A MagSafe charger smaller than Apple’s but made by a third-party? Ruggedized rubber hard drives from a company known for Mac-matching aluminum enclosures? Synchronized stereo speakers with color-shifting mood lights for your bedroom? Yes, the annual pre-CES Pepcom event took place in Las Vegas last night, and these were just a few of the products we spotted on the floor. Read on for more details…
How often is merely showing up with a working lightbulb enough to attract a crowd? At a dimly-lit event held tonight by the Bluetooth SIG ahead of the 2015 CES, Avi-on demonstrated such modest magic using an early implementation of Bluetooth mesh wireless connectivity.
The company’s upcoming Bluetooth light switches ($30-$35), light dimmers ($40), and lightbulbs ($20) will be the backbone of an upcoming home lighting system with General Electric branding, and promise to eliminate the need for in-wall light switch wiring.
Every year, top-ranked Apple speaker maker iHome comes to CES with an impressive array of new products — including something to show off Apple’s latest technology — and it isn’t disappointing at the 2015 CES. In an advance briefing before the show officially opened, iHome revealed its first Apple HomeKit product, SmartPlug ($40), as well as some daring new speaker and headphone designs…
…like the first speaker we’ve seen hidden inside a beautiful drinking flask. It’s called SoundFlask, and comes in coat pocket- ($50) and home bar-sized ($100) versions. Even the smaller version sounds really good given its size, and the flask cap twists to adjust the volume. All that’s missing is the ability to actually hold fluids. Read on for more.
Seagate and its LaCie subsidiary have announced five new hard drives just ahead of this week’s 2015 CES, including two new iOS-compatible wireless models and three new Mac-only disks. All except one will be available in January from the company’s web sites.
Seagate Wireless
Seagate Seven
Seagate Personal Cloud
LaCie Mirror
LaCie Rugged RAID
For iOS, the 500GB Seagate Wireless ($130) is an economical and portable, battery-powered hard disk designed to compete with G-Technology’s G-Connect and Western Digital’s My Passport Wireless. Just under 4″ on each side and less than an inch thick, Seagate’s version is designed to look fun, with your choice of green, blue, gray, red, or white matte housings, and uses integrated Wi-Fi to connect with iOS devices and Macs for media playback as well as Android/Windows/Chrome. It runs for nine hours between charges and can connect to 3 devices simultaneously.
Seagate Seven ($100) is a Mac-only alternative that promises to be the world’s thinnest portable hard drive. Made from 100% stainless steel, the enclosure is only 7mm thick and includes a USB 3.0 cable for connecting to a computer, giving up wireless in order to achieve its small size. In a break from traditionally boxy or rounded hard drives, Seven is actually slim enough to let you see the contours of the traditional hard disk mechanism inside. Three additional drives are discussed below…
We take utter simplicity for granted when choosing wall chargers for Apple devices. Apple’s adapters each have one USB port and a relatively clear label identifying the device the port will charge. Most of RAVPower’s largest multi-port chargers are very clear about what their multiple ports can do: each port is either iPhone (1-Amp) or iPad (2.4-Amp) enabled, period. But SwitchEasy, an infrequent dabbler in electronic accessories, has overcomplicated its new four-port charger Power Amp ($50), sometimes styled PowerAmp. While it cosmetically looks almost as if it could be an Apple design, its ports are packed with confusion.
On the positive side, it’s relatively compact, and if you can look past its confusing labeling, its performance isn’t bad. Read on for more.
It’s Christmas Day, and if you were especially nice this year, you may have just found a new iPad under your tree. Apple’s tablets are able to do incredible things right out of the box, but they’re also easily damaged, and there are accessories that really help to expand their capabilities. If you want to make sure your iPad performs at its full potential, it’s a good idea to protect it and accessorize right away.
That’s why we’ve put together this guide to help new iPad owners choose the best accessories across a variety of different categories. Our top picks range from stands and cases to speakers, keyboards, game controllers, and much more. We also explain what’s near-mandatory, what’s optional, and what you can safely skip. Read on!
The secret to understanding USB battery pricing is that you tend to get what you pay for: cheap batteries lose their charges faster and can bulge and leak over time. Other companies specialize in selling atypically nice batteries that last longer and work better. Just Mobile is a leader in quality batteries: for the past six years, its Gum series (shown below) has spanned every Apple device type, size, and speed, but it has never built a Lightning cable into a battery before. That changes with the January release of TopGum ($80), which advances the company’s prior state-of-the-art Gum++ model in two ways: an authentic Lightning cable’s integrated into the battery’s left edge, and a matching magnetic battery charging dock is included.
Of course, these features – and a choice of gold or gray metal exteriors – come at a premium over typical all-plastic batteries, so if you don’t need the cable or dock, you’ll be equally well-served with the company’s earlier batteries. Read on for the full story.
There wasn’t really a market for hybrid batteries and external flash drives until this year, when Mophie’s Space Pack seemingly came out of nowhere, impressively nestling 16 or 32GB of additional flash storage inside a 1700mAh iPhone 5/5s battery case. But having demonstrated the value of combining these features together, Mophie’s $150 to $180 asking prices were high enough to keep some people away, and the requirement of an iPhone 5 or 5s was similarly somewhat limiting.
