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cradle

Cradle from Quirky: An iPad lap desk with a twist

When you're not toting your iPad around in your C-3PO Bestin Backpack, you'll probably be using it, and you may be looking for a place to rest it securely while you're lounging in bed playing Civilization Revolution or thumbing through the iBookstore.

Design collaborative Quirky has conceived of the Cradle, a sleek little portable, lightweight lap desk for the Apple tablet. Lap desks abound, of course, but this one has a twist (literally)--an integrated circular plate, made from matte, soft-touch plastic, that grips your iPad snugly and lets you swivel the device between portrait and landscape … Read more

Get an iPhone desktop dock-charger for $3.99

I come from a PalmPilot background. In the old days, our devices didn't connect to our computers via a stray cable that's always getting in the way. Our devices didn't lay prostrate on our desks while charging or syncing. They sat upright, faced forward, and gave us something to look at. In other words, they docked.

You can dock an iPhone, but Apple charges a whopping $49 for the privilege. Thanks, but no thanks.

Instead, I'm going the generic route: Meritline has an iPhone desktop dock-charger for $3.99 shipped. That's right: shipped. From China. … Read more

XGPS300 cradle adds GPS to the iPod Touch

Any iPod Touch owners who want to use your devices as GPS navigators (just like iPhone 3G or 3GS owners can), your wishes have just come true.

Dual Electronics announced Friday the availability of the its GPS Navigation & Battery Cradle for iPod Touch (model XGPS300). The cradle, which resembles a battery case in size and weight, provides a full-featured and portable GPS navigation solution for the iPod Touch. It includes:

A cradle with a built-in GPS receiver, a rechargeable battery to power the GPS or recharge the iPod, an amplified speaker for voice prompts, a microphone, a 3.5mm … Read more

Nexus One car kit spotted in Google promo vid

We knew that a Nexus One car dock was coming. Google has already released a slick-looking desktop dock. And when you consider that the Nexus One is preloaded with a very robust turn-by-turn navigation app with a dedicated in-car interface, a car dock seems like the next logical step. However, Google's been fairly tight-lipped with the details surrounding it.

So, we were surprised to see what appears to be the actual Nexus One car dock pop up at the one-minute mark in the latest in a series of Nexus One promotional videos from Google. It's not a particularly … Read more

Navigon reveals iPhone car cradle on Facebook

Having released its turn-by-turn navigation software into the iTunes marketplace, Navigon is preparing to release a car kit to supplement the app's in-car usage. A photo of the car kit was unveiled on Navigon's official Facebook page--of all places--but details are sparse at the moment.

The kit will cradle the iPhone with a suction cup mount and will ship with a charging cable to keep your phone juiced while you drive.

Pricing hasn't been released and neither has a hard ship date. However, considering that there's no supplementary technology (such as an integrated GPS chip or … Read more

Alternative Charging Methods

Your sitting there working hard at you desk and you realize you need a charge but your touchstone and or stock usb charger are at home or in the other room. What do you do now? If you had a desktop charger you wouldn't face this issue. I myself am always on the go and need chargers in different rooms of my house and at work, the desktop charger is great to have so my Pre is always with me at my desk. I have noticed some pros and cons to the desktop charger and here is what I … Read more

LG HBM-800 is a headset and speakerphone in one

LG seems to be leading the way in combining Bluetooth headsets with other things. The LG Decoy, for example, was one of the first cell phones to have a built-in Bluetooth headset in the back. Now at CES 2009, LG has introduced the LG HBM-800, a Bluetooth headset and speakerphone in one. This isn't new--we've seen this before in this Kyocera Portable Speaker--but we can't think of many others like this one.

On its own, the headset is like any other Bluetooth headset. It has dual microphones for echo cancellation and noise suppression, plus it has … Read more

Seskimo Batrest fits in utility belt, defeats three evildoers in a single throw

Last week, I reported on how to make your own iPhone stand using a simple binder clip. I'm still a huge fan of all things free, but if you watch a lot of videos on your iPhone and suffer from a disease that forces you to spend money, get your stand from the folks at Seskimo.

Their foldable "Bat Rest" is roughly the same size as a credit card and is easily adjustable for different viewing angles. It's also very useful for disarming criminals if thrown with trained precision. It comes in three colors (black, white, and translucent) and only costs $3.99, which is pretty darn close to free. Heck, buy two from the Web site and they'll throw in shipping for free! And if for some reason you harbor prejudice against our bat-friends, Seskimo also makes a different stand shaped like a set of bullhorns.

More pictures after the jump, thanks to Barrier Bloor for the link.… Read more

Faced with a struggling economy, the best accessories in life are free

I hate buying accessories for my iPhone; it's totally counter-intuitive. You're saying that I need to buy OTHER stuff to make the phone I just bought more useful? It doesn't make sense to me, and it doesn't make sense to Jeff Staple of Staple Design either.

Check out this iPhone/iPod Touch cradle he made out of a simple binder clip that (let's be real here) you can easily liberate from your company's supply closet! It might take a bit of tweaking with pliers to get the wire to stand up on its own, but I'd rather do-it-myself than give away more of my hard earned money! Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, don't get one, I'm about to make these by the dozen and and sell them all on eBay; watch the first ones go up tonight. How does $10.99 + tax sound? Race you to the patent office!

More pics after the break.… Read more