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Dollar Store Accessories: What ¥100 buys you
America has the dollar store. Japan has the ¥100 store. TUAW has been covering iOS accessorizing on the cheap in a series of recent posts. Today, the focus turns international. TUAW reader TokyoJoe writes, "This pic is from Daiso, one of the biggest ¥100 shop chains in Tokyo. They have a decent selection of iPhone 5 and 4S cases as well as cables and stands." Here you see just a taste of the variety on offer. The Daiso selection included many colorful options ranging from animal prints, to old fashioned book styles, to basket weaves. Have you found some great dollar store finds, whether in the US or not? Drop us a note; send in pictures; and share the low-end fun.
Dollar Store Accessories: Laptop Stand
Today's Dollar Store find is a laptop stand. The adjustable laptop stand offers a way to lend your MacBook a slight tilt for more comfortable typing for touch typists. It consists of four arms that swing out from a central hub, supporting the front and back of the laptop's lower half. As Dollar Store finds go, this wasn't much of a success. Although the rubber tips for the back support worked well (you can see them at the top of the packaging), the lower arms with their black-tipped heads (they're there in the picture, just harder to see, to the right and left) worked less well. They rode up far too high on my thin 2011 MacBook Air, actually cutting in under my wrists near the touchpad. This completely contradicted the stated purpose of the stand (to lift the back to enable better typing) and instead dug into my arms, rather painfully. Although I thought the elevation angle was perfect, those intrusive front stabilizers ruined the stand for me. They're doing an important job, keeping the laptop in place, so you can't just pull them off or cut them down. They're just not a good match to my thin laptop. Your mileage may vary, although I'd suggest you just save yourself the buck.
Dollar Store Accessories: Screen Protector
Full disclosure: I don't entirely get the point of screen protectors. My screens, from touch-based to desktop, have all survived entirely fine until this moment without them. The dollar store iPad-specific screen protector comes with an entire page of directions on the obverse of the container. You clean the screen with the provided cloth ("in a dust-free environment"). You then pull back the plastic backing about an inch, align and then press and work your way down the tablet screen. The cleaning cloth is about 3 x 3 inches in size, made of a silky material and did a pretty awesome job in cleaning the grime off both my tablet and my glasses -- it's now been tucked into my backpack for further glasses work. So good win on that! That's where the good news ends. The protector itself comes in a separate bag with a stiff backing. I carefully peeled down my "about an inch," aligned the home button hole and carefully, carefully tried to lay down the sheet and peel of the back with perfect precision. It didn't work. No matter how hard I tried to gently maneuver the protector down, I was faced with endless air bubbles. The more I tried to fix this, the worse it got. Once applied (bubbles and all), the protector clung strongly to my screen, offering a pretty slick and shiny (and bubbly) protective surface. I had no problem using fingers and styluses, and the responsiveness was good. I suspect this product was made for people more detail-oriented and more dextrous than I am. As is, I'm giving the cleaning cloth one star, but at least for me this screen protector wasn't worth my buck.
Dollar Store Accessories: USB car charger
For a dollar, this USB car charger is quite adorable. Rated at 1 amp and surprisingly well built, I could find nothing to fault with this unit except that I bought it at the Dollar Store. Let me back up for a second here. Almost none of the other US$1 accessories I have purchased to date have an equal potential to utterly and completely mess up[1] my precious iPhone. That's because I cannot stop thinking about what will happen if things go wrong. Several TUAW staffers had to talk me through the testing because I was a complete nervous Nellie trying it out. (Skipping to the chase? It worked; it worked fine; I kept my testing really short.) Of course, in the end, it was Steve Sande who gave the best advice. "Open it up," he said, "and see if it has a fuse. If it doesn't, run away, run away." I pulled out my tiny Phillips screwdriver, opened it up and sure enough, there was a fuse and some other fancy electronics in it. For $1, this charger felt pretty well built and, given that it had a fuse to prevent stray power surges from frying my iPhone, a reasonable value. And I tell you now, I would have tossed it or given it away if I hadn't destroyed it looking for a fuse. That's because I have little or no quality trust established with my dollar store. Some of the accessories I've tested have been unexpected delights. Quite a lot of them have been utter crap[2]. When it comes to this kind of intimate relationship between your phone and amps, you may want to stick with a brand name. Give me a "name" provider, particularly one with hundreds if not thousands of reviews on Amazon. It's not as if the name versions cost all that much these days. [1] A "family-friendly" and "suitable for work" way of saying what I think it could do to my iPhone. [2] See [1], but referring to the quality and value of the review item.
