Hasta La Gadget!

The oddly named ZooGue Smart Kase has become a popular choice for iPad owners due to its versatile design, which can hold an iPad at any angle. It even comes with adjustable straps for mounting to a car headrest. Now that case has been updated, and the inventor is making a bold statement about it. “I honestly can not imagine a better case than the new Version 2. I’m so confident in this case I will offer 100 percent satisfaction or a full refund. I’ll even pay for the return shipping!” says Tim Angel. You might as well try it.

The ZooGue Smart Kase V2 features superior leather and an internal thin plastic lining to ensure the cover is kept straight and sturdy. It provides a soft micro-fiber-like interior that helps protect the face of the iPad. The leather stitching on the Velcro gives a crisper and cleaner look, and the company stands behind it with a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee. Getting one will cost you $54.98.

You know what we always say: never enough battery life. Energizer‘s new AP1201 case for the iPhone 4 should come as a welcome addition to your Apple gadget family. As a slim, protective case of silicone rubber it’s not completely offensive looking (if fact, it’s pretty attractive), and it charges your phone while it’s wearing it. It’s got two charging options — a high speed charging mode which charges the phone first, then the case, while the other option provides simultaneous pass-through charging. The case promises to about double the life of your iPhone, and it’s available now for $69.99.

Energizer AP1201 case for iPhone 4 charges while it protects originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Energizer  | Email this | Comments

Apple weathered that Antennagate storm surprisingly well, but now there’s another potential cloudburst on the horizon, and it’s been pre-named for your convenience: “Glassgate.” Or maybe “Glass-That-Shatters-If-Scratched-By-A-Casegate.” Ryan Block has just posted a story on gdgt citing sources “inside and outside Apple” claiming that Apple has discovered a different flaw — or weakness, shall we say — in its iPhone 4 design. The basic problem seems to be with non-bumper cases, specifically ones that slide on to the phone, and the danger of trapped particles scratching the back of the phone while taking the case on and off. Case-caused scratches are nothing new (though still annoying), but the big problem seems to be that these scratches can lead to cracking and even full-on shattering of the back panel. Apparently this lead to Apple severely limiting its reselling efforts of third party cases for a time (which you might have noticed), and while Apple currently has some third party cases online and in its stores, none of the hard cases are of the slide-on variety. Apple also purportedly has a new test program set up to understand this specific issue.

Of course, plenty of questions are raised by all this: is this a widespread problem with folks that have managed to acquire a slide-on case? We haven’t really heard of such a correlation so far. Do the snap-on folks, many of whom received their cases free of charge from Apple, have anything to worry about? And does Apple have any intention of warning its consumers about this potential danger? Apple didn’t respond to Ryan’s request for comment, and we doubt they’ll respond to our own until they’re good and ready to talk — let’s just hope there’s not another faux hat-in-hand press conference in our future!

View Poll

Apple afraid of a shattering followup to its Antennagate woes? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  gdgt  | Email this | Comments

The way we saw it, it was Moleskine vs. the inevitable march of 1s and 0s that would eventually consume us all. No longer (actually, Moleskine already sells a Kindle cover, but we’re temporarily ignoring that for argument’s sake). Moleskine just announced a Digital Covers line of hybrid notebooks that include a pad of regular, “legendary” notebook paper alongside a cozy spot for your i-device of choice. Will this combination (some might say compromise) make you smarter, your prose more concise, your beard more intellectual? Of course it will. But at what cost? Sure, literature survived the decline of penmanship with the emergence of Mark Twain and his typewriter, and Douglas Adams championed the Macintosh to no end, but now that Moleskine has gone and sullied its own reputation we’re finally ready to just go ahead and say it: the novel is dead.

Moleskine launching iPhone and iPad cases: how would Hemingway play Angry Birds? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gadling  |  Moleskine  | Email this | Comments

iPhone 4-owning procrastinators better get moving. Today is the last day to score a  free bumper from Apple. The phone’s infamous “death grip” problem can only be corrected with a case that surrounds the antenna. Therefore, Apple started the iPhone 4 Program, which gives customers a free case from a small selection provided by the company. The program ends today, September 30, though, so hurry. 

Anyone who buys an iPhone 4 after the 30th will not be eligible for the free bumper. If you purchase an iPhone 4 on September 30, you can technically order a free case up until October 30. If you buy an iPhone 4 after the the 30th and still suffer from the Apple death grip problem, you can contact Apple to discuss a free case option, but this is on a case-to-case basis — no pun intended.