Aviiq Portable Laptop Stand: hands on first look

The new Portable Laptop Stand from Aviiq has just landed on my desk, and talk about svelte: as if to prove a point, the entire retail packaging is only about two inches tall and two inches deep. But the real shocker comes when you open the box to find that the stand itself is folded up to only about a quarter inch thick (although still two inches tall and more than a foot wide). It folds out into four very thin interconnected metal panels, whose edges then fold back to form a triangle on one end of the stand. The result is a very thin, very lightweight, and presumably very portable full-fledged laptop stand. It’s a clever enough trick that you almost have to see it in action to believe it.

In my tests I’ll be using the Aviiq stand on my desk to see how sturdy it is in terms of supporting my laptop, which is way heavier than the Aviiq itself. I’ll also have to travel with the Aviiq to see if it really is as portable in a practical sense as its super-thin fold up size suggests. With a $79 price tag, it’s got a lot to live up to. In the mean time, you can find the official details on the company’s website.

Jawbone Icon bluetooth headset for iPhone: hands on First Look

Jawbone’s new Icon bluetooth headset has arrived on my desk, or at least “The Hero” model has; it’s one of six new metallic candy-coated Icon models which include flavors of black, gold, silver, white, and red. Out of the box it reminds me a bit of a current-generation iPod shuffle, both for its metallic finish and the fact that it’s shaped vaguely the same, with the Icon being smaller of course. While the Icon is a bluetooth headset which can theoretically be used with any bluetooth-compatible cellphones, Jawbone promises a special level of integration with the iPhone (including the new iPhone 4) including an Icon battery meter on the iPhone’s screen as well as the ability to listen to your iPhone’s music and audio via the Icon wirelessly (although obviously only in the one ear)…

Jawbone’s Icon is impressively shiny right out of the box. But in my hands-on tests the main things I’ll be looking for are audio quality, physical comfort, ease and thoroughness of the touted iPhone integration – and I’ll also be looking to make sure that the Icon is as compatible with the new iOS 4 as it is with existing iPhone operating systems. This one will require a fair amount of real world testing, but I’ll report back with a full review as soon as feasible. In the mean time, the company website is right here.

Calypso Crystal for iPhone: hands on first look

Can any iPhone dock be worth two hundred dollars? The folks at Calypso believe the answer is yes, so long as the dock is made of handcrafted crystal, which their website says involves fifteen pairs of hands for the creation of each Calypso Crystal dock. The test unit they sent over, now sitting on my desk, is nothing short of gorgeous, and it’s perhaps the only iPhone dock I’ve ever seen that’s so classy looking, it outclasses the iPhone itself from a visual standpoint.

Interestingly, the Calypso dock forgoes the standard Apple system of universal docking inserts (a big hunk of visible white plastic would mar the crystal’s beauty anyway), and instead uses a simple lean-against approach which so far works fine with my iPhone 3G (we’ll see what happens with my impending iPhone 4). A pass through dock connector port is hidden on the back, making the Calypso Crystal a true dock and not just a stand; you can use your existing sync cable to charge and sync your iPhone while it’s in the Calypso (the website says it’ll also work the same for iPod touch).

I’m already sold on the looks of this dock (my test unit is the “Beau” model), but in my tests I’ll have to see how it holds up in a practical sense, particularly in terms of the iPhone docking mechanism. I’ll report back with a full review once I’ve finished my testing. In the mean time, you can have a look for yourself on the company website.

Scosche flipSYNC: hands-on first look

The arrival of the Scosche flipSYNC to market means it must be summer, the time of year in which the products that debuted at the winter trade shows finally start shipping. The flipSYNC was one of Beatweek’s Best of Show winners at Macworld 2010, and now that I’ve got one sitting here on my desk I’ll be able to test it out in real world settings to confirm whether it lives up to the award-winning status that we originally bestowed on it.

My gut says that it will, and here’s why: traveling with sync cables is a pain. It’s one thing to carry your iPhone or iPod with you and another to lug your laptop around with you, but having to take along a three foot cable just to be able to connect the two for charging and syncing purposes feels like insult to injury. I’ve used retractable cables, but they’re still somewhat bulky when wound up. But the flipSYNC, by virtue of being a flip-out product, folds up small enough to be a keychain fob – and even has a little keychain cutout to boot. I’ll have to travel with this product in order to evaluate its practicality, after which I’ll report back with a full review. But I suspect the flipSYNC will find its way onto my list of must-have travel items. In the mean time, you can find it on Scosche’s website.

