Accessories

I often encounter iPhone and iPod owners who are surprised to learn that they can plug their devices into a speaker dock for headphone-free music enjoyment. If you're one of those people, well, surprise!

For today only (meaning until midnight Eastern time, January 28), deal-of-the-day site Yugster has a refurbished Logitech Pure-Fi Express Plus speaker dock for $36.97, plus a reasonable $5 for shipping.

So where's the link? It's hiding, kind of. To get this deal, you need to create a Yugster account (which basically entails signing up for its newsletter). Once done, click the Sneak … Read more

WowWee's Cinemin Swivel is one of the more distinct pico projectors on the market thanks to its swiveling design, which allows you to project images at various angles, including straight up at the ceiling.

In case you don't know what a pico projector is, as its name implies, it's a miniature handheld projector that's capable of casting a big image (WowWee says the Cinemin Swivel can project an image from 8 inches to 50 inches). The key to these pint-size projectors is that they use an LED light source that's very energy efficient.

Pico projectors … Read more

Following the launch of its turn-by-turn navigation app for iPhone, Magellan has released its Premium Car Kit for iPhone and iPod Touch. The Premium Car Kit features an amplified speaker for spoken directions, a Bluetooth speakerphone for hands-free calling, a built-in GPS receiver that should improve positioning compared with the iPhone 3G's built-in GPS as well as adds GPS positioning to first-generation iPhones and the iPod Touches.

The mount lets you rotate the iPhone to portrait and landscape views, and has a built-in charger. Essentially, it will behave exactly like TomTom's Car Kit; however, the Magellan kit has … Read more

If you have a favorite animal, chances are you can now find it in the form of an iPod speaker. We've seen everything from pigs and pandas to cats and dogs. Heck, even insect lovers aren't left out in the cold, thanks to Vestalife's array of winged speakers.

One of these is the $130 Firefly, an iPod and iPhone speaker dock with a solid feel, compact design, and pleasing audio quality. For those who are after a different-looking portable speaker with a reasonable smattering of extras, this unit could fit the bill.

Read the Vestalife Firefly review.… Read more

We don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that the Motorola Droid was the hottest Android phone to be released in 2009. Of course, the Verizon Wireless ads attacking AT&T and the Apple iPhone did a lot to bring attention to the smartphone, but it wasn't all hype. The smartphone delivered with excellent performance, an attention-grabbing 3.7-inch WVGA touch screen, and the benefits of Android 2.0, including Google Maps Navigation.

With the combination of clever marketing and just being a solid device all around, the Droid has quickly become one … Read more

For $188, you can convert your iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod Touch into a universal remote control with ThinkFlood's RedEye. This nifty gizmo comprises custom software that runs on Apple gear and an infrared blaster doubling as a charging dock.

RedEye operates through Wi-Fi and offers most high-end remote functions. These include activity-based macro programming such as "watch DVD," which fires a string of commands, learning capability for added product compatibility and Web-downloadable codes that keep your RedEye applications up-to-date.

RedEye's most unique propositions, however, are its multitouch gesture and accelerometer support. Instead of just tapping … Read more

What do you get for the iPhone user who has, well, an iPhone? After all, the device itself is the gift that keeps on giving. Am I right?

Anyway, I've rounded up five iPhone-friendly items for the holidays. Whether you're shopping for a Secret Santa gift for a co-worker, a stocking stuffer for your hubby (or missus), or something to round out the latter nights of Hanukkah, one of these should fit the bill.

1) A gift card...that later turns into an iPhone stand! Start with any gift card--Starbucks, iTunes (duh), or whatever--then tell the recipient to bring it back to you after it's used up. Following these simple Instructables instructions, do a little waving-your-magic-wand thing and turn that card into a cute, clever, portable, and virtually indestructible stand. Who knew a gift card could keep on giving?

2) The world's best (?) battery pack Blogger Josh Bancroft calls this Monoprice iPhone Backup Battery Pack the "best $15 you can spend," and I'm inclined to agree. For just $15.23 you get a 2200mAh battery, which is good for roughly two full iPhone charges. Just one problem: It's currently on back order. Well, you can always print a photo from the product page, write "coming soon," and stuff that in the stocking.… Read more

Sprint rolled out an over-the-air update to its HTC Hero earlier this week to address a couple of bugs and add a few small features. But since the release, some users are reporting that copyright-protected apps have disappeared from their phones. Did this "fix" accidentally break something entirely different?

Those who have lost the copyright-protected apps also report that they can't even find the apps in the Android Market even if they have already paid for them.

A quick look around a few Google and Sprint discussion boards shows that the problem is not isolated to a … Read more