Aug 30

Horizon, The Minimalist iPad Wall Mount

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, ipad, Today's Chili

Sleek, simple and elegant, the Horizon echoes the iPad it supports

Just Mobile, the folks behind the chinky Alupen iPad stylus and its accompanying orifice the AluCube, have come up with a handsome, minimal iPad wall mount.

It’s called the Horizon, and it looks like one. Unlike other iPad wall mounts, this one doesn’t require screwing a huge, dorky-looking saucer to the wall first. Instead, you hang a minimal aluminum bar. This bar has bevelled edges, and the main part of the stand slides over this and holds dovetails into place.

The front section is equally minimal, comprising a rubber-lined channel into which the iPad slides. Rubber linings are supplied for the iPads 1 and 2, and there’s a rubber nubbin front and center that will push the home button when you press it. There’s also a hole in the bottom of the u-section bracket through which the dock connecter will fit.

The Horizon goes for $50. I’d totally pay that if it also came with a big fat magnet to mount it on my fridge.

Horizon product page [Just Mobile. thanks, Erich!]

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Aug 29

Apen Writes On Paper, Smartphones, Tablets

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Android, BlackBerry, ipad, Today's Chili

You write on paper, and the Apen A3 sends your doodles and writing to your smartphone

Apen is a neat and simple take on getting paper notes into your computer, phone or tablet. It comes in four somewhat confusing models, named A1 to A4, but it’s the last two that we’re interested in, as they work with the iPhone and iPad (A4) and Blackberry/Android devices (A3).

The kit consists of an electronic pen that contains real ink, and a receiver. You place the receiver up at the top of the paper and write or draw. The receiver records your scribblings and either beams them direct to your computer, phone or tablet, or you can hook the receiver up later via USB to copy everything across. The unit can remember the content of up to around 100 pages, so you can write most of a (short) book before needing to dump the data.

When hooked directly up to a computer, the pen can act as a mouse (there’s a button on the side for clicking), and using companion software you can scribble and draw on photos, too. But the point here is that you can write and draw on paper and later everything is available in software.

The main difference between the A3 and A4 (apart from their device compatibly) is that the A3 includes Bluetooth for sending your notes direct to your Android or Blackberry in real time. I have settled on writing directly onto my iPad using a stylus, and snapping photos of anything I write on paper and sending it to Evernote for handwriting recognition. For people who still use a lot of paper, though, the Apen looks to be worth a try. $130 (and cheaper for the computer-only versions).

Apen product page [Apen USA. Thanks, Susan!]

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Aug 26

Stick-On Cardstick, One Twelfth of a Yardstick

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili

Turn anything into a measuring stick with the three-inch Cardstick

Many things claim to be credit-card sized, but none can be more perfectly exact than the Cardstick, a ruler that sticks onto your actual credit card, and is therefore atom-for-atom the exact same size as that card (if you ignore the fact that it adds a little depth to one end of the card).

Further, because the Cardstick is a ruler, you can measure other objects which claim to be “credit-card sized” and verify their credentials.

The Cardstick is a self-adhesive vinyl sticker that wraps around the edge of the credit card, offering three inches worth of graduated measurement, with centimeters on the other side for people who care how long things really are.

You’re not limited to credit cards, either. The sticker can be stuck on any available flat object. A phone would be handy, as would a camera, paper notebook or anything else you always carry with you. And if you’re happy with knowing only that it measures more than three inches, you could always stick it on your [Enough! -Ed].

The Cardstick is available now, for $5.

Cardstick product page [Cardstick via Oh Gizmo!]

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Aug 25

Heated Bike Grips Keep the Feeling In Your Fingers

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, luxury, Today's Chili

It’s winter, and you’re on your bike. The snow is coming down, the wind is finding its way in through even the tiniest gaps in your clothing, and it is bitterly cold. Thanks to your heated handlebar grips, though, you hands and fingers remain soft and warm.

Then, the batteries fail, and the temperatures plunge as fast as the shrinking current. Your digits begin to ice up…

This is the nightmare scenario only possible if you spent $200 on a pair of A’ME Heated Grips, the bike equivalent of those heated hair-rollers. If only you’d thought to buy waterproof, thermal gloves instead, you might save your now frostbitten fingers.

The kit consists of a pair of temperature-controlled grips, adjustable to any of six heat settings, along with a battery pack (you’ll have to find somewhere to put this), the mounting system, cables and battery charger. Should you have more than one bike, you can just buy an extra pair of grips for $80.

These grips are for a mountain bike, although a set of heated wraps for drop bars is coming in September.

