available now, $130.

Litetouch keyboard [Eclipse Touch. Thanks, Alex!]

The t’Light, short for “The Most Talented Light” might be the worst gadget name ever, but the product it describes promises to sweep all the cables off your desk, and provide a low-powered work-light at the same time.

Well, it promises to shorten your cables at least. The t’Light has a 3 watt LED lamp up top, which should last for around 50,000 hours, but the action is down on the base. Just by snaking one cord off the desk and into the wall, you can power a host of desktop machines. The t’Light has a USB port, an iPhone dock and a jack which puts out enough power for a laptop. Ironically, given the Apple-centric feature set and marketing, there is no adapter available for a MacBook, thanks to Apple not allowing anyone else to make them.

The lamps are fashioned from “metal-alloy”, and can be had in any of eight colors, including the natural shiny metal finish seen above. They cost $90 each.

t’Light [Tlight via Macworld]