X-Doria has released the latest in their lineup of stylish ways to protect the iPhone and apple watch with the Defense Shield and Defense Edge. Not like a lot of the other cases offering protection for a price, these use polycarbonate, soft rubber and aluminum to provide Military grade protection. The Defense Shield for the iPhone 6S is available now for $49.99 and the Defense Edge is available now for $29.99 at XDoriaLife.com.
We have received a SlickWraps case to review and while my phone is currently wrapped in stache, I figure I would get out the video of the case made for the most recent iPhone while I work on finalizing my impressions of the SlickWrap. Check the video and see some of the great designs available from SlickWraps.com here.
We here have received iPhone cases by the truckload it would seem over the years. Yes, cases, come in many sizes, shapes, designs, textures, and features. However, this would be the first time we've come across an iPhone case that their feature is interactive.
Well, kind of interactive. These are the new "Retro Game" cases from PureGear with the little mini game on the back. Perfect for when your games on the iPhone aren't quite entertaining enough. As far as cases go, they're pretty standard fare. They don't add much bulk, are made from a hard shell plastic, and fit and iPhone 5 snuggly, offering up minor protection, but not full-blown military grade shock or shatter proofing. These are, as they say, pretty run-of-the mill cases. What sets them apart, is when you flip over the case. Rather than a cool design, or a tactile fabric, these include a maze, or even one with a small pinball game in it.
It's reminiscent of games you may find in a cracker jack box, or perhaps take home from a childs birthday party goodie bag. It's really more gimmicky, and one could even say ironic that one may want a case like this. Perhaps some would cling to the nostalgia, or irony they would provide.
Again, cases come in all colors and patterns, and fabrics, etc, so we shouldn't really look at anything beyond the maze game as anything more than just a unique design, and with a myriad of cases out there - I kinda like these for their simpleness.
The collection comes in three varieties, with apt names: There's the "Amazing" which is of course, the aforementioned Maze game. The "Groovy" which requires you to navigate three silver marbles into the center of the maze to win. And the "Undecided" which is a simple version of a magic 8-ball. Pull back the plunger to send the marble up and let it decide your day-to-day decisions. Each available for an MSRP of $29.99.
The company that has provided me with the Dash Folio case for the iPad Mini has sent the latest in their mini tablet lineup, SmartStyle, by X-Doria. The SmartStyle case differs from the Dash Folio by way of design as it touts a unique puff printed cover with 3D patterns in Bloom and Herringbone, which also makes the case easier to carry on the go. This case is also designed to stand either upright for viewing or inclined for typing and is topped off by magnets in the front flap to sleep/wake when to case is opened and closed. The iPad Mini is wrapped in a rubber case to withstand impact in which the cover is sewn to in order to make up this slim stand out fashion case, so let’s see how it holds up.
The SmartStyle is the most slim case I have reviewed for the small tablet yet, with the slim rubber case that holds the iPad Mini and the fabric cover that is just thick enough to be stable but not so thick that it lacks flexibility. The smart cover is also a great feature as you do not have to slide to unlock every time you open or close the front cover and the puff print of the pattern provides peace of mind with additional grip for those times it is not stored away in a bag. The flexibility of the cover and the multiple folds for viewing angles also make access and shooting pictures fast and clear of obstructions. The previously reviewed Dash Folio had an elastic strap to hold the front cover closed, unfortunately the SmartStyle lacks the means to keep the front cover closed on the go aside from placing between multiple items or simply holding closed. In order for the case to be as thin as it is, it does not provide the same amount of security that some of the other cases I have reviewed provide.
The SmartStyle case by X-Doria is a nice and affordable case that both protected my iPad Mini and made it stand out from the numerous tablets throughout the office. Coming in two specific designs, the Herringbone comes in blue and white color, while the Bloom comes with a pink and teal scheme. After reviewing a number of cases for the tablet from X-Doria and a number of other accessory companies, the SmartStyle is easily the loudest looking and most stand out case that has wrapped my mini iPad. With the numerous ways in which a front cover can be held closed, i.e magnet, button, strap, etc., I am still surprised none of these methods were used to help keep the front cover closed. X-Doria’s SmartStyle is available now for the price of $39.99.
Bracketron has provided me with another phone mount from their product line, the NanoTek Stand, and not like the Mi-T grip we previously reviewed, this one is for your desk. This desktop mount uses NanoTek mounting technology to securely hold my phone to the mount that just so happens to grip the desk as well and the conduit between the two is an aircraft grade aluminum stand in silver or black. The stand is built to hold mobile devices in either vertical or horizontal positions, so lets see if it ever loses it’s grip.
