RoadTested
Latest
Road Tested: Hard Candy's Bubble Sleeve for iPad
When we visited with Tim Hickman from Hard Candy at Macworld Expo, he told us how they worked to get their cases ready for production without access to actual iPads for sizing and fit. For the past few weeks, I've been using the company's Bubble Sleeve as my everyday case for my iPad. In some ways, I wish that Hard Candy had waited a bit longer to think through the case design before rushing to market. The Bubble Sleeve has a rigid outer shell covered in fabric and featuring, well, bubbles -- circular bumps that provide a firm gripping surface without causing too much friction if you slide the case into a larger bag. Unzipping the twin zipper pulls reveals a soft interior with red plastic corner braces on one side of the case; these are repositionable, via Velcro, for a tighter or looser fit for the iPad (and allowed Hard Candy some wiggle room in case the iPad didn't come out at the exact size that was expected). The other side of the case has a grid of padded squares, providing a soft surface for the iPad screen to rest on. Read on for my impressions, and see our gallery of product shots below. %Gallery-92830%
Road tested: The Apple-branded iPad case
I'm going to come right out and say it. I hate the Apple iPad case. I thought I'd like the fact that it protects the iPad and works as a stand. I don't. For US$39, I really thought Apple would deliver a protective case that perfectly augmented the iPad using experience. It didn't. Unfortunately, I pre-ordered my case before Victor gave the case his once over. How do I hate the case? Let me count the ways. I hate the hard edges that constantly catch my fingers whenever I pull the case out of my handbag. I hate the folding bit that never folds back quite flat. I hate how the bottom of the case keeps me from easily putting in or pulling out the docking cable. I hate how unstable the whole thing is, especially when I try to stand it in portrait mode or in full-up landscape (rather than laying down-ish landscape) orientations. For the $40 I paid, I was hoping for more. Or at least...better. I've tried giving the case a shot on a day to day basis, but after using it for a while I'm just giving up. For now, I'm going back to a padded envelope--at least until more and better cases hit the market. As Mike Rose puts it, "Padded envelopes are cheap, readily available, and involve no labor." If the same-old-same-old ennui drags you down, you can apply duct tape and an Apple label to spice things up.
Hands-on with the OWLE bubo: Better photos and video from your iPhone (Updated)
A while back, we had a product announcement about the OWLE bubo (US$129.95). That bizarre name is actually a play on words: OWLE stands for "Optical Widget for Life Enhancement" (the company's name) and bubo is the genus for American horned owls and old world eagle owls. The device, if you have an imagination, even looks like a cartoonist's idea of a horned owl. So, now that we've got the name all figured out, what the heck is an OWLE bubo? You could call it the ultimate iPhone case for photographers, and you'd be pretty darned close. The current bubo is a sleek, machined piece of aluminum that is designed to be held with both hands for better stability when shooting photos or video with the iPhone. The bubo does a great job of making it easier to shoot video, but that's just scraping the surface of the feature set. bubo also has a 37mm .45x wide-angle/macro combo lens that is awesome for doing close-ups of objects, taking crowd or landscape photos, or doing interviews. In fact, it's this last use case that finally convinced me to purchase a bubo. Since TUAW is going to be doing a lot of video and other photography at Macworld Expo during the this week, I want to see if I can make my iPhone 3GS my primary tool for capturing imagery since I'd prefer to pack light. The lens accommodates screw-in filters at a standard 49mm size, so UV haze or polarizing filters can be added to further improve image quality. Update: The OWLE bubo has been completely redesigned with a composite case and new name, and now works with the iPhone 4 and 4S. You can take a look at the Phocus for iPhone 4/4S here. Please note that the OWLE bubo is no longer available but is replaced by the Phocus.
Road Tested: the socially-developed Quirky PowerCurl
You've heard me rant about Quirky before on TUAW: it's a company that uses social development (i.e., group-think) to create innovative new products. Everyone who participates deeply in the creation of a product can benefit monetarily from the sales of it, and the result has been a string of fascinating products. A while back we heard about the PowerCurl, a product that was originally dreamed up by Jeff Scholen of Atlanta, GA. I was so taken by the design and utility of the product that I ended up buying one, and it's extremely useful. Scholen's original idea was a plastic bracket that surrounds the Apple MagSafe Power Adapter and allows both the long extension cord and the small power cable to be neatly wrapped up. The result is a US$14.99, bright orange device that really has two primary goals -- keeping your cables neat and making sure that there is airflow around the adapter to keep it cool. Quirky offers three different models; one each for the 45W, 60W and 85W MagSafe Power Adapters. How does it work in practice? Beautifully. In the past, I tried to organize my MacBook Air cables in my computer case, but more often than not they were tangled around each other when I extracted them. Since slipping my MacBook Air power adapter into the comfy confines of the PowerCurl, the cables are nicely tamed. As advertised, the power adapter is cooler now that it isn't lying directly on the insulative surface of the floor. The PowerCurl is simple, functional, and (if you like bright orange rubberized plastic) attractive. I'd recommend this product to anyone who has a MacBook.
Road Tested: the Verizon MiFi portable broadband router
For the last couple of weeks, I've been testing the Verizon MiFi portable WiFi hotspot. After writing about the MiFi, a few months back, I was placed on a waiting list to receive a test unit. Could the MiFi enhance the iPod touch experience to bring it into the realm of the iPhone? A unit finally came free and I finally got my hands-on experience to discover whether my assumptions would be proved right or wrong. The MiFi, which is a portable EV-DO router, provides a 3G connection through an absolutely tiny unit. All plastic, it's about as thick as an iPhone and about two-thirds as large as its front face. The MiFi's entire user interface is its single button (seen at the bottom right of the image here). When pressed, the button switches on and glows green. Pressed again and held, the unit turns off and the green glow disappears. Sprint offers a near-identical unit, except it's finished in brushed metal instead of black. Read on to discover how my MiFi testing went...
