Filip Novotny Accessories for iPhone, iPad, Mac and interesting devices with support for Thunderbolt technology. This year's technology fair CES 2013 brought all this. Let's take a closer look at what interesting manufacturers will offer in the coming weeks.
Griffin introduced a docking station for 5 devices, new chargers
The American company Griffin is one of the leading manufacturers of accessories for iPhone, iPad and other Apple devices. Chargers and docking stations have always been among the best-selling products. And it was these two product lines that Griffin updated for the new Apple devices.
There is a mandatory charger for the socket Power Block ($29,99 - CZK 600) or a car adapter PowerJolt ($24,99 - CZK 500), both with modified design. But much more interesting is the completely new product with the name Power Dock 5. It is a docking station for five devices, from iPod nano to iPad with Retina display. All of these iDevices can be docked horizontally. On the side of the station we can find the corresponding number of USB connections into which we can connect cables (supplied separately). Behind each device built in this way lies a special groove for the cable, thanks to which the area around the dock does not become a mess of white wiring.
According to the manufacturer, the dock should fit devices in all kinds of cases, including the iPad in the extra strong Griffin Survivor protective case. PowerDock 5 will go on sale this spring, the price for the American market is set at $99,99 (CZK 1).
Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock: try three
Shortly after the introduction of MacBooks with a Thunderbolt connection, Belkin came up with a prototype of a multifunctional docking station called Thunderbolt Express Dock. That was already in September 2011, and a year later at the CES 2012, she presented its "final" version. It was supposed to go on sale in September 2012, with a price tag of $299 (CZK 5). Even before the dock went on sale, the company had only to add USB 800 and eSATA support and increase the price by a whole hundred dollars (CZK 3). In the end, sales did not even begin, and Belkin decided to wait a little longer with the launch. At this year's fair, he presented a new and perhaps definitive version.
The eSATA connector has been removed again and the price has returned to the original $299. Sales should start in the first quarter of this year, but who knows. At least here is the list assumed functions:
- instant access to up to eight devices with a single cable
- 3 USB 3 ports
- 1 FireWire 800 port
- 1 Gigabit Ethernet port
- 1 output 3,5 mm
- 1 input 3,5 mm
- 2 Thunderbolt ports
Compared to the competing offer (e.g. Matrox DS1), Belkin's dock offers two Thunderbolt ports, so it is possible to connect other devices with this terminal. According to the manufacturer's report, it is possible to connect up to five Thunderbolt devices in this way.
ZAGG Caliber Advantage: a sophisticated gamepad for iPhone 5
ZAGG is known in our region as a manufacturer of covers and keyboards for iPads and foils for a whole range of Apple devices. At this year's CES, however, it presented accessories of a slightly different nature. It is a special case for the iPhone named Caliber Advantage, which at first glance looks like an additional battery. It is located in the cover, but not for the purpose of charging the phone.
When we open the back of the cover to the sides, we will see buttons with a similar layout to those we know from a range of handheld consoles. If we hold the phone horizontally, we can find two analog controls and arrows on the sides, respectively the buttons A, B, X, Y. On the top, there are even buttons L and R. So there should be no problem even with the most complex games like GTA: Vice City.
As already indicated, the cover will be powered by a separate battery with a capacity of 150 mAh. Although this is not a dizzying number, according to the manufacturer, this capacity will be enough for a full 150 hours of gaming. The gamepad lasts so long thanks to the use of energy-efficient Bluetooth 4 technology, which is used to connect to the phone. Compared to triple Bluetooth, there are also no worries about a high response time. The manufacturer set the price at $69,99, i.e. around CZK 1400.
With this cover, the iPhone could eliminate one of the few disadvantages it has compared to classic consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS or Sony PlayStation Vita. No matter how hard developers try, touch controls will never be as comfortable as physical buttons for certain types of games. With thousands of game titles available on the App Store, the iPhone could become the leading gaming console, but there's a catch. The upcoming gamepad will not initially support a single one of this huge number of games. The developer Epic Games has announced that it will prepare all its games based on the Unreal 3 engine for this accessory, but apparently it will have to add a significant amount of code. If Apple released an official API, it would certainly make the work of developers much easier. However, we have no news that the Cupertino firm is preparing to take this step.
Duo reports success with gamepad for iOS
We'll stay with game controllers for iOS devices for a while. Last October, the Duo company came with an interesting announcement - it decided to bring to the market a game controller for iOS, in the form of a gamepad known from large consoles. According to reviewers from the site TUAW is the controller Duo gamer pleasant and the games are easy to control with it especially due to the quality analogs. The stumbling block was its price, which Duo set at the end of last year at $79,99, i.e. approximately CZK 1600.