The NanoTek Stand is a great accessory for most any desktop as I love cases with a kickstand for this very reason, but most of them are an eyesore, so rather than using a kickstand case, you simply touch your phone to this little stand and it is not going anywhere. I have seen similar, much cheaper, versions of this type of stand, as corporate promotional swag, but none of them had an incorporated cable management that is built to hold most any charging cable and most certainly were not built with the stylish looking aircraft grade aluminum. I have been using for about a week now and there are two items in which I wished were changed in production, the first would be the sharp edges, if they were rounded it wouldn’t feel so sharp. This is also the case for the cable management system, the sharp edges make me worry the next time I pull on the cable for slack, it will be the time I strip the cable from the rubber coating.
In the end, this is a great stand as is holds the same style and overall appearance of apple’s aluminum build and never once disappointed when I placed my phone against it. A nice added plus to this stand is that it holds most anything to the NanoTek material as long as it is a smooth non-porous surface. Should the surface get dirty over time, all you need to do in order to clean the surface is simply use a piece of tape on the surface to restore suction to when it was fresh out of the box. Lastly, the NanoTek stand is strong enough to hold the iPad Mini, which makes streaming shows from the desktop easy without using my computer’s resources. The NanoTek stand is available now for the price of $29.95.
This next Bluetooth speaker review comes from Carbon Audio in the form of the Zooka for the iPad. What makes the Zooka special is it’s unique design, as not only does it offer wireless playback but it also includes a kickstand and grips to the side of the iPad making for a nice fit while holding the tablet. This speaker is built with a silicone design for a safe, fingerprint free, comfortable grip while on the iPad. On the opposite side from the grip lies the microphone and controls which consist of power, track, volume and sync buttons. It's time to see how this Bluetooth speaker holds up to wireless speakers past.
This is a sleek little speaker, compact and easy to carry around with me in my laptop bag and the kickstand just adds to the numerous ways in which this speaker works well with apple devices. One of my favorite ways to use was placing along the side of the iPad to make the tablet easier to hold while reading for long periods of time. When the Zooka was not holding my iPad upright, it was placed on the top of my MacBook Pro and with the cutout for the iDevices home button it did not cover the front facing camera, making for great conference calls with the microphone and louder speakers. You can tell when the buttons are pressed as they click when pressed, which I hugely prefer; mainly because most wireless speakers use touch sensors making it hard to tell if the input was recognized.
On the other hand, the sound quality was less than what I was expecting, it does not improve the quality per se, but more along the lines of increasing the volume output of what your tablet or laptop is currently capable of. The only other issue I had was with the build quality, the reason to call this out was that the silicone wrap did not line up right, slightly covering the already small charging port. Downfalls aside, Carbon Audio’s Zooka is incredibly versatile, with a handful of devices in which it is capable of grabbing hold of and the additional volume it provides without need of a cable making this a portable speaker a great buy with the price tag of $99.99.
Awesome! That's actually my summed-up feelings of the Griffin TWENTY Airplay Amp. But before I close things up, let me unwrap my reasons for why it's awesome and hopefully outline a few places where it falls short.
Griffin has come a long way as of late, originally, a maker of third-party chargers, cases, and other various accessories, they've really started to enhance their offerings. I've been using the TWENTY Airplay Amp now for about a week or so, and it's pretty amazing. What does it do though? What IS IT? The Griffin TWENTY Airplay Amp is, well, an amp to power your better speakers and use Apple's proprietary wireless protocal (Airplay). Say you don't want to buy an Airplay doc, or that you have some nice desktop speakers that are unpowered, but you'd love to run airplay audio to them...here is where the TWENTY shines. It's an audio amp, that you plug an Apple Airport Express into. The design was originally created around the last generation Airport Express, (but still works with the new Apple TV-like Airport Express), then you add a left and right speaker (and option for a subwoofer) and voila, you can stream your itunes library, or even your Spotify audio to the speakers of your choice.
It's certainly not perfect, but I like what they're doing here. There are limitations, the biggest of which, in my opinion, is the lack of power. The TWENTY only is pushing 20 watts per channel (hence the name), but most bookshelf speakers can handle between 80-110 watts, and the closer your power source to what the speakers are capable of, the better sounding the setup. I'd like to see different versions pushing 50 watts or so, I mean, it's pretty standard to have 50 watts x 4 in most car stereos, lets push 100 watts x 2 here. It would add a bit of cost, which leads me to my next concern...the cost as-is now. At $100 retail, it's not exactly cheap to get into this, however where this differs from the investment into a really nice Airplay enabled speaker dock, is being able to use ANY speakers you choose. I had some Mirage Nanosat Prestige speakers hooked up which sounded really nice. Nice mids, and great highs - just throw a sub there, and you got a heck of a setup. So, $100 for this unit, another $99 for an Apple Airport Express (or $69 if you go the last generation refurb route, which I highly recommend)...then the speakers. I guess the point is this is for those who already have unused speakers and an airport express...