Imation is trying something different with its Link Power Drive, a small plastic box with a silver top and white base. There are 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models, each equipped with a 3000mAh battery, a Lightning cable, and a USB cable. The MSRP of the 16GB unit is less than any Space Pack, and the 64GB model has twice Mophie’s top capacity for the same MSRP — except Imation’s street pricing is much lower. Better yet, every model works with whatever Lightning-equipped iOS device you might have, and there’s enough battery power to completely recharge any iPhone except the iPhone 6 Plus. All you need to do is carry the accessory around separately, attaching it when needed.
iPads need stands. Whether you’re watching videos, long-form typing, or making FaceTime calls, it’s a chore to hold the iPad upright for extended blocks of time. To address that need, Apple launched the first iPad with regular and keyboard docks, but quickly gave up on them in favor of simpler folding lids called Smart Covers.
If you’re looking for an iPad stand or dock, you can do better than that. We know because we’ve tested lots of options for Apple’s tablets. Following up on our guide to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus docks, we’re looking today at the very best of what’s out there for every iPad, covering four broad categories: simple portable stands, simple desktop stands, cases with integrated stands, and charging docks. Expand Expanding Close
Christmas and the end of Hanukkah are only a week away. You’re looking for a last-minute gift that’s guaranteed to arrive in time for the holidays. We’re here to help with a collection of top picks for Apple fans, all at great prices.
Update 3/3/15: We’ve added the new Seek Thermal XR to the bottom of this review.
The evolution of Apple’s iOS cameras has been fairly linear: Apple improved their image quality, added video recording capabilities, and dropped in a small collection of filters, but otherwise hasn’t radically changed their features.
Just in time for the holidays, Seek Thermal Inc.’s new Seek Thermal Camera for iOS ($199) is offering a fundamentally different type of camera for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Using a Lightning connector, the Seek Thermal Camera adds affordable thermal photography and videography features to any late-2012 or newer iOS device – the heat-sensitive sort of vision best-known from the Predator movies. While it’s not case-compatible, this accessory is otherwise the most practical thermal camera currently available for iOS devices. (An Android version is also available.)
My first post for 9to5Mac is on a topic near and dear to my heart: best-of-breed Apple products and accessories. Why should you trust me? I’ve been a professional product reviewer for 23 years and an Apple user for 28 years. Last week, I finished an 11-year stint running the editorial side of iLounge, the leading Apple product review site, where I tested literally thousands of Apple accessories from every major company on the planet. Readers have praised my reviews as accurate and insightful, and I always put my readers’ needs first when testing new products.
iPads. Apple TV. iTunes gift cards. Staples has some blockbuster Apple deals in its recently leaked ad. And unlike Black Friday deals from Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and others, they accept Apple Pay! Doors will open on Thanksgiving Day at 6pm until 10pm, and on Black Friday starting at 6am. You’ll be able to make all your Staples Black Friday purchases with your Apple Pay-enabled iPhone, as well. Below we have the best Apple related deals that will be available from Staples:
Image via <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml1LzNFn8kc">TechSmartt</a>
According to figures released by market research company BCN, Asus sold more tablets than Apple during the first half of 2014 in Japan. Asus’ market share rose 8 percent year-over-year during the first half of 2014, the report claims, giving it a 38.9 percent portion of the tablet market in Japan. Apple, on the other hand, holds a 36.4 percent share (via Nikkei). This is the first time Asus has ever held the top spot in Japan, according to the report. Expand Expanding Close
Nearly 6 months after its initial release, the iPad mini with Retina display is now available for purchase from the official Apple Refurbished Store.
As of right now only the WiFi model is available and includes the 16, 32, and 64GB capacities in silver and space gray. The 16GB model is just $339, which is a savings of 15% off the list price of $399. It features a 7.9″ 2048×536 resolution display, A7 chip with M7 motion coprocessor, and 802.11n WiFi with MIMO technology. Apple refurbished devices are generally regarded as “good-as-new” by past purchasers and come with the same 1-year warranty as their new counterparts.
NewsDay reports Republican Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano was sworn in for his second term today using an iPad and Bible app when officials were unable to locate a physical copy of the Bible:
Addressing a standing room audience at Bethpage High School, where he graduated in 1980, Mangano took the oath of office on an iPad featuring a text of the Bible when a printed copy could not be located.
Not surprisingly there is much debate heating up online over whether or not an iPad and Bible app should qualify as a replacement for the real thing. Video from the ceremony is available here.
Filemaker, a subsidiary of Apple, has just announced its 2013 version of its popular database application. The new version focuses on bringing desktop database solutions to the browser. New in Filemaker ’13, projects can now be managed through a centralized web dashboard, with options for partner portals and file hosting. More importantly, data entry can now be taken in a web interface — HTML5 powered forms enable businesses to manage their deployments on any PC or Mac, as there is no longer a reliance on having the native applications installed.
Regional carriers are starting to announce availability for cellular models of Apple’s new Retina iPad mini just as the company today started offering the device to walk-in customers.
Bluegrass Cellular announced today that it is now offering the iPad mini Wi-Fi Cellular models in-store and online. Available on the carrier’s website now starting at the usual $530 for the 16GB model, the carrier is also offering all three models (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB) on its no-contract “Freedom, Expanded” plan. That allows customers to make 12 monthly payments to get the device they want with the ability to trade-in and upgrade to a new device after a year. That plan will run $26.50/month for the 16GB model on Bluegrass, $31.50/month for the $630 32GB model, or $36.50/month for the $730 64GB model. The carrier appears to only have Space Gray models of the device available, at least online, and the Freedom Expanded plans are only available in-store. Another regional carrier, C Spire Wireless, will begin selling the Retina iPad mini over the next week. Update: U.S. Cellular has also begun cellular iPad mini with Retina Display sales today on its website.
In other Retina iPad mini news, we’ve just received word Apple has just started selling the device to walk-in customers in its retail stores following an initial launch for Personal Pickup orders only.