But now the controller has become cheaper to $39,99, i.e. approx. 800 CZK, which, according to Duo company representatives, led to a rocket increase in sales. This is positive news, but there is still one major drawback. Duo Gamer can only be used with games developed by Gameloft. In its catalog we can find popular titles such as NOVA, Order and Chaos or the Asphalt series, but the possibilities end there. All hopes for the future opening of the platform are unfortunately odd, as Duo's management stated at this year's CES that they do not expect such a step in the future. Even if they wanted to make such a decision, they are apparently bound by some kind of exclusive contract.
Only time will tell if a partnership with Gameloft is the right path for Duo. However, from a player's point of view, this is clearly a shame; the vision of iPad-Apple TV-Duo Gamer symbiosis is very tempting and we hope to see something similar in the living room one day.
Pogo Connect: a smart stylus for creative work
If you own an iPad and would like to use it instead of a professional drawing tablet, there are a number of styluses to choose from. However, most of them will be used exactly the same in practice, despite different shapes, colors and brands. At the end of it, in most cases, there is a large rubber ball that only replaces your finger and basically does not provide any enhancements. However, the company Ten 1 Design has come up with something that playfully surpasses these simple styluses.
pogo-connect because it is not just a piece of plastic with a rubber "tip". It is an electronic device that is able to recognize the pressure we put into the stroke and transmit the necessary information wirelessly. In practice, this means that we can draw really like on paper, and the iPad will correctly represent the thickness and hardness of the stroke. Another advantage is that when drawing in this way, the application only receives information from the stylus and not from the capacitive display. We can therefore rest our hands without worrying about our masterpiece. The stylus connects to the iPad via Bluetooth 4, and the extended functions should then work in Paper, Zen Brush and Procreate applications, among others.
It is true that a very similar stylus is already on the market today. It is produced by Adonit and is called Jot Touch. Like the Pogo Connect, it offers Bluetooth 4 connection and pressure recognition, but it also has one major advantage: instead of a rubber ball, the Jot Touch has a special transparent plate that acts as a real sharp point. Otherwise, both styluses are de facto the same. As for the price, on the other hand, the novelty from Ten 1 Design wins. We pay 79,95 dollars for Pogo Connect (approx. 1600 CZK), competitor Adonit claims ten dollars more (approx. 1800 CZK).
Liquipel introduced an improved nanocoating, the iPhone can last 30 minutes under water
We already heard about the nanocoating process, which makes the device treated in this way waterproof to a certain extent, at the CES last year. Several companies offer treatments that protect electronic devices from liquid spills and other minor accidents. At this year's CES, however, a Californian company liquidipel introduced a new process that can do much more.
The waterproof nanocoating with the eponymous name Liquipel 2.0 protects the iPhone and other electronic devices even if they are briefly immersed in water. According to Liquipel sales representatives, the device will not be damaged even after 30 minutes. In the attached video, you can see that the iPhone with nanocoating really works with the display on even under water. The question remains whether even with Liquipel in the iPhone, humidity indicators will be triggered and thus the warranty will be violated, but it is still a very practical protection for any electronics.
The treatment can still be purchased in the online store, at a price of 59 dollars (approx. 1100 CZK). The company is also planning to open several brick-and-mortar stores in the near future, but for now only in the United States. Whether we will see it here in Europe is not yet clear. We can only hope that Apple follows the development of Liquipel technology and one day (surely with much fanfare) includes it in a phone, similar to Gorilla Glass or an oleophobic coating.
Touchfire wants to turn the iPad mini into a full-fledged writing tool
Steve Jobs made a rather unflattering comment about seven-inch tablets a few years ago. It is said that their manufacturers should also supply sandpaper with the device, with which users could grind their fingers. Otherwise, according to Jobs, it is impossible to write on a small tablet. A year after Jobs' death, his successor introduced the new iPad mini with a significantly smaller screen. Now die-hard Apple fans can surely argue that seven inches is not the same as seven inches and the iPad mini's display is actually bigger than, say, the Nexus 7, but typing on a small touch screen is no mean feat.
There is an option to connect an external keyboard or a special cover to the tablet, but this solution is a bit cumbersome. Company Touchfire now she came up with a more original solution. He wants to replace bulky external accessories with a transparent rubber plate that attaches directly to the iPad, in the places of the touch keyboard. Depending on the individual keys, there are protrusions on the surface on which we can rest our fingers and the tablet will register them only after pressing them.
So that solves the physical response, but what about the size of the keys? The Touchfire engineers figured out that when typing on a touch screen, we only use some keys in one specific way. So, for example, the Z key (on the English layout Y) is selected exclusively from the bottom and from the right. As a result, it was possible to halve this key and, on the other hand, enlarge the surrounding keys to a more pleasant size. Thanks to this discovery, for example, the important keys A, S, D, F, J, K and L are similar in size to those of an iPad with a Retina display.
Touchfire for iPad mini is currently in the prototype stage, and the manufacturer has not yet announced a planned launch or final price. However, as soon as any news appears, we will inform you in time.
