One of the many, many downsides of being a gadget aficionado is that you’re in constant need of a free place to plug something in, and there’s always something that needs to be recharged. So when a device promises to do something without the mess of dealing with an inconvenient wall wart, we’re all for it.
These acoustic amplifiers that keep popping up are a perfect example. They naturally boost the sound coming from the iPhone’s speaker using physics and seashell-like technology, without the need for being plugged in. While they don’t provide the same kind of audio boost as a powered speaker would, for a few extra decibels they’ll only cost you the initial investment. In other words they won’t add to your growing electrical bill. The Nautilus dock is made from polished zinc alloy giving it a cool retro-riffic look, and even though it doesn’t require power, it still comes with a USB cable if you wanted to charge your iPhone while it’s docked. ~$129 from Firebox.com.
Have I ever wondered what it looked like inside a hard drive while it was thrashing about? Yes, of course I have. Am I willing to pay a ~$500 premium for the privilege of seeing some polished discs spinning and a metal arm moving about? Probably not. But I’ve been accused of being a contrarian, so maybe I’m in the minority here. If seeing the inner workings of a hard drive are on your bucket list, then I’m pretty sure these ByteStopper drives are the only way you’re going to be able to cross that one off your list.
In addition to a whopping 1TB of storage, your $484 (€348) investment does afford you several options for how your ByteSpotter drive looks including your choice of top cover, bottom cover, grills and even how the screw threads are finished. What I like best though is the thought that not only does this process probably nullify the drive’s warranty, but I have my doubts the facility where they’re assembled is anything close to the clean rooms used by Hitachi when the drive was originally assembled.
No one’s going to argue that the iPhone 4 can compete with dedicated digital cameras, particularly DSLRs, when it comes to image quality. But it still has plenty of strengths. It’s compact, light, and everyone who owns one is already carrying it for phone or music purposes. It’s even connected to a wireless network all most of the time making instantly sharing a snapshot a breeze. And isn’t that what photography is all about?
That’s what the creators of the UN01 iPhone 4 case believe, and they’re hoping its stylish, camera-inspired design encourages people to actually use their iPhone as a camera more often. Normally we shy away from Kickstarter projects since they’re usually just concepts that never come to fruition, but we feel this design has some real merit. On the technical side the case uses a two-piece sliding design that stays together thanks to the clever faux lens in the center that doubles as a locking mechanism. And on the aesthetics side the case includes a DSLR-inspired neck strap and laser-etched and even aluminum designs not pictured. The project needs $23,000 to get off the ground, to which $287 have been pledged at this time, though they still have some 42 days to raise the rest.
We all know how important protection is for your iPad. There are a multitude of cases on the market that make even looking for a good case a nightmare. The good people at iSkin came out with two cases called the Vu and the Duo. While the Duo hit a home run here at the office, the Vu fell a little short.
The reason this was named the Vu is because of the see-through back that has a very lightly raised pattern. This part of the case is entirely comprised of a hard plastic, except for the soft plastic flap on the very bottom that is meant to cover the dock connector. About 85% of the clear backing is almost seamless with the colored plastic, excluding a small area on the bottom that is removable for ease of docking.
I’ve often thought about trying one of these sleep phase alarm clocks, like the aXbo, that promises to only wake you up when your body is ready by tracking your sleep phases. But I just don’t think I’ll ever be ready to immediately get out of bed when the alarm goes off, which is what you’re supposed to do with these. In fact until recently the aXbo didn’t even have a snooze button, but thanks to a recent firmware upgrade it now comes with what they call the iSnooze feature (sigh…) which will let you catch a few more Z’s waking you again at the next optimal point in your sleep cycle.
And if you’re not already familiar with the aXbo, it looks like one of the better solutions if you’re into the whole sleep phase tracking thing. Of course while that technique supposedly makes it easier to get up in the morning, the downside is that you have to wear a special wrist band all night which allows the alarm clock to track your movements and tossing and turning so it can accurately predict when the optimal time in the morning is to wake you. I’m also awarding extra points for the mouse-like scroll wheel it uses for navigating menus or adjusting the time and alarms. Much better than repeatedly hitting an up or down button and having it overshoot the mark when holding it down for too long. I just wish it wasn’t ~$275 (€199) which is pretty steep.
It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a nice bit of industrial design, but who isn’t? It’s not like the unibody MacBooks are the best bang for your buck, but Apple has no problem selling them. Back in September of ’09 we reviewed Slice’s line of ceramic kitchen and office cutting tools, and walked away suitably impressed not only with how they performed, but how they looked and how cheap they all were.
Well the latest addition to the Karim Rashid-designed Slice line are these lay-flat scissors that are friendly to both lefties and righties. Instead of ceramic blades they’re made from Japanese stainless steel with hand-polished finger grips, which probably has something to do with their slightly higher $24.99 price tag. But damned if they won’t look good sitting on your desk, even if the lay-flat design makes them tricky to pick up.
Philips recently invited me to Amsterdam. Why? Because they’re Obsessed With Sound, and they wanted to show me just how much. Take it from me: it’s a lot! In the next few days I will be releasing an exclusive article (as in I was the only member of the media there…) showing you what I mean. Stay tuned for that, it’s really good! In the meantime though, you should know that Royal Philips Electronics is announcing its revised audio product lineup in Barcelona today, and there’s some exciting new stuff. Let me give you a few highlights.
From speaking with representatives of the company, I gathered that one of the products they’re proudest of is the revamped GoGear Muse, their standalone MP4 player. It’s a crowded market for sure, not the least of which because of the iPhone/iPod’s ubiquitous presence, and yet the very good looking GoGear Muse stands out enough to have received a CES 2011 Innovation Award. Aside from playing back a slew of both audio and video formats, new features include SafeSound, which “analyses listening and informs of potentially damaging volumes”; Sound Personalization, an intuitive touch-based way to change the equalizer settings; and LikeMusic, “a feature in Philips Songbird which creates perfect playlists based on your listening.”
The EX trike, designed and built by Nils Ferber, Sebastian Auray, Ruben Faber and Ludolf von Oldershausen, reminds me of the StreetFlyer we brought you about a month ago. Except for the fact that piloting the EX doesn’t make you look like a complete idiot. (Though there are still some compromises to your image.) With a frame inspired by a bare skeleton complete with visible organs, the EX’s drive components are mostly constructed from modified bike parts, while the frame and unique spine-shaped joint used for steering were custom-milled on a CNC machine.
Piloting the EX doesn’t look terribly comfortable I’m afraid to say, particularly since steering is done via the back wheel requiring you to twist your body in the direction you want to go. But the use of electric drills for the motors means it’s easy to carry back-up batteries on your person should you need to swap them in mid-trip, because I’m assuming this thing doesn’t have an impressive range when driven at its 30km/h or ~18mph top speed.
Some people complain about the crappy music they play at restaurants, but they fail to realize it’s not always there just to provide a bit of ambience. Background music can also serve to keep conversations at a crowded restaurant private, which is what Yamaha’s VSP-1 is also designed to do, though on a much smaller scale. In essence it’s not that different from those Hammacher-esque white noise generators designed to make it easier to fall asleep, except that the 8 included sounds it plays, like babbling river, forest or even ‘urban clutter’ are specifically engineered to effectively mask other sounds like a conversation between two people.
In fact in the company’s the testing the VSP-1 was able to mask up to 89% of a conversation at best, and at its worst it was still able to block out about 48% of what was being said. And since it’s just under 9 inches tall, it’s not unreasonable to have a few of them working together to increase their overall effectiveness. Available sometime in April in Japan for ~$1,200 (¥105,000).
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