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Beddi smartphone alarm dock hooks up to Uber, Spotify and Nest
We've seen plenty of smartphone -- well, mostly iPhone -- alarm docks in our lifetime, but there's been little development on that end in recent years. OK, there was that one bacon scent alarm from Oscar Mayer, but not much else. That's why we were pretty stoked when we came across Witti's neat and affordable solution dubbed Beddi. This $100 minimalistic dock houses an iOS or Android phone in landscape mode on the top, and recharging is done via your own USB cable -- you get a 2.1A port and a 1A port on the back. But it's really all about the companion app: Once paired up over Bluetooth, you can preset Beddi's three physical buttons to either call an Uber taxi, toggle a Spotify playlist, control the temperature on your Nest or switch on a Philips Hue light. Some of these can even be automated according to your desired schedule.
Yantouch Black Diamond 3D ambience iPhone dock hands-on
While we weren't busy kicking up dust on the CES floors, we sat down with Taiwan-based Yantouch to have a fiddle with its latest product, the Black Diamond. When not in use, it really is just a gorgeous spherical black diamond, or at least its faceted front half is; but slip in an iPhone 4 with the Black Diamond app enabled, and you get a funky sound sensitive mood lamp. On top of that, the dock also charges up your iPhone while it shows off its colors, and somewhere at the bottom there's some black magic that channels out amplified audio from the phone, although actual speakers would be even nicer. Ultimately, Yantouch sees the Black Diamond as a developing platform for potential applications like an outdoor temperature indicator, or some sort of caller ID color tagging tool for seeing from afar who's calling. If all goes well, Yantouch will even consider making an Android version, but we're not sure if the $79 price tag will immediately catch on. Anyhow, check out our hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-113922%