Of course, if you need heated grips, you’re almost certainly wearing gloves too, and there’s nothing less pleasant when riding a bike than frozen fingers. Yes, a good pair of gloves is fine, even in the coldest of Berlin winters. But if you’re up on a mountainside and the correct flick of a brake lever is the difference between staying on the bike and tumbling into a snowy crevasse, then warm, responsive fingers might be essential. Available now.

Heated bike grips [A’ME via Urban Velo]

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Aug 25

Pocket Grill for Convenient Campfire Cooking

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili

The Pocket Grill. Better than sausages on sticks. Photo credit Pocket Grill

While much of the world inhabited by Gadget Lab readers has mercifully returned to temperatures conducive to work and play, here in Barcelona, Spain, the weather is a hellish combination of hot and humid, the kind of weather that requires you take a pair of spare T-shirts should you need to go outside.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that its still grilling season here, and what better way to enjoy an impromptu BBQ in the cool surrounding mountains than with the Pocket Grill. The grill comes in three folding parts: a pair of legs and the grill itself.

The stainless steel grill folds out to provide a cooking surface of almost two feet by one foot. The legs unfurl to make two long and rather flimsy-looking c-sections. These cross over each other to make an x-shape with four feet, and the grill clips on top. It looks wobbly, but is solid enough to cook up to ten pounds of red meat and hippy vegetables at a time.

As you might guess by the hammy video on the site, the Pocket Grill is a kickstarter project, and you’ll need to pledge $40 to secure inn of your own. There’s also a $15 cookbook, but if you need recipes to use a grill, then maybe you should just stay at home and order in a pizza.

Pocket Grill product page [Kickstarter]

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Aug 25

Fool School Bullies With Book-Like ‘College Edition’ iPad Case

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili

The College Edition makes the iPad look like a book. Just don’t lose it in the library stacks. Photo credit Pad & Quill

If you’re in the market for a fake-book style case for your iPad, then you could do a lot worse than those from Pad & Quill. And if you’re sending little Johnny back to school with an iPad, you will almost definitely want a Pad & Quill — they’re just about the toughest book-style cases I have tested.

Just in time for the re-insertion of Johnny into hostile territory (school) is the College Edition case. It has the same (only shinier) Baltic Birch frame and rubbery pads to hold the iPad tight (and I mean tight), and the same bookbindery design, complete with elastic band to keep it shut.

The main difference is in the cover, which opts for colored cloth instead of faux leather. The other differences are the lack of a camera-hole, or a magnet for locking and unlocking the iPad 2’s screen. These can be had in the Octavo case, which costs $10 more.

If little Johnny is lucky, or if the school bullies are idiots (and why wouldn’t they be?), then the tome-like bindings might actually fool them into thinking this is a real book (for losers and dorks) and not a highly valuable (and resell-able) piece of consumer electronics. Looked at this way, the $60 price (plus $10 for an internal pocket) seems cheap.

The College Edition for iPad2 [Pad & Quill. Thanks, Brian!]

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Aug 25

Software Update Makes Jambox 10x Bigger, Crawl Across Desks

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, speakers, Today's Chili

A JamBox. Photo credit Jacob Bøtter on Flickr

As I write this, there’s a JawBone JamBox speaker sliding slowly backwards across my desk. I hope it’s being moved by sound, otherwise the end of the world may well be nigh.

This new-found ambulatory ability is thanks to nothing more than a software update. And no, this update doesn’t make a pair of legs spring Transformer-like from the chunky little Bluetooth speaker. It adds a new sound-processing feature called “LiveAudio.”

LiveAudio adds support for binaural audio, the technique used to create 3-D stereo sound. Usually, a pair of microphones are placed on a dummy head to record what a human would hear. Then, listening later on headphones, we experience the sound as if we were “there.”

The JamBox update brings this playback trick to a speaker.

The software claims to eliminate the crosstalk from the left and right channels, thus delivering the right sound to the right ear and so on — much like 3-D video, only with audio. So how does it work?

Amazingly well. I’m not sure it actually manages to only send the correct sounds to each ear, but the processing results in a much bigger audio “image”. The JamBox is a little thing, and it is somewhat disconcerting to have it sat on the desk in front of you, but with sound coming from seemingly a few feet to the left and right.

You can do before/after tests yourself, if you like. Once the update is installed (after the familiar plugging and unplugging ritual to make your computer see the speaker), head over to one of the recommended binaural audio sources (I used Spotify) and listen. To toggle LiveAudio on and off, hold the plus and minus buttons down together. The difference is startling (you’ll also know which mode you’re in a the volume up/down buttons play a different tone when pressed).

