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Patent Filed for iPhone Gloves

Danny Estrada — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:06:12 -0600

There have been plenty of times when we've found ourselves in this chilly bind. It's cold outside and we need gloves on, but we desperately need to upload photos and update out status on Facebook using our iPhones. So what do we do? Well, we rip off the gloves and feverishly poke and swipe our iPhones in the hope that we don't get frost bite and have to have our fingers amputated. It's a crazy life we live. Good thing Apple has filed a patent that could solve this problem.

The problem with most insulated gloves is that they block all, if not some of the electrical feedback from our fingers on the face of the iPhone. Apple's solution would be to give the gloves a second inner layer that would help stimulate the electrical feedback from human fingers when exposed. You would be able to peel back an exterior layer, exposing the 2nd more responsive layer.

There is currently a glove with the iPhone lifestyle in mind, The Dots glove also works along the same idea.

Apple doesn't tend to work with fabrics, save the iPod sock, but this idea has been in the works for a whiles, the application was originally filed on June 28th, 2007, a day before the original iPhone was released.

Maximo IP-HS2 iMetal Isolation Headset

Roberto Baldwin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:37:36 -0500

The isolation headset embodies form and function.

Like the iPod before it, the iPhone has created a cottage industry of cases, add-ons, and headsets. Maximo is hoping that its latest foray into the headset market will get you to drop Apple’s standard white headset. Right out of the box the iMetal headset came equipped with something all manufacturers should include: an extension cable. Too many times we’ve had to reconsider which pocket to stash our iPhone in because of too-short headset cables.

The iP-HS2 iMetal Isolation Headset for iPhone is a cleanly designed low-profile set of earbuds. The ’buds deliver nice bass and midrange tones without protruding from your ears like many other sets on the market. The high end seemed slightly muted, but cymbal crashes were still crisp for the most part. The headset is equipped with a soft-touch answer button that can be used to play and pause music, just like on the stock Apple headset. Call quality was solid—the earbuds were extremely comfortable and did an excellent job of blocking out background sound.

The bottom line. The Isolation Headset’s design enhanced the iPhone’s audio delivery and stayed firmly in our ears.

COMPANY: Maximo

CONTACT: www.maximoproducts.com

PRICE: $69.99

REQUIREMENTS: iPhone

Great sound quality for a sub-$100 headset. Low-profile design is classy.

High-end range is slightly muted.

OtterBox iPhone Armor

Roberto Baldwin — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:57:12 -0500

The Armor keeps your iPhone safe...and makes it look like it’s driving a Humvee.

If you lust for an iPhone, but your lifestyle is too extreme for an expensive, fragile überphone, the OtterBox Armor series will take some serious pounding.

If you spend your time scaling large rock faces above large bodies of water, the Armor was designed for you. Impact-resistant rubber encases your iPhone in a cocoon that, in our tests, survived multiple throws and drops, and is fully waterproof up to three feet. It uses the same membrane over the touchscreen as the Defender, and the Multi-touch functions aren’t hampered by being in the case. The two-clasp case is also extremely easy to open and close. The iPhone is held in place by an audio-jack connector in the case, which passes through to a standard 1/8-inch jack on the exterior of the case. Unfortunately, this means you can no longer talk on the phone without using the speakerphone or a wired or Bluetooth headset. The Silent switch is inaccessible, and the Sleep button is extremely hard to press. Finally, the bulkiness of the case disqualifies it for anything other than extreme use.

The bottom line. The Armor trades some iPhone call functionality for protection, and you’ll need a Bluetooth headset to call for help when the shark cage breaks. Rawr.

OtterBox Armor

COMPANY: OtterBox

CONTACT: www.otterbox.com

PRICE: $69.95

REQUIREMENTS: iPhone, extreme lifestyle

Never worry about dropping your iPhone in the toilet again. Easy to place in case. Waterproof. Turns iPhone into weapon.

Must use headset or speaker to place calls. Sleep button difficult to press. Ringer button inaccessible. Bulky.

Matias iRizer

Susie Ochs — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:13:43 -0500

The iRizer adjusts to four different angles. The MiniRizer has two angle options.

Laptops make it possible to work almost anywhere, but if you do too much work in a space that isn’t ergonomic, you could wind up in pain from hunching your back or keeping your wrists bent at a bad angle. The iRizer from Matias is a light, sturdy, adjustable laptop stand that’s as portable as your notebook itself.

The iRizer comes in two pieces. The base piece has a strip of rubber to grip the bottom edge of your notebook, and is set up with the Matias logo on the top and the iRizer name facing you. The upright piece has four angled slots labeled 20, 30, 40, and 50 degrees. With the numbers facing you, you feed the base piece through the upright piece, and the way the slots are cut creates the desired angle between the two pieces. You rest the bottom of your laptop on the upright piece, and the rubber strip on the base keeps it in place. The upright piece also has an oval cutout to vent the bottom of your laptop.

The two pieces together weigh 1.5 pounds, and when disassembled they’re 11.4 by 8.9 inches, and 0.55 inches thick. The whole thing takes up the same amount of space as a file folder holding 130 sheets of paper. Slip it in your laptop bag, set it up in seconds, and raise your laptop screen to a comfortable height. We tested it with a MacBook Air and a 15-inch MacBook Pro, and the iRizer sturdily held both Macs at every angle, although we did notice a tiny bit of wobble using the MacBook Pro without an external keyboard.

Matias also includes the MiniRizer, which measures 3.3 by 2 inches, folds flat to 0.25 inches thick, and lets you raise an iPhone, iPod, or even a stack of business cards to a 40- or 50-degree angle. It’s cute and very light, but we don’t see much reason to tote it along.

The bottom line. Low tables can make using a laptop a pain in the neck—pack the nearly flat iRizer in your bag for more comfortable mobile computing.

COMPANY: Matias

CONTACT: www.matias.ca

PRICE: $39.95

REQUIREMENTS: Notebook Mac

Adjusts to four different angles. Folds flat (0.55 inches thick) for easy transport. Comes with MiniRizer.

Nothing, really.

Boynq iCube II

Susie Ochs — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:01:44 -0500

At just under 4 inches on all sides, the iCube fits nearly anywhere—as long as there’s AC power nearby.

Boynq offers the iCube II (and another iPod speaker, the Sabre) in both black-and-chrome “Pour Homme” and lavender-and-white “Pour Femme” versions. While “Pour Femme” is one glitter unicorn sticker away from being “Pour 9-Year-Old Girl,” the black-and-chrome version is attractive enough for a desktop, bedroom, or kitchen.

The 3.9-by-3.9-by-3.9-inch iCube features two 5-watt speakers, an iPod dock on the top, a lighted power/volume dial, and treble and bass controls. It connects to your Mac for syncing your iPod, thanks to the 30-pin dock port. And the line-out port lets you play the iPod’s music through your home stereo, using the iCube as a dock. You can attach other devices via the audio-in port. There’s no battery option, but the iCube charges docked iPods.

The iCube’s sound can fill a medium-size room—turning it all the way up introduces distortion, but it sounds respectable for its size and price point.

The bottom line. A remote would be nice, or a way to use batteries. But in the kids’ room or the office, the iCube II fits in and sounds decent.

COMPANY: Bonyq

CONTACT: www.boynq.com

PRICE: $69.99

REQUIREMENTS: iPod

Small footprint. Bass and treble controls. Line-out and syncing. Line-in for other players. Can be found for closer to $40 online.

No remote control.

Portable 'Pod Performers

Roman Loyola — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:17:35 -0600

When you’re on the road, and you’ve finally arrived at your hotel room, unpacked your things, and clicked on the TV to see what’s on, it finally hits you—that feeling that you’re someplace unfamiliar, someplace strange. The best way to cure that feeling of displacement? Music. Bust out your iPod and some portable speakers, and fill your room with audible comfort. We’ve found a pair of portable speaker sets that are both quite capable of being your best buddy during your travels.

No battery option and no remote, but we like the iLuv i189 anyway for its warm, full sound.

iLuv i189. The i189’s design is a familiar one, where your iPod sits prominently in a cradle in front of a pair of 2.5-watt speakers. The device measures 8.5 by 3.5 by 5.5 inches and easily fits into carry-on luggage or a duffle bag. Make sure you leave a little bit of room for the power adapter, since the i189 doesn’t have any battery-power capabilities. And, bummer for us, the i189 doesn’t have a remote control.

The audio from the i189 is impressive for such a small device. Music sounds clear, and the bass has good presence. Midrange sounds are rich and warm. The only problem we had with the i189 is with high notes, which the device can’t seem to reach. We were able to turn the volume up all the way without any signs of distortion, though the volume is just adequate for a 300-square-foot hotel room.
The i189’s 3D sound option gives your music a bolder presence, but it doesn’t feel like surround sound. At least it doesn’t give your music an annoying echo feeling like the 3D effects on some other speakers, which shall remain nameless.

COMPANY: iLuv

CONTACT: www.i-luv.com

PRICE: $49.99

REQUIREMENTS: iDockable iPod

Easily fits into carry-on luggage. Good sound.

No remote control. No battery option. Weak high notes.

It’s a bit bulky, but the Pure-Fi Anywhere has a remote, and you can recharge the battery.

Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere. The 13.25-by-4-by-1.5-inch Pure-Fi Anywhere has a pair of 2-inch active drivers accompanied by a pair of 3-inch pressure drivers for bass response. Logitech includes a handsome storage case to protect the speakers, though it can take a considerable amount of room in a carry-on bag.
The device has a built-in, nonreplaceable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery that Logitech says lasts 10 hours. In our testing, the battery actually lasted 15 minutes beyond the stated life. To charge the battery, simply plug in the included power adapter, and an LED indicates when it’s charged.

The Pure-Fi Anywhere is capable of clearly producing a full range of sounds. There’s a bit of warmth missing, but the sound is quite enjoyable. However, when we turned the speaker to its highest volume, we ran into lots of distortion. Pure-Fi’s StereoXL feature gives your music a surround-sound effect that we didn’t find annoying—we liked it for some songs, while we turned it off for others.

The remote control has a disappointing range of about 12 feet, although that might be enough in a small room. Unfortunately, the remote feels cheap and the buttons are too stiff, but it does let you navigate through your iPod’s menus so you can get to your playlists and songs.

The bottom line. We like the i189’s small size for those times when we want to travel light. The Pure-Fi Anywhere has the better sound of the two, and its rechargeable battery is a great feature, but its size makes it a little more cumbersome for casual toting.

COMPANY: Logitech

CONTACT: www.logitech.com

PRICE: $149.99

REQUIREMENTS: Dockable iPod

Easily fits into checked luggage. Rechargeable battery. Good sound.

Might be a little big for your carry-on, especially if it’s already bulging. Remote feels cheap and has a short range. Distortion at highest volumes

Griffin Technology Amplifi

Roman Loyola — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:01:48 -0500

Remember to put your iPhone in Airplane Mode when using it with an iPod speaker like the Amplifi.

It’s getting harder and harder to find a simple iPod speaker: one that doesn’t have a clock, a radio receiver, a CD player, or a space-age design. But we found one in the Amplifi, and for $150, we like what it has to offer: great sound for your iPod tunes, and not much else.

The Amplifi measures 14 by 5.5 by 8.5 inches, making it a nice size for a bookshelf, a desk corner, or maybe even nestled inside your entertainment center. The iPod dock doesn’t conform to the Universal Dock specifications, but it still works fine; it just means you use the supplied rubber pads to ensure a good iPod fit. Griffin says the Amplifi’s front volume dial was inspired by the company’s PowerMate USB knob controller, but the Amplifi’s knob-adorned front grill reminded us of Logitech’s portable AudioStation Express (4 out of 5 stars, May/07, p48). Unfortunately, the Amplifi doesn’t have a USB port so you can’t connect to your Mac and sync your iPod, nor does it have a video-out port for watching your iPod videos on a TV. The Amplifi does have a line-in jack for connecting other devices or a dockless iPod.

Behind the grill is a pair of 2.75-inch neodymium drivers. There’s also a 5-inch downward-firing woofer. These three components combine to produce sound that’s rich and full - you don’t feel like you’re missing anything. We thought that the downward-firing subwoofer might be a problem, since it’s aimed at the surface it’s resting on, possibly causing unwanted vibration. But this didn’t happen. Still, the Amplifi produces heavy-sounding bass that’ll please hip-hop fans, but might not suit others. Bass and treble controls would’ve been nice, but the Amplifi doesn’t have ’em.

The bottom line. Sometimes you just want an iPod speaker that simply works. The Amplifi is such a speaker. Not only does it work, it satisfies.

COMPANY: Griffin Technology

CONTACT: www.griffintechnology.com

PRICE: $149.99

REQUIREMENTS: iPod with dock connector

Compact design. Excellent sound.

No USB port for iPod syncs. No video out. No bass or treble controls.