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Ion Audio shows off its latest offerings, including the AirCopy and the iDJ2Go, at CES 2013
Ion Audio has a booth set up as usual on the floor of this year's International CES, where it is showing off a number of new and fairly new products for anyone coming to see them. This company is one of our favorites -- they make some really excellent iOS accessories and fun devices (including the very popular iCade line and the All Star Guitar) and we were very excited to see what 2013 would bring. Fortunately, Ion didn't disappoint. The most impressive accessories in the booth were probably from the iDJ 2 Go line. The 30-pin version of Ion's DJ controller (as seen above) is already available, and it provides a great physical interface for either the company's official iDJ2Go app, or Algoriddim's great djay app. There's a new Lightning version of the iDJ2Go board coming this spring, too, so if you have an iPad mini or an iPhone 5 you want to use it on, you can do that. Ion was also showing off its Scratch2Go accessories, which are a set of capacitive touch-based accessories (including a few sliders, and some turntable knobs), which can sit right on your iPad's screen and allow for more physical controls while using these DJ apps. The Scratch2Go kit makes for a little more crazier contraption (you literally stick the knobs and sliders onto your iPad's screen with suction cups), but at US$39, it's a relatively cheap and easy way to set yourself up with real physical DJ controls. Elsewhere in the booth, Ion was also showing off its Bluetooth speakers. The Party Rocker was an interesting bit of fun -- it's a speaker with a spinning light on top that's designed to make any parties you play music at a little livelier. But the Job Rocker Pro was probably the most impressive speaker in Ion's arsenal: It's a completely wooden speaker that's got all of the bells and whistles you can think of, from an AM/FM tuner to plenty of USB auxiliary plugins, a mobile battery for 50 hours of off-cord life, and even two AC power plugs on the side for charging or using anything else you happen to have around. The Job Rocker Pro was seriously impressive -- I don't know if you'd need a speaker on a work site, but if you do, this $299 model would be all you need. Finally, Ion also showed us the AirCopy, which isn't related to audio at all: Instead, it's a WiFi based scanner that can transmit any photos or documents wirelessly over to your iPad or any other iOS device. This scanner actually runs its own WiFi network wherever you set it up, which means all you have to do is connect the iOS device to its network once it's up and running, and then anything you send in through the slot on the wireless scanner will get automatically uploaded to the iOS device's photo library. From there, you can push it out to any other apps, running optical recognition, photo processing or any other tasks on it as needed. It's all very impressive -- you get a real-time view of the photo coming in as it scans, and the quality looks very excellent. The AirCopy will be available for $149 when it comes out this spring, and we'll keep an eye out for it to run a full hands-on. Ion always brings some fascinating gadgets to show off at CES, and this year was no exception. The company's certainly got a big year ahead.
The iCade Mobile puts console-style buttons on your iPhone or iPod touch
We first heard about the iCade Mobile back when the unit was introduced at CES this year, and as mentioned last week, it's now out and available. I've been playing with one for a couple of weeks now, and I can tell you that it's an impressive device. The unit is sturdy, the buttons work great, and the whole device does a terrific job of turning your smaller iOS devices into something like a Sony PSP-style handheld console. There are a few drawbacks, however. The biggest one is the same issue that all of the iCade devices have had, popular as they may be: Compatibility. While the list of games compatible with iCade is already long and growing, the list of games I usually play on the iPhone is even bigger, and most of my favorite games aren't ready. There are a few quality games on the compatible list (including a few giant arcade collections from famous companies like Namco and Midway), so there is definitely plenty to play with the iCade. But if there's a game you love that's not on the list, it obviously won't help you with buying the product. If your favorite game is compatible, pairing your iOS device with the Bluetooth-enabled gamepad is a simple affair. Getting the iPhone or iPod touch inside the rubber holder in the middle is actually the hardest part of connecting the two, though it's not too bad, and once its in, it fits securely. The other main issue with the iCade mobile is that while Ion Audio has wisely and faithfully designed the unit to match up to Sony's handheld PSP console, it has chosen to instead