Want to make your Apple TV looks like it belonged in the 1980s? We’ve got accessories for that. Want to make your 30-pin dock useful again? We’ve got accessories for that, too.
The $30 Bluetooth Wireless Receiver (pictured) plugs into the headphone jack of non-Bluetooth devices—your old iPod Classic, say—to let you stream audio to your Bluetooth-enabled speakers. If you want to share your music with a smaller crowd, the $25 The Party lets up to four other people connect their earbuds to your iPhone or iPod’s headphone jack.
This accessory maker has unveiled the $80 Onbeat-200, a portable Bluetooth speaker for wireless music streaming. It includes 50mm drivers and eight watts of audio power to play for up to eight hours.
Need to track your health? The $100 Fitbit Flex, a wristband device that comes in two colors, tracks your steps, distance walked, calories burned, and minutes of activity throughout the day. It syncs your data via Bluetooth to your iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.
For just $10, you can make your Apple TV look like an old-school Nintendo gaming console from the 1980s. Cool, eh? (Hat tip to Tools and Toys.)
This company has a number of new iOS-related charging devices, including the $100 Extreme 10000 Duo battery (pictured), which can recharge two iOS devices at once, and the $25 Dolphin Wall, which allows you to charge two iOS devices from the same wall outlet. Also announced, but not yet on iWalk’s website, are the Link 1000i5 docking battery for the iPhone 5, and the Chameleon Racer battery case for iPhone 5.
The new $60 iPhone 5 Wall Mount isn’t really designed for around-the-house use. Instead, it’s meant to display the latest-generation iPhone or iPod touch in tradeshow and in-store settings, letting customers see the merchandise while keeping the devices secure.
Like the Fitbit, the Misfit Wearables line of devices lets you track your physical activity throughout the day. It transmits that data to your iPhone via a forthcoming app that provides an overview of your activity. The basic Shine tracker is $99; accessories to clip it to your body during the day range from $5 to $49.
The $25 iPad Telephoto Lens transforms your tablet into a much-better photo-taking device. Allowing you to magnify objects up to 12 times, the lens’s “delightfully shallow depth of field” gives images a “dreamy lo-fi look,” says the company.
Don’t throw away your old speaker dock just because it uses a 30-pin dock connector: The $67 PBTR70 (officially called the “Bluetooth A2DP Streaming Audio Interface (Music/Audio) Receiver Adapter for 30-Pin Apple iPod/iPhone/iPad Docking Station With LED Status Indicator & 3.5 mm Stereo Aux Input”—whew!) connects to your speaker dock’s 30-pin connector and acts as a Bluetooth receiver, so you can wirelessly stream audio from your newer iOS devices. It’s a way to ensure you can give your old systems new life in the Lightning-connector era.
With USBFever, you always know what you’re getting just by reading the name of the product: The $15 Cloth-Clip Quick-On Wide(+Macro) + Fisheye Lens is a clip-on gadget for your iPhone camera that includes three different lenses: Fisheye, macro, and wide-angle, each of which can be attached quickly to create just the photo you’re seeking.
Another descriptively named accessory from USBFever, the $7 Secure-hold / Anti-Drop / Anti-Theft Ring for iPhones works on a very simple principle: You attach the ring to the phone. You attach the ring to you. Thieves have a much harder time running away with your phone as a result.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.