This week’s roundup of iOS accessories brings you new batteries to recharge your iPhone and iPad, and a solar-powered keyboard case, and speakers, and stands, and photo gear, and…oh, just read it.
The $50 Astro3 is a 12,000-mAh external battery that can recharge your iPhone six to seven times. It can detect the type of device you connect in order to ensure the quickest-possible recharge, and it comes with three plug-in ports, so that the whole family can recharge on the go.
The $70 iKlip Stand is a tabletop holder for your iPad. It’s advertised as a way for musicians to place their tablet above a keyboard or other hardware, but it’s also useful for office, home, and school environments.
The $100 Mo’Beats HD is a rechargeable, Bluetooth speaker system designed to create a “cinematic” experience with your iPad: Just place your tablet in the viewing cradle on top, and you’ve got movie-quality sound to accompany your actual movies. The company also recommends it for gaming.
This Hong Kong-based manufacturer has created the $120 U-Stone, a 12,000-mAh battery that can recharge your iPad once, or an iPhone up to nine times—the latter letting you go a full week before plugging your phone into a wall outlet. The battery is currently available on Amazon.com and eBay.
The $50 Eye-Fi Mobi Wireless SD Card, like older Eye-Fi cards, wirelessly transmits photos from your DSLR cameras back to your iPhone or iPad. But the Mobi makes it easier (at the expense of some higher-end features) to live-stream your photos, as you take them, to your iOS or Android devices. A $95 “pro” version doubles the memory to 16 GB and allows sharing to laptops and PCs, as well.
The $70 Sound Spot is a Bluetooth speaker system featuring “mid-century design inspiration.” The speaker includes a built-in, rechargeable Lithium-ion battery that provides up to seven hours of listening, along with a USB port to let you charge your smartphone directly. The system is available now from Target.
The $300 Albergo is a clock radio—a really nice clock radio—that includes Bluetooth capabilities for streaming audio from your iOS device. It also includes an AM/FM tuner so that you can listen to local radio broadcasts. Tuning the radio (or setting the clock and the alarm) can be done with the accompanying remote control.
Think you’ve seen every iPad keyboard out there? The $45 Solar QWERTY Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard Case draws its power from the sun, thanks to a solar panel just above the keyboard, instead of requiring the regular wired charge. (There is a charging cable, though, if you find yourself in utter darkness and need to juice up.) The keyboard case comes in black and silver.
If you liked that slideshow, check out the last edition: Get on the horn!
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.