label the buttons as 5, 6, 7, and 8, which are presumably what they correspond to on a Bluetooth keyboard (all iCade units use the same protocol, which makes it easy for developers to program compatibility into their apps). But even games that are compatible with the product don't tend to make use of these markings, so playing with the iCade is often an exercise in trial and error. It's not usually clear if the unit is working right away and which buttons do what. One-button games are obviously not a big problem, but more complicated games can be frustrating. Labeling the buttons with clearer symbols (and having better designed compatibility in the third-party apps) might make the experience smoother. Once you get everything working and know which buttons you're pushing, things work great. The buttons have a nice press to them. They might be a little loud if you're a real stickler, but I like that they're tactile (which is why iPhone users want buttons in the first place). The d-pad isn't the best I've ever used, but it too is well-defined. The triggers are less impressive. They're a little too small, and the bumper buttons can be hard to reach, especially if you have big fingers like I do. But at this point, not many games use them anyway, and I haven't seen one yet that uses all of the buttons available. So it all comes down to developers, essentially. If there's a game that you love that's iCade compatible, I can't see any reason not to pick this device up. It's well built, and it makes games that require precision especially responsive. But odds are that your favorite games on iOS aren't yet included in the list, and if that's the case, you may find it easier to wait. Many of the best iOS games take full advantage of the phone's touchscreen, and obviously you don't need an iCade for that. In the end, Ion is bumping up against the old chicken-and-egg problem: More developers should support iCade, but in order for them to want to do so, more consumers will need to buy iCade in the first place. Hopefully we'll see more and more games support products like this, and these ever-more-popular control units will become ever more useful. At least, until the audience gets big enough, and Apple decides to Sherlock it right away from everyone else.
iPad gaming adapter iCade Mobile now shipping
Ion Audio, the company behind the iCade Arcade cabinet for the iPad, is shippping its latest product, the iCade Mobile. As its name implies, the iCade Mobile is a Bluetooth game controller for the iPhone and iPod touch. The accessory adds physical buttons and a D-Pad to your iOS device and lets you control games like Temple Run and Frogger Decades. It swivels so you can play in landscape or portrait mode. Also available is the iCade Core, a similarly-designed arcade joystick for the iPad. The iCade Mobile is available for $80, while the iCade Core sells for $100. Both the iCade Mobile and the iCade Core are available now from Toys'r'us and Ion Audio's website. It will also go on sale in the coming weeks at Game Stop and J&R Music. [Via TechCrunch]
Ion announces release date, price for iCade Core and Mobile
We saw the new iCade Core (one of three takes on Ion's popular iCade iOS joystick accessory) back at CES earlier this year, but now it has a price and a date, for the UK at least. June is when it will arrive in Great Britain, according to the official Ion site, and it'll have a price of ￡49.99, which works out to around $81 as of this writing (probably $79.99 once things are all worked out). The iCade Mobile is set to show up around that same time. That's the one modeled after a PSP, that lets you sit your iPhone or iPod touch right in the middle of a joystick and a button pad. Both were very excellent devices back at CES, so it's good to hear that the wait to buy them is almost over. [via Engadget]
ThinkGeek announces 8-bitty wireless controller for iPad, iPhone
It looks like ThinkGeek and Ion Audio were holding out on us when we visited the companies' booth at CES earlier this year. (See update below) In addition to the three new devices already announced for the iCade lineup by Ion (that allows you to use various controls for iOS games across Bluetooth), there's now another one from ThinkGeek only, strangely called the 8-bitty. The 8-bitty is an NES-style (though four buttons, instead of only two) block controller that's completely wireless: Just pair it up with your iOS device and have at it. It's hardly ergonomical, but that's not really the point with this, obviously. There are also two buttons at the top to use as triggers, so this is really an old school controller designed for new-school use. And just like all of Ion and ThinkGeek's other iCade stuff, this will be compatible with any games designed to use it -- all it does is acts as a Bluetooth keyboard, so any games designed to use certain keys to do certain things will be able to use this. Seems like a good idea, and given iCade's success in the past, this one will probably sell just as well. It's supposed to be available "later on this year," and ThinkGeek has listed the 8-bitty at $24.99, so we'll keep a look out and let you know when you can grab one. Update: ThinkGeek's reps email to say that while the other iCade devices are being manufactured in conjunction with Ion Audio, the 8-bitty is not. It's still using the iCade name, but this product is all ThinkGeek. Good to know. [via Engadget]
