Crave

Griffin Technology's AirCurve.

At Apple Expo in Paris on Wednesday, Griffin Technology unveiled its latest iPhone accessories, including the AirCurve acoustic amplifier dock and the Clarifi protective case.

The AirCurve dock collects and amplifies the sound from the built-in iPhone 3G speaker. It does so by using a coil waveguide within its base, and therefore doesn't need batteries or another power source to work.

While the acoustically amplified sound is not as loud as that made by electronic amplifiers, it's loud enough for you to enjoy music in a quiet room or to use as an alarm clock. The compact dock is made of translucent polycarbonate plastic, revealing the graceful curves within that magnify the sound. AirCurve also includes a pass-through slot that lets you charge and sync your iPhone using a Griffin Dock Connector Cable, which is sold separately.

The Clarifi protective case is also supposedly the first case for iPhone 3G that sports a built-in lens to give the phone's camera an optical boost. You can slide the lens into place for close-up shots or slide it aside for normal shooting. The added optical lens lets you zoom up to 6 inches closer.

Other than that, the Clarifi's case design, like other cases, allows for access to the power switch, headphone jack, volume controls, and touch screen. It also features Griffin's trademark EasyDock design, which allows you to slip off the case bottom to charge and sync, rather than having to completely remove the phone from its case.

Both the AirCurve dock and the Clarifi case will be available for purchase in October for $19.99 and $34.99, respectively.

The Air Jacket adds protection without changing the way your iPhone looks.

(Credit: Power Support)

I finally got my iPhone 3G. Love it, hate it, this is all getting old. However, one of the things I do really notice is that although the phone seems very sturdy and scratch-resistant, it attracts fingerprints and shows sweat stains easily. I have the black model and it looks dirty all the time.

For this reason, the Power Support Air Jacket for iPhone3G caught my attention Thursday. It's one of hundreds of jackets you can buy for the new iPhone, but with one unique attribute: it's very thin (merely 1mm thick), and see-through. This means your iPhone won't get any bulkier and will still show its original color. You can also choose to have the Air Jacket in black if you have the white version of the phone and aren't happy with the color.

This is probably the most uncompromising protection jacket you can get for the iPhone. An Air Jacket kit includes the Air Jacket itself, one thin crystal film, and one piece of anti-glare film to protect the LCD.

The catch? It's not cheap. As a matter fact, at $35, it's easily one of the most expensive jackets you can get for your iPhone.

Griffin's TuneBuds Mobile headphones make it less obvious that you are using an Apple product.

(Credit: Griffin)

Well, sure, there are accessories, but I want the iPhone 3G! Don't you?

You are not alone. I've been to many AT&T and Apple stores over the last few days--the furthest of those being in Sacramento. (I live in the Bay Area and went there to visit some friends over the weekend.). At each AT&T store I was told to wait for more stock, and at every Apple store I got discouraged by the long line and withdrew. It's crazy.

Now, I can't help but wonder why Apple is doing this. Obviously they have tons of iPhone 3Gs at the Apple stores, but they only supply limited amounts to the AT&T stores. My only guess is that Steve Jobs gets a kick out of our frustration from waiting in line for a product that he's deliberately stripped of many basic features, knowing that we'll get even more frustrated when we actually get one. And yet we can't help wanting it. How embarrassing!

So, to ease the pain and make the wait worthwhile, why not just go get some accessories instead? You will want to have some of them anyway.

If you haven't found anything you want in my last blog, Griffin today introduced another slew of stuff that you can use with your iPhone 3G. The list includes:

- Wave for iPhone 3G: $24.99

- Nu Form with EasyDock: $24.99

- Elan Clip for iPhone 3G: $24.99

- Streamline for iPhone: $29.99

- TuneBuds: $19.99

- TuneBuds Mobile: $39.99

- StereoConnect: $14.99

Personally, I like the TuneBuds Mobile, as the original white headphones that come with the iPhone are just too telling (like "Look at me! I have an Apple product!") and don't offer very good bass.

The portable speaker for the iPhone can be folded up into a compact "ball" that's very easy to transport.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

Now that you've gotten your iPhone 3G, it's time to get some accessories for it.

Digital Life Outfiter (DLO) didn't wait for long and has just come out with a slew of stuff that you can use to protect, carry, and enhance your iPhone 3G. Most of them work with the original iPhone and the iPod Touch, too.

To keep your iPhone from scratching or bumped around if dropped, you can choose either the HybridShell ($24.99) that's bulky yet stylish, or the VideoShell ($19.99), which is clear and sturdy. Of course, you can get other old-school outfits like the Jam Jacket ($19.99) or the HipCase ($29.99).

