Dahon iPhone Bike Mount Is Waterproof, Shockproof

biologic_bikemount_for_iphone_biologic_scren_hi

Waterproof? Check. Shockproof? Check. Bike mounted? Check. Dahon’s BioLogic iPhone case puts your iPhone up front on the handlebars, right where you need it, and gives it enough protection that you don’t need to worry about it getting rained on or shaken to death.

The mount allows a 360º swivel, and the front membrane transmits your touches so the iPhone can still be used on the go. Legitimate uses: GPS and mapping, cycle-computer applications and music. Bad ideas: in-ride movies and Monkey Ball. Combine with Dahon’s FreeCharge iPhone and USB charger and you can go all day. Available January, $60.

Dahon Announces Waterproof, Shockproof Bike Mount [Bike Hugger]


At Last, An iPhone Tripod Adapter

blur-tripod

The iPhone 3GS has a great camera (for a cellphone) especially with the new easy-edit video function. But holding the lightweight handset steady isn’t easy. Joby already addressed this by rebranding it’s smallest bendable tripod as the Gorillamobile (sadly, not a car for big apes), and that remains a great multi-purpose option.

But if you want some thing for half the price, and with a single minded focus, you can now try the Blur Tripod, another poorly named accessory for the people who brought us the iTwinge external keyboard. The big difference is the connection, a cradle like converter which also pokes into the dock connector to keep the iPhone steady. On the bottom is a standard tripod bush socket, and the $15 kit comes with a small folding tripod included. The Gorillapod uses a suction cup.

The company also supplies photo software for the iPhone, but as it isn’t yet on the iTunes App Store, we’ll have to wait to see what it can do. There’s not much not to like here, unless the connection is somehow wobbly. Available now.

Product page [Mobile Mechatronics]


Pong: Radiation-Blocking iPhone Case Smells Fishy

pong

There is one thing you need to know about cellphone radiation: without it, you don’t have a cellphone. Or at least, you don’t have a cellphone that can make calls. The radiation is the signal.

If you block that signal, the phone will pump up its output in order to carry your call. Remember the last time you flew and forgot to switch off your phone? The battery was dead when you arrived, right? That’s because, searching for a network, the phone was running its radio at full tilt to acquire one.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Pong, a tin-foil-hat (or “case”) for your iPhone, which purports to deflect the dangerous brain-boiling rays away from your bonce. As you might expect, the “how it works” section is littered with meaningless tosh, handily hiding the lack of actual science. Here are some samples, with comment:

Pong uses a patented physics-based solution to redirect the flow of this energy.

Appeals to hippies.

The Pong technology module, optimally aligned with the phone’s internal antenna, attracts the radiative energy. The Pong Effect occurs as a pure energy transfer with no distortion due to the properties of the module material and microwave-tuned antenna design.

Those are English words, arranged into an English sentence, yet somehow they remain meaning-free.

Chimney Effect
The unique “ladder” configuration of the Pong module moves the signal and its hazardous radiation through the Pong case like a chimney, and away from the user.

What?

As you can see, it looks a lot like science, but it ain’t. Even the “Test Data” comes in the form of acronym-peppered nonsense, and is accompanied by the very scientific diagram seen above, next to the Pong case itself. How much is this paranoia-placebo? A predictably expensive $60. There’s a pong here, alright, and it’s the stink of snake-oil.

Product page [Pong Research]


Mophie Announces Case for iPhone Case, Singularity Draws Nearer

hip-holster

Another slip-on iPhone accessory today, this time in the form of this executive-dorktastic iPhone case from Mophie. Pretty much all you need to know is the name: Hip Holster.

The leather pouch has a belt clip and flap, and the “quick draw feature allows easy access for one-handed removal.” Why is this any different from the one zillion other leather, belt mounted cellphone holsters (the businessman’s equivalent of the tramp stamp)? It is bigger than most, in order to accommodate both iPhone and a Juice Pack — another case from Mophie which holds an external battery for the iPhone.

That’s right. This is a case for a case, the beginnings of a cellular babushka which can only end in a wardrobe-sized prophylactic, one that most certainly won’t fit on a belt. But why stop there? Surely the next logical stage is a case into which the owner can slip in order to protect himself on the mean corridors between cubicles, a warm, womb-like haven from which he can call, uninterrupted by the world outside. Yes. We just invented the iPhone-booth. $30.

Product page [Mophie. Thanks, Matt!]


ITwinge Keyboard Turns iPhone Into BlackBerry

itwinge

Here’s what my dictionary says about the word “twinge”: a sudden, sharp localized pain; a brief experience of an emotion, typically an unpleasant one. Putting the letter “i” in front of that doesn’t change much.

The iTwinge is an external, add-on keyboard for the iPhone. The bulky sheath slides onto the phone’s slim body and turns it into a beast which resembles the 1984 Psion Organizer. Once there (and remember, you’ll have to slide it on every time you want to type something, and off again when you want to use the lower part of the screen to, you know, see something), you can use good, old-fashioned hard keys to type.

How does it work? The company behind the iTwinge, Mobile Mechatronics, is being a little cagey, and won’t reveal the keyboard’s inner workings until November 12th (the ship date). We do know that the the iTwinge ” uses the phones power”, and that you need to “plug it in”, but it appears that it simply translates your key presses via a capacitive nodule directly to the screen.

A mystery for sure. In fact, we can’t shake the feeling that this is a hoax, and an ugly one at that. $30, for iPhones 3G and 3GS.

