The iChair combines a case with a stand for iPhone and iPad
One of my favorite things about shows like CES is hearing stories about products straight from the vendors themselves. Not everyone has a product as flashy as the Sphero or as attention-grabbing as the hot new tablet computers. Some of the vendors in the booths are just people trying to sell cases. That's the story with Vindi Sedey, who once sold real estate. He decided last year that since he was using his iPad to watch a lot of videos, he wanted a simple stand that could go landscape or portrait, anywhere. Most of us would shrug and buy the first one we saw online, but Sedey actually traveled to China, researched materials and designed a case for both the iPad and iPhone that he calls iChair.
If there's one thing I learned at CES, it's that cases are largely a matter of taste. Almost all of them will protect your iDevice, so it's really a matter of which one you think looks and works best. But the iChair is a nice case. The back comes in two parts and is polycarbonate with a rubber coating, so it's nice and sturdy without being bulky. Each case comes with both a black top and a colored top (blue or white), with a screen protector, dust cloth and a squeegee board.
The stand is pretty strong, too. The iPad version can rotate around in a few different positions and has an extra tab for typing, while the iPhone version just clicks out; both versions can stand up the device in either landscape or portrait. The iPad version is US$49, while the iPhone version is $34. Shipping is free until "We'll see," Sedey says. It was great to talk to him and his family (his wife and brother-in-law were manning the booth with another friend) in the midst of all the chaos on the CES floor.