Hands-on with ION Audio's Guitar Apprentice and new iCade models
We first saw ION Audio's really impressive iCade followups at the beginning of CES last week during CES Unveiled, but that little taste at the crowded event wasn't really enough for us, so later in the week we went by the company's booth to get a better look and actually hold and play with the new products. Of the various iCade implements on display, the most impressive was undoubtedly the iCade Mobile -- that's the (mostly) PSP-based Bluetooth controller setup which your iPhone or iPod touch can plug into. The company had the great Mos Speedrun working on the device, and the buttons felt great and were very responsive. The one issue with the controller is that the "triggers" (normally L2 and R2 on PS3 or Xbox controllers) aren't really triggers -- they're just buttons, and a lot of gamers, especially those who play shooters, often prefer the Microsoft style trigger controls rather than just wide buttons. The model we played with had buttons that were actually just an extension of the metal around the side, so they sort of "bent" in as you pressed them, but the ION rep told us that the final version will be separate from the side metal, which means they'll press in straight. Still, just having buttons back there might not be quite as nice as full triggers, if there are games that make heavy use of them in the future. Given that developers step up with compatibility on their apps (and ION has had a lot of success with that on the original iCade cabinet), this device could be a must-have for a lot of hardcore iPhone gamers. Of course, it bears mentioning Apple doesn't really provide a great deal of support for gaming peripherals. In fact, all of these devices are simply sending button presses (like a keyboard would), so until iOS supports more input controls, Ion will similarly be limited. he handheld launches sometime this spring, and will be available for $79.99. I also got to play with the iCade Jr., a much smaller version of the iCade cabinet that's designed for iPhones or iPod touches rather than the iPad. The model on display wasn't a working version, but it was enough to feel what it was like to hold the device and press the buttons on the backside. Unfortunately, the whole thing felt about as gimmicky as it looked -- I'm sure the games will be playable when they're finally released, but obviously the mini cabinet isn't built for comfort so much as it is a cute little version of the larger thing. That one will also be out in a few months, for $49.99. And finally, we checked out ION's other big iOS product this year at CES, called the Guitar Apprentice. This one is huge -- it's a "guitar controller" for iPad, so it's a plastic guitar-shaped device with dozens of little buttons on it designed to serve as the frets on a guitar. Your iPad is actually inserted straight into the frame on the guitar's body, and eventually (though this wasn't yet working at the show), the idea is that you'll press buttons on the guitar controller's neck, and then "strum" by swiping across your iPad. It was an interesting idea, but the app wasn't done by CES, apparently, so all that the Guitar Apprentice did so far was when you pressed any of the fret buttons, the iPad would play the appropriate musical notes. It actually worked well -- I could play chords or "pluck" specific frets with ease, though the mechanics were obviously different than playing a real guitar. Hopefully, if ION makes a solid app for the iPad, the controller will serve as a nice set of training wheels for anyone wanting to actually learn a little bit of guitar. The controller itself will be $99 when released, and the app will be available for free. ION had some really excellent offerings at CES this year -- the company seems bolstered by the iCade's success, so we can probably expect to see even more cool iOS products from ION Audio in the future.
Ion's Drum Master and Drum Apprentice help you embrace your inner Travis Barker
Looking to add some back beats to your iPad-only band? Ion is looking help you achieve quasi-Questlove status with the Drum Master -- and we caught a glimpse at CES. The full-size kit for your Apple tablet affords you the ability to capture tracks with GarageBand while playing nice with other Core MIDI apps. Is the idea of larger set too daunting? Snag the Drum Apprentice for your iOS slate or handheld. Connecting via a free app, you'll learn all the basics and be well on your way to rock star status.
