In this week’s roundup, we’ve got new ways for you to power up your iPhone—plus the cutest way ever to clean your iPhone or iPad screen.
The $90 Jot Touch 4 stylus goes on sale May 1, but it’s already compatible with several note-taking and sketching apps: Zen Brush, Sketchbook Pro, and Inspire Pro are each ready to accommodate the new stylus’s 2,000+ levels of pressure sensitivity; more than 30 other apps should be compatible by this summer.
The $30 Crayola Light Marker for iPad works like a magic wand, letting your kids turn out the lights and begin drawing in the air: Their motions become actual drawings on the iPad. The marker sends out an “invisible” beam of light that can be seen by the iPad’s front-facing camera, letting you use the device to play games—or attend to more-productive matters.
The $70 Kinivo BTX350 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker is exactly what it sounds like: a portable speaker that plays tunes wirelessly from your iOS device. The speaker is eight inches long and weighs 1.3 pounds, making it easy to carry anywhere you want to play your music.
The $90 Lenmar Meridian is a snap-on battery case for the iPhone 5 that promises to double the battery life of your phone. It comes in black, and it’s light, weighing in at just over 3 ounces.
The $150 FabricSkin Folio for iPad, available in May, will be available in a range of colors and water-repellant fabrics. It uses a super-thin keyboard with full-size keys “fused into an interior fabric” to give you tactile feedback in a keyboard case that’s not much thicker than a standard iPad folio case. Magnets allow you to prop your iPad in two positions.
The $130 Defender Series of battery cases for iPhone 4 and 4S operate in conjunction with a free app to monitor your phone-usage habits and accurately predict the remaining battery life. The company says the case’s built-in battery doubles the use time of your phone.
The $60 Crankerator doesn’t need to be plugged in—ever. Just connect it to your phone and start cranking when you need more power.
The new $10 Screensters are plush toys that double as microfiber screen cleaners for your iPhone and iPad. The company offers 10 different character choices—think of each Screenster as a doll that will soon be covered in dirt, dead skin, and fingerprint oils!
[Editor’s note: We’ve had a chance to test a Screenster, and despite our skepticism based on the product’s appearance, it was surprisingly good at cleaning iOS screens with minimal effort.]
The $100 Flower/Tower Floor Stand lets you mount your iPad and then adjust it for prime viewing whether you’re sitting or standing. It’s available in 3-meter or 5-meter versions to get just the right viewing height.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.