Hasta La Gadget!

It would be nice if this clunky, 1980s-style cellphone holder acted as a real add-on keyboard and display for a modern mobile, allowing you to go in for some retro charm and then, when bored of carrying this brick-sized box, slide out your iPhone and carry on as if nothing untoward had happened.

Sadly, it lacks any useful circuitry, and certainly won’t act as a functional dock for your phone. In fact, all it does is bark out one of five different phrases every time you get a call and if for some reason (like, you know, good taste) you decide to switch off this barrage of crap, it will instead flash to alert you.

At just £10 ($15) it’s probably worth it for the packaging alone, which looks to have been vomited out after a meal of hair-gel and fluorescent paint.

Product page [Go Frostfire via Red Ferret]

There’s certainly a need for a little, sturdy stand to prop up the iPhone whilst watching video, but we doubt that the iClooly is it, mostly because it adds too much bulk to the phone.

In “stand” mode, the iClooly works both vertically and horizontally, and the big clip curves down like a curlew’s beak to provide a secure, shake free “standing experience” (a marketing term we just invented). But in “teenage jeans pocket mode” it offers little more than a signal to pickpockets. “Here’s my iPhone” it calls, in the voice of the aforementioned curlew (it’s a piercing cry), “Please, steal me,” it wheedles, in a melancholic tone.

A missed opportunity, to be sure, and the company has clearly passed up the chance to make a protective case with a simple foldaway kick-stand and instead embraced the bird-spotting crowd. We can’t help but think that this might be a mistake, even in today’s market of niche products and “long-tails” (something the curlew doesn’t have). €25 ($33).

Product page [MaxiMobile via Likecool]

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn’t want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back — so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We’ll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we’ve got one of the first mophie Juice Pack Air units on the market (they just went on sale today, ya know!), which promises to provide lots of extra iPhone 3G runtime while doubling as a case. Read the rules below (no skimming — we’re omniscient and can tell when you’ve skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Major thanks to mophie for providing the gear!

The rules:

• Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for “fixing” the world economy, that’d be sweet too.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) mophie Juice Pack Air iPhone 3G case / battery extender in Black. Approximate retail value is $79.95.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
• Entries can be submitted until Tuesday, April 21th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Peripherals

Engadget’s recession antidote: win a mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone 3G! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sadly, there’s a good chance you already own an iPhone 3G case if you’re the proud owner of an iPhone 3G. That said, there’s still nothing stopping you from hopping a flight to Tokyo and replacing your current one with the best case in the history of cases. Sadly, the lad that snapped this shot isn’t sure where exactly this thing is sold, but if you’re savvy on the details, be sure to holler in comments below.

[Via PMPToday]

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

Game Boy iPhone case instantly becomes best of all time originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This new case for the fashion-forward PC gamer was dreamt up by the design wizards at BMW’s Designworks USA. Instead of throwing all the components in what essentially amounts to one big box (like practically every other case), Thermaltake’s Level 10 sees all the machine’s components — mobo, hard drives, optical drives, and so forth — seated in their own compartments. Constructed mainly from aluminum, this guy will make its official debut at Computex in early June. In the meantime, hit the read link for some more spy photos taken on the floor at CeBIT.

[Via Car Scoop]

Filed under: Desktops

BMW designs PC case for Thermaltake originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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