Accessories

The first thing I did after buying my iPad was pick up a new bag for it--a U.S. military surplus over-the-shoulder-style map job. The iPad fits perfectly in the back pocket, which is reinforced and has enough room for most things I'd need throughout the day: a charger, sunglasses, flask, and that one girl's phone number scrawled on a casino receipt.

I thought this bag solution fit me well--stylish, masculine, and cheap, just like me. But then I got these pictures of the ManHandle, built by one Todd Bernhard, a Rochester, N.Y., iPhone app developer, and … Read more

Peruse any electronics store, whether virtual or brick-and-mortar, and you'll be overwhelmed by the breadth of choices offered in the iPod speaker category. As such, it is of the utmost importance that manufacturers of such goods make their products not just stand but jump out from the crowd. Taking an otherwise fairly standard iPod-ready AM/FM radio alarm clock and slapping a $250 price tag on it is surely one way of doing this; we're just not sure it's the right way. This is what JBL has done with the latest addition to its On Time speaker … Read more

As if making money magically disappear from your bank account wasn't easy enough, DeviceFidelity's new In2Pay case, which will let iPhone users make contactless transactions on Visa's payWave system, will turn you into the Dumbledore of mobile payment.

The case is being developed by DeviceFidelity and will let your iPhone play nice with the company's existing In2Pay microSD card, which gets placed in the protective case. You'll just wave your iPhone at any Visa payWave terminal, which can already be found at some 32,000 retailers, and voila, you've made your transaction. It will … Read more

When you're not toting your iPad around in your C-3PO Bestin Backpack, you'll probably be using it, and you may be looking for a place to rest it securely while you're lounging in bed playing Civilization Revolution or thumbing through the iBookstore.

Design collaborative Quirky has conceived of the Cradle, a sleek little portable, lightweight lap desk for the Apple tablet. Lap desks abound, of course, but this one has a twist (literally)--an integrated circular plate, made from matte, soft-touch plastic, that grips your iPad snugly and lets you swivel the device between portrait and landscape … Read more

iHome dubs its iA5 an "app enhanced" alarm clock, which is exactly what it sounds like. This unit is designed to work with iHome's iPhone app, which means you probably shouldn't bother reading on unless you have an iPhone or iPod Touch to connect to its dock.

From a design standpoint, the iA5 isn't terribly distinguished-looking, but it looks attractive enough with a speaker/dock system that slants back and leaves your iPhone or iPod Touch sitting in a lightly reclined position. The speaker is a little deeper and bigger than you'd think looking … Read more

Is Apple really the next big gaming-hardware company? I mean, sure, I'm aware there are thousands upon thousands of games in the app store and that the iPhone and iPad are changing the way we think of touch-screen games, but I never would have guessed Apple would be in the same conversation with Sony's PS3, Microsoft's XBox 360, or the Nintendo Wii.

Apparently, Apple is making a much bigger splash in the gaming market than I thought because now, according to the Times Online UK, Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, is calling Apple the "enemy of the future." … Read more

Remember the Novophone, that nifty retro handset that plugs into your iPhone for old-school, crook-of-the-neck gab-fests? It was cool, but it was only half the picture.

The iRetrofone completes it, combining a similar corded handset with a big, black, 50s-style base. It looks like something right out of a Humphrey Bogart movie, one with private eyes, dangerous dames, and a big old office desk.

As you can no doubt guess from the photo, the iRetrofone is essentially an iPhone dock. You plug an included cord into the audio jack, connect your existing sync cable to the dock connector (too bad … Read more

Capsule speakers remain a niche product, but they offer some appeal to laptop or iPod and iPhone users who want better sound but don't want to lug around a set of  computer speakers. The only drawback to going small is that even if the speakers sound better than most internal laptop speakers, they usually still sound pretty mediocre. What's slightly different about iHome's iHM79s, is that it has made these mini speakers a tad larger than its early capsule models, and the result is that they sound better but take up a little more room in … Read more

Aliph Jawbone Icon owners rejoice: you will now be able to add A2DP or stereo Bluetooth functionality to your Bluetooth headset for the unbeatable price of zero dollars. All you have to do is plug in your Icon headset to the computer, log on to Aliph's MyTalk Web site, go to the "Innovations" section, and then add the new A2DP feature. This lets you stream music or any other audio from your phone to your headset.

We were already big fans of the Aliph Jawbone Icon--the variety of the Icon's designs, its features, the audio quality, … Read more