Personally, I prefer the Action Jacket ($29.99) for iPhone, which works well for when you go jogging, which is probably the only time I would want to use a case for a smartphone/music player.

DLO also has the Portable Speakers that instantly turns your iPhone into a mini boom box, which works well for a small room or when you are on the go. The speakers can be folded up into an "egg" that's a compact 6 inches in diameter. It's rather expensive, though, at $49.99.

Money is boring, unless you're spending it on something like an iPhone or a cute new pair of shoes.

Or unless you make investment cool, which is what a new company called Thrasher Funds is trying to do. It's a new mutual fund that's targeting the under-35 crowd with a bunch of youth-oriented and tech-focused holdings (Apple, Uniqlo, Diageo, American Apparel, Volkswagen, Google, and Garmin), "investment parties," and a Web site that looks like a Good Charlotte album cover.

"Commercials from financial behemoths only implore Baby Boomers to start planning and saving for their retirements, and/or their children's college tuition," a company description explains. "That's fine if you're over 40 with children. But what if you're not? What if you're a child of the 70's, 80's or 90's? What should you be planning for?"

Yeah, it's different. New York magazine's Web site called Thrasher Funds "despicable [and] brilliant, and its young writers attested that "we already have an extreme case of generational embarrassment, one that may or may not be manifesting itself in a full-body rash right now. But then again, that's how we felt about Garden State!"

Thrasher Funds isn't a technology company, really. But they're targeting the social-networking generation, which means that yes, the company has a MySpace page. And they've set up shop in the Silicon Alley boardinghouse known as Sunshine Suites, meaning that they're getting plenty of cooties from local Web 2.0 start-ups also using the space.

They're additionally getting a boost from the city-focused women's newsletter Daily Candy, which not only has proudly touted Thrasher as the first-ever investment company to advertise on the e-mail list but also hosted the finance start-up's launch party last week at the Caravan clothing boutique in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood. The sparkling rose wine was flowing, the company founders were chatting it up with guests, and everything in the store was priced at 20 percent off. (Now that's what I call a party!)

At this point, it looks like all Thrasher really needs is a celebrity executive, you know, like DanceJam's M.C. Hammer or Ooma's Ashton Kutcher.

Thrasher Funds' Web site, which looks like it took a cue from Good Charlotte.

(Credit: Thrasher Funds)

That said, the company also has to prove itself to some extent before young people (even the ones eager to jump on the trendiness bandwagon) are willing to commit actual cash to it. Word-of-mouth testimonials, when they exist, are going to mean a heck of a lot more than a savvy ad campaign. This is the generation that's reportedly afraid to tackle health insurance head-on; mutual funds still are going to look kind of scary to some, no matter how much hot pink is on the Web site.

(Credit: Sebastian Delmont)

Those little black Moleskine notebooks, once the scribble space of choice for Picasso and Hemingway, are now pretty much known as mandatory gear for brooding coffee-shop hipsters and aspiring indie rockers. But little did we know, they also make great external hard drives. A blogger by the name of Sebastian Delmont recently noticed a correlation between the sizes of his Moleskine journal and a hard drive, and cleverly realized that he could modify one of the sleek black books as the external casing for an internal laptop hard drive--saving a lot of cash in the process.

And there you have it, the Moleskine Hard Drive, constructed from a standard-sized Moleskine journal and an inexpensive Cool Drives hard drive. Perfect for storing all your bootlegged songs from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah shows.

(Via Boing Boing)

"Nerds!"
--Ogre, Revenge of the Nerds

Since the dawn of time (or at least the 1980s), avid computer users have been ridiculed for lacking social skills and an ability to party.

But anyone who has seen the documentary Real Genius or seen the schools featured on this list of top college pranks knows otherwise.

Nerds do party. They just party efficiently. That's why these drink-deal locators exist: to help us find cheap drinks between here and the nearest library.

Nationwide sites

UnThirsty: This is a Google Maps mashup that lets you search for happy hours, food specials, and drink specials in real time. It also tells you which places have outdoor seating and Wi-Fi hot spots.

MappyHour: Here is another Google Maps mashup, which lists drink specials and happy hour info for bars across the United States.

Regional sites

DrinkDeal.com: A bar-special finder for New York City and Brooklyn. I tried searching for local specials in San Francisco, but it didn't work out so well.

DrinkGuru: Has a lot of information for Washington D.C. bars, and it appears to be expanding to include other big cities as well.

CheaperDrinker.com: Helping Minnesota's Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and St. Cloud areas stay warm through creative uses of Jagermeister specials.

Thrifty Hipster: Another fine resource for Minnesotans, especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Canadian sites

The Ontario Beer Hunter: For our friends up north, a site that gives icon-based locations for all beer stores, wine retailers, and independent microbreweries throughout Ontario.