Dollar Store Accessories: Case Logic Flash drive carrier
In this brave new age of the Cloud, it's not surprising that USB flash drives are slowly disappearing from our lives. That's not to say they're gone quite yet -- especially for anyone parenting school kids. Flash drives continue to be a staple for the homework and term report crowd. They commute their data to and from school via sneakernet. And, regularly, they subject their parents to the eager call of "I caaaaan't find my flaaaaaash drive," typically at the price of US$5-$10 per incident -- not to mention the tears and suffering of lost work. For these kids and their parents, this Case Logic transporter, found at my local Dollar Tree, offers the perfect backpack accessory. It provides a carabiner clip for attachment and soft, padded pockets for up to four drives at once. Sure, kids are going to still lose their drives, and they're still going to have to re-do their homework, but at least with a unit like this, their drives will have a specific place to live. A reasonably conscientious child -- say one that will grow up to be an auditor or bank employee -- will benefit from its existence.
Dollar Store Accessories: Flip stand case
Not every Dollar Store accessory is going to be a great success and, sadly, this case with a built-in stand was an utter piece of crap. I selected it for review because I rather liked the notion of a flip stand, especially for watching YouTube videos and the like. The case clicked onto my 4S easily. Taking it off, however, was a bit of a nightmare -- the rigid case hugged my phone, making it really hard to find a way to remove it without destroying my device. And that stand? Useless. When installed on my 4S, I could not get that cursed stand to flip up. Although it was easy to manipulate when off the phone (basically you push it out from the inside), in its intended use, I could not get it open. I tried hair pins, keys, toothpicks, nails -- whatever you could think of. They all etched scratches into the stand's bottom without lifting the thing from its locked position. The case itself provided all the normal coverage you'd expect. There's a hole in the back for the Apple logo, an opening for the camera, spaces for the hardware toggles (mute and volume) on the side and headphone / speaker on the top and bottom. However, it barely came up those sides and really didn't make me feel that my phone would be protected even from short falls. In all, the whole thing was junk. My review unit is already in the recycling bin. That's a pity given how many reasonably good finds TUAW has discovered at the Dollar Store to date. Not recommended.
Dollar Store Accessories: Velcro cable zips
My Dollar Store regularly sells Velcro cable zips, offering between five and 10 for a dollar. Sometimes they're black (as shown here); other times they're rainbow-colored. The Dollar Store version was my gateway drug. When I discovered I could buy the same zips in bulk over at Amazon (100 ties for US$9.83), I immediately pulled out my credit card and bought a bag. It's not that I saved all that much compared to the Dollar Store price; it's just that these ties are insanely useful. The hole at the top of each tie is critical. It allows you to thread the tie onto a cable, where it stays until you're ready to wind it up. I now have these attached to my millions of Apple USB cables that, during a regular day, get attached, unattached and re-attached to a variety of iOS devices. These cable zips have decluttered my desktop and parts boxes, especially since I have so many review items passing through my life at any one time as well as development devices that need plugging and unplugging. You may not need to be ordering them by the 100s, as I ended up doing, which is why the Dollar Store versions play such a nice role for most people. You can pick up a card of five or 10 at a time and use them to improve your life and your organization.
Dollar Store Accessories: Flat-folding tablet stand is perfect for iPads
Of all the Dollar Store accessories I've tested to date, none of them has come close to exciting me as much as this simple folding tablet stand. For just a buck (of course!), this stand delivers heavy-duty plastic that capably supported every tablet I tested it with. The stand folds in half in the middle, and there's a tab that you push back to connect to any of the the three slots on the opposite side. This enables you to adjust your stand to various angles from quite upright (bottom slot) to nicely sloped (top slot). Two arms on the bottom of the stand flip out to support the tablet itself. When you're done using the stand, both the tab and the arms flip back to their original position providing a flat, unobtrusive bit of plastic that nicely fits into most handbags and backpacks. I keep mine folded in half rather than the full, unfolded style from the original bag. The center tab is a bit hard to insert and extract. You need to push in one side of the tab and then the other, and reverse that for removal. It doesn't take a lot of work and the tab (being the main structural component of the thing) needs that solid connection for reliable use. On the down side, I found the portrait orientation to be less steady than I'd like. If you're considering this product, I'd recommend only using it for landscape use with full-sized iPads. The flip-out arms, in addition, are the weakest component of this stand, and they're the bit you should keep an eye on in terms of aging and replacement. In terms of functionality and flexibility, the Dollar Store stand is a good value. Agreed, it doesn't present any challenge to my favorite Two Hands, which I intend to keep using for the forseeable future, but it does offer a product that TUAW tablet users may want to check out. For those who don't want to shell out a lot and are looking for a highly portable tablet stand solution, this dollar store option is certainly acceptable.
