iPhone
Apple customers could always count on one thing. After buying a new iPhone or iPad, they'd have about a year before a new model was released. This made it relatively easy to keep up with the company's latest-and-greatest. Apple, however, turned that on its head with this month's iPad 4. Was that just the beginning? Read More
In recent years, both Shimano and Campagnolo have introduced electronic gear-shifting systems for bicycles – instead of relying on steel cables, the systems wirelessly transmit signals from the user-operated shift levers to powered shifting actuators on the front and rear derailleurs. Now, a group of engineers from UK-based Cambridge Consultants are taking things a step further. They’ve developed a smartphone-based electronic automatic transmission for bikes. Read More
The release of 22Cans' Curiosity on Tuesday is surely one of the oddest ever to grace Apple's iPhone and iPad app stores. A collaborative massively-multiplayer game, Curiosity has a necessarily limited lifespan, by the end of which, there will be a single winner – if winner is the right word … this remains far from clear. What is obvious, though, is that this is an app as peculiar as it is ambitious. Read More
Despite being heavily tipped for inclusion in the latest version of Apple's iPhone, near field communication (NFC) technology didn't make the final cut and remains on the wants list. The new iPad and iPad mini are similarly lacking, leaving iDevice users lagging a little behind in the short-range wireless connectivity department. A project has just launched on crowd-funding portal Kickstarter, which offers iPhone and iPad users a simple and relatively inexpensive way to join the NFC revolution. FloJack from Flomio is a small disc-shaped NFC reader/writer for Apple mobile devices that conveniently plugs into a 3.5-mm audio port. Read More
With its new car charger and dock accessories for iPhone and iPad set to ship the middle of November, it looks as if Belkin will be the first third-party manufacturer of Lightning accessories to reach the market. While the Car Charger 2.1 AMP will charge all of Apple's current Lightning devices (including the iPhone 5, iPad mini and 4th-gen iPad), the Charge + Sync Dock is designed specifically for iPhone 5. Read More
Coyote Case adds a security siren to your iPhone
A major trend we're seeing in iPhone cases is the combination of protecting your phone and protecting yourself. Previously, we've covered the Yellow Jacket, which turns your iPhone into a stun gun, and the Spraytect case, which adds pepper spray to your iPhone. A new product, called the Coyote Case, uses an incredibly loud siren as its method of protection. Read More
iRock: The power-generating rocking chair for iDevices
We’ve seen plenty of iPhone and iPad chargers that harness power from eco-friendly sources such as wind and solar (or both), but Zurich-based Micasa Lab has turned to a different, relatively (but not completely) untapped energy source to keep the juice flowing in iOS devices – the rocking chair. But the iRock Rocking Chair doesn’t just use the power generated via rocking back and forth to charge iOS devices, it also powers speakers built into the chair’s backrest. Read More
The name McIntosh Labs has been synonymous with outstanding audio quality for more than 60 years and its iconic MC275 tube amp certainly left its mark on me when I first encountered one many moons ago. Hot on the heels of the MX121 audio/video control center featuring Apple's AirPlay wireless technology released earlier this year, the company has launched the McAire free-standing personal music system that allows a new generation of discriminating consumers to stream audio from an iTunes library on a Mac or PC - or music from an iDevice - over an existing home network. Read More
HiLO lens provides a new angle on iPhone photography
A lot of digital cameras have LCD screens that can be swiveled around independent of the camera body, making it a lot easier to get high- and low-angle shots. Photographers using an iPhone or iPad, however, are stuck with an unswivel-able screen. That’s where the HiLO lens comes in. It’s a right-angle lens that attaches to an iDevice’s existing lens, allowing users to shoot up, down or to either side while still being able to view the screen. Read More
Belkin has announced the launch of its WeMo Baby device that turns any iOS device into a digital baby monitor. Comprising a Wi-Fi connecting baby monitor and an accompanying iOS app, the WeMo Baby lets anxious parents listen to high-quality audio from their baby’s room whether they're in the next room or the other side of the world … though it's probably not a good idea that the baby is left that unattended. Read More
