Accessories

When your finger just won’t cut it, the iPhone Touch Stylus

Although the iPhone and iPod touch were designed with your finger in mind, for those who have trouble controlling the screen (or who have long, styled fingernails), there is the iPhone Japanese Touch Stylus.

The stylus has a flexible tip that mimics your finger’s capacitive ability to control the objects on the screen. The tip is flexible, allowing for easy dragging without gouging your screen. It also includes a handy SIM eject tool.

The stylus is imported from Japan, and is available in silver or black. Both colors are $14.99 from ThinkGeek.

[Via iPhoneIndia]

Popularity: 9% [?]

Eye-Fi and SmugMug team up for geotagging

The Eye-Fi card is an SD card with a difference — it has Wi-Fi built into it for easy camera-to-internet transfer of photos. It comes in three different flavors; Eye-Fi Home, Eye-Fi Share, and Eye-Fi Explore. The latter card (US$129) includes free Wi-Fi access at Wayport hotspots, unlimited geotagging using Skyhook Wireless (the same service Apple and Google use for location data on pre-3G iPhones and iPod touch handhelds), and an unlimited WebShare service for sharing photos.

Eye-Fi and SmugMug (an online photo sharing site) announced a partnership providing a year of geotagging and hotspot access for SmugMug members using an original Eye-Fi Card or the $US99.99 Eye-Fi Share. SmugMug provides standard (US$39.95 annually), power user (US$59.95 annually) and professional ($149.95 annually) accounts, all of which provide ad-free, backed-up, and secure hosting of your photos.

Do you use an Eye-Fi card with your digital camera? If you do, what service do you upload your photos to, and do you use the geotagging capability? Leave us a comment.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Silly accessories: The Steve Jobs iPhone dock

This thing is right up there with the iPod sex toy and toilet paper dispenser. The Steve Jobs iPhone Dock features a plastic bobble-head doll of Mr. Jobs, gesturing elegantly (as elegantly as a plastic doll can gesture) towards your docked and charging iPhone. Unlike many cool bobble-head dolls (including those that are life-sized), this thing says, “I’m a fanboy of legendary status.” Expect your friends to treat you accordingly.

Originally intended to be a one-off piece, the scuptor has put four up for sale on Ebay. Impress your geek friends and scare away potential dates with one of your own.

Other Apple-inspired oddities include

• a 60x optical zoom lens for the iPhone camera
• iLidz, which is a hat-based multimedia viewer for the iPhone/iPod touch
• The R2D2 projector (a steal at $2500)

And finally, this list would be incomplete without the KNG iPod DJ Dock. Oh, yeah.

[Via MacUser]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Review: Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery for iPhone / iPod

If there’s anything I’ve learned about the iPhone 3G since July 11th, it’s that the battery life is horrible. If I’m just texting and making the occasional call, I can survive for a day, but if I try to play games or use 3G I know it’s going to go to the dreaded red battery icon quickly.

That’s why there are a growing number of manufacturers who have extended battery packs for the iPhone on the market. For example, I looked at the Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger (US$49.99), but the website doesn’t show that it works with the iPhone 3G.

My next choice was the Richard | Solo Smart Backup Battery. This US$49.95 lithium-ion battery pack has saved me from running out of juice prematurely more than once!
Read the rest of this entry

Popularity: 8% [?]

Rumor: New Cinema displays at Macworld ‘09?

MacRumors speculates on the possibility of Apple releasing updated Cinema displays at next year’s Macworld Expo. According to the post, the new displays could incorporate the LED backlight technology that Apple has started building into their 15″ MacBook Pros.

MacRumors notes that LED backlit displays going into the 30″ range tend to be more expensive than Apple’s current 30″ Cinema display. However, if this is true, it would be a nice change from Apple’s 2004 design of the current Cinema displays. There is no word yet on if the new displays would include the iSight camera. [macrumors]

Popularity: 7% [?]