CableJive dockXtender: hands on First Look

Those users who really, really don’t want to have to uncase their iPhone, iPod, or iPad just to use it with a docking system can do just that with CableJive’s dockXtender, a not so inexpensive cable extender. The difference between this and a standard docking cable is that it’s not a connector cable but an extender, allowing you to set your iDevice next to a docking stereo, for instance, and successfully use it even if the case on your iDevice prevents it from fitting within the docking well of the stereo system. It sounds a little cumbersome, but try telling that to someone who just invested a couple hundred bucks in a dockable stereo and also happens to have a favorite iPhone case that’s not so easy to remove on a daily basis.

My test unit is two feet long and sells for $25.95, and there’s also a six foot option available for $31.95. In addition to testing out the practicality of the product, I’ll be looking for compatibility of the dockXtender with various docking products. Other possible uses worth testing will be the ability to use an iPhone with a dockable stereo system designed for iPod that’s not properly shielded to avoid the static buzz that the iPhone sometimes causes with unshielded speakers.

Monster Diddybeats with ControlTalk: Beatweek hands-on first look

It’s only fitting that Diddy get his own line of Monster earbuds, after Dr. Dre got his MonsterBeats and Lady GaGa got her HeartBeats. As I unpacked a prerelease Diddybeats unit just now for testing, it occurs to me that we’re perhaps now entering an era of personalized listening experiences – not so much in terms of earbuds suited to our own personal tastes, but instead listening experiences designed by artists whose music we personally enjoy. The Diddybeats don’t come cheap at $179, so as was the case with the similarly priced Monster Beats Tour earbuds, the evaluation of the Diddybeats will largely come down to audio quality – which will take some time to thoroughly test out. As far as design, the Diddybeats are much more subdued looking than some of their Monster counterparts, featuring a nearly all-black design with a shiny silver ring around the outer perimeter of each bud, and an equally shiny “db” logo on the outside of each bud. As far as features, built in are Monster’s “ControlTalk” functionality which consists of the same three buttons and a mic built into many other new earbuds designed for use with smartphones like the iPhone – and the controls will also work with an iPod or iPad.

While my test unit comes in black, there will also be white and “powder pink” models available. I’ll now commence product testing on the Monster DiddyBeats, and report back to you soon.

iPad Unboxing

My iPad arrived yesterday at 1pm via UPS. I didn’t opt to pick it up at the Apple store since the nearest one to me is about half an hour away. The only bad part is that I had to wait a little longer than people who went directly to the Apple store. But at least I got to stay in my PJ’s just for a bit longer. Nevertheless, my iPad arrived safely on Saturday!

Here’s a video of the iPad unboxing. It’s actually the first time I ever touched an iPad, and my first reaction is I can’t believe how thin this device is!

After spending all day playing testing various apps, it’s just very difficult to go back to the iPhone. The updated apps on the iPad looks amazing. And when you play the same apps on the iPhone, it feels so small and cramped.

The apps designed specifically for the iPad look fantastic. What set them apart from iPhone / iPod Touch apps are the higher quality images, beautiful menu layers, and the better use of the bigger screen space. The experience using this device is hard to put into words, but is something you need to try out for yourself.

For those of you who didn’t catch on my April Fool’s joke, I’m extremely sorry! But just so you know you’re not the only one, I did take my faux iPad to the Apple store the night before iPad Day and asked them to fix it.

Note: In the video, I’m playing Tap Tap Radiation and We Rule — both fun and free iPad games that I recommend installing.

First impressions from (not) my iPad

This is the part where I teach myself how to type on this iPad device. makes you wonder how well I’ll do when it comes to waiting for mine to arrive in late April due to the fact that I waited for the 3G version. So far I’m finding that I can type quite well in landscape mode, and quite fast, using about fingers totals, but not do fast in portrait mode (the opposite of how it is with my iPhone, by the way).

LOVING this iPad so far in my brief tests. Too bad it’s not mine. I still feel pretty strongly about having made the right decision to wait, as I don’t want my iPad to turn into a pumpkin the minute I leave the house with it and can’t find wifi. your mileage may vary.

Did I mention that I love this thing? Some aspects of it are even irelymore advanced that I was expecting, while others are more 1.0-ish than I might have hoped. I’ll leave Beatweek’s official review to Daynah, but suffice it to say that I’m looking forward to my 3G iPad in late April even more than I was before.

* Typed entirely on an iPad

Fun fact: typo auto-correction is excellent, seemingly far more efficient than on the iPhone, but when I mistyped “finding” it did humorously try to change it to “fonduing”

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Tagged: first impressions, first look, iPad, keyboard, typing