Disk manufacturer LaCie expands its offer for the corporate sphere
LaCie is a French electronics manufacturer best known for its hard drives and SSDs. Several of his discs even boast a Porsche Design brand license. At this year's fair, the company focused on its professional offer.
It introduced two types of professional storage. He is the first LaCie 5big, an external RAID box connected via Thunderbolt. As the name suggests, in its guts we find five replaceable hard drives. This number enables several RAID setup options, so perhaps every professional will find something to their liking. According to the manufacturer's website, 5big should achieve read and write speeds of up to around 700 MB/s, which seems incredible. LaCie will offer two configurations: 10TB and 20TB. For this size and speed, of course, you will have to pay a nice 1199 dollars (23 CZK), or 000 dollars (2199 CZK).
The second novelty is the network storage with the name 5big NAS Pro. This box is equipped with Gigabit Ethernet, a dual-core 64-bit Intel Atom processor clocked at 2,13 GHz and 4 GB of RAM. With these specs, the NAS Pro should achieve transfer speeds of up to 200MB/s. It will be available in several versions:
- 0 TB (without disk) - $529, CZK 10
- 10 TB – $1199, CZK 23
- 20 TB – $2199, CZK 42
Boom is experiencing Bluetooth 4 enabled accessories
Every year at CES we witness a certain technology trend. Last year was marked by 3D display, this year wireless is at the forefront. The reason for this is (in addition to the foresight of both manufacturers and customers that 3D is a thing for one season) the new version of Bluetooth technology, which has already reached the fourth generation.
Bluetooth 4 brings several significant improvements. Firstly, it is a higher data throughput (26 Mb/s instead of the previous 2 Mb/s), but probably the most important change is the very low energy consumption. Therefore, in addition to docking stations and headphones, Bluetooth also finds its way into small portable devices such as smart watches Pebble. After a long wait, these are finally in the hands of customers. However, at this year's CES, a number of other devices with quadruple Bluetooth support were presented, we have selected the most interesting ones for you.
hipKey keychain: never lose your iPhone, keys, kids again.
Have you ever been unable to find your iPhone? Or maybe you're worried about it being stolen. The first device that caught our attention should help you in just these situations. It's called hipKey and it's a keychain that has several handy functions. All of them use Bluetooth 4 technology and work with a specially developed app for the iOS system. The key fob can be switched to one of four modes: Alarm, Child, Motion, Find Me.
Depending on the mode in which the application is currently working, we can monitor both our iPhone and our keys or even children. They will provide the best illustration manufacturer's website, where we can find an interactive demonstration for each of the modes. hipKey will be available on the American Apple Online Store from January 15, there is no information yet on its availability in the Czech e-shop. The price is set at 89,99 dollars, i.e. something around 1700 CZK.
Stick 'N' Find Bluetooth stickers: useless or a practical accessory?
The second novelty that appeared at this year's fair is somewhat more bizarre. They are stickers with various motifs, but again with support for Bluetooth. This idea may seem completely misguided at first, but the opposite is true. Stickers Stick 'N' Find they are intended to be attached to small electronics, which can easily be "placed" somewhere. So it should never happen to you again that the remote control or even the phone disappears somewhere in a black hole or behind the nearest couch. The stickers also come with a key ring, so they can also be used to guard your dog, children or other animals. The American price is $69 for two pieces, $99 for four (i.e. 1800 CZK or 2500 CZK in conversion).
Although this device may seem useless to some, one thing cannot be denied: it perfectly confirms the energy efficiency of Bluetooth technology. According to the manufacturer, the stickers can work for up to one year on a single small battery, which is otherwise put in a wristwatch.
So, as you can see, this year's CES was marked by new technologies: accessories with support for the new Thunderbolt port, Bluetooth 4 wireless connection. A number of docking stations with speakers were also presented at the fair, but we will leave them for a separate article. If something else caught your attention from the news, be sure to write us about it in the comments.
Liquipel introduced an improved nanocoating, the iPhone can last 30 minutes under water
in this article you write that "The question remains whether even with Liquipel in the iPhone the humidity indicators will be triggered and thus the warranty will be violated". Are they going there again? After all, they were already canceled once...
But this does not mean that they are not in older models.
Yeah, I didn't realize that :)
I was a bit surprised by the information about hipKey - its upcoming launch. As far as I know, it has been normally available in the Czech online store for quite a few days, now it is normally in stock, so we can easily buy it.
I would also add that the website of the manufacturer, or interactive demonstrations on them, are definitely not the best illustration of hipKey's capabilities - in my opinion, they work incorrectly in many cases, and I do not recommend trying to understand anything from them. Tested on iPad.
They mentioned this term on foreign websites, led by MacRumors. Thanks for the warning
100 dollars is a file of 2000 rather than 2500. That would be in euros.