Product page [Mobile Mechatronics via ]


Magic Wand Remote Conjures Channel Changes

wand-remote

We can’t decide which is better: The buttonless Kymera Magic Wand universal remote, or the wonderful website which accompanies it. The pages look like pages from an epic, ancient tome, complete with hand-drawn illustrations and crinkly, yellowing paper.

The wand itself is a simple stick, containing the hair of a unicorn’s mane. Wait, no. It’s a stick containing an LED. In practice mode, you can try out any of the 13 gestures and the light will flash a coded pattern to let you know which one. When you are ready to do some serious magic (change channels), the wand learns simply by performing a gesture and beaming a boring, modern-day remote at its tip. Change channel by flipping left or right, for example, or increase the volume with a quick clockwise twirl.

A wonderfully whimsical device, the 14-inch wand will be available on October 1st for £50, or $83, batteries included.

Product page [The Wand Company]


Headstock Guitar Tuner Picks Up Vibes

headstock-tuner

For beginners, tuning a guitar is a pain, and learning on an out-of-tune instrument is discouraging at best, and liable to get you stoned by your neighbors at worst (and we don’t mean the good, rock-star kind of “stoned”). The Headstock Tuner will help you tune your guitar and, because it reads vibrations instead of sound*, it’ll work in noisy places and doesn’t need to be plugged in to an electric guitar’s jack.

The tuner is tiny, and clips onto the headstock. This alone is an improvement, as the headstock holds the tuning heads and is where you’re attention should be. Next up is the interface, which glows red when you’re out of tune and, as you turn the pegs, moves a line closer or further from the target to guide you. It then turns green when you hit the spot.

I used to play the guitar, and when I began I used an analog needle and dial tuner. It worked fine, but this one looks way easier to use, and I totally dig the chunky light-on-dark display. $42.

Product page [Daddario via Oh Gizmo!]

*We know that sound is vibration. Don’t be so picky.


Kickster Adds Stand, Handle and Case to iPod Nano

kickster

Quirky continues to impress us with a long run of “community designed” accessories, the latest being the Kickster — yet another iPod Nano case. Quirky’s take, though, is less case and more all-in-one accessory kit.

Quirky, if you don’t remember, takes design submissions from the public, hones them within 24 hours by opening them up to the community, and then takes orders. Buyers commit and get charged when enough orders have been made and the product hits the factory lines. Everyone who helped gets a cut.

The Kickster is a clear case for the new 5th-gen Nano, and although cheaper ($14.35) than most other cases, it packs a lot in. First, and most obvious, is the kick-stand, which twists and flips to stand the Nano in either portrait or landscape format. It also works as a steadying handle for shooting video, a kind of nano-steadycam, if you will.

Next to the stand are two cord-wrapping cleats, and inside is shock-absorbing silicone, and there are holes punched in the plastic case to let sound and video into the mic and camera.

Design by committee that actually works? Who’da thought?

Product page [Quirky]

See Also:


Nike Planning iPod Compatible Heart Rate Monitor

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The wording is somewhat ambiguous, but it looks like Nike may be about to sell a heart rate monitor which hooks up to the latest (fifth generation) iPod Nano. Apple Insider did some digging inside the new Nike+ iPod User Guide and found possible references to the new hardware. Here’s the text, pasted from the pdf:

Linking a Nike + iPod Compatible Remote or Heart Rate Monitor

iPod nano (5th generation only) also supports Nike + iPod compatible heart rate monitors.

To link to a Nike+ compatible heart rate monitor (sold separately):

iPod nano (5th generation only): Connect your Nike + iPod receiver to your iPod nano, choose Nike + iPod > Settings > Heart Rate Monitor > Link, then follow the onscreen instructions.

As you can see, the description “iPod Compatible Heart Rate Monitor” could mean any third party add-on, but Apple Insider also got a tip-off that the monitor was “initially expected to launch alongside the next-generation iPod nano.”

We’re not surprised. That the Nano no longer needs the Nike+ dongle to work left a certain gap in Nike’s product lineup that a heart rate counter would fill, and I’m sure our resident fitness-freak and editor Dylan Tweney will check it out when it becomes available. Me? Nah. I’ll be raising my heart rate the same way my family has raised their heart rates for generations: Whiskey and porn.

Nike plans iPod nano-compatible heart rate monitor [Apple Insider]


Another iPod, Another iPod Case

kick back nano

Like death and taxes, there is “one more thing” in this world which is absolutely, utterly certain: after a new iPod is announced, my inbox fills with pitches for new iPod cases.

And so, as liquor-spiked coffee follows a delicious dessert, here comes a case. And whose case got pulled out of the hat this time? It’s Scosche’s polycarbonate and rubber kickBACK n5, which wins partially because of its absurd name, and partially because of its absurd design.

Now, with its tiny screen, the correct way to watch video on a Nano is to hold it mere centimeters from your eyes and squint. Should you have a small telescope about your person, you could prop it up on the desk before you for more comfortable viewing, and the kickBACK will let you do just that, for it has a “kick” stand on the BACK (such catchy nomenclature). It also has “integrated traction nubs”, something so wonderfully named that we almost don’t care that they “provide grip on flat surfaces”.

And don’t forget the other, hidden feature: the kickBACK n5 will add several fractions of an inch to the already slightly fatter Nano. Wonderful, and worth the $25 all by itself.

Product page [Scosche. Thanks, Valerie]