Trident makes some very strong, protective cases. Their Cyclops case for the iPhone 5/5s certainly qualifies as one of the most protective.
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Author: Curt Blanchard
I’m a Mac user from the beginning with a background in graphic design, product design, photography. I’m a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Illustration. I spent much of my professional career designing consumer products in ceramics, glass, and metals by working on-site with European and Asian manufacturers. I am currently an officer at Tucson Macintosh Users Group and a reviewer in the Amazon Vine program.
ECBC Harpoon Daypack – Review
Mac users want products that are all about thinness, sleek design, minimal weight, and high quality. It’s obvious that ECBC took us into consideration when engineering the Harpoon Daypack. This ECBC daypack is worth a close look if you commute to work or to an institute of higher learning.
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Musemini DBoom Speaker – Review
Wireless Bluetooth speakers have proliferated to the point where they have become an entire category unto themselves. There are literally hundreds of styles available currently. They vary widely in price and quality. Let’s look at one that sounds terrific and is priced accordingly Musemini’s new DBoom.
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Woodchuck Adventure Case for iPhone 5 – Review
When it comes walking around with an iPhone, many friends and acquaintances prefer to go commando, but I always have a case on my iPhone. I want to protect my investment but I also want a slightly grippy case that is easy to grab out of my pocket and secure to hold. Cases are made in all kinds of materials from silicone (gummy) to aluminum (slippery), but have you ever considered wood? The folks at Woodchuck have.
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I-Sight Dual Light – Review
RadTech’s new Personal Illuminator slides comfortably over your ear and contains two very bright lens-focused LEDs for use in the dark: white for general purpose work and green to maintain your night-vision. This model is called the I-Sight Dual. A single light version is also available.
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Sonivo Induction Easy Speaker – Review
Ever heard of an induction speaker? Neither had I. The Sonivo Induction Easy Speaker is a black box 1-3/4 inches tall and the size of an iPhone 5 when viewed from the top. Simply placing your iPhone on top of the box causes the audio to play through its nicely amplified speakers. No wires, no Bluetooth.
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Photo Transfer WiFi app – Review
Transferring photos between your Mac and your various iDevices via iTunes, email, or iCloud is often more complicated than it should be. A new app called Photo Transfer WiFi eases the pain.
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foxLv2 Platinum Bluetooth Speaker – Review
“Big sound from a small Bluetooth speaker!” It’s a claim made by countless manufacturers. Most of their products fail to live up to their claim while others try hard, but the results are usually disappointing. Soundmatters has beat them all with the foxLv2 Platinum Bluetooth Speaker.
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Magicstick Powerbank 2800 – Review
Ever been on a long plane trip and reluctantly felt you had to turn off your iDevice to conserve your battery? There are several iPhone cases with built-in batteries available but they are expensive and add bulk to your phone. Powerocks now offers an attractive alternative: Magicstick.
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Portrait+ for Mac – Review
Facial enhancement on photographic portraits is a process that requires skill, experience, and patience. Removing a blemish is relatively easy, but getting skin smoothing and shine removal done well is more difficult. One-click facial enhancement with Portrait+ is instant and the results are often startlingly effective.
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Instagrammification – but is it Art?
I’m increasingly uneasy about a growing trend in filtered photographs. No, I’m not a Luddite, I’m a digital designer with a BFA in Illustration who is now much more comfortable working on my Mac than at a drawing board.
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Kanex DualRole Hub – Review
Apple giveth and Apple taketh away. We lost FireWire connectivity, we’re gradually losing built-in optical drives, and on the latest MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, we lost the Ethernet port. Never fear, Kanex comes to our rescue with their new DualRole Hub.
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ArtRage 4 – Review
ArtRage is a Macintosh painting and drawing application that allows you to apply paint or ink to virtual paper or canvas as naturally as you would to their real counterparts. Oil paints leave textural strokes, watercolors actually spread, marker ink bleeds into the paper, pallet knives smear, pastels are genuinely chalky.
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EasyPen Slim Pen Graphics Tablet – Review
Graphics tablets tend to be fairly big, heavy, and expensive but the new EasyPen Slim Pen Tablet from Genius is thin, light, and reasonably priced. Wacom tablets have held a virtual monopoly in this category for years with very little real competition. Genius is becoming a challenger in this field and their new Slim Pen Tablet is a contender.
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Sydnee Charging Station – Review
Chargers for all of our various iDevices are a necessary evil. One is in the kitchen but it’s for the iPad, another is in the bedroom but it’s only for the iPhone. Then there’s a charger in the den but it’s already in use by another family member. Frustrating.
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Angle & Curve MKII Classic Headphones – Review
Angle & Curve’s MKII Classic Headphones are stylishly retro in design while producing a stylishly contemporary sound. They are from a firm based in the Old Covent Garden section of London and are engineered there by a group of designers, audio specialists, and DJs. These headphones deliver impressive sound at a remarkable price.
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Koala Mount for Tablets – Review
Koala Mounts are inexpensive devices permitting you to hang your iPad or tablet on a wall. Put a pair in your kitchen, your office, or your bedside. The mount consists of two brackets that allow horizontal or vertical mounting of any tablet or phone that is thinner than 20mm. This includes an iPad with its Smart Cover attached.
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AnyList app – Review
AnyList is an iPhone app that lets you make as many grocery or shopping lists as you want or need. And it’s free. It contains an auto-complete dictionary so when you start typing Broc, it fills in Broccoli. This makes creating a shopping list very fast without a lot of typing.
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Veho 360 Bluetooth Speaker – Review
Wireless Bluetooth speakers are plentiful these days. Big ones, small ones, good ones, awful ones; choosing one is difficult because you can’t often test-drive them in the store. The key features are similar: connection via cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth. The Veho 360 Bluetooth Speaker offers a feature that most of the others don’t have music via an SD card.
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FotoMagico v4.2 – Review
In rapid succession, Boinx released two new versions of their award-winning FotoMagico slide presentation software. In December, version 4.1 was introduced, followed two months later by the newest version, 4.2. FotoMagico allows you to create slideshows with smooth transitions, accurately timed audio tracks, and the freedom to show your masterpieces in many ways.
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