Again, for a 2.0 version, would love to see at least 50 watts (or more) per channel, perhaps even an equalizer built in at some point? Oh, and since their design is based on the older generation Airport Express, any next version will likely factor in a redesign here for Apple's more "AppleTV-like" Airport Express currently available.
Overall, highly recommended, and will definitely keep my eyes on Griffin's products, as they're expanding out in some really creative ways.
***UPDATE*** For a limited time, this app is only $.99; well what are you waiting for, GO GET IT!!!
So you have an iPad, and you have ran out of things to do? Impossible, I say! But lets say you just want to add some functionality, well how about controlling your very own Windows desktop!
Splashtop brings Windows to the iPad via remote desktop access. The irony here, is that Splashtop's new app only works on Windows, and not on Mac. Being that I just upgraded from PC to Mac, I can no longer enjoy that benefit. However, those of you in PC-land, fret not, fire up this app, and you can remotely connect to your desktop, bringing with it all the benefits of a fully functioning computer, in a smaller package.
Want to play some flash-based games? Check
Want to watch flash-based movie content (hulu, etc)? Check
Want to do all of these without the security of having your desktop locked while you're away? Check.
That's really the only draw-back here, (oh, and if you're running XP, you won't get audio, only the video) but if you lock your pc, and you connect to it, you can unlock, but anyone that's around the pc you're controlling will see everything you do. Wait, there may be a neat parlor trick in here to freak people out, excellent!
Splashtop sent us a preview of the app to test it out for gaming, this is after all, a gaming site. So putting it up to tasks on flash-heavy sites like Newgrounds.com, or Homestarrunner.com proved to be a fairly competent affair. Provided you have a decent enough connection, you should be fine here. The lack of a physical mouse/keyboard will limit what types of games you play, but for the click-based, you should be okay.
All in all - it's a neat application that extends past our gaming review, in fact, it likely has more use with its other functions than to game alone, but it IS the first remote client that transmits sound, so we actually recommend. Now, if they can get a version to work on the Mac...
Splashtop is available now from the App Store for $6.99
How can PopCap games follow up the incredibly simple, hour destroying, sleep losing, and peg destroying Peggle? Easy, just have some zombies start invading you front and back yard, while trying to defend it with plants, surprised?
Plants vs Zombies is an action strategy game, which ads humor to the formula, I mean come on, what is not funny about plants fighting zombies, throw Crazy Dave in the mix with the occasional Thriller-esque and you have an instant hit. The player goes up against zombie hordes bent on making their way into your house, and you must defeat them by purchasing plants to keep your home and family safe.
Praise: Everything, no really, this game targets EVERYONE! I admit I have dabbled in a number of PopCap’s titles and with each release come a new level of addiction. Amidst trying to play through the game so that I can complete this review, my computer was taken over by my wife and child twice. The gameplay is very smooth allowing you to quickly throw plants in your yard once you have enough sunlight to purchase them, and the plants start doing their job of zombie slaying as soon as they are placed. The graphics are very bright and fluid accompanied by a fitting horror movie soundtrack which intensity rises the huge packs of zombies storm your yard. After a few levels are out of the way, new modes and mini games thrown at the player such as bowling and whack-a-zombie. New items are also rewarded to help complete future levels, with 40 plus plants and tool, makes for numerous ways to move on to the next wave of invading undead. Additional game modes eliminate the feeling of monotony and add a sufficient amount of replay value.
Gripes: One of the main things that stuck out in my mind is the speed of zombies and sunlight to accumulate. In the beginning of each level you must wait for sunlight to fall from the sky or have be produced by your plants or sit staring at the screen waiting for one lonesome zombie to cross the screen close enough for your plants to unleash their fury. Luckily, you don’t spend too much time waiting before you are franticly throwing down plants. The only other thing is that some of the levels get pretty lengthy for a casual player, not a big deal, just makes it more difficult to bang out a few levels if you have a couple minutes to kill.
Overall: As I said before, PopCap did what they do best, provided yet another highly addictive and comically fun title to their library. You turn this on to kill some time waiting to go to work or play for a little bit before bed and the next thing you know you are late for work, or realize it is 2 in the morning. Yeah, I fell victim to this last night and this morning.
Plants vs. Zombies is available now from PopCap.com on the PC and Apple for $19.95. A free trial is also available from their site if you are skeptical, but not needed, you won’t be let down.
Mashbuttons.com gives Plants vs. Zombies a 9.5 out of 10