Dollar Store Accessories: Screen cleaning wipes
Next up on our tour of dollar store iOS tech accessories are screen-cleaning wipes. Wipes play an important role with touch-based screens, even in the age of oleophobic (oil-repelling) displays. At US$0.05 per wipe, this box of 20 screen wipes compares favorably in price to those large boxes you might have seen at stores like Costco or Sam's Club. Unlike those vendors, however, the dollar store version does not include individual packaging. The ones I tested used a "baby wipe" model, where you reseal the package after extracting each wipe. Sadly, this means the last few wipes ended up rather dried out. In terms of screen cleaning, the moist wipes did a fine job. I tested them across phones and tablets, and they managed to cut the grime, remove sneezles and otherwise bring the unit back to a cleaner state. The wipes were branded as "anti static" (i.e., not attracting dust), but I honestly had no idea how to test that feature. Although the wipes smelled a bit during use, that odor didn't linger on the iOS devices. For a dollar, it was nice to have a packet of wipes on hand as I traveled. The last few wipes were a bit of a write-off, but I got enough use out of my packet to make it feel like I hadn't wasted my money. All in all, TUAW gives the dollar store version of screen-cleaning wipes a mild "good value" score.
Dollar Store Accessories: Tablet sleeves
Continuing with our series exploring dollar store accessories, I recently picked up a pair of sleeves compatible with original and bite sized mini iPads. Widely available at most dollar stores, low-cost sleeves provide utilitarian tablet protection. The ones I bought and tested consisted of a spongy exterior fabric, with a sturdy Velcro closing. Both were sized appropriately for Apple products. There's really not much you can say about a tablet sleeve beyond: "it fits" and "it worked." The ones I purchased met both criteria. They offered satisfactory tablet protection and seemed well-enough made for extensive use, which mostly consists of being placed into backpacks, luggage or briefcases. There were no sharp edges inside or any other concerns of that nature. Compared to home-brew solutions like padded mailing envelopes, these sleeves are lightweight and unobtrusive. They will not, however, win fashion awards or make anyone stop you to say, "Where did you get that fashionable tablet sleeve?" They're just, well, there. There, however, is not a bad thing -- especially when you're only looking for a bit of protection from sharp edges as you get around your day. At US$1, TUAW finds these sleeves to be a good, but unexciting value.
Dollar Store Accessories: The GoJo iPhone Headphone
Of all the ridiculous tech in the world, the GoJo iPhone headset has got to be among the most ridiculous. It consists of a headband that attaches to your phone, enabling you to make literally (groan) hands-free calls. It works courtesy of a suction cup and attachment point stickers. You clean the back of your phone, add the sticker and grab that sticker with the onboard suction cup. The grip is reasonably strong. I mention that as an aside, since that grip quickly becomes immaterial. The entire point of this unit is to give you a cheek-and-ear-wedgie, physically attaching a phone to your face for untold sweaty hours at a time. The unit I tested gave me a massive headache, gripping my head with sufficient force to ensure that my phone would never be leaving my face. The phone stayed in place, but it became far more intimate with my jawline than I ever consented to. I had to peel my poor iPhone off my face to get some relief. Apparently, not everyone dislikes the "Hey, is that an iPhone Cthulhu chowing down on your face?" approach created by the GoJo. The Amazon reviews included several non-one-star write-ups. Some of them even appeared to be non-ironic. On the whole, we here at TUAW cannot recommend this unit except if you somehow suffer from iphonevoraphilia. This baby was originally released at a substantially higher price than the $1 I spent at my local Dollar Tree. All told, it probably wasn't worth that buck.