The update is free, and if you own a JamBox, you should get it right away. Just remember not to put it too close to the edge of a table before you fire it up, lest it take a dive. And the music I was listening to which drove the JamBox across my desk? 07 Ghosts I by Nine Inch Nails. Crank it.

JamBox LiveAudio [JawBone. Thanks, Mindy!]

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Aug 24

Fat, Folding Logitech Keyboard Case for Slim iPad 2

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, ipad, logitech, Today's Chili

It’s a full-sized keyboard, and it folds into a full-sized block of plastic

Logitech has announced a big, fat fold-up keyboard case for the iPad which will make your slim iPad 2 look like a 1990s tablet PC. The Bluetooth keyboard, which charges via USB, actually looks like a great accessory — if you can get past the bulk.

The Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad, as it is known, does the usual stuff an iPad keyboard should do. It offers a full-sized typing area, has iPad-specific keys for volume, brightness and the like, and offers a stand to prop up the tablet as you type.

It also folds up into a thick package, splitting in the middle to shrink down to the same footprint-size as the iPad (only way, way fatter). The Bluetooth radio switches on and off automatically as you fold and unfold the device.

It actually looks like a pretty nice keyboard, and beats out other keyboard cases thanks to its full-sized keys. It also costs $130. For this price, you could just go with a regular Apple aluminum keyboard ($70) and a keyboard case from WaterField ($30) and still have (almost) enough left over for a Smart Cover ($40).

Available for pre-order now.

Logitech Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad [Logitech. Thanks, Tim!]

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Aug 23

Desk-It, a Paper Calendar That Sticks to Your Computer

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Retro, Today's Chili

Really?

The Desk-It Weekly Calendar looks rather pointless, whether you prefer paper diaries over electronic or not. Scrawling your dates and appointments onto sheafs of dead trees is fine: The Lady prefers it that way because it is light, easy to read and more portable even than her never-used iPad.

But the Desk-It is always tied to your computer. Once you stick the sheet to the chin of your monitor, it’s going nowhere, so you may as well use the calendaring app on the computer itself. Sure, you could rip the giant Post-It-style sticker off to take it with you, but that’s about as practical as trying to carry a sheet of fly paper.

And if you’re not using an iMac, it seems even more pointless: Without that slab of aluminum behind it, you’ll have nothing to press against with your pen. And if you are using an iMac, you surely just cried out “What?! You expect me to use iCal? That piece of crap?”

My answer is to upgrade to OS X Lion. Despite the annoying leather-look, the 10.7 iCal is around one thousand times better than the old version. Try it out.

Back to the Desk-It. If you want one, a pad of sixty will cost you $10, or roughly $60 for a year’s worth. Available now.

Desk-It Weekly Calendar [Pocketo via Werd]

Photo credit: Desk-It

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Aug 22

Clever Stand Clamps Keyboard to iPhone, iPad

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, ipad, iPhone, Phones, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili

The WINGStand will help you write the Great American Novel. On a phone

I would have started writing my novel by now, but of course I need just the right app/gadget/learn-to-write-novels-book to do it. Which is why I spend hours and hours on the Internet searching productivity porn for the perfect panacea (whilst simultaneously practicing my alliteration skills).

And while the WINGStand won’t get me back those lost hours when I should have been writing, it certainly goes on my to-do list — the list titled “To Procrastinate.”

The curiously-capitalized WINGStand is as simple an accessory as you could wish for. The injection-molded, recycled plastic stand clips to the cylindrical battery compartment at the rear of every Apple Bluetooth keyboard, putting a pair of stabilizing feet down and offering a slot into which your iPad or iPhone 4 can slide (in portrait or landscape orientation). Because it comes in two sections (a clip, foot and slot combined), you can slide the parts to accommodate any size of tablet or phone.

I love the minimal practicality of the design, which is currently being solicited — where else — on Kickstarter. I also love the sleek professionalism of design student Daniel Haarburger’s promo video. Take a look (and listen — the music is great too):

Best of all, this widget costs only $20, and collapses to a pair of plastic parts so small that they really can slip into your pocket. Currently when planning to write my novel, I use my spare aluminum Bluetooth keyboard and prop my iPad up on its Smart Cover. Sadly, the WINGStand’s Kickstarter drive only has three days left (spoiler: it already made funding), which means that it’s not the ideal procrastination tool I had hoped it would be.

The WINGStand – Make Your Tablet a Computer [Kickstarter]


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