You love your iPad—you play games, watch video, and read books on it all the time. But doesn’t that make your wrists tired? Of course it does! This week’s roundup of iOS accessories features a number of opportunities to use your tablet hands-free.
BioLogic: This company is offering a series of new products to enhance your iPhone use on the bicycling trail. The $99 ReeCharge case can snap onto your handlebars and even power your iPhone with electricity generated by your pedaling. The $35 Cipher cycling gloves offer padded protection for your hands, but still allow you to use the multitouch features of your phone. And the free BikeBrain app uses your phone’s GPS features to track your speed, distance, and other data while you’re out on a long ride. Now, all we need to do is buy an actual bicycle.
Bracketron: One thing we found out long ago: iPads are great for keeping kids occupied during long, boring events. Thus the appeal of car-seat mounts like Bracketron’s $40 Twist360, which rotates and tilts forward and backward, offering “infinite viewing angles” for the backseat user. Also announced by Bracketron, is the Universal Tablet Headreast Mount, a ca-seat tablet holder without the Twist360’s variety of viewing possibilities. Both mounts will be available by the end of the year. At which time we can let the kids watch their videos and drive the car in peace.
Gear4: Accessory company Gear4 has unveiled its first wireless home stereo system with the $300 AirZone Series 1, which can dock your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, as well as play music streamed wirelessly using Apple’s AirPlay technology. The system also sports an FM radio, and it includes a remote control.
Grayscale Inc.: Some of our favorite iOS accessories make your phone or tablet look like they’re something else entirely. Which is the appeal of the Cdock, a “clock radio” that features the iPhone as its centerpiece. Your iPhone—4 or 4S—slides into the dock in landscape orientation to act as the clock itself (using an app, of course—Cdock’s promotional materials feature the iPhone using the Atomic Clock app). While in the Cdock, your iPhone is charged. The Cdock is made of wood and is available in one of four face styles—white, black, aluminum, or walnut—ranging from $55 to $70.
iHealth: There are all kinds of products that use the iPhone to help you make a happier, healthier you. iHealth adds to the list with an array of products, including blood pressure monitors and a scale that relay information to your iPhone, running one of iHealth’s various monitoring apps, for display and storage so you can track your health and fitness over time. The blood pressure monitors cost $100; the scale weighs in at $70.
Striped Sail: If you like to use your iPad to show off a slideshow of baby pictures, Striped Sail’s miFrame offers a nice hands-free picture frame for doing so. The $79 device lets you display your photos—or any other content you wish to view—in an 8- by 10-inch frame that can be displayed in portrait or landscape orientation. A port in the back allows for unobtrusive charging and syncing; soft-rubber feet keep the frame from scratching your table. The device is compatible with both the iPad and the iPad 2.
Sanus: More mounts! Sanus offers indoor hands-free use of your tablet with its new VMA302 mount adapter for the iPad 2. The device comes with cut-outs for full access to the iPad’s speakers, buttons, and ports; you can release your tablet with a simple tab press. The VMA302 is compatible with most flatscreen TV wall mounts, and can tilt and rotate on its axis for optimal viewing. Sanus hasn’t published pricing information, but the mount adapter can be found at a store near you.
iPhone 4S family