Ten One Design SoundClip

Roberto Baldwin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:19:00 -0500

Play it loud and proud. Or at least slightly louder and prouder.

Once upon a time, transistor radios were all the rage. Without these portable radios with their pitiful little speakers, teenagers wouldn’t have learned about the latest music that was deemed “boss.” Technology has reached levels that those kids with the transistor radios sitting on their beds and front stoops couldn’t even have imagined. Thanks to the Walkman, the Discman, the iPod--and now, the iPhone--music delivery takes more than a few transistors these days.

Like the radios of old, however, the iPhone has a teeny-tiny external speaker. To be fair, the iPhone is really meant to be used with headphones, but what happens when you want to share the “Girl Drink Drunk” skit from The Kids in the Hall with your friends? The omnidirectional speaker just doesn’t cut it. Ten One Design hopes to fix the problem with the SoundClip passive sound enhancer. The little black clip attaches to the bottom of your iPhone and uses a conical chamber to amplify and improve the sound coming from the iPhone’s speaker. It’s the equivalent of the cone megaphone that cheerleaders scream through, but just really, really small. While the sound enhancement isn’t going to turn your iPhone into a boom box, it does make your music and videos sound better at close range.

The biggest advantage to using the SoundClip is its ability to keep our hands from covering the speaker when you’re playing our favorite iPhone games in landscape mode. The tab that sticks out didn’t interrupt our playing and--in fact--gave us an extra bit to hold on to. Our biggest problem with it was how easily it was to lose the little dongle. We spent 30 minutes looking for it once, although the SoundClip can also easily attach to your iPhone’s charging cable. A selection of colors other than black would be nice.

Ten One Design Pogo Stylus

Robin Dick — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:38:00 -0600

Whether you’re fat-fingered, or just kind of OCD about a clean screen, the Pogo comes in handy.

The iPhone is a Type-A personality’s BFF. There, we said it.

We rarely go anywhere without it, and we’re constantly tap-tap-tapping away at our iPhone’s touchscreen. From the moment we bought our 3G, waiting became (almost) joyful! The only problem is our complete lack of virtual-keyboard skills. Enter the Pogo Stylus.

If you’re fine tapping on a touch or iPhone with a finger, then move along—nothing to see here. But for those of us who could use a little help with accuracy—or just like a clean screen—the Pogo is amazingly useful. A small stylus—3.5 inches long and 1/4 inch in diameter—the Pogo is made from light aluminum and comes in 3 cool matte colors: red, gray, and black. At first we were resistant to the optional clip, but it does come in handy. The stylus’s fit is a bit snug, but in a good it’s-not-going-to-get-lost way.

The stylus was comfy to use and surprisingly responsive. The small tip with its patent-pending technology makes for fast and smudge-free navigation. And we jammed through everything we normally would do with our fingertips. It’s great for games or other apps where accuracy counts, and those of you residing in colder climes will appreciate it when the gloves go on.

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Ten One Design SoundClip

Ten One Design Pogo Stylus