ION Audio follows up iCade with two new devices, iCade Mobile and the iCade Jr.
ION Audio has had a hit this last year with its iCade arcade cabinet, a standalone Bluetooth controller for the iPad that turned Apple's tablet into a miniature arcade system. And now the company is following up that success with three new devices, meant to make games on the iPhone and iPod touch a little more tactile. The first is the iCade Mobile, which is a Bluetooth-enabled game pad that the iPod touch or iPhone slips into, with a d-pad on the right side and four controller buttons on the left. There are also trigger controls at the top of the device, and all of those controls map to any iCade-enabled games on the iPhone, although games may require some tweaks to fully exploit the different buttons on the iCade Mobile. ION's rep told TUAW that the company looked at what it thought was the most powerful handheld gaming system out there -- "the PSP, and now the Vita" from Sony -- and mirrored its design off of that system. Obviously, developers will have to make their games compatible with all of the extra buttons (powered by two AA batteries, one inserted into each grip on the side), but the iCade already has a nice list of compatible titles, and that list will likely grow going forward. The iCade Mobile is due out this Spring, and will be $79.99. ION's also making the little iCade Jr., which is basically just a miniature version of the popular cabinet, but with one important difference: There are four buttons on the back of the device, designed to be used as the cabinet is held in your hands, along with four tiny buttons on the front. The iCade Jr. is designed as a smaller, gift version of the iCade, something a little cuter and more "novel" according to the rep. It'll be on sale for $49.99 when it too arrives this Spring. And finally, the iCade Core is a more traditional iPad dock, that loses the arcade cabinet asthetic for a bigger and more tactile set of buttons and an arcade stick. It has a much more open feel than the closed-in cabinet, choosing to focus on the actual gameplay rather than the (somewhat schtick-y) arcade reference. Looks like ION is really trying to take advantage of its popular iCade device (which, you may remember, originally started its life as a ThinkGeek April Fool's joke, of all things). We have another meeting with ION scheduled later on this week, so we'll go hands (and thumbs) on with these devices, and let you know what we think. %Gallery-143403%
iCade cuts the fat for CES, introduces handheld brother (update: video and iCade Jr.)
The iCade has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a ThinkGeek April Fool's gag. After trading out a fictional 30-pin dock connector for a very real Bluetooth radio and well, actual existence, it even spawned a (notably competitive) copycat product. This week, ION is unveiling a pair of new iCade products at CES, streamlining the original nostalgic tablet dock, as well as expanding its tactile toggles to iPhone and iPod touch owners. The iCade Core faithfully recreates the original rig's control setup, Bluetooth connectivity, and passthrough charging cable, but kills the cabinet motif in favor of landscape support. Although there's no word yet on pricing for slimmed down arcade dock, ION says it should launch sometime in 2012. The new iCade Mobile, on the other hand, is penned in for a Q2 launch; it'll set you back $80 and score your iPod touch / iPhone four shoulder buttons, four face buttons and a classic D-Pad. The gamepad dock also swivels your device into landscape and portrait modes. Stay tuned for our hands on, or read on for the official PR. Update: While glancing at Ion's booth, an impressively small, phone-sized arcade cabinet caught our attention. Dubbed the iCade Jr., we're told it's essentially an iCade for the iPhone. The unit we saw wasn't a working model, and there was nary a mention of pricing or availability, but you can catch some close-up shots of the tiny little number in the gallery below Joe Pollicino and Amar Toor contributed to this report.
Ion Piano Apprentice plays nice with your iPad, lights up your life
It's not enough anymore to simply cram a single-octave keyboard into the bottom of a Nintendo DS, effective piano instruction requires at least twice as many keys -- and an iPad. The Ion Piano Apprentice (when coupled with a compatible iDevice and companion app) offers aspiring Tchaikovskys octave-selectable free play, lessons on reading sheet music, and even a view of award-winning piano instructor Scott Houston's handsome hands. If those mitts are too distracting for you, just follow along with the light-up keys, you'll be fine. This mini keyboard / iPad dock will land this fall to the tune of $100 -- -- it's either that, a real instructor, or a pair of haptic robot gloves. Your choice, really. Hit the PR after the break for a peek at Mr. Houston's official nickname, if you're into that sort of thing.
Jailbreak app iMAME4All adds iCade support
The latest version of iMAME4All, a jailbreak app that lets you play retro arcade games on your iOS device, added support for the iCade desktop arcade cabinet for the iPad. It lets you play any MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) compatible ROM on your iCade and opens it up to a variety of previously unsupported games. If you don't want to go the jailbreak route, iCade recently released a SDK so any iOS game developer can officially support the gaming cabinet. When it launched earlier this year, the iCade only supported the Atari's Greatest Hits app which has a collection of retro Atari 2600 games. With an SDK and iMAME4All support, the iCade is now a lot more interesting to hard-core gamers with an iPad. [Via Engadget]
iCade, the almost-ultimate gaming accessory for your iPad (updated)
I've been playtesting the iCade for a few weeks now to see how it holds up under "real world" use. The iCade began as a joke product on ThinkGeek's website but was then produced by ION Audio as a real, working arcade cabinet for the iPad. Using Bluetooth to connect to your iPad, the iCade provides a very realistic arcade feel. There are, unfortunately, some major drawbacks. Read on for a full rundown of the hardware and software used to simulate those days of yore, when buttons were meant to withstand hours of abuse and time playing was measured in quarters, not $0.99 increments. Hardware assembly and quality First, you'll have to assemble the iCade. While not complex, I found the little plastic grommets used to hold the back panel in place could split if overtightened, so watch out for that. The materials used in the iCade are all quite good, really. It's plywood and plastic, yes, but so were arcade cabinets in the 80s. The joystick and buttons feel like they came from a professional supply that you'd find on a decent MAME cabinet. One thing that bothered me was that in every review I'm seeing different art on the cabinet. Personally I'd like to choose a specific pattern, but it doesn't appear to be possible. The picture at ThinkGeek has the coolest artwork, but that's not on the demo unit we received. Go figure. Power for the iCade is provided by a couple of AA batteries, but if you purchase a power supply, you'll be able to plug the thing in. I found the batteries lasted through several hours of gaming, so unless you use this daily, I doubt you'll need to plug yet another device into the wall. Speaking of power, while there is a place to "dock" the iPad, it is not a dock with pins. It's simply a plastic molded bracket that holds your iPad in place. While this works OK, I wound up adding a couple of pieces of sponge packing material to the sides of the iPad, effectively wedging the iPad securely into the iCade. As we wound up moving the iCade around among players, this was helpful in securing it. The iCade features rubber feet (self-adhesive, included in the box), keeping the unit pretty stable. But if your kids get aggressive with it, the iPad can move around a bit in the plastic dock. There's a top panel that rotates out of the way, covering the iPad and finishing the look. The top panel also includes a handy reference for the button mapping (sort of -- more in a moment on this) and how to get started. The information is really just about getting started, so I guess the only use is if you sell this in a garage sale. The buttons are actually numbers (and the joystick can input numbers), used to pair your iPad with the iCade. Honestly, this is clunky at best, and most of those buttons aren't really used in the games for the iCade. But as I said, the buttons and joystick are excellent quality, and I'm not sure what else ION could have done here other than adding another costly component like a numeric keypad. One nice touch: when the iCade is powered up and ready to go, the place where you would normally insert a quarter lights up. You can see this in the gallery. %Gallery-127049% Hardware playability If you're worried about lag from Bluetooth, rest assured you'll never notice with the iCade. Given the only compatible games are from decades ago, you won't be too worried about any lag. In all of my testing it was never an issue. The buttons and joystick are very high quality. The entire panel comes as one piece, professionally assembled elsewhere, and I feel like the unit will stand up to years of button mashing abuse. The joystick has a metal stick and red plastic ball, just like a real joystick. It's an 8-way stick, like a traditional arcade joystick, and it performs admirably. The only problem with the buttons? There are too many. Given the fact that the games supported by the iCade thus far are limited to a bunch of Atari 2600 games and a few of the arcade games (much more on this in a moment), once you enter the Bluetooth pairing code, they wind up getting in the way. Sure, you can do a few things, like switch to black and white and whatnot, but that's not really helpful. There are no instructions on how each set of buttons matches up to games, either, so it often becomes a trial and error process to find out what works. Typically the rightmost, lower white button is your main action button. But even the joystick can have a slight learning curve, as I discovered with Asteroids. Software compatibility As other reviews have pointed out, the faux-wood and black plastic elephant in the room would have to be that the iCade only supports one app. Atari's Greatest Hits is certainly a serviceable retro gaming app, complete with a number of 2600 and arcade games, but the iCade seems like overkill for such an outing. Compounding the problem is that the iCade really only fully supports the 2600 games. Which begs the question, why not just make a real Bluetooth 2600 joystick? It'd be cheaper, more accurate and unquestionably perfect for the job. Some Atari arcade games are supported, whereas others are comically impossible to play -- mostly the ones that rely upon landscape view! Don't get me wrong, my kids had a great time playing Centipede, Millipede, even Adventure, but we have Adventure on one of those cheapo "plug into your TV" controllers that is almost exactly like an old Atari controller (except for the weight, thanks to a 9-volt battery inside). That thing does a great job, whereas the iCade can be a little confusing with all the extra buttons. If the iCade supports more games in the future, it'll be one of the best accessories out there and possibly the coolest accessory for gaming. For right now, you'd have to be a pretty huge Atari fan to justify the US$99.99 price at ThinkGeek, not to mention the constant cycle of backorders. That said, the fact that this thing keeps going into backorder means some people are really digging it. I will agree that some games, like Centipede, Crystal Castles, Battle Zone, Tempest and a handful of others are really fun on the iCade. Since you can buy all the games for the Atari app for less than $20, once you break down the cost, you're looking at about $6 per "great" game you can play. The rest are just sorta OK. I mean, do you need an arcade interface to play Basic Math? Considering that price is still cheaper than trying to maintain a real Atari 2600 (I have known people who do this) and find thrift store cartridges, it's a question of how much you're into retro gaming. Final thoughts If you are looking for a great gift for a retro gamer, or just nostalgic nerds in their 30s (like me), the iCade will wow someone. If you're looking for a MAME cabinet or something similar, you'll be disappointed. I can't say enough good things about the hardware on the iCade -- it is built well and it's clear it'll stand up to heavy use. Even at just a penny under a hundred bucks it's not a bad price for the quality. But you'll have to determine whether or not you can suffer the limited software catalog to justify owning one. In my case, there are probably other ways to burn my cash, be it on the App Store or on a more versatile accessory like the Fling. Update: My one gripe with the iCade was the singular app available from Atari. Well, today ION announced on Twitter that an SDK is available for developers. Here's looking forward to more games for the iCade! By the holiday season this will be a must-have gift, I think.
Ion Book Saver hands-on
Treading on the brink of being another CES crapgadget, here's Ion Audio's venture into the book-digitizing business. The Book Saver promises one-second color scans of both pages of a book and comes with OCR software and the ability to export to PDF or JPEG formats. Plans aren't quite finalized and the unit before us wasn't functional, but a 2GB SD card is expected to be included while there's also a USB connection to hook up straight to your PC or Mac. The big problem here is that there's no automation for page turning, and worse yet, you'll need to lift the entire, somewhat fragile, scanner in order to flip to the next page. That's done using that fetching Wiimote KIRF up at the front of the device and there are a pair of cameras embedded in the bottom of the overarching plastic casing. MSRP is set at $149 and availability is coming in June at places like Barnes & Noble, Staples, and Office Depot ... you know, in case you actually want one. %Gallery-113453%
Ion iCade hands-on: gaming on the iPad like it's 1979 (video)
You may recall ThinkGeek's pretty convincing April Fools' prank last year: the iCade cabinet for the iPad. Now, thanks to the keen beans at Ion, the two companies held hands and turned this totally rad concept into reality (although they're definitely not the first). Come late spring, retro gaming enthusiasts will be able to pick up one of these well-built Bluetooth joystick kits for $99 direct from Ion, and eventually they'll make it across the pond for about €99 and £79. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of classic games available to suit the iCase courtesy of Atari, who's already got Asteroids working beautifully on the iPad (and it's actually a lot harder than it looks); any iOS game that takes a Bluetooth input peripheral should also play nice with the iCade. Hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-113155%
Ion Audio's Twin Video dual-facing camera becomes more than a render, starts shipping
Remember this little "Twin Video" freak of nature from January? Well, Ion Audio went and built the thing, and while it looks dramatically different now, the general idea is the same: one camera faces you, the other camera faces your subject. Outside of that it's a pretty basic Flip-style camcorder, with a decent $120 price tag, SD card storage, and a rechargeable battery. Just remember, with great dual-facing power comes great dual-facing responsibility. Check out a sample video after the break.
Twin Video camera has two lenses, two mics, one body
Ion Audio, who seem to enjoy doing unconventional work in the electronic peripherals space, are back with a two-way pocket camcorder that records both sides of a conversation, literally. Strapped with pairs of microphones and cameras, it is capable of doing picture-in-picture or split-screen recording, and can selectively switch between the audio streams depending on which side you want to hear at which time. Just skip along past the break and all will be elucidated -- price is not yet specified, but the Twin Video cam should be arriving at some point in the first half of this year.
iType keyboard brings a physical keyboard to the iPhone, but there's a catch
Attention iPhone owners that have been praying for a physical keyboard forever: your prayers have been answered... kind of. Ion Audio has debuted its iType iPhone keyboard at CES, and we can confirm that it does indeed work as advertised. Once you pop your iPhone or iPod touch into the dock at the top of the board, you're free to type away to your heart's content -- if you're in the iType app, of course. Unfortunately, because of the closed nature of most of the iPhone platform, you can't just start typing in any iPhone app; you have to type in the iType app and then copy and paste to the app you want. It's surely an annoyance, but if you're sick of the soft keyboard and need some relief, it's your best option for now. %Gallery-82292%
Ion Audio's Tailgater is the iPod dock that salutes those who rock
Those who live rock and roll lifestyles need accessories that look the part, accessories like the Ion Audio Tailgater. It's a $199 iPod dock that, with a few scuffs and scratches and stickers, wouldn't look too out of place getting kicked around on-stage at the club. It works with any iPod (first- and second-gen users will have to made do with playback via the headphone jack) including the iPhone and Touch, has inputs for mics or other instruments, and even has an integrated battery for up to eight hours of rocking out when you're way out. Now all you need is a gaggle of roadies to carry it there for you.[Via iLounge]
Ion Audio shows off prototype of alternate Rock Band drum set at CES
The fine folks at Ion Audio are showing off a prototype Rock Band drum set complete with beefier drums and some cymbals out on the CES show floor. Apparently release is pending on customer interest, and there's no word on how much Ion's planning on charging, but we can say with much certainty that we'd jump at a chance to add this kit to the existing Engadget HQ collection of Rock Band paraphernalia. Check out Engadget Spanish for the full on gallery experience. [Via Engadget Spanish]
Ion Audio set to introduce TAPE2PC USB tape deck
It looks like Ion Audio is leaving no old school audio format behind, with the company now following up its USB turntables with its TAPE2PC USB tape deck. As the name suggests, the device will let you dust off your collection of Huey Lewis and the News cassettes and enjoy 'em in spruced up digital form. What's more, those looking to revive the art of the mix tape can use to system to make as many copies as they like, with settings available for both metal and CrO2 type tapes. According to Digital Lifestyles, UK retailer Firebox will be offering the device for "just under £100" (or $204) sometime before the end of the year, although we presume it'll also be available elsewhere. Still no word on a USB 8-track deck though.[Thanks, Simon]
