Stylus and Pen Options for your iPad

While we all know what a pain having to use a stylus can be, that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the freedom of choosing to use one, when appropriate. Artists, people who like taking notes by hand, or just someone who doesn’t want to leave smudges on their precious Apple touch devices, I present to you your options:


Pogo Stylus for iPad Pogo Stylus has been around since people started asking for styli for iPhones, so they seem to have the most credibility in the market. They are reasonably priced at $9.95. And come in a variety of colors such as hot pink or gun metal.

Fosmon Metal Stylus for iPad/iPhoneThis Fosmon branded stylus seems to be a new addition to the iPad Accessories world, but shares many of the same sleek looks of the Pogo Stylus and it’s a couple bucks cheaper at $7.95 so it’s great choice if you are looking for a bargain.

DIY Stylus Videos
For those of you who have the DIY spirit in you here are a couple good video tutorials on how to make your own stylus.

and there is also a Instructables Article with a different take on homemade stylus options.

Feel free to leave comments detailing how you’ve improvised a stylus.

Review: Dropzone by Aptonic

Drag and Drop functionality has been a hallmark of the simplicity of the Mac OS for as long as there were was a GUI, Dropzone from Aptonic has taken Drag and Drop to a whole new level; allowing power users to accomplish more using a simpler workflow.

Installing/Removing applications in Mac OSX is so simple that automating the process of installing an application from a DMG can get repetitive for a power user. Dropzone allows your to drag your run-of-the-mill .dmg installer file onto it’s icon and have the .dmg mounted, the .app moved into your Applications folder with a simple drag and drop.

File management is becoming more of a chore now that half our data is in the cloud. As we begin to put more of our pictures, documents, and other miscellaneous information on remote servers, Dropzone gives a seamless way to interact with multiple online services such as Flickr, Bit.ly, Dropbox and many more all through it’s refined drag and drop functionality. It’s also developer friendly offering open APIs you can use to extend Dropzone allowing it to work with even more services.

Dropzone has a bright future ahead given their open nature and dedicated development team who recently took care of a bunch of first release bugs and have the newest version 0.3.3 running great. Download Dropzone for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

Feather by Incipio: The Perfect, Thin iPhone Case

 

 

As you may remember, my colleague set out to find the perfect iPhone case, and he did. Well I’m here to tell you about my favorite iPhone case and I think that’s a lot more important! Let me introduce you to the Incipio Feather. It is by no means new to me; I’ve been playing with mine for about six months. It might, however, be new to a lot of you and how lucky you are to have finally found this case! Ahem, I’m getting ahead of myself. 

My search for the perfect iPhone case is as old as, well, my life with iPhones. Like many of you, I’ve struggled with trying to find the right balance of protection and bulk, form and function. I am another of hundreds of guilty people who have left their iPhone cold and naked in an attempt to saver the oh-so light, wafer-thin nature of the iPhone. And like many of you I’ve spent more then I’d like to admit on cases. Some might call me an iPhone case whore, but I don’t like those people. I can now say with confidence that I, Blake have found what is to me the perfect iPhone case!

The Feather is made by a somewhat new company, Incipio and as it’s name suggests, it’s quite light. So light, in fact, I can’t tell when it’s on my phone. As you can imagine, a light case must be a very thin case, and you’d be right again. How many of you have bought a case and used it for a month only to be newly amazed at how small your iPhone feels when you finally take it back out again? This doesn’t seem to happen anymore when I take my phone out of the Feather.

So it’s thin, that’s it? Well, no, it’s also one of the best looking thin iPhone cases available. Lets face it, you didn’t buy your iPhone strictly for function, you bought it because it looks cool! Lets keep it that way! To me the reason the Feather looks so good is because Incipio has taken care not to cut off too much extra plastic around the edges, because of this you get a very neat, uniform edge almost all the way around the bezel. It’s almost as though the case is cradling the iPhone, not holding on for dear life. This added plastic also means that the case stays on when it’s supposed to, and comes off when you need it to. Something that you’ll also notice is that Incipio has omitted putting a hole in the back of the Feather for the Apple symbol. People know it’s an Apple product, why should you have to show off the Apple Symbol? By eliminating the hole they have not only made the case look more uniform and sleek, but there’s one less place for grit to get into your case and possibly scratch your iPhone.

To me the Feather is the case I’ve always been looking for and it took a company like Incipio to finally produce it. If you’re one of those people still hunting for the perfect, thin iPhone case I would strongly encourage you to pick up the Feather. Heck, now you can stop spending money on iPhone cases and pick up a new hobby… like blogging (ahem). 

via Incipio

SlipCover Makes Pretty Custom Icons

SlipCover makes it easy to create custom case icons for all your media files. SlipCover can then easily apply these custom icons to any file, making SlipCover the only application you’ll need for cases. Best of all, SlipCover is totally and completely free.

To get started with SlipCover you will need to amass a collection of high resolution images that you will be using as the source for the icon. Movie posters make a good choice if you are adding icons to movie files. Album covers for music folders etc.

Slipcover comes with 3 default icon templates but you can download more check out the selection at http://dustinschau.com/#rw01. If you are looking for an easy, free way to add custom icons on your Mac, SlipCover does the job perfectly.

Klipsch Joins the Game with New Apple-friendly Earbuds

 

As a respected home audio company known for it’s honest sound quality, Klipsch decides to throw some of it’s own style on the Apple peripheral world. Introducing the new S4i, black and white colored earbuds. Previously only available in black, the newly announced S4i earbuds will be available as the first Apple-approved third party earbuds in white that have a “made for iPhone” remote. At a reasonable price of $99, you can have your sound quality and still be able call mom and tell her you’ll be home for dinner on time. 

If reading isn’t your thing this video does a good job of explaining the awesomeness.

via Engadget

The Perfect iPhone Case

We are excited to announce that our quest to find the perfect iPhone case may have come to fruition. The case we’ll be reviewing today is the Griffin iClear for iPhone 3G ( the also make it for the iPhone 2G as well as the iPod Touch ). Finding the perfect case for your iPhone is something every iPhone user ponders at some point. For the longest time I would simply use the iPhone with no protection at all, preferring the light unobtrusive nature of the phone in it’s naked state, to what I had previously considered a false sense of protection. Everything changed with the Griffin iClear. I didn’t set out to get a new case I just wanted an armband for workouts, and made a serendipitous choice by grabbing the Griffin iClear.

The best thing about this case is that it pulls triple duty, serving as a generic case, a clip case with rotational stand for propped viewing, as well as an armband. It performs all of this functions better than any specially designed case i’ve come across.

The shell of the case is very solid feeling and yet it doesn’t feel bulky or cling to the insides of your pockets like rubber cases do. Given it’s namesake of “iClear” the color of the case is more of a frosty clear color which also let’s people see which color of iPhone you have, through the case.

The add on belt clip/prop stand is easily removed if desired, yet when connected to the shell it is securely fastened. The clip rotates 180 degrees suitable for any situation where you’d want to clip your iPhone to a bag, belt, or pocket.

The clip is a vital component to the armband which is the main reason we bought it. While it’s a little wobbly for a full on sprint, it serves its purpose at the gym.

Did I mention it comes with a screen protector as well? It’s like getting 3 cases for $24, not a bad deal given some of the other case price gouging we’ve seen.

We want to know if you’ve found your perfect case!
Post